Showing posts with label Smart Meters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Smart Meters. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 June 2013

Osoyoos Indians ban smart meters from their land


chieflouieOn behalf of the Osoyoos Indian Band, Chief Clarence Louie announced today that he and all Band Council members have signed a governing document prohibiting Fortis BC, the local utility company, from installing Smart Meters on the approximately 703 homes and businesses on the Osoyoos Indian Reserve.
“Having been presented with science-based evidence, the Band Council and I are convinced that Fortis’ proposed wireless smart meters in meshed-grid networks have potential to harm our children and our environment. No scientist on the planet has been able to verify the safety of these extremely dangerous devices that emit microwave radiation 24/7 in perpetuity and which cannot be turned off.”
“As Chief of the Osoyoos Indian band, my first duty is to protect my people, our future generations and our lands. For that reason, the Band Council and I believe we need to err on the side of caution and respect the world’s leading independent scientists who say – and have evidence to prove – that electromagnetic radiation, especially pulsed radio and microwave frequency radiation is harmful to all living things.”
“I am proud of our Council for standing up and voting to prohibit the installation of smart meters on our lands in order to protect not only our own people, but all the peoples who reside and work on the Osoyoos Indian Band lands.”
The press release is shown below.


Tuesday, 11 June 2013

British Gas reply to my opting out of the UK Smart Meter roll-out



Here in the UK, the introduction of Smart Meters had been postponed until 2015.  Hurrah, I hear you say.  Don't rejoice too soon.  The roll out WILL take place in a couple of years time, so I thought it prudent to voice my intention of NOT having one installed in my home.  An email was sent with the help of the excellent website called Stop Smart Meters.  And not long after I got a reply from British Gas.


Dear Mr Harrison
 
Many thanks for your e-mail.  Smart meters are important for British Gas and all our customers. I’m afraid that you are being badly misled by the Stop Smart Meters website. Most of what they say in their template email is misleading at best and completely untrue at worst.
 
I'm not sure where they're getting their information from - to give you one example, smart meters are not high-power devices. An average mobile telephone emits significantly more electromagnetic radiation than a British Gas smart meter. I can assure you that smart meters are low-power - they don't damage the world around them in the way that is claimed in the e-mail.
 
There are so many inaccuracies and misunderstandings in the email that I can't comment on them all. But I can tell you something about the benefits of smart meters: 
• The biggest single complaint we receive from our customers is about bills based on estimated readings – our customers simply want to pay for the energy they’ve actually used. But unless your meter is read every day, there will always be an element of estimation. Smart meters will solve this problem. 
• Just as importantly, smart meters will help customers reduce their energy bills. By knowing how much energy they're using daily, and the impact of each individual appliance, customers will be able to cut their energy use and improve energy efficiency. We know of one family whose smart meter showed that their appliances were costing hundreds of pounds a year through inefficiency or by being left on standby. They cut their bills.  
• In time, we'll also be able to sell cheaper energy at low-demand times of the day - just like off-peak telephone calls - saving our customers more money. This isn’t possible without smart meters. 
 
These are just some of the benefits however; you don't have to have a smart meter if you don't want one. If you do wish to be removed from our roll out programme please reply to this email.  
 
I can tell you that smart meters are safe and secure, and comply with all relevant legislation - I have one in my own home. 
 
Why don't you have a look at the information on these web pages and see what you think:
 
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/smarterhomes
 
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/tackling/smart_meters/smart_meters.aspx
 
I hope that you will reconsider your decision. If you do, let me know - we'll be delighted to bring you all the benefits of smart. It really is the future!
 
Best Regards,
 
Phil Bentley
Managing Director
British Gas

Thursday, 6 June 2013

UK introduces obligatory Smart Metering via backdoor


UK introduces obligatory Smart Metering via backdoor


  • New licensing conditions for Suppliers means “No Backwards Step” once Smart Meters installed
  • Conditions will prohibit suppliers from replacing Smart Meters with safer, more secure analogue meters, e.g. when a customer has moved house
  • Government has now reneged on repeated commitments that Smart Meters would be “voluntary”
  • Customers may be left with no choice but to use provisions of existing Gas & Electricity Acts to outmanoeuvre stealth restriction on free choice

