Smart meters are now being used by authorities to crack down on “water wasters” in the state of California, but this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as what they can be used for. Ultimately, smart meters are designed to be part of an entire “smart grid” that will enable government bureaucrats “to control everything from your dishwasher to thermostat“. And in recent years, there has been a massive push to install smart meters in as many homes in the United States and Europe as possible. Back in December 2007, there were only 7 million smart meters installed in this country. Today there are more than 51 million. On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Parliament has set a goal of having smart meters in 80 percent of all homes by the year 2020. This is being promoted as the “green” thing to do, but could it be possible that there is more to these smart meters than meets the eye?
In Long Beach, California authorities were getting complaints that a local McDonald’s restaurant was wasting water in the middle of the night.
So what did the authorities do?
They installed a smart meter which instantly started providing incriminating evidence against McDonald’s. The following comes from CBS Los Angeles…
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The operative word is “control”.
David DeGerolamo
They tried that here, Northern Ca, where I live….I told them “NO” Now I pay an extra $10.00 bucks a month just to keep things the way it was…. The meter reader being kept in check by an aggressive rooster that roams about the property.
If all works out the way I hope, I will be off the grid (short of propane) by the end of the year.
“Ultimately, smart meters are designed to be part of an entire “smart grid” that will enable government bureaucrats “’to control everything from your dishwasher to thermostat’.”
Sigh.
Look, I design these things for a living, and have since 1997. They don’t control JACK unless you sign up for money-saving electric peak-demand pricing. And water smart-meters (I work for the best company in the business) don’t EVER control anything – even the cutoff valve controls are separate from metering.
Look, these things are simpler than the computer in your car. They’re just simple microcontrollers. They don’t spy on you, report to the government, or any of the bad things they are supposed to do. They just report usage for the purpose of billing. THAT’S ALL.
You said they don’t control anything, but then you said they do if “you sign up for money-saving electric peak-demand pricing”.
They also send IP data back to the electric company. That is why the local electric company is really interested in us setting up a mesh network for them. It wold not be hard to program it to do more or pass that along to the government.
The meters MAY not control anything, but it is the information that will provide control. As an engineer, you of all people, should appreciate the fact that the “metadata” is what is worrisome.
By the same token, a progressive income tax doesn’t, in and of itself, dictate your earning, but it sure as hell impacts what you earn (either on your end or your employer’s or both).
The time domain granularity of a monthly read meter is exactly that, i.e. monthly. The time domain granularity of a “smart meter” is whatever the “they” determine. As an example, a person with a greenhouse for vegetables (or any other plant, use your imagination) may have consistently high usage during nighttime. This “information” may lead to to unwarranted suspicion. If I get billed for my energy consumption on a monthly basis, that is all the information “they” need to complete the commerce transaction.
Now if I decide to go with a plan that has a finer time granularity, then your argument works. Until then, that is information they are not entitled to.
NightWatcher