On Sun, 11 Dec 2016 11:36:29 -0000, "Ophelia" >
wrote:

>"U.S. Janet B." wrote in message
.. .
>
>you can always go off the grid and then they have no power over you --
>go solar. Or get gas powered appliances. By accepting modern
>amenities like roads, water, electricity you are accepting the rules
>of civilization. By tempering the amount of power some individuals
>get during a stressed period, the utilities make sure enough power is
>available for necessary functions like hospitals, police, the water
>plant, individuals at home that must have electricity to live etc. The
>utility is just spreading the impact among users. If this happens
>often and you are worried about your electrical devices you should
>hook all of them up to a either a whole house surge protector or
>individual surge protectors. Looking at Google I see that whole house
>surger protectors run from about $100 to $200 US if you buy and
>install yourself. My utility does have a program where you as a
>homeowner can volunteer to have less power delivered to your house
>during periods when you know you will not be there. They offer
>additional savings for participating in this program.
>I guess the thing is that if we as citizens of this planet want to
>continue to have babies, drive cars, use refrigerators etc. we need to
>anticipate that we will have to all be part of sharing resources.
>Sorry about the sermon. . .it wasn't aimed at you in particular.
>Janet US
>
>===================
>
>I have been giving your response some thought and think the following might
>be of interest:
>
>The system in UK is somewhat different. One of the main 'selling points' of
>smart meters here is that they install a box in the house that can show you
>what devices are using what amount of power, in real time. The idea is that
>you can lower your bills by turning down/off items that you consider are
>using more power than necessary. Some of them will even send the info to
>your smart phone/tablet/etc so that you an adjust them when not at home. The
>problem with that sort of detail is that the vast majority of people just
>wont use or understand it and the utility company has the same control over
>your devices that you do. Experiments have shown that devices that are cut
>back/switched off by remote control sometimes just don't come back on/up
>when they are supposed to; which leads to spoiling of food in fridges and
>freezers and if the power goes off while somebody is e.g. ironing and they
>don't disconnect the iron, or if they are cooking and leave something on an
>electric hob, when the power comes back on it can create a fire hazard.
>There is also the issue that is now developing of terrorist/foreign
>government hacking of the systems for malevolent purposes.
>
>We are lucky in that there are just the 2 of us adults in the house. We keep
>the house heating turned lower than most people seem to because that is how
>we prefer it <16-18C> even in winter unless it becomes exceptionally cold
>outdoors. We also naturally turn off lights when we leave a room and don't
>have many things that stay on long term on standby. Our heating and cooker
>hob are gas, although the gas heating is electrically controlled and uses an
>electrical water pump to circulate to the radiators of course. Our water
>heating is from a combi boiler that only heats the water on demand - no
>wasteful immersion heater or hot water tank - and the shower has a separate
>electrical water heater. So we are not usually wasteful and don't feel
>guilty about not being 'a part of sharing resources'. If we could go totally
>off grid we would cheerfully do so but that isn't practical in our current
>home!
>
>HTH

that's a better explanation of smart meter. I understand you concern.
I don't think I would like the utility to know when I am ironing.Your
system may be a step too far, As to the terrorist thing, probably
legitimate. It's certainly a 'cleaner' way and less dangerous to
warriors to do warfare that way. I never meant to imply that you are
wasteful. I am what is known here as a 'fuzzy liberal' and I strongly
believe that we should all take part in supporting our country and
civilization. I was only trying to explain the broader motivation
behind the smart devices. I am sure that there are innovation lovers
that are all over such a device. I mean -- control your iron from the
office? Way cool
Janet US