LONDON, ENGLAND (23 May, 2013)   Early last week, Edward Davey’s Parliamentary Undersecretary, Baroness Verma, made an announcement in the House of Lords that the UK’s Smart Meter programme would be delayed by at least “one year”.  The announcement gained much attention and media exposure across the UK, but a crucial component of her announcement was seemingly omitted from all popular reports and commentary.
According to the recordings of the Baroness’s statement in Hansard (the official report of the proceedings in parliament), she revealed a second major shift in Government policy regarding Smart Meters which went unnoticed as admissions regarding delays overtook the media glare.
In a stunning and outrageous Government u-turn, Ministers have decided that from the end of this year, UK energy suppliers will be BLOCKED from fulfilling customer wishes to replace a pre-existing Smart Meter with a more safe and secure analogue alternative.  This change will be enforced through modifications to supplier licensing conditions on 14 July 2013, meaning that from the end of the year, if an energy customer moves house and finds one or more Smart Meters in situ, their supplier will not be allowed to offer analogue replacements.
From Hansard, 13 May 2013, Baroness Verma:
“We have decided that from the end of this year, when a customer switches from a supplier who has provided them with a compliant smart meter, the new supplier cannot replace that smart meter with a dumb meter and must either rent the previous supplier’s meter or install their own new smart meter… We are also proposing for consultation that, when a customer with a compliant smart meter switches supplier,the new supplier must continue to provide remote meter readings.
If you are left wondering why this generous concession has been made for Big Energy’s Smart Metering programme at your expense, the Baroness – drawing on a newly published Consultation Response document – added the following:
This will give greater confidence to early movers over their investments… this package of proposals will give consumers and industry the confidence they need for a successful rollout.  Subject to the successful completion of the parliamentary process, the licence conditions will come into force on 14 July 2013.”
This breach of public trust not only reflects a cowardly u-turn on commitments that the Government has made repeatedly that Smart Meters will be ‘voluntary’, but sends a clear message to consumers that free-choice is not compatible with the UK’s Orwellian energy policy.  It also serves to reveal the long-term, ‘war of attrition’-style intentions for Smart Metering and exposes the lie that Smart Metering is primarily aimed at serving consumers.

What’s more is that these new rules for suppliers lay the foundation for ‘ripping-and-replacing’ Smart Meters when changing suppliers – as there will be an obligation on suppliers to either “pay rent” to a competitor or take the decision to rip-and-replace the meter with their own.  In this light, it becomes impossible to resolve the contention that this programme will serve as a means of reducing energy and makes a mockery of Smart Meters making it “easier” to switch suppliers.
What may be of some interest, however, is how two pre-existing pieces of UK legislation might impact on DECC’s attempt to curtail freedom of metering choice.
In 1986 and then in 1989, the UK’s Gas and Electricity Acts were respectively brought into being.  Amongst other provisions, these Acts enshrined into law the right for individuals to have their own gas and electricity meters installed on their property.
To explain specifically in relation to electricity, for example, Schedule 7 of the Electricity Act 1989,ss.1(2) &(2A) outlines the following:
[(2) If the [authorised supplier] agrees, the meter may be provided by the customer [(who may provide a meter which belongs to him or is made available otherwise than in pursuance of arrangements made by the supplier)]; but otherwise it shall be provided by the [authorised supplier] [(who may provide a meter which belongs to him or to any person other than the customer)].
(2A) [An authorised supplier] may refuse to allow one of his customers to provide a meter only if there are reasonable grounds for his refusal.] [You can check the UK Association of Meter Operator’s website for more information.]
Our interpretation of this provision is that, so long as one’s own choice of non-smart/analogue meter complies with regulations and the supplier has no reasonable grounds for saying otherwise, any in situ Smart Meters can be sent back to the supplier.  The only reasonable grounds for the supplier refusing this request that we can envisage would be if the meter is not compliant with safety or accuracy regulation.  The issue of whether your own meter is “smart” or not seems irrelevant, and would certainly appear to have nothing to do with the Government’s “No Backward Step” policy nor its supplier-oriented licensing changes.

The Great Smart Meter Return



CAPITOLA, Calif-- About a dozen SmartMeter opponents lined up to return the controversial device, Wednesday, and when they showed up, PG&E called police.

"This is not a protest," said Joshua Hart, Stopsmartmeter.org. "This was simply returning PG&E's property to them. Property that was not wanted on people's homes."
And about a dozen people did just that at PG&E's pay center at the Capitola Mall. Joshua Hart, who is leading the push against SmartMeters said the digital meters made these people sick and were put on their property illegally, so they took them off.

"When PG&E refused to remove these devices which they never had permission to install in the first place, these people have taken matters into their own hands, hired a professional electrician or contractor to replace the SmartMeter with an analog meter," said Hart.
Bianca Carn was one of PG&E's customers who returned a SmartMeter, Wednesday.

"The bottom line is, they can't come on private property," said Carn. "I own the house, I didn't give them permission and they didn't send me a certified letter, and as you can see, we've been kicked off private property. We're not even allowed to go in there. They wanted us to come out so we did and I just feel like I wish we had the same rights."

