opinions in smart meters
 

Just wondering if anyone has any opinions on electricity companies installing smart meters? In British Columbia our provincial electric company is putting them in instead if the old analog meters. There is a lot of strong opinions about them, I just don't know if they are based on misinformation or not? They could be beneficial if we have access to the real time data? Any experiences?

How do you define a smart meter and what do people not like about them?

We have a digital meter on our house, I think it allows for remote reading because I've never seen someone walk up and read the meter, but beyond that I don't think it has any fancy features.
Personally I'm all for installing remote cut off switches that allow the power company to turn off electric hot water heater, air conditioners, electric vehicle charging and any other device that you are not going to notice it cycling on and off.
I'm also all for electrical rates based off of demand.

That is pretty much what people don't like... eventually being charged more for electricity during the day and such... what di you mean allowing the company to cycle off things like water heaters? Is this something that is done? I think people mostly just don't like being pushed to conserve? They are read remotely and will inform of power outages... I also assume they could be shut off in an emergency situation such as fire? I haven't yet forme my opinion of them yet... I think most people are just following the popular opinion of hating them. Seems like a mob mentality....

I think I would notice it if the power company turned off my air conditioner on a hot day for more than an hour or two. Also how would you like it if you walked out to your electric car planning to take an important trip pushing its range limits only to find it hadn't been charging for the past few hours and only has 80% charge. Then, once they turn off your electric hot water heater, air conditioners, electric vehicle charging, what if they forget to turn them back on again. Its bad enough having to call the power company to report your whole house power outage. If this goes through, you may have to call them asking them to turn your hot water heater or A/C back on if they forget to do so and how are you to know if your A/C is still dead because of continuing power company demands or because someone or some program at the power company forgot to turn your A/C back on. It would also make troubleshooting your "dead" hot water heater more interesting. Also many A/C systems have a definite shut down sequence at the end of their cooling cycle and don't like to have their power drop out in mid cycle.

Is this actually happening or are you saying hypotheticaly? I would be pissed if my power got randomly shut off...

You can have it. I'll stick with being able to determine for myself what is and what isn't necessary to draw electrical power.

Here you can sign up for it ( powering off of certain devices) in exchange you get a reduction in your bill. I think AC, water heater and pool pump can be included. Supposedly they will only be shut off in periods of high demand.

I have a smart thermostat that I have programmed to turn the A/C on at a higher temperature (79 F) in the daytime and at a lower temperature (76 F) at night. My water heater is gas-fired. Almost all of my lights are fluorescents or CFLs. I have no pool pump.

Sorry, I don't want them, and I don't need them.

That is a prime example of why people object to these things! not because of reality but because of miss information.
At least around here, the power company offers to knock $5 to $10 per month off your bill if you allow them to put a peek use switch on your high demand devices that you would never notice being cycled off, the amount of time that they every cycle a device off tends to be 10 to 20 minutes per hour or less and only at peek use times that would otherwise lead to brownouts.

And no, I wouldn't mind at all if my electric car stopped charging for 20 minutes or if my A/C was triggered to turn off for a few minutes to prevent a brown out from happening and the switches that they install on devices like this have a light that comes on to signal that that it's activated and explain very clearly on them what is going on and how to tell if the peek use switch is being activated and unless I remember wrong, there is a manual bypass switch.

When enough people object to stuff like this, then we end up building more power plants and because enough people already object to wind power then we end up building more dirty power plants.

^^^ that's why EcoModder.com turns me off sometimes. We're all just misinformed, huh?