February 21, 20214 yr 10 hours ago, IFB DOG said: Question for you, because our electric company has been swapping out meters for "smart meters" for two years now (and ours just occurred last month): Don't these things just improve their ability to bill accurately, spend less money on meter readers (I have been told they no longer require manual reading, but can connect from a distance), better data on people who may be bypassing the meters and/or damaging them, and ultimately improve profits by reducing expenses? How do they benefit the homeowner? Seems like it is all designed around profitability. What it can help the end user is with more visibility to their energy usage as well as, depending on your utility, more advantageous billing plans. One of my first clients back in 09 had 3 different types of billing plans: 1) Legacy rate plan. No difference than what people traditionally pay. Once they went full AMI, the plan was to phase this out. 2) Rebate plan. Like the legacy plan except if you lower your usage by a certain percent between hours x and y on date z, you get a discount. These rebates only would occur during promotional periods, typically when usage is projected to be high 3) Interval Billing and Dynamic pricing. Basically energy at peak hours is more $$$ than off peak. This encourages the consumer to wash clothes, dishes, etc off hours. (Then there is a whole discussion how that lowers energy generation across the board, but that’s another topic). If you are like my sister and hyper focused on lowering energy costs, #3 is very attractive. If you are like me and not have time for that, #2 is your best bet. It also makes NET metering much more obtainable. If you want to add solar panels, you no longer need any special/additional metering devices. You can tell them you are going solar, they push a button and boom, you have a net metering program on your meter. If you are generating a surplus, you can sell it back to your utility (not sure if legacy meters allow that or not, I never got into solar with traditional meters prior) As I alluded before, better response time to outages. If you have an outage and call up the company, you may get an automated message stating that they know about it, it’s affecting X number of people in your are and receive an estimated time of service restoration. (Setting up these systems can be among the most difficult due to the business logic involved and the various other variables you need to account for) There are other small things, like being able to schedule a remote connect/disconnect. So if you are moving in/out of a property, you can schedule a more exact time to turn on/off power, vs the traditional model of "someone will be there between 10 and 2, maybe” Also, there is the whole HAN ability, but honestly I think it’s a waste. Most people want their home automation to go through their phone, not through their meter. Unfortunately most regulations were written way back before the boom of nest, google home, etc. and we know how quickly governments work to change things. So if a utility goes AMI, they are adding HAN capability whether they like it or not. Ive been up since 3 and running on about 4 hours of sleep so I’m sure I’m forgetting something. I’ve been doing AMI since 2009, so I’ll finish this post with one unrelated story before I jump on my flight. We were doing an independent survey of folks to try to gauge how they felt about AMI meters. We’re they excited? Apathetic and if so why? (Lack of information was the top answer) Did they have any concerns? This one gave us the widest spectrum of responses. One concern that was raised I will never forget. "Can these meters figure out my sexual preference?”. For most concerns we had canned answers ready to go, but this one required a quick 5 minute scrum to answer
February 21, 20214 yr @paco thank you! We have a one-month-old and an almost-three-year-old. I am regretting posting and surfing the web, knowing I am just giving away sleep time, but here we are learning from a phlaggot who calls his "wife" schmoopie... 🤷♂️ Seriously though, I appreciate the detailed response. You did well for no sleep lol. But, uhh... CAN the smart meters figure out my sexual preference?
February 21, 20214 yr 4 minutes ago, IFB DOG said: @paco thank you! We have a one-month-old and an almost-three-year-old. I am regretting posting and surfing the web, knowing I am just giving away sleep time, but here we are learning from a phlaggot who calls his "wife" schmoopie... 🤷♂️ Seriously though, I appreciate the detailed response. You did well for no sleep lol. But, uhh... CAN the smart meters figure out my sexual preference? Oh yeah, I remember sleep too.
February 21, 20214 yr 2 minutes ago, Paul852 said: Oh yeah, I remember sleep too. Our first kid was PERFECT when it came to sleep. This one is PERFECT for destroying REM and any desire to be productive the next day. THAT is the REAL energy crisis! 🤣
February 21, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, IFB DOG said: Our first kid was PERFECT when it came to sleep. This one is PERFECT for destroying REM and any desire to be productive the next day. Yep. We had our second as our first was just turning two. That first year with a 2 year old and newborn is one of the toughest things I've ever done. I tell people all the time, having two doesn't multiply things by 2, it multiplies them by 1000.
February 21, 20214 yr Nothing that Ted Cruz could do for Texas. AOC raises $3.2 million for Texas amid weather crisis The New York Democrat traveled to Houston on Saturday https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-houston-relief-aid-texans-weather-crisis Ted knows what to do.