When this group went inside to return their SmartMeters, the Capitola Police Department showed up and ordered everyone out. PG&E even closed up shop.

"I think it's disturbing that simply utility customers looking out for the health and safety of their families have to be intimidated in such a way with this turnout of police when people were happy to comply with the request to leave the offices," said Hart.

PG&E released the following statement: 

"As a matter of personal and public safety, our customers must never tamper with utility equipment. We urge our customers to call us at 1-800-743-5000 if they have questions about their gas and electric service.  We want to prevent our customers from facing the risks associated with SmartMeter removal which could result in serious harm.  Fires, burns and electrocution could occur from attempting to remove a SmartMeter.  In any instance where PG&E equipment has been tampered with or removed PG&E is obligated to end service until the situation is made safe and proper equipment is installed by a PG&E representative."

Smart meter health concerns in Australia


They call them smart meters but a growing number of homeowners disagree. They’re claiming the new power monitoring devices are actually bad for your health.


Thursday, 7 March 2013

How to protect yourself from Electromagnetic stress


I am a stressed man, and who can blame me? I have a kid on the way, trying to manage all my debts and at the same time I read and write about all the dangers radiation and EMF pose to us. In addition to this, I’m pretty sure all of the excess Electromagnetic energy being produced can’t be doing much good.
Let’s think about it for a minute, ten years ago, there was hardly any wireless technology out, the occasional phone and television remote being the only things that immediately pop into mind, as well as the few overhead power cables.

Now, let’s compare that to these days, we have Mobile phones, Mp3 Players and Laptops all of which are producing electromagnetic fields. A tangle of wires hang over our heads, telephone cables, power lines and the such, all leaking their own EMF’s. Towering telephone masts and Cell phone towers loom over us, showering us with radiation. In short, compared to then, there is so much more technology projecting waves that damage us on a cellular level.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but ten years ago, I felt much healthier and a lot less stressed (this may have been because I was 10 but who knows…) now a possible cause of all this is the aforementioned EMF, which constantly bombard our bodies. These fields actively attack our cells, damaging them on a molecular level, causing us to become fatigued, our metabolism to slow and lower our resistances to disease. And because of all this we become more and more stressed, so they key to alleviating this stress falls into making our bodies more resistant to the damage these EMF’s are unavoidably doing.

The most obvious way to combat the damage is to minimize the amount of time we expose ourselves to these EMF’s. By spending less time using our phones and other wireless electronics, we can decrease strength of EMF’s we are exposed to.
As an example, I play a lot of video games, mainly on the Xbox, so I was regularly holding onto a wireless controller for several hours on end, when I started to read about EMF’s however I immediately went out and bought a wired control. It wasn't much, but I did feel a very slight improvement in my health, whereas I used to feel run down after a couple of hours of playing, I now felt fine, well worth the money.
Another obvious way of minimizing the strength of the EMF’s, is to make sure you live far away from Cell phone towers and other powerful EMF producers, it may seem a trivial matter but it will make all the difference. In addition, by wearing magnetic jewellery you can help to counteract some EMF fields, a simple magnetic bracelet can make a world of difference.

You know how metal conducts electricity correct? Well
many of us have metal filling, and the EMF’s react with them the way you would expect it to. When the EMF passes through your body, the metallic fillings conduct trace amounts of the electromagnetic pulse, and does so repeatedly, gathering its own EMF overtime, producing it in your own mouth and I need not describe how that is damaging. If you can have these replaced with tooth-colored composite fillings, you should as it will lead to less damage from EMF overtime.

By improving your immune system your cells will naturally be more resistant to the damage the EMF’s will do. There are dozens of ways to improve your natural immune system, drinking lots of water and eating raw vegetables are both simple ways to give yourself a little boost. Upping your vitamin intake will help in more ways than one, as will taking several Probiotics over the course of a week.
To continue on the theme of Probiotics, the bodily stress caused by the EMF’s will cause your body to power through the good bacteria in your body, causing you to become more and more susceptible to diseases and illnesses, so by using Probiotics you can replenish the good bacteria at rate that should hopefully match the rate that the EMF’s cause them to die off.

When your body is regularly hit by powerful EMF’s it causes the micro-organisms in your body to produce an excess of neurotoxins as a response to the mass of minor infections your body has to start to defend itself against and due to the prior damage already caused, your body cannot cope with the mass of neurotoxins now flooding your system. So be sure to regularly purge your body of toxins, or the build up will cause further cell determination which in turn causes your body to create more neurotoxins, a never ending cycle.

