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Smart Meters Wreaking Havoc With Home Electronics
wiredmikey writes "About 200 customers of the Central Maine Power Company recently noticed something odd after the utility installed smart meters in their homes: household electronics, including wireless devices, stopped working, or behaved erratically. Many Smart Meters broadcast in the 2.4GHz frequency range. Unfortunately, so do many of the consumer gadgets we take for granted these days including routers, electric garage doors, fire alarms, clocks, electric pet fences, answering machines, and baby monitors — even medical devices. The electromagnetic congestion in the home is in some ways similar to the growing electronic congestion in hospitals as they acquire more and more electronic monitors all operating within a few feet of each other. Medical equipment has been known to shut down or give erroneous results when positioned close to another piece of equipment. Such interference is not new, just getting worse — rapidly."
FCC has failed original mission statement.
Go to 5Ghz. It's not congested... yet.
but what are clocks and answering machines using wireless for?
Why would 'smart' meters not use SMS or something similar? Whatever 'green' imperative has these meters requiring more than that is a fail, by definition.
Most utilities are moving to smart meters. It's a technological nirvana propounded by PHBs and the companies selling the crap. Just think, you don't need to waste hard cash on people actually reading meters. Hell no, you can drive down a road and read all the meters with a laptop. Except you can't because some of the technology is immature and signal strength from these devices seldom reaches the manufacturers claims.
We were told by a manufacturer that their technology was secure because their software is proprietry. It's a recipe for disaster...especially given that a quick google for "security research smart meter," returns some interesting results. Welcome to the brave new world of smart metering. Minus the "smart."
If I have a smart meter I could come home to my dog roasting away under the smoldering remains of his electric dog collar???
Or Grampa break dancing because his pacemaker is trying to tap out the digits of the last hours power consumption???
Eeeeewwwww!
Do not use wireless devices. Use cable connections in all that is possible.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Try it, bitches.
Smart meters control the power going to electrical devices... logically, these are part of the electric grid, and are connected to powerlines. Why not add another wire to carry the signal, if you need to build a bunch of powerlines anyway?
Why do 'smart' meters need to broadcast anything? If they're planning on using these things to communicate to high power devices, or any electrical device, the damn things are already wired together. Use that.
If we're talking meter reading, then use the mobile network. Powering up to send a text with the reading every 3 months isn't exactly a big deal and I'd imagine would be considerably cheaper than still having to send someone to each property.
You really do have to wonder who comes up with these ideas...
Blatant Advert: Android Apps!
These things are about as useful as tits on a lawnmower. The meters can't even record accurate use if your house wiring is over 20 years old. The power company where I live is having fits because not a single one of the smart meters they installed in the historic district of the town where I live (and I live in this district) is recording accurate consumption. They've found meters read 1kWh for an entire week. In an apartment building with 6 apartments. To be fair, the wiring is about ancient in these buildings. Some of it has cloth coverings. The fuse boxes in most of them still use the old "stick" fuses made out of waxed paper, etc, etc, etc. Breaker boxes? WHO NEEDS THOSE :P
Also of note: the historic district rules prevent people like the power company from installing more than a single meter per standing structure. This makes tenants very happy, as that means each and every single apartment in the district is "utilities included" when it comes to rent.
@Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
Time to make your smart meter a grounded tin foil hat, that should fix the problem....
Please kindly go die in a fire.
In Nevada they used $700M of 'job stimulus' money to hire an outside subcontractor to install these new spy-meters which have eliminated thousands of jobs.
The power company that benefited is a large for profit monopoly corp that already overcharges customers and over pays upper management.
For the same money, we could have built 3 new solar power plants the size of the existing Nevada Solar One and reduced coal consumption costs in perpetuity.
To top it all off, during the installs, many people have had TVs and computers fail but the power company claims it's just a coincidence.
There should be no for-profit monopolies. All monopolies should be seized via Eminent Domain and turned into co-ops.
I'd never heard of electric pet fences before. You Americans scare me.
... but it would help if I could see it.
I don't understand enough to know what I'm talking abou, bu here is an idea: It might be possible to have a very basic tool (closer to hardware than iwlist) to detect who is using which channel, which in turn gives a hint about frequencies used in the vicinity.
