Smart Meters

[Loffgren]

Are the new PG&E Smartmeters radio wave, carrier freq, or satelite.

Do the new PG&E SmartMeters detect power theft or do they only detect tampering?

I have read a bit on them but customers, seem to have a zillion questions in regards to them.

Just curious as to what smart features they have.

 

[TOOL_5150]

I would like to know the same things. All I know for sure is that they have load break capabilities, so make sure you pay your bill on time.

~Matt

 

[hurk27]

I been seeing new meters around here being used, I know they can talk back to the POCO with the useage info, and they do this through the power lines, but I don't know about the load break info?

 

[Power Tech]

Are the new PG&E Smartmeters radio wave, carrier freq, or satelite.

Do the new PG&E SmartMeters detect power theft or do they only detect tampering?

I have read a bit on them but customers, seem to have a zillion questions in regards to them.

Just curious as to what smart features they have.

The old smart meters were not smart enough. They used the lines to communicate.

PG&E found out the remote customers were not being read accurately or in some cases not at all.

The new meters are RF.

You can go online and see what you are using and at what time.

Don't know about the theft and tampering.

 

[MrMilbank]

without knowing anything i can assume that they help pseg take full advantage of the duration of demand charges more so then anything else. money.

 

[TOOL_5150]

A PG&E employee told me that for sure they run on RF, recievers around here are being installed. and that they can load break up to 200A from the office.

~Matt

 

[MrMilbank]

breaking loads of high amperage seems impressive but im sure those meters are capable of more considering time. if a 1200amp cust needs to be cutoff they could smiply make the cut at off peak hours(overnight) when the demand is less then 20amps or w/e. still smart meters only benifit us considering the need for qualified individuals to reduce or manage power for the customers ultimate utilization.

 

[hurk27]

breaking loads of high amperage seems impressive but im sure those meters are capable of more considering time. if a 1200amp cust needs to be cutoff they could smiply make the cut at off peak hours(overnight) when the demand is less then 20amps or w/e. still smart meters only benifit us considering the need for qualified individuals to reduce or manage power for the customers ultimate utilization.

With anything above 400 amps being CT, I would not think load breaking will be installed any time soon.

 

[cruzJD]

Our POCO replaced a ton of there meters with there smart meters 6 months ago.

Ours are currently capable of doing time of use billing, 200 amp (some units rated at 400 amp) disconnect, tampering detection, back feed detector, and ours have a 1,000? RF technology. They are able to reprogram the units by inserting a probe into the front of the meter.

Before they were reading meters every 60 days or so with 20 people. They now have a crew of 5 people that drive around in pickups with a laptop and read our meters every 30 days.

I have been told that it will be a mater of time before we will see time of use penalties for every one.

 

[TOOL_5150]

I have been told that it will be a mater of time before we will see time of use penalties for every one.

Yeah I hate our POCO. their baseline for bay area, CA is always under what I use, no matter what. I use minimum 570Kwh a month, thats if I dont use anything else in the house, of course, I live here so its always close to twice that, so seeing close to $300 monthly bills are regular for me. PG&E is a bunch of thiefs.

rant over.

~Matt

 

[cruzJD]

I use minimum 570Kwh a month
~Matt

I?m on time of use billing with a back feed agreement and have no issues or problems. I have a 4 bedroom brick ranch that?s all electric with a well and a septic tank that has a 200 watt air pump running 24/7. We have 3 kids.

On good months I use 100 KWH of off peak and sell them 400 KWH of peak power. On bad months I use 150 KWH of off peak and sell them 50 KWH of peak power.

We have a grid tie Xantrex XW with a large battery back up. Closed loop hot water heating system. A high end heat pump (yes we use AC in our house).

We have a lot of issues with power outages where were at. All the new construction I do gets a 100 amp sub panel for ?livable loads? for a $600. We install a lot of gensets and battery back up PV systems. Mid summer I bought 75 pad mount gensets with ATS and the rest of the stuff needed to install 50 that the house is not set up for them. We will be out of gensets by x-mas.

 

[jrannis]

Our POCO replaced a ton of there meters with there smart meters 6 months ago.

Ours are currently capable of doing time of use billing, 200 amp (some units rated at 400 amp) disconnect, tampering detection, back feed detector, and ours have a 1,000? RF technology. They are able to reprogram the units by inserting a probe into the front of the meter.

Before they were reading meters every 60 days or so with 20 people. They now have a crew of 5 people that drive around in pickups with a laptop and read our meters every 30 days.

I have been told that it will be a mater of time before we will see time of use penalties for every one.

Maybe those electric tankless water heaters were not the best idea.:roll:

 

[cruzJD]

Maybe those electric tankless water heaters were not the best idea.:roll:

Do the tankless water heaters save money over a properly sized tank model at say 5 years in the real world?
A tank heater that is installed on a stand with insulation blanket gets you down to 5% heat loss (don?t know where I read this) in a 55* basement.

I get at least 3 calls a month for dimming lights when they turn on the hot water.

 

[Power Tech]

Yeah I hate our POCO. their baseline for bay area, CA is always under what I use, no matter what. I use minimum 570Kwh a month, thats if I dont use anything else in the house, of course, I live here so its always close to twice that, so seeing close to $300 monthly bills are regular for me. PG&E is a bunch of thiefs.

rant over.

~Matt

I don't like throwing salt in your wound but the rates are going up 15% and will be based on a 4 tier billing system.

A billing system even Einstein could not figure out.

If you ever work for them: Ha Ha -- They just came up with a new one --- A $1500 engineering advance. To be paid after you fill out an application. That is just to get the service planner to look at the project.

What next.

Feel free to continue the rant.

 

[Power Tech]

Do the tankless water heaters save money over a properly sized tank model at say 5 years in the real world?
A tank heater that is installed on a stand with insulation blanket gets you down to 5% heat loss (don?t know where I read this) in a 55* basement.

I get at least 3 calls a month for dimming lights when they turn on the hot water.

There okay if you have gas.