Remember when your parents used to say, “Don’t sit to close to the TV, or your eyes will go square” well, they weren't far off. Newer televisions produce a much stronger EMF’s than older televisions, so sitting further away will cause the EMF produced by the TV to deal less damage to your body. The same idea also goes for computer screens, even now as I write this I’m leaning back in my chair, a kind of unconscious way of minimizing the damage done, other than sitting across the room of course.

As I mentioned in my previous post “Is an Apple that healthy?” your room should be one of the cleanest areas in your home, both physically and on a molecular level. So here are a few tips to decrease the amount of Radiation and the strength of the EMF’s in your room:

  • Remove any electrical wires than run under your bed.
  • Avoid having wireless devices in your room.
  • Substitute automatic electronic devices for manual non-electronic variants.
  • Swap any cordless phones for corded versions.

So with only a few alterations in your room, you can massively alter the strength of the EMF’s where you sleep. Never underestimate the damage that can be done whilst you sleep, because you aren't moving the EMF’s affect you far more directly, damaging the cells over the time you sleep.

With a few of these changes, you should be able to lessen the amount of EMF that effect you, which will be minimize the damage the done by the electromagnetic fields that run rampant across our landscapes. On a secondary note, there have been proven methods that can minimize or sometimes even neutralize EMF’s harmful effects, so in time, a more widespread way of neutralize the damage may become available. But until then, I hope the tips I have given you prove to be helpful!


Thursday, 28 February 2013

The TRUTH about Smart Meters


The UK is starting to see the spread of a new insidious technology that has already plagued the United States and left many of it's users both financially and physically poorer for it; the Smart Meter. The Smart Meter is being rolled out by a number of energy suppliers in the UK and although optional at this stage, it will become mandatory as the UK's official national smart meter roll-out will start in 2014 and finish in 2019.  Every home will have to have one!

Ok, so what is a Smart Meter?  Well, the old-style gas and electricity meters we use at the moment need readings to being taken every few months and then given to our energy providers, from which our bills are calculated.  The new Smart Meter measures your exact gas and electricity usage and then sends all the information back to your energy supplier.  No more meter readings of old.  “Hurrah” I hear you say.

But wait, that sounds very clever, but exactly how do they get this information from your Smart Meter to your supplier?  Well, the details of your power usage are transmitted from meter to meter in a network, using wireless RF signals, just like mobile phones. This RF radiation has been classified as a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organization (as has DDT and lead) and its contribution to brain tumours via cell phones is just now becoming more widely recognised by the medical community.

The EMF emissions from these meters are both greater in volume and more frequent than power companies admit.  Some representative say the meters transmit RF six times a day; others, once an hour. Independent RF specialists have measured them every 45 seconds, or even twice in a minute.  As for peak power of Smart Meter radiation signals, power companies maintain that the RF transmissions are well within FCC standards, that they transmit data for only a fraction of a second and are far weaker than other everyday radio frequency emitters, such as cell phones, cell towers and Wi-Fi.  However, independent environmental EMF consultants have found that peak pulses to be far greater in intensity than the “average pulse” that many utility companies claim, sometimes up to 1000 times more powerful than a cell phone.

Smart Meters in the United States are already receiving massive negative publicity.  Smart Meter complaints include: skyrocketing utility bills, privacy invasion, vulnerability to cyber attack, interference with security systems and other wireless devices, burned out appliances, explosions, fires and health problems including headaches, tinnitus, sleep and heart problems, anxiety, nausea, and other health symptoms following installation.

Such is the negativity surrounding these Smart Meters, that Sebastopol in California became the 15th local jurisdiction to make Smart Meter installations illegal, along with Fairfax, Ojai, Santa Cruz, and Marin, Lake, Mendocino and Santa Cruz counties and others are following suit.

And don’t these promises and claims from the power companies sound very similar to the tobacco industries claims that cigarettes were safe in the 1970’s?

Here are just a few of the many complaints filed by consumers in the USA:

“A huge pulse repeat every 10 seconds is interrupting my WIFI, blue tooth and wireless internet. Stay with your original analog meter. I’m so angry. Now my recording studio clients and friends won’t use my facility.”

“I have a separate electricity meter for a water well. For the thirty years I have lived in my house the usage has been the same until after the “smart meter” was installed. There was no change in the usage, but my bill more than tripled.”

“We had a bee colony close to my meter. When my power supplier’s guys came to put in the smart meter, I warned them of it. One told me, ‘Don’t worry, this will get rid of them’.  After a few days, the bees abandoned the nest and never returned.”

It seems that Smart Meters aren't so smart after all!