Pinpointing a rogue wireless phone could do wonders for one's personal wi-fi network -- or even for the neighbour's one.
Firstly a lot of people in here seem to be confusing Smart Meters with Energy Monitors. The former replaces the old dial meter and it supposed to communicate with other meters in the area and/or directly with the energy supplier for billing and better tracking of consumption.
Energy Monitors are those devices which clamp around lines by your meter and communicate to a box in your house giving you an idea of your realtime energy use.
Faraday has a perfect solution for this problem. Maybe the power company won't like it, but hey, if they have a problem with it, they should ask the FCC for a frequency range of their own.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
...of a problem that was first noted in the mid 1980s and termed "electronic smog" but the most general term is RFI and dates back as far radio systems in general. Not only do signals interfere with each other, but signals will interfere with ANY electronic device where pins or wires are capable of acting as a dipole. It's unusual for a machine to get scrambled due to an electronic can opener, but if said devices are improperly shielded, it is inevitable.
In the case of wireless devices, you obviously can't shield the antenna. Well, not if you want it to still work. Provided interference is randomish and not overwhelming, AND provided all devices are based on packet communications, a device will be capable of repairing packets and identifying if they're intended for that device.
The first problem is that many electronic devices don't give a damn about power levels beyond being low enough to not be the target of FCC ire. The second problem is that older devices especially are NOT packet based. This means that such devices can't tell if stray signals are intended for them or not. Anything that merely detects the presence of a signal won't care if that signal is a door-opener or a WoW session.
It would be good if transmitters/receivers were a bit more directional - a garage door probably shouldn't be looking for signals coming from the neighbor's house. A door opener can afford to be very direct, since you want to open your door and nobody else's. A smart meter is designed to transmit to the road, so again it can be extremely directional. Directional transmitters and receivers mean less power is needed for the same signal strength received AND less interference off those directions.
Medical devices, except when ABSOLUTELY necessary, should NEVER be wireless. The risk of RFI is way too high and the consequences of an error are far too severe. Wireless is also lower bandwidth, which places hard limits on the kinds of sensors it's useful for and also hard limits on what innovations can be made to medical sensor technology. Inside of a hospital room, I can't think of a single use for wireless devices where wired would not be superior in every respect.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
My electrical provider uses the Elster REX2, which operates in the 900-something MHz range.
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Elster-REX2-Smart-Meter-Teardown/5710/1
Look closely...the meter gets your power draw via an inductive ring that doesn't physically touch the hot phases, so no chance it can electrically interfere either. And it'll work no matter how old the building is.
Our electrical provider installed a batch of these right before we got some extremely cold weather, and since this is Florida, people set their thermostats into the 70s during the winter. Bills shot up due to the weather, and the meters were blamed. Not a single meter was found to be working incorrectly.
When I fire up my 13cm amateur radio gear, I obliterate everything that uses 2.4GHz wireless for a mile or two radius until I'm done transmitting.
Don't like it? Then make sure your filthy unlicensed ISM gear has adequate filtering. Oh, you bought the cheapest crappiest wifi card you could find? Sucks to be you.
I know this is /. but perhaps a less gadgety would be better. Offer minor savings as incentive for people to read their own meter, and have the meter read by the company every 6 months or a year. A fee + the difference in meter reads could be charged if you falsify as they would know your usage anyway from the company reading. It could even go so far as to have a unique identifier on the meter and require you to e-mail a picture of your meter on x day of every month.
I would be very tempted to find the wireless bits and break them. DAMN KIDS!
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
The real reason are your Frankenstein Radio controls. These are controlled by your computergod brain on the moon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHiU-X9Y-0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJLhnts9-oQ
It's proven. I heard it on the web.
--
BMO
Italian smart meters use powerline transmission.
Much smarter and more secure.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
At the installations I've seen, first flags are put up on the perimeter and the owner walks the dog around the flags. Then the owner disciplines the dog every time the dog runs by the flags on its own. Then the "fence" goes in. Then the flags come out. Each of these steps goes on for a week or so.
