New smart meter installed today
 

So today the electric company finally got around to my house and installed a new smart meter.

Sometime this spring I should be able to get readings on the web as to how much power I've used and so on but it won't be real time, they'll send the info 4 times a day is what I've heard. I'll still be happy to script something and update my spreadsheet daily as to how many kwh I've used rather then the bimonthly based on the bill.

Also sometime next year they apparently will offer for purchase or rent a meter to give you real time consumption readings similar to the TED device. No real details are given other then that it will be offered.

We're still on a flatrate two tier system here so the smart meter gives me little benefit moneywise at the moment.

There is a lot of outcry over the radio's in them and people are trying to get them banned. The science behind how these radio's is a danger to human health is pretty pathetic and I've heard everything from how they are used as weapons against the populace to how all vegetation within 10 feet of the meter will die over the next month or so. Of course with my basic amateur radio ticket I can and sometimes do broadcast at 1000 times the power these units do so I'm too concerned ;) THe installer told me they've been instructed not to wear their hardhat with facemask's while knocking on the doors because people were saying it was to protect the installers from the radiation. He pointed out should there be an arc when pulling/installing the meter the material coming out will be about 11,000 degrees and he would like a faceshield in that event.

Lots of people are also against time of use billing but I'm all for it if they give the option to bring it in. I'd love to have my dryer timer kick on at 3am at 1/2 the daytime rate. Also I need my heat pump far more at night then during the day if it's sunny. Same goes for the hotwater heater, breadmaker,... Hopefully they give me the option and worthwhile rates.

One thing that the new meter has really already done for me is to appreciate how little power my house already uses. from 1:30 to 5:30 we used 1 kwh (easily read since we started at 0) My neighbours meter is 10 feet behind me so I took a quick look at it. Her house is empty, she wasn't there isn't cooking there, and really isn't living there (recently widowed) it used 4 kwh in that time. All I can guess is she has baseboard heating or an electric furnace and it was running while she was away. In the mean time there was 4 of us here doing our thing.

Anyways I think the new meter could be really cool and useful in reducing my bill and I'm already loving how much easier it is to get a quick reading off of the digital display vs trying to read the 5/6 spinning needle things.

<edit> 12 kwh used 9 hours later. Bathtime and dinner was hard on the electric usage </edit>

Good info. I do really appreciate having the TED to monitor my power usage. I just wish the price wasn't as high as it is.

Its really amazing how people will complain about almost anything, isn't it?

I also think the magnetic radiation thing can become hysterical.

However, it's been a while since I had a current ham ticket, but the last time I looked at my ARRL Handbook, in the very beginning pages, there were unequivocal warnings regarding the potential harm of RF energy... and not just high powered RF, but very low powered RF, too.

I think that if this organization's most elemental phenomenon (RF) merited a clear warning, that warning should give us pause.

-AC_Hacker

It's been a couple of years since I got my ticket as well but the warnings I remember were about RF burn due to exposed wires and very close proximity while broadcasting. Basically keep antenna's high and don't broadcast while holding onto the wire type things, Also watch for stray RF in the shack. I don't remember anything about low level radiation warnings in there.

10 feet from the meter the power is 0.005 μW/cm2. Right at the meter it's 2 μW/cm2 it really is a trivially small amount of power. They use 1 watt and broadcast for about 1 minute a day. I'nm not at all worried.

I'm really liking this thing at this point. After 24 hours of use I had used 34 kwh. that includes 2 loads of laundry. 1 hour later I was at 40 kwh. That includes 1 load of laundry. My "average" usage I've previously determined is about 1 kwh/hour so I'm going to say at this time that 5 kwh of that 6 went to the dryer. That's almost double what I previously had estimated the dryer at. More monitoring is definitely in order

strider3700,

I know it's about a year later, but, just be careful about "monitoring" your usage. It's really easy to fall into an obsession. I know. I did. Just after I got my PV panels installed and got the net metering, and the time of use plan over the tier plan.

One thing I did learn, my A/C unit sucks! It literally sucks power. Everything else I have when it's turned on, will not draw power at 12 noon with a cloudless sky and the panels are producing. The A/C does. Aside from that, my biggest energy draw is the large screen plasma TV my ex-girlfriend left behind. But, OH BOY, what a picture!

I have to thank AC_Hacker for his insistance on a Kill-a-Watt meter in his heat pump manifesto thread. It will make things a lot easier to get a handle on once it arrives. It's about 20 bucks with shipping on Amazon. I'm thinking of ordering 3 of them, simply because I'm lazy and don't want to have to keep moving furniture and climbing the stairs.

I still log the meter daily and graph it and so on. Yesterday I used 20 kwh. I have a rough idea of what a day is going to be like. I'm just about to update my usage thread as my electric bill just arrived and a 1 year long contest just completed. I love having this level of detail instead of a bill every 2 months. Now if I can just get it 4 times a day to start with or get my major appliances automatically logging. I used to log minute by minute the hotwater heater. I should get that going again. I loved seeing those graphs.

I think you will really enjoy them. I would advise putting a unique identifying label on each on... I marked "A", "B" and "C", respectively on each one of mine. That way, if I was in doubt, I would know which meter gave me which reading.

I found that they work well and generally hold up well, but they don't like to be stressed to the maximum of their rated power for very long.

I have made a couple of mine permanently non-linear by doing so.

They're good tools, just treat 'em right.

Best,

-AC