Saving electricity

[ultrarunner]

One of my house meter dates from 1922... the year the house was constructed.

I still have the original 30 amp electrical service.

When the crew was doing the neighborhood they left a note saying they would need to come back with an electrician to install the new meter... the crews didn't have the parts to make the change.

My service disconnect is still ahead of the meter... the guy said he had never worked on one this old...

 

[clemsonfor]

Young man from Oncor was just here about 10 minutes ago and replaced our old electric meter with one of the new "smart meters". So I hope we don't have any of the problems that have been reported with them.

When they took my old spinning meter out and put in a digital one that can be read remotely on the driveby. Anyway our power bills increased drastically and so did most of the folks in town. How do you prove otherwise. They said they were calibrated and that mabe the old ones were just worn and did not read right? My power bills went from one in the $180-200 range to some that were in the $240 range or ones that were in the say the $180 range that were in teh $150 range.

All i would say is not to worry about you new meter but there is a chance that your bills will increase 10-25%!!!

 

[clemsonfor]

One of my house meter dates from 1922... the year the house was constructed.

I still have the original 30 amp electrical service.

When the crew was doing the neighborhood they left a note saying they would need to come back with an electrician to install the new meter... the crews didn't have the parts to make the change.

My service disconnect is still ahead of the meter... the guy said he had never worked on one this old...

Must be how my farm property is. Its got no disconnect at the 30amp panel. I was replacing wireing to the water heater when i put a new one in and could not find the way to turn the power off. Needless to say i was sweating and steady handed as i put the wires in the panel!!

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Must be how my farm property is. Its got no disconnect at the 30amp panel. I was replacing wireing to the water heater when i put a new one in and could not find the way to turn the power off. Needless to say i was sweating and steady handed as i put the wires in the panel!!

Just unscrew the fuses.

 

[clemsonfor]

Just unscrew the fuses.

Its got breakers, maybe one of the tiny sub boxes have fuses in them that is fused to the mains, but dont think so? House was built in the late 40s or early 50's, everything is original i beleive.

 

[Bird]

When they took my old spinning meter out and put in a digital one that can be read remotely on the driveby. Anyway our power bills increased drastically and so did most of the folks in town. How do you prove otherwise. They said they were calibrated and that mabe the old ones were just worn and did not read right? My power bills went from one in the $180-200 range to some that were in the $240 range or ones that were in the say the $180 range that were in teh $150 range.

All i would say is not to worry about you new meter but there is a chance that your bills will increase 10-25%!!!

Yeah, they tell you that you can reduce your bill by 15%, but that's assuming you use their website to see how much you're using and when, then turn something off to save electricity. Hmmm . . ., couldn't I do that with the old meter; turn something off, I mean? And to pay for these new smart meters, they'll add $2.19 a month to our bill for 11 years. Now it would be nice to reduce my electric bill, but I'll be happy if it just doesn't increase.

 

[chopped]

There was a good subsidy in my area to pay for the program to start off Uncle Sam.didnt realize there was a fee for the meter but Im sure if they can they will lol
I had an energy audit once, It was good but overall they said that the arc welder was the biggest user.But i only use it occasionally. and i am sure id spend more dribing to find someone to weld for me..So ahve to take those with a grain of salt.I think most people know or could easily learn just what uses the most elecrricity..

 

[ultrarunner]

When they took my old spinning meter out and put in a digital one that can be read remotely on the driveby. Anyway our power bills increased drastically and so did most of the folks in town. How do you prove otherwise. They said they were calibrated and that mabe the old ones were just worn and did not read right? My power bills went from one in the $180-200 range to some that were in the $240 range or ones that were in the say the $180 range that were in teh $150 range.

All i would say is not to worry about you new meter but there is a chance that your bills will increase 10-25%!!!

Had the same thing...

Have a "House" meter at an apartment... powers one yard light and one sprinkler timer.

Each month the bill was the minimum... after the smart meter, I started to be billed for usage...

Utility said the old meter was under metering due to low usage... the new one showing double usage is correct.

I questioned it farther and said a 12 watt bulb uses 12 watts and hour x how many hours it is on... so how can my bill double?

 

[3930dave]

In some utilities, it may be incompetence (re. these new complex metering systems) but it is interesting that in virtually all cases bills trend UP.

The politicians that control most utilities didn't want to come out with "electricity is going from X cents/kwh to (X + Y) cents/kwh". Smart taxing, er, metering, gave them a system that a first pass was too complicated for the avg. Homer to bother paying attention to, initially. That smokescreen got them through the backroom approval and roll out phase. Add in some green-washing, and it was a pols dream tax increase.

As I've commented before, you essentially lose all control of your bill. If the billing computer decides that 85% of your useage was at peak time..... your choices are basically 1) pay the tribute, or 2) disconnect.

The old "your previous meter was underbilling" routine...... buddy of mine had backcharges applied to his account, by a particularly scummy utility based on the "inaccurate meter" scam.

Pay the Tribute, or Disconnect.

Prior to this nonsense, I had already pretty much decided to go off-grid for my next property. All remaining uncertainty has been eliminated.

Rgds, D.

 

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