I had QMPP up listening to music from the house and everything went p00f. I got home to find all my machines off. I was going to complain but a shiny new network showed up on kismet.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
I never understood this. Of all the electronic things in the world, why is there such a scare on this? It's almost always possible to make electronics RF-proof, just by adding a little shielding or filter components. I know, I'm a ham operator and when you're pumping out up to 1500 watts of RF, (10,000x and up of what a remote meter transmits) you learn how to control your gear and how to retrofit your neighbors' crappy electronics when you start talking over their cheap bathroom TV or computer speakers.
I just don't see why it's even become a suspect issue with medical equipment. That stuff, of all things, should be sealed up RF-tight and properly filtered by default. When I go into a hospital and see signs saying to turn off cell phones and don't use computer wifi, all I can think of is why, when you are making absurdly expensive medical gear (I doubt anything electronic in that building can be had for under a grand, and a lot of it is over 50) why on earth you don't put sufficient R&D into it to make it immune to weak sources of common interference? This shouldn't be a credible issue, in any hospital circumstances.
IMHO the mention of medical equipment (ooooh!) is just a lame stab at some headline sensationalism.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Because you can lose power in a blackout. Therefore, you must be throwing your electricity meter out as a twisted lump on the street, as you'd rather pay the extra couple of cents than risk food poisoning, and use your own backup generator and battery pack.
Neither do you take public transport, nor pass in front of any CCTV. Also you neither pay for goods by card nor cash (cash transactions may be because you're a money launderer! Prove you aren't!)
Or are you just talking bollocks because you don't like the fact that they're able to make your bills lower, meaning that the big energy companies won't be so rich..?
The new thing being pushed to the utilities and some are attempting to roll out with there deployment is mesh type communication with the meters and central control stations. This network can run on 2.4Ghz and/or 900Mhz part 15 frequencies. Question is what will happen if your running a 2.4Ghz mesh network and you end up in an area that is saturated in the 2.4Ghz range. Is this system smart enough to not try to step on frequencies that are already being used?
Also these new smart meters are a lot more sensitive to the amount of power being drawn by the consumer resulting in a "more accurate billing" during peak/non-peak times. Also these meter can be sent a command to turn off the electricity if you havent paid your bill.
Bull! Its change and people don't like it so they bitch about it.
My smart meter has shown no negative effects in the 2 months its been in. Same wifi signal strength, no dropped calls, my wireless lights work fine, basically no issue at all.
My buddies place that got one installed a month ago has not seen any issues either, between him and his roommate, they have 2 PS3s, a kindle, a blackberry, an iPhone 3gs an iPhone 4 an iPad2, a chromebook, and two laptops. That is just their wireless gear, the other electronics make the place look like the inside of a Microcenter. There have been no complaints of connectivity of odd functioning stuff there.
Again, coming from a young Mainer, Its change and people round here don't like that so they latch on to the things that they think are bad and get the media to support it.
Not only that, but how are they going to take care of the Wardrivers who are going to drive around to see how much electricity is being used. If now so much, hey, perhaps the owners are on holiday...
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
The issues is that the frequency bands we use day to day aren't separated enough. A few years ago trying to cram 10 devices in the 2.4 GHz spectrum inside a house was fine but now everything and your grandmothers rolling pill is broadcasting over 2.4 GHz. Newer routers are going into the 5 GHz band but it's not really a great solution.
The problem with everything using the 2.4 GHz band is that almost no devices are smart about how they make sure of that band. This is a problem we deal with a lot when it comes to sensitive embedded systems. You need to make sure that the signal you want isn't the raw signal you send, you need to encapsulate the single into a modulated and coded scheme. Using techniques like:
Channel Coding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_code
Phase Modulation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_modulation
The more "secure" or encoded the signal the smaller the chance that any other signal will play off it and alter the key data. Now I'm not saying that this is a perfect solution but it is a start to smart design. Amount several other option such as not letting your embedded solution be sensitive to every other signal in the air. I know there are FCC regulations and all that jazz around this but it still all boils down to smart design. As more and more devices are occupying the 2.4 GHz band smarter and smarter encoding methods are going to have to be taken into practice, this might even boil down to editing the FCC regulations on wireless devices.. I would hate to think my wireless pacemaker is going to short out because my gas meter wanted to log 1 KilloWatt.
