…according to Australian advocacy groups. Dan Rutter has a comprehensive piece electricity smart meters and the political reactions to same. Excerpts
Australia, or at least Victoria, is getting “smart” electricity meters.
Unlike the old spinning-disc or slightly newer digital meters, smart meters can report power usage in real time, to the customer via a display inside the house and to the power company as well, without any requirement for legions of meter-readers. Smart meters can do various other tricks, too, like for instance changing the cost of electricity by time of day, to make it more expensive when there’s high demand and deter some people from turning on the air conditioner and adding their own little electrical vote for a new coal-fired power station.
Heck, the smart meters may even be able to measure power factor, and theoretically create a need for those zillions of “power saver” gadgets. Which the power saver gadgets will not actually fill, of course, on account of how they usually don’t do anything at all, but you can’t have everything.
The Australian meters seem to report every thirty minutes, via radio.
So, naturally, people think they cause cancer.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
(…)
Very funny and informative. Read the whole thing »
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