February 21, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, Toastrel said: Nothing that Ted Cruz could do for Texas. AOC raises $3.2 million for Texas amid weather crisis The New York Democrat traveled to Houston on Saturday https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-houston-relief-aid-texans-weather-crisis Ted knows what to do. Once again, pathetic.
February 21, 20214 yr "Energy experts and State House Dems, among others, were warning of this (the Texas power blackout) for years.” https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/19/beto-orourke/beto-orourke-said-texas-was-warned-years-about-pow/ Quote A federal report following a massive power outage in Texas in February 2011 stated that recommendations to winterize the system following a 1989 cold weather event were not mandatory, and implementation lapsed. Sylvester Turner, a Texas state representative at the time, introduced a bill in 2011 which called for the Public Utility Commission to ensure the Electric Reliability Council of Texas had adequate reserve power to prevent blackout conditions. The bill failed to move forward. Known problem. Ignored for years. Quote "My savings is gone,” said Scott Willoughby, a 63-year-old Army veteran who lives on Social Security payments in a Dallas suburb. He said he had nearly emptied his savings account so that he would be able to pay the $16,752 electric bill charged to his credit card — 70 times what he usually pays for all of his utilities combined. "There’s nothing I can do about it, but it’s broken me.” Quote Katrina Tanner, a Griddy customer who lives in Nevada, Texas, said she had been charged $6,200 already this month, more than five times what she paid in all of 2020. She began using Griddy at a friend’s suggestion a couple of years ago and was pleased at the time with how simple it was to sign up.
February 21, 20214 yr 13 hours ago, Smokesdawg said: Ted Cruz is a crisis actor who also crosses the border to escape inhumane living conditions. Shameless political stunt from Cancun Cruz.
February 21, 20214 yr 4 hours ago, Toastrel said: Nothing that Ted Cruz could do for Texas. AOC raises $3.2 million for Texas amid weather crisis The New York Democrat traveled to Houston on Saturday https://www.foxnews.com/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-houston-relief-aid-texans-weather-crisis Ted knows what to do. Exactly. There is plenty to do for everyone in to help everyone through something like this. Going to cancun is taking yourself our of position to help people. Cancun dude. he thinks he is nick van exel? 1...2...3...CANCUN!!!
February 21, 20214 yr 33 minutes ago, jsdarkstar said: It's now a water and food disaster. And you all say Texas isn't progressive.
February 21, 20214 yr 1 minute ago, paco said: And you all say Texas isn't progressive. Plus they have AOC bailing them out. They're basically a blue state now.
February 21, 20214 yr Reading all these stories of people having to pay 7k-20k for electric during the outages is just insane. I can't imagine why a scenario like that would ever be acceptable.
February 21, 20214 yr Author 40 minutes ago, Paul852 said: Reading all these stories of people having to pay 7k-20k for electric during the outages is just insane. I can't imagine why a scenario like that would ever be acceptable. To own the Libs
February 21, 20214 yr 44 minutes ago, Dave Moss said: To own the Libs Well, consider me "owned" because my opinion is that's just stupid.
February 21, 20214 yr Author 35 minutes ago, Paul852 said: Well, consider me "owned" because my opinion is that's just stupid. You don’t like surprise bills (utilities, medical, etc.)?? I’m disappointed Paul. First you get owned by Kz, now this...
February 22, 20214 yr 9 hours ago, Dave Moss said: Welp So, now he is for regulation of the energy companies? Oh Lyin' Ted!
February 22, 20214 yr Texas energy companies will be passing down the costs for a decade or more. They fail to prepare, then make their customers pay for it.
February 22, 20214 yr 12 minutes ago, toolg said: Texas energy companies will be passing down the costs for a decade or more. They fail to prepare, then make their customers pay for it. But they upgraded the meters.
February 22, 20214 yr On 2/19/2021 at 3:04 PM, Kz! said: I used to wonder if there was anything the msm could try to blow up that libs would look at and say "nah, that’s too petty, I’m just not that interested.” After seeing the reaction to Cancungate, I now know that answer is no.
February 22, 20214 yr 19 hours ago, Paul852 said: Reading all these stories of people having to pay 7k-20k for electric during the outages is just insane. I can't imagine why a scenario like that would ever be acceptable. Right in your world the only acceptable solution is to shut everyone’s power off so nobody can have it When something is priced that high it’s basically just a big neon sign that says "only use power if you really really need it and don’t waste a drop” of course there are probably idiots down there using electricity to watch TV and MSNBC tell them how unfair it is the electricity costs that much
February 22, 20214 yr Probably the best thread on the subject. Unsurprisingly, the disaster wasn't the fault of a state senator's trip to Mexico, but the sheer incompetence of the Biden administration: Oof.
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