If anyone is interested it's a good idea to read:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/index.htm?job=rules_and_regulations
Freezers will run in infrequent bursts. It's likely not the end of the world if your food spends a few hours at -1F instead of -4F.
Smart meters are necessary for supporting distributed generation (solar on homes) and wide-spread plug-in electric vehicles. The claims of coincidence on the computer/TV failures are probably true. Smart meters fit in existing bases so don't need to rewire the entry point, but I suppose if the installers were changing the base and didn't shut off mains there could be surges. It'd be a major oversight, but possible.
So it's hard to say that solar plants would have been a better investment than the smart meters, though in Nevada it's certainly a good question.
As for turning all the utilities into co-ops... hell yeah. Smart meters themselves are just a tool, and in a lot of ways they're very good tools, but some of these huge for-profit utilities are pushing some really bad ideas.
Those smart meters can be bricked. Just search around. And you could also get creative, say encasing your meter in a nice grounded Faraday cage. That will block out a 2.4GHz signal.
I make the RF chips used in this sort of meter. The signal is very narrow band. The 20 dB bandwidth is under 2 MHz. They also only transmit in very short bursts. Plus, the power output is user configurable down to around -35 dBm, to help reduce interference even more. Your wireless mouse is noisier.
So what do you think is more likely... A narrow, low-power, low-duty cycle signal is causing major interference? Or a bunch of old people, who know that new-fangled smart meter just got installed, are suddenly noticing a bunch of new "problems"?
Considering your machine will be compiling 90% of the time, it won't affect you much at all.
Obligatory Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee
802.15.4 defines the standard that these guys are using - also known as ZigBee. ZigBee is a lower powered WPAN type of "mesh" networking used in things like smart building communications.
There are generally two options for frequency - "900MHz" and "2.4GHz". They operate in a mesh network typically (or virtual star), but usually do so at lower powers. What isn't being fully called out is that most 2.4GHz devices will cause nasty interference to Zigbee, since they typically run at lower powers (0dBm or 1mW) at channel widths of 5MHz (802.11b/g/n uses 20MHz channels by default), using similar encoding as the older 802.11b protocol. Most consumer WiFi routers run between 40mW to 100mW (~16dBm to 20dBm). 1mW (0dBm) will most likely look like noise to WiFi. If the meter operator was considerate, they'd pick one of the few channels that lies between or just outside the typical WiFi 1, 6, or 11 spaces (eff those guys who use channel "3" or "10"). That all said, if the meters are using a ZigBee Pro implementation, they may be transmitting at a much higher level - up to 100mW (20dBm), which would be quite intrusive to WiFi if using a ZigBee channel that overlaps WiFi. Anyone affected by that would HAVE to use a different channel if the meter or meters were constantly transmitting.
In my profession, I'm part of a team that supports the deployment and operation of some very large warehouse WiFi deployments (both 2.4GHz and 5GHz), and thus we're quite protective of the 2.4GHz band within the four walls. I can't tell you how often we've been approached by people who want to deploy ZigBee building controls in this band, each time refusing them since we know we'll make each other's lives miserable. Our 802.11 operation will likely render their equipment useless. We let them know that 900MHz or wired RS422 are both fantastic options in this case.
I bet the power company didn't consider the alternatives... or just didn't know and/or care. Not everyone is an RF expert, and the "wireless" buzz-word wins in may board rooms especially if it saves money.
$ man woman *
-bash:
Buy a cell/wifi jammer and hook it up to a motion detector. Place it where no one can see it and attach a motion sensor to it that will turn it off when someone comes near the meter. If they gonna fuck with you,you might as well fuck with them. Maybe they'll replace it with a dumb meter.
Same thing weed growers to. Hook up a motion sensor just above the meter so when the meter reader come it activates a relay which shuts down the lights so the meter spins at a sane speed.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
The article would be better if the manufacturer and model number of the meter was mentioned. How often do those meters transmit? Did someone misconfigure them so they're reporting too frequently?
