Smart Meters Not So Smart

There is a push on to get residential consumers of electricity (that's you) to switch over to "smart meters".  This is supposed to "save money".  But it's not you who will save money.

Currently, the "old" meters don't measure peaks, like if you need more power for a second to start up a motor, for example.  Also they are only read once a month, so if you have a party one weekend and you're out of town the next weekend, it evens out.

The new meters measure peaks and they are also read more like weekly.  If you used more power one week, the power company would bill you on a higher usage tier, and possibly apply it to the entire month.  This means an increase in your electric bill of 5 to 30 percent. 

Smart meters are designed to be read from afar, in other words they broadcast their readings.  They can turn off your power remotely as well, not having to send a guy out.  Because they broadcast all the time, the meters emit electromagnetic radiation, which can make you sick if you get too much of it.  Think about the poor guy living in the apartment of a complex where all the meters for the whole complex are just outside his bedroom wall.  Some people are very sensitive to EMF and are bothered more by it than others, but all people get sick eventually from it - cancer, etc.  It can also cause mental disturbances.  The toll to public health (and the cost thereof) could exceed any "savings" to energy use caused by the changes in the consumer's behavior when they start getting those big electric bills.  It can also make your pets and children sick.

Large war-technology manufacturers such as Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, SAIC, Raytheon, and BAE are trying to get big government bids to make and install smart meters in homes all over the US.  There is a lot of pork for this.  The feds approved some of these bids before the safety studies were done. Not only the meters themselves, but the cybersecurity for the meters is a cash cow for these guys.

I might also point out that the smart meters also make it so that the federal government, or their privatized defense contractors, will have jurisdiction over how much electricity you are allowed to have, and they could also attempt to harass you by turning off your electricity from afar.

You can refuse a smart meter, but you might not even notice they've put one in.  They might just do it and not ask.  If you discover you have one and you don't want it, you can ask that they put the old one back in, but there is usually a fee involved of a few hundred dollars.

So the smart meters are basically a way to keep the war manufacturers working, while passing the cost on to consumers, and they also give out more granular information about how you use the energy in your home.  Plus, they're a lot more hackable than the old meters, despite all the cybersecurity they'll be getting.  Some hacker could much more easily knock out parts of the grid under the new smart meters.

Sources
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/smart-grid/
http://morphcity.com/home/105-national-energy-policy-the-cheney-law-massacre