There are legitimate privacy and security concerns with smart meters
The health stuff is just woo.
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Mon 19 Mar 2018, 22:48,
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There's a legitimate fear of any 'smart' technology
That's smarter than you are.
For example, they're Americans, and this thing can count.
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joefish It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 10:52,
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Rummages for Tin Foil Hat
Checks water bill. Yikes! I will be on the phone tomorrow to complain but if the chemtrails come over tonight I might not.
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spazzcaptain Misses Valin @, Mon 19 Mar 2018, 22:50,
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Not one informed article or comment anywhere on there
Grab some tin foil we're doing some origami today
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The_cold_stare Coming here only when very, very bored, Mon 19 Mar 2018, 22:53,
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An old colleague of mine now has a job crunching this data. He says if they want they can tell exactly what appliances have been on and when (unique signature or something). Sinister but no real application yet, but you can see how it could be worked into extra charges e.g. using the dryer when its sunny outside.
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transparenttown Dead to worse..., Tue 20 Mar 2018, 8:55,
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Which is precisely why I don’t want one fitted.
They can be used to collect a shitload of data on customers with no clarity regarding the purposes to which that can be put, good or evil. Their only legitimate use should be to supplant regular meter readings on a like-for-like basis, but even that argument falls apart when you realise that a meter reading is also a meter inspection for safety or tampering.
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 9:16,
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they've got the consumers doing most of the reading these days anyway
I reckon my meter is read by a 'professional' about once every 2 or 3 years
(, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 10:06, Share, Reply)
What is this a "professional" that you speak of?
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transparenttown Dead to worse..., Tue 20 Mar 2018, 10:31,
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see quite a lot of houses with solar panels these days
Wonder how long the domestic grid has got left
(, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 10:01, Share, Reply)
A couple of hundred years
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wheresthefish Partly filled with wrong, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 10:35,
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it's taken 10 to all but phase coal out
Can see a couple of energy crises accelerating things.
(, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 11:11, Share, Reply)
Apparently they can't cope with low power lamps
especially if dimmed.
Is this still correct?
Any science types care to comment?
(, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 11:26, Share, Reply)
The last company I worked at made micro combined heat and power boilers that generated electricity whilst providing heating and hot water
We started our own energy supply company through which to market it. I was managing the electronics and controls team so I was dragged into lots of crap on smart meters because the ESCo side of the business has an obligation to install them before 2020.
The whole legislative side is a mess as you'd expect with any technology that the government gets involved with, but the data doesn't go to the utilities directly. It goes to the DCC, government appointed company, who are supposed the meta-ise the data before it goes to utilities so they can't work out when you are drying your pants and all that privacy related stuff. What stops leaks of your data from DCC though? I'd take a guess at a wafer thin IT policy.
The energy saving aspects at the moment are nonsense. The in home display is supposed to motivate you to switch things off. Studies have shown it has a MTKD of 2 weeks (mean-time to kitchen drawer - the metric of which all "amazing great smart technologies" are judged by the cynical engineers that work on them). But eventually they could be useful. The UK electricity grid is a creaking mess. I'm working with one on the DNOs at the moment (UK grid is split into 6 regions managed by local district network operators) who have told us if four households in every street bought an electric car their part of the grid would fall over. There just isn't the capacity. So smart meters are a way in the future for utilities to dispatch none-critical loads at peak times which reduces strain on the network, allows for a greater proportion of renewable generation, reduces pollution (CO2 per kWh is not linear, the carbon footprint is proportionally more at peak times as the system losses of transmission rise) and could lead to better customer tariffs if you allow them to schedule when your dishwasher/tumble drier operates.
So ultimately could be good, but currently it's a fucking mess. The health concerns are no greater than you'd have for your wifi router.
Tl;dr - I WORK IN THE INDUSTRY.
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Draconacticus Reject shampoo. Demand real poo!, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 11:32,
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While that all seems noble, there is no way in hell I'm going to have NPower decide when I can use my tumble dryer.
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evil_andy Stick stick stick stick sticky sticky stick stick, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 11:35,
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Yeah, I think it's a bit far fetched myself.
It's like the idea in the future no one will own cars and we will just dial up an autonomous vehicle when we need it. People don't like giving up convenience and decision making.
Having seen the wizard behind the curtain though it's quite alarming how ill prepared the grid is for the future.
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Draconacticus Reject shampoo. Demand real poo!, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 11:46,
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Correct
I sat through one and a half hours of PowerPoint by two people from SSE or whatever and took copious notes. Long story short, it's not entirely evil, does have some benefits, is a massive clusterfuck and there are no health risks.
(, Tue 20 Mar 2018, 18:19, Share, Reply)
The legislation took so long to agree that SMETS2 was due to come into force before SMETS one had been ratified.
The word on the street was that the government were waiting for Landis & Gear to tell them what to do.
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Draconacticus Reject shampoo. Demand real poo!, Wed 21 Mar 2018, 10:31,
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