Mandatory Smart Meters

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Apparently big energy companies have been stating installation of these devices is mandatory, when at least in the UK, it is completely optional.

Furthermore, BBC Watchdog did an investigation earlier this year and found smart meters (or their dodgy installations) had caused fires.

Agenda 21 is being used as a reason to install Smart Meters (by the anti-Agenda 21 people, or is this for real?). There is a conspiracy theory against Agenda 21 stating that it is being used for governments to use surveillance on people. In this particular case, I think there is some truth to this conspiracy theory regarding smart meters.

This article from The Guardian states they have great potential for hacking also, as if being watched by our governments is not enough. It also means that hackers can tell who is at home and when.

Thoughts?

Smart Meters have been pretty standard here in the US for years. Sometimes it's interesting to look at my energy usage on the company website. I can see the exact time I turned on or off a computer or an appliance. One interesting thing I learned is how expensive it is to take a shower when you have an electric hot water heater. I see a really big spike in power use, every time I take a shower. Fortunately I only take a shower every few days.

Aw Gawd, not 'Agenda 21' again! Conspiratoid twaddle. Here is a link outlining the truth about Agenda 21. As you will notice there is nothing sinister about it.

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/o ... s/agenda21

By the way, we've always known that the acceptance of a 'smartmeter' was optional, not compulsory (in Australia, don't know about the rest of the world).

Hey Lintar, remember Brumby and smart meters...that went down like a lead balloon with Victorian voters

I'm old enough to remember how back in the 1980's our silly federal government wanted to introduce the so-called Australia ID card, and how virtually everyone thought it was Big Brotherish and opposed it. I also recall a plan by our local council (South Melbourne, back when it was still working class) to install CCTV, and again virtually everyone opposed the plan due to privacy concerns, and the (correct, in my view) belief that it implied that no one could really be trusted and that the ordinary person was just someone who would do horrible, bad things if no one was there to watch them.

I still oppose all attempts to impose CCTV cameras where I live, because the reasons for having them are just not good enough. I don't care if the claim that it reduces crime is true (it actually isn't true, it only helps to solve them once they have already been committed), if only because there has not, on average, been an overall increase in crimes committed in most parts of the Western world since the 1950's, according to various sources (like the F.B.I.). Life has never in the history of mankind been safer than it is now, and yet so many are so terrified or their own shadow. It truly is baffling.

A lot of these plans involve getting people excited about technology but they boil down to money making schemes for state and local government like speed cameras and smart meters. I had to make a major case to our local city council when a ticket inspector was hiding behind a tree and stuck a ticket on my car while I was "paying" for parking at a machine a hundred metres away


The whole CCTV business and ID checks now has oxygen because of the threat posed by terrorism.

I had a smart meter installed in 2011, I did ask the Man who installed it a few questions he reassured me that they are safe, he said everyone was getting them.

Fellow Victorian here, yep I remember they
made a mess of the rollout. In part it's because our system of distribution, metering and retailing of electricity was/is itself a big mess (from the corporate/legislative side). I have one of those smart meters, it's probably saving me $200 per year because I could use the data to identify energy savings (meter is in a locked box, so I can't read it the normal way).

From a utility perspective they are good because they allow the utility to understand more about demand. This helps in designing the distribution network and scheduling generation. In theory the meters could do other useful tasks like automatically reporting voltage imbalance or power outages, getting faults identified and dealt with by maintenance crews sooner.

It seems everyone is ignoring the reasons for opposing them, including privacy. Like being filmed and knowing when a person is home and what they're doing is completely different.

That's just it; from a statistical point of view, there is no significant threat from terrorism. You are far more likely to die from crashing your car than being blown up by a suicide bomber, even if you happen to live in the Middle East (apart from, perhaps, Iraq).

Yes, the reasons for not having them are just being ignored most of the time, and when on the rare occasion such issues (like privacy) are raised, we are always told about how much safer they apparently make everyone feel. It's just ridiculous. We, as a society, are simply not having the conversations that we really need to have about issues like this. People are just assuming that we will all be able to adapt, and that in the end all will be well, and that the "scare stories" will prove unfounded.

He lied to you. They are not safe (from a personal space and privacy perspective), and many people are not getting them.