bc hydro smart meter
 

hey guys, i'm just wondering if anyone has dealt with the new smart meter changes. we refused it because it seems like there's still an ongoing debate about privacy issues and the worker said eventually it'll get changed and he'll come back. he sounded pissed which i have no idea why because he's getting paid anyway.

any thoughts?

BC Hydro just came and changed em while we weren't home, left a brochure on the door.

Sneaky bastards...

Guy came by my place the other day to change my meter and I asked if he needed a hand. :wgaf:

At the end of the day, is all the smart meter fuss worth it? No matter what, we are going to want power for all our electronic gadgets, enterainment systems and to heat our homes. Whatever your beef is whether it be privacy, new charges or the electromagnetic fields it may generate :lol. No one is ever going to say "Fine, I'll just live without electricity." There are plenty of other parts of the world who wish they could have the access to electricity that we have. The worker was right, it will eventually get changed to a smart meter and you'll have to deal with it unless you plan to live without electricity. IMO anybody causing a fuss is someone who doesn't like change.


I chalk up the whole smart meter fiasco as to another "first world problem" :argue: :rolleyes:

they own the meters dont they?

what do the new smart readers do?

I printed out a form and ziplocked it beside the meter that I didn't want to get it changed.
This is more about constitutional rights if you "need" power just like you "need" water, well then you may as well live without any rights. But hey your not a criminal and you dont mind if people know what your doing inside the privacy of your own home right? You've got nothing to hide!
If people even budge a inch with this the results arn't going to be pretty in the long run, these are the rights (as little as they seem now) that people of past generations have paid in blood in order for you to have them.

My Apartment building went ahead and did it.

The issue is they can tell what's going on in your house (such as if you're home, if you're watching TV, if you're sleeping) by having real time, minute by minute data on your power usage.

what? i thought all it did was tell Hydro automatically when & how much power we used rather than having to have Hydro send a guy once every so often to write down the numbers on the gauges ?

so what if they can tell you're watching tv, cooking or sleeping?

if you've got nothing illegal to hide whats the big deal?

shaw cable knows what you're watching and can go into your digital cable pvr box to access anything on there they want... OMG they know you're a closet homo and watch desperate house wives!! alert the media!!

telus knows when and how often you use your phone and who you call. big deal.

its like people are fucking bored and have no lives and just want to complain about something, its the same dumb shits that complain about every other stupid little thing. i dont know about any of you but ive got work, school, bills an annoying family and my other own shit to worry about, not some stupid smart meter.

this is being blown WAY out of proportion, IMO, the only people who have a right to complain are the meter readers who are now gonna be out of a job.

if you dont want to be on bc hydro's grid, buy a generator and supply your own power, nobodys stopping you.

They switched them at our building in Burnaby. I now have no idea how to read them, but it doesn't really matter...i sometimes look at the bank of them to see who cranks through more power than I do ;)

The only thing I cared about, is they didn't need me to be present to do it.

The problem with them, is once they are all in place, it will be nice and easy to have different rates at different times of day. Plus the privacy thing. But different rates at different times is just a different way to increase rates as opposed to all across the board rate hikes.

StylinRed is right, it just transmits the read data at given intervals instead of requiring a person to manually read it. It should actually be *more* accurate.

Since it transmits probably multiple times a day, if someone wanted to take all the data and build a timeline, they could theoretically tell when you're probably home because of increased electricity usage.

Have had 35 units changed 2 more to go. Only one of my tenants had a problem. His bill was way higher than usual. BC hydro corrected his bill.

They can't. They can tell how much power you're using, not what is using it... you could do this before by watching the little spinning dial on the meter. There's no way for anyone to know whether you're cooking a meal or drying your clothes (oven and dryer both use about the same current). They'll get a better idea by checking your dryer vent or stove vent, something people can already do regardless of what kind of meter you have.

People should be glad Hydro isn't dropping the ultimatum: no smart meter, no power.

Complainers like to bring that up, saying that means they'll get charged more at peak periods... I look at it as potentially being able to pay less off-peak. My dishwasher, clothes washer, and dryer all allow me to schedule or delay their start times, so I could easily program them to run after I go to bed, and hopefully save a bundle on some of the more energy-hungry appliances.

There is no "privacy thing" except under the tinfoil hats.

They could do that just standing looking at the meter. Or sitting across the street in a white van watching your front door and seeing when your lights go on and off. The whole argument is a crock.

I have no idea why some people are so upset about these. The neat thing is that BCHydro will know exactly where the power outage is. No more calling and waiting on the phone after a power line goes down during a windstorm.

There's nothing in the Constitution that guarantees you electricity or water, so that blows the "Constitutional" argument out of the water right off the hop. If there were, they wouldn't be able to shut your power off for non-payment... just go ahead and don't pay your Hydro bill for a few months, see how that works out.

Heck, your power could go out when you're not home, and they could detect it and fix it before you ever get home and realize it was out in the first place.

Only thing that pissed me off about the changeover was, I missed my favourite show that I was recording on PVR. God dang it!

Other than that, nothing has changed. Dick is still there and I don't glow in the dark more than usual.

I don't get this whole fiasco over it.
by default BC Hydro always had the ability to monitor your power usage. With the upgrade to smart meters it just makes it easier for them to collect the usage data by not having someone come in and read the meters (for some houses, this involved getting into say... a backyard)

So should I boycott Rogers for knowing exactly when I am calling or text messaging?

The idea is similar - they don't have a clue what you are DOING with your power, they just know that you are USING it.

They changed over our whole complex, apparently a couple months ago... I never even noticed. Didn't come home to flashing clocks or anything. Pretty slick.

are smart meters being installed in every house :ahwow:

Yep.

I would no my power went out because the microwave and stereo will blink 12:00 :troll:

Lol who gives 2 fucks?

From what I understand after some brief googling is the real concern/complaint here

is people are saying this step of installing smart meters is the step before a "peak hours usage system" is initiated where we'll be charged premium rates @ like 4pm-8pm

and since these smart meters are already installed they'll have no problem in enabling such a system

that's why the opposition is trying to grasp onto reasons for these units not to be installed, be it health concerns or privacy concerns etc

And again I say, so what? Do all your heavy usage in off-peak hours. The alternative would be an overall rate hike. If it comes to the choice of having rates go up 5% 24/7, or 10% during peak times totaling maybe 40 hours a week... I'd rather have the option to pay the lower rate by simply adjusting my habits a bit.

Most of the pushback is people opposed to it just because they're opposed to everything. First they cite the billing issue; if that's shot down, it becomes the privacy issue; address that, and they drag out the health issue. Answer all of those, they start calling it "undemocratic" and talking about constitutional challenges.

And of course, doesn't matter what argument you want to come up with, you'll be able to find something on the internet to back you up... most of which comes with a free subscription to tinfoil hats.