Posted: 2/3/2011 1:17:23 PM EDT
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It took about 9 years to complete Ann Road from Camino Al Norte to Decatur (about 4 miles) and NV Power...Energy or whatever they call themselves these days can install these new digital electric meters in about a year to every single building in Clark County?
I was just "blessed" with this new POS on my house, the neato brochure says it is for MY benefit and it is gonna save ME money. 
Oh I almost forgot about the best part, this new fangled meter now "opens two-way communication between the customer and NV Power"....are they serious? 
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Blame Californians. They had them installed in California last year or so. And the vaunted power savings were...nowhere to be found. The way these are eventually going to "save you money" is by the utility raising the rates during peak usage hours so you'll either use less (don't run the ac in the summer...yeah right) or pay more. They installed our tattletale meter a few months ago. http://www.grist.org/article/californias-smart-meter-fears http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/10/would-you-sign-up-for-a-discount-with-your-power-company-in-exchange-for-surrendering-control-of-your-thermostat-what-if-it.html |
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Blame Californians. They had them installed in California last year or so. And the vaunted power savings were...nowhere to be found. The way these are eventually going to "save you money" is by the utility raising the rates during peak usage hours so you'll either use less (don't run the ac in the summer...yeah right) or pay more. They installed our tattletale meter a few months ago. Yep, I've been telling people for months they are gonna "train" us to deal with 100 degree houses in summer. I swamp cool so they can go fuck off anyways. |
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Blame Californians. They had them installed in California last year or so. And the vaunted power savings were...nowhere to be found. The way these are eventually going to "save you money" is by the utility raising the rates during peak usage hours so you'll either use less (don't run the ac in the summer...yeah right) or pay more. They installed our tattletale meter a few months ago. Yep, I've been telling people for months they are gonna "train" us to deal with 100 degree houses in summer. I swamp cool so they can go fuck off anyways. That's right, but of course once you use less because you like your 100 degree house, they'll have to raise the rates because they're not making enough money since, you know, everyone is using less. Cue SNWA sob story... |
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how does the meter communicate with it's masters? if it's RF, wrapping it in foil might shield it. IIRC, duct taping a pie tin over a GPS antenna will shut that feature down on vehicles. in other words, give the meter a tin foil hat!  Not sure if it's RF or if it uses the powerlines to phone home. |
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It's a smart meter.
It keeps logs on your use. It knows what you are doing or using at any given time. It decides how much your bill will be, maybe even if you really need to use SO much Nevada Power,NVEnergy has not been reading everyone's meter every month for years...some they estimate according to previous usage at the same time of the year. They don't have the people to do it. It could be right on, a little high, or a little low Don't ask for a refund, you'll use that much at some point in the future, and they will take it out of that if you overpaid. You can see your usage as it goes. I guess if they said it would save you money, the only way I can figure is from not having to pay meter readers anymore, because they are no longer needed, I'm sure they will pass the savings right on to us, I don't care, I just pay it, I like my stuff that runs on electric......Gas too ! |
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As an amateur radio operator, this issue is of some concern to me. So far, no smart meters are using BPL (broadband over power line) or PLC (power line carrier) technology. What I believe we're going to have here in Nevada are smart meters using RF transmitters operating under part 15 FCC rules. They will use either the 902 MHz or 2.4 GHz bands. I personally don't operate on either of these bands, but if I did, part 15 of the FCC rules basically gives me protection from interference from these meters. Additionally, under part 15, these meters will have no protection from interference coming FROM me (when I am operating legally on those bands). It should also be noted that WiFi operates in the 2.4 GHz band, as well as many cordless phones and microwave ovens. ;-)
Anyway, if one were to block a meter from transmitting to the electric company, I suspect they would detect the meter falling offline pretty quickly, which would likely result in a very annoyed electric company technician knocking on your door. It would certainly be just as illegal tampering with the smart meters as it is tampering with the old mechanical ones: i.e., theft by deception. |
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Is there a way to get this removed from my house? I've set it so many times before and it always reverts back to me using alot more energy than what I wanted. My wife has tried too to fix it but it won't take our settings we put in there. Heat comes on in the daytime and off at night, what the heck???? I've read that little book a few times too.
