I am an electrical engineer, but not affiliated with the electrical utility or the smart meter industries. Most power companies have poor customer service and customer relations, but they are not the nefarious entities people make it out to be. They are highly regulated by the government.
This is to address the charges of health risks and other paranoia being propagated by some well-meaning members of the public.
The radio broadcast signal from a smart meter is an insignificant health risk. It is similar to sending a brief text message from a cell phone once a month. It is nothing like sending voice data or a picture from a phone. Also, the meter is outside the house, not pressed against your head.
Having the data sent out over radio waves (just like radio and television have been doing for years) saves utility workers from driving out to homes and going into backyards unannounced. This saves fuel and dollars, and is actually an increase in privacy. Vending machines, ATMs and gas pumps already send out similar broadcast signals.
The smart meter also will allow rates to be higher during the peak load time of 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekdays and lower during the much longer off-peak period.
This new pricing will encourage people to shift demand to the non-peak times. This will save all of us money because we will need to build fewer power plants, and it will help prevent brown-outs and black-outs. It also will encourage people to install solar systems on their roofs as the peak output of photovoltaic solar panels just so happens to peak at the same time demand does. Smart meters are a win-win.
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