[Freedombox-discuss] Smart meters

[Wookey]

+++ cgw993 at aol.com [2013-09-14 02:41 -0700]:
[Hopelessly offtopic now, but I can't resist correcting some of this]

> My issues with smart meter
> 
> -It is about 20 feet from where I sit, I read the wifi signal is powerful
> and near continuous.  It could be a safety and health issue.

No it couldn't. Petter has given you a useful reference explaining why
not.

> -These meters I read are capable of monitoring specific appliances in your
> home. It would know when the oven is on, blowdryer, microwave, how often
> they are used, without your consent. There is a huge amount of data mining
> potential including the ability to figure out the schedule of the occupant
> etc, this data can be made available to a government or businesses. It is a
> major invasion of privacy.

This is largely true, although the actuality depends on the regulatory
framework in your country for smart meters. In the UK the data is
deemed personal data under the data protection act and supplier access
is restricted to monthly data for billing purposes, and daily data at
changeover points. The DNO (meter owner) can get half-hourly data for
network management purposes. So there are privacy risks, but it can't
simply be made available to 'govt or businesses' without owner
consent (without breaking the law). 

> -The smart meters were advertised based on convenience and claimed that the
> would save energy. They simply move energy use from one time to another time
> which doesn't save energy, at least not that significantly.

This is wrong. The total energy usage at your end may not change, but
the amount of energy it took to make that energy, and more importantly
the source of that energy and the associated emissions, can change
radically due to time-shifting and load shedding. This demand
management is an important part of the future energy grid and you
should read up on the subject if you don't understand why. 


However this is not on-topic here, so I will not continue this
conversation here. Feel free to argue off-list, or on more appropriate
fora.

Wookey
-- 
Principal hats:  Linaro, Emdebian, Wookware, Balloonboard, ARM
http://wookware.org/