Horrible product. I'd rather have a meter man come out and do his job instead of them laying off workers so they can check it from their office. |
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Is there a way to get this removed from my house? I've set it so many times before and it always reverts back to me using alot more energy than what I wanted. My wife has tried too to fix it but it won't take our settings we put in there. Heat comes on in the daytime and off at night, what the heck???? I've read that little book a few times too. Horrible product. I'd rather have a meter man come out and do his job instead of them laying off workers so they can check it from their office. Wut? |
| The old unit that we had first in 2007 in our new house worked better for us and we haven't seen any savings yet. We always set the heater for 72 at night and I wake up at 5 am and it's at 66 after I set it for over night from 11 pm to 6 am. Maybe NV Power changes all my settings. They are trying to steal my money and are doing a great job at it. |
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There is a lot of paranoid nonsense in this thread.
You ever see the white Nevada Power truck with the big white thing on the roof cruising your 'hood? Guess what, that's them reading your meter. With the modern miracle of RF, the man doesn't have to go out and put eyes on it. Guess what? The water company does it too! |
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More un-regulated weights & measures.
I went nose-to-nose with a utility company once years ago over a badly calibrated meter - and it was not pretty. Virtually everything used at a retail level to sell you product is calibrated & checked by a state agency. Gas pumps are checked regularly. Scales at the market must be too. So who checks your meters? In my experience, when you complain about a bad electric meter - they respond with a threat. It is presented as a "tip". Something like "You know, in the 15 years I have been doing meters they always read low. Every time I replace a meter, the bill goes up & people get mad. You might wan to just keep this one" Yeah, sure. It must have taken them a lot of work to find one that was worse than the one I had. Went from 12% off to 18% off on the "new" unit. The guy at the PUC hearing was not amused. The utility wanted to swap the meter again & wait a year to "trend" before crediting me. The PUC decided they wanted to test the meter themselves. Continued the matter. Somehow before I could drive all the way home from the PUC hearing, my meter got swapped again. New meter was dead nuts on... They sent my refund to the PUC for disbursement the following week. Perhaps the new digital meter may be less prone to calibration issues. I can't say. But no matter how good the meter, a crook still owns it. . |
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There is a lot of paranoid nonsense in this thread. You ever see the white Nevada Power truck with the big white thing on the roof cruising your 'hood? Guess what, that's them reading your meter. With the modern miracle of RF, the man doesn't have to go out and put eyes on it. Guess what? The water company does it too! Which one do you work for? 
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we are talking about meters not thermostats. The meters ARE thermostats... at least they interact with them... they can turn your AC setpoint up a few degrees on high-use days to lessen the overall system load - they will give an "incentive rate" for the time you let them raise the temperature in your home. You can choose to set it back to your original setpoint at any time. They haven't rolled it out in the North yet, but Yakira told us it would be soon. "Big brother" seems to have a lot of cousins and nephews! |
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More un-regulated weights & measures. I went nose-to-nose with a utility company once years ago over a badly calibrated meter - and it was not pretty. Virtually everything used at a retail level to sell you product is calibrated & checked by a state agency. Gas pumps are checked regularly. Scales at the market must be too. So who checks your meters? In my experience, when you complain about a bad electric meter - they respond with a threat. It is presented as a "tip". Something like "You know, in the 15 years I have been doing meters they always read low. Every time I replace a meter, the bill goes up & people get mad. You might wan to just keep this one" Yeah, sure. It must have taken them a lot of work to find one that was worse than the one I had. Went from 12% off to 18% off on the "new" unit. The guy at the PUC hearing was not amused. The utility wanted to swap the meter again & wait a year to "trend" before crediting me. The PUC decided they wanted to test the meter themselves. Continued the matter. Somehow before I could drive all the way home from the PUC hearing, my meter got swapped again. New meter was dead nuts on... They sent my refund to the PUC for disbursement the following week. Perhaps the new digital meter may be less prone to calibration issues. I can't say. But no matter how good the meter, a crook still owns it. . Great point. |
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we are talking about meters not thermostats. The meters ARE thermostats... at least they interact with them... they can turn your AC setpoint up a few degrees on high-use days to lessen the overall system load - they will give an "incentive rate" for the time you let them raise the temperature in your home. You can choose to set it back to your original setpoint at any time. They haven't rolled it out in the North yet, but Yakira told us it would be soon. "Big brother" seems to have a lot of cousins and nephews! I believe that is if you are on the Cool Share program and opt to have the web controllable thermostat installed. There is no way for your outside meter to control your inside regular thermostat .... http://www.nvenergy.com/saveenergy/home/rebates/coolshare.cfm Sounds like peeps are spending too much time listening to George Knapp and Art Bell.... 
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