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Smart Meter Opt Out

Tulex

Tulex

Solar Wizard
Joined
Mar 30, 2023
Messages
976
Location
Finger Lakes NY
In my area of western NY, we received a postcard with exciting news, our smart meter is coming. We contacted them to let them know we are opting out. They will gladly do that for a "small fee" of $11 something a month. That got me wondering about if people fought the fee. Doing some research, I can see it's been in the courts in some states. In NY, there is a bill that hasn't been voted on yet to ban the fee. So, in your state, please look it up and contact your reps. Most likely will do no good, but can't hurt.
 
Waiting for the day that the utility meter includes a SSR of some kind so they can turn you off during a brownout so the lights for the 1% will stay on...
 
They changed to the new fangled digital read themselves meters in my neck of the woods back in 2010. There was no option about it. Other than an initial period of adjustment where kWh readings were a bit high, and the contract meter readers lost their jobs, there was no major difference. However I notice that my Co-Op is now beginning to have a lot more data online as to power draw and graphs of usage. Perhaps eventually some of the peak rate and demand rate type of charges are in my future.

I sure would have not paid $11/mo extra just to stay with the old meter style.
 
We had them swapped around 2010 in my old country. There was no opting out.
My local meter here in Spain was changed last year.

Everything is digital now.
There are no analogue versions anymore.
 
In the UK you cannot be forced to have a Smart Meter but the cost of the Smart Meter roll-out is added to everyone's bill. Its been a disaster, Gen 1 meters stop working when you change who you buy the electricity off (you buy off a series of retailers who may or may not be the local network provider), the display units ignore power factors and show different figures than the meters. 3G mobile networks are being turned off so another set of meters are no longer going to work.
 
Tulex said:
In my area of western NY, we received a postcard with exciting news, our smart meter is coming. We contacted them to let them know we are opting out. They will gladly do that for a "small fee" of $11 something a month. That got me wondering about if people fought the fee. Doing some research, I can see it's been in the courts in some states. In NY, there is a bill that hasn't been voted on yet to ban the fee. So, in your state, please look it up and contact your reps. Most likely will do no good, but can't hurt.
Click to expand...

So, I guess that the util. has "calculated" that it costs them $11 to roll boots on the ground with binos to do a physical read...

Wanna bet that the meter reader gets little or any of that? I get the overhead thing, but there's certainly some "buffer" $$ in that $11 that goes right into co. coffers.
 
v_green57 said:
So, I guess that the util. has "calculated" that it costs them $11 to roll boots on the ground with binos to do a physical read...

Wanna bet that the meter reader gets little or any of that? I get the overhead thing, but there's certainly some "buffer" $$ in that $11 that goes right into co. coffers.
Click to expand...
They haven't been on our property for years as far as I know, we call it in, it costs them nothing.
 
Tulex said:
They haven't been on our property for years as far as I know, we call it in, it costs them nothing.
Click to expand...
Back when I lived in Montana in the early 90'S the electrical company there also had self reporting. It was so far between customers the cost of having a meter reader was too high. It was a nice arrangement because not only did you pay in but you earned capital credits in the Co-Op that up until a couple years back I was getting a small yearly payment from. I still would perhaps but I accepted a payout amount which bought me a chainsaw that year.

Other places I lived they did not trust folks enough to read their own meter.
 
I think the local power company has smart meters here but I had my meter removed and replaced with a clear plastic cover in 1985 when I went off grid. As far as I know no one from the power company has looked at it since.
 
Tulex said:
In my area of western NY, we received a postcard with exciting news, our smart meter is coming. We contacted them to let them know we are opting out. They will gladly do that for a "small fee" of $11 something a month. That got me wondering about if people fought the fee. Doing some research, I can see it's been in the courts in some states. In NY, there is a bill that hasn't been voted on yet to ban the fee. So, in your state, please look it up and contact your reps. Most likely will do no good, but can't hurt.
Click to expand...
I am in Vermont. I opted out when our utility rolled out smart meters in 2011. The utility did not want anyone to opt out and did not make it clear that it was an option. Opting out did not cost any additional money. The smart meters and the old dumb meters BOTH have/had the same monthly fee. It was $10./month in 2011. I do not think there were many who opted out in my area because the utility did a good job of hiding that option and promoting the "benefits" of the smart meter.
 
Digital doesn't necessarily mean smart. I have a bidirectional digital meter (becauseof grid tie) but it can't even be read remotely from a poco vehicle driving by. The guy has to walk up to it each month and it only provides kWh in and out.

My utility only charges a flat per kWh generation rate, transmission rate, and a flar connection fee. No peak usage, time of usage rate, or any other nonsense.
 
SparkyJJO said:
Digital doesn't necessarily mean smart. I have a bidirectional digital meter (becauseof grid tie) but it can't even be read remotely from a poco vehicle driving by. The guy has to walk up to it each month and it only provides kWh in and out.

My utility only charges a flat per kWh generation rate, transmission rate, and a flar connection fee. No peak usage, time of usage rate, or any other nonsense.
Click to expand...
In my case, I opted out of the smart meter that had communication back to the utility. They claimed they would be able to read my meter from their office, among other features.
 
Tulex said:
They haven't been on our property for years as far as I know, we call it in, it costs them nothing.
Click to expand...

Huh. Didn't know about the "self-reporting" scheme. Back when I had the "odometer" style meter, the util. would slowly drive down the alley and read the meters with binocs. All dogs would go apesh!t.
 
Tulex said:
In my area of western NY, we received a postcard with exciting news, our smart meter is coming. We contacted them to let them know we are opting out. They will gladly do that for a "small fee" of $11 something a month. That got me wondering about if people fought the fee. Doing some research, I can see it's been in the courts in some states. In NY, there is a bill that hasn't been voted on yet to ban the fee. So, in your state, please look it up and contact your reps. Most likely will do no good, but can't hurt.
Click to expand...
Maybe you should embrace it? I heard the other day some criminals in other countries figured out how to hack smart meters so the usage shown is much lower. This guy started hacking meters 3 years ago.


v_green57 said:
Waiting for the day that the utility meter includes a SSR of some kind so they can turn you off during a brownout so the lights for the 1% will stay on...
Click to expand...
Already here

 
Tulex said:
No, there should be a discount for those getting the smart meter. They no longer have the cost.
Click to expand...
You could raise the connection fee by $11 and then give smart meters an $11 discount if it would make you feel better, but the result is the same.
 
hwy17 said:
You could raise the connection fee by $11 and then give smart meters an $11 discount if it would make you feel better, but the result is the same.
Click to expand...
How do you figure. You said there should be a fee to cover the cost of people reading meters. That cost already exists, we are already paying for it. If smart meters eliminate that need, the cost won't be there. If they want to say the cost of smart meters and the infrastructure equals the cost of manual readers, fine, charge for smart meters. But the cost of reading analog meters is already cooked into the billing. Me not getting a smart meter doesn't add anything.
 
I don't have a smart meter, electricity company gets a reading from me every month entered online, if they query it a timestamped digital photo of the meter emailed to them, sorts the issue.
 
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