The whole "smart meter" thing is backwards. It gives the utility too much info, but doesn't send anything useful to the end user. Sending out downstream signals like "You are at 80% of quota, need to conserve power is currently HIGH" would be useful to appliances. But no. You can't even buy something that plugs into the power line and repeats what the meter is measuring.
1. Check power output to see if above regulatory levels.
2. Document offending meters.
3. Buy cat with hair loss.
4. File lawsuit
6. Notify local news
7. Profit
It's amazing, when you think about it, that devices like cell phones can have as many as three separate radios, all duplex, all operating at the same time, in one little box. Running a receiver next to a live transmitter used to be considered impossible.
For a worst case, the Marine Radio Historical Society operates KSM, once a major RCA ship-to-shore station. The transmitters and receivers are in separate buildings several miles apart, to keep the transmitters from swamping the receivers. Receivers are much better now.
I use 'homeplugs' - those devices where you plug in an RJ45/CAT5/Ethernet cable and it sends the data through your power lines. I assumed smart meters did the same thing. Does anyone know if (UK) power meters interfere?
If it's interfering with your electronics, it's on your property, Build a small Faraday cage around it. DON"T ATTACH IT TO THE METER that's tampering and can lead to trouble. but if you attach it to your own home they can't say squat. the meter will still record they will just have to read it the old fashion way.
If the RF spectrum in his house is running Gentoo, he could compile a kernel with the rotating staircase deadline scheduler or the brain fuck scheduler, and all devices will timeshare the spectrum just fine.
I happen to be a distributor for one of the premier AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) systems on the market. Not all systems have these problems. We own the spectrum on which our technology operates, allowing us to use a much stronger signal as well as eliminating virtually all interference.
If the "smart meters" used cellular tech they would not have to drive down the street, but let the meter call home and report.
Most of them that I've read about use powerline IP to communicate back. Y'know, over the millions of miles of network the power company already owns.
I'd probably rather have a wireless one, though. The "beauty" of the powerline IP ones is that they have realtime access to them. So, the power company can:
All with the benefits of being run by a highly-regulated utility with a monopoly grant. Gimme a wireless one that I can just shield from the direction of propagation I care about any day.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Just take the tinfoil hat off your head and slap that that thing over your meter. Done.
you better be prepared to set up a router outside every site. 5ghz has trouble penetrating a wet paper bag. (gprs or ip over the mobile network works fine for our quite substantial fleet of meters)
802.11g is 54 Mb/s, and 802.11n tops out at 600 Mb/s.
Under optimal conditions (Signal-to-Noise let it operate at max spec), when there are no outside disturbance (the WiFi network must not fight for the frequency against Bluetooth, wireless mice running variants of W-USB, Wireless Smart Meters, cordless phones, even micro-oven, etc. Although latest version of Bluetooth a smart enough to avoid disturbing WiFi), that's the band widtht that has to be shared among all the devices on the WiFi networ (given that today even fridges start to get online collections....)
So in practice, be prepared to expect much less.
Meanwhile, 100MBit is what you get on a given cable, and as virtually any one uses switches or routers nowadays, that means that this the actual speed between the two endpoint.
Real world data rate achieved with gigabit network is even better.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I am in maine.. I started off with computers in late 90s pentium 2, before that was for masocists. Jokes aside.. I drove compaq crazy with my phone calls , errors unheard of. they even blamed metal siding on a mobile home. I have built my own ever since.. including smothering motherbord trays with2 part automotive urethane, my own cases, air flow design. I am the nerdiest one I know local.problems do not end..and I am on my own..and you know what? I still drive a carburated subaru from the 1980s. I have yet to even get a touchscreen anything..and I still have a year 2000 CRT. Digital photography and video is my thing..and the 130 watt pentium for with a PGAis the winner after 39000 hours.You dweebs and electronics know jack squat about iniversal. that is all I have to say. Pretend you changed the world perfectly...there is someone like me lurking in silence. How about an AMEN for the religious..
I work for a power company currently installing these smart meters and its pretty funny reading all these comments. I cannot speak on behalf of other companies but our meters are no more dangerous than your average Linksys wireless router. Our meters transmit every 4 hours and only for seconds. Hops go from meter to meter or router and eventually the collector. The meters have the ability to be read from our network so the meter readers are getting drunk and filling out applications. Also it's nice to have your power cut on or off in minutes instead of calling and waiting for someone to drive out to your place to turn power on. They will not kill your kill your uncle on life support, fry your dog or make spooky sounds on your baby monitor.
One comment I haven't seen in this discussion so far is that if you have solar or wind power and want to sell power back to the power company, you need a smart meter. As more and more people start doing that (with the encouragement of the government and the power companies), if these meters are already in place it saves everyone a bit of hassle and expense. For the power companies, conservation and cogeneration are by far the cheapest forms of 'new' electricity per KWH - as I recall from several years ago, power made available by conservation costs about 1/2 of what a new power plant costs. This is why the companies have been providing subsidies for higher efficiency appliances and in some cases no interest loans and outright grants for customers who install solar. And now some solar panels are below $1 per peak watt. Smart meters can (theoretically, anyway) help balance out all these tiny local point generating sources. Of course, solid state inverters that latch onto the local line frequency make this all possible.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Yep, that solar plant is never going to fail.
Let's see. A meter-reader in a suburban area can read at least 15 meters an hour, so that's 2400 a month.
Minimum 2000 x 2400 = 4,800,000.
The population of Nevada is 2,700,000.
You, sir, are a LIAR. And paranoid.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 25, @06:46PM
Smart meters will be able to tell the utilities company if you are taking too long a shower or using too much air conditioning in the summer. They can then command the meter to shut down some of your usage (sort of like a brown out.) Some communities in California are having the smart meters removed and the old meters reinstalled because the new ones are causing health problems for the residents. Smart meters are just another tool in the Agenda 21 toolbox used to control every moment of your life. Refuse to let the unulities company to install one of these spy meters on your home. It is within your rights.Watch how fast utilities and government reacts to call this paranoia. Every time they get caught, they try to lie their way out. It didn't wotk here in Indiana when they tried to pass a law restricting how much dust could be stirred up by a farmer doing his plowing. That didn't work in a mostly agricultural state and these smart meters won't either when the average citizen smarts up.
That site is line of sight...
I have determined that my sig is indeterminate.
You guys are not understanding what these meters are about. Its about money and control. These smart meters are going to communicate with everything in your house, fridge, stove, dishwasher, clothes washer/dryer, ac/heat, tv etc. They want to charge you through a time of use charge which means that during normal hours you would do normal task they will charge you much much more. So cook at 5-7pm and your paying much more then at 4pm or 8pm. Here in virginia they wanted to do 7-9or10am 5-10pm as peak hours so everything would cost more during these hours and cheaper during the others. The smart meters is designed to work with a HAN or Home Area Network. The power company will be able to turn off anything or ADJUST your heat/ac. With this in mind step 2 goes even further so you have a SMART fridge, It will have a RFID reader. This Reader will alllow the fridge to read any tages within range, so soon all things that have a UPC will have a EPC ( Electronic Product Code) which is just a RFID tag. These are already in your clothes, just google RFID walmart jeans. They are on many other clothes as well and some are imbedded and this is where they want to go with it when they think we get comfortable with them. So you walk by your new SMART fridge and it will read your RFID tagged jeans and everything in your fridge and can be sold to advertisers, government or who ever the power company wants too. ITs all track and trace. And dont say that wont happen here as we know now that we get warrentless wire tapped, warrentless searches, internet spying and everything else. These SMART meters allow for the reassembly of your entire day through the electronics you have on. Like google had a program called google PowerMeter which can tell the differance from a tv or toaster or router or computer etc. Now couple this with smart meters on the water meter and gas, you can recreate 90%+ of modern life. You wake up at 2am turn on light in bathroom flush toilet, wash hands, turn light off, go to kitchen turn light on, open fridge, close fridge, and do this often enough and you have a pattern and ads for sleep or bathroom problems, OR insurance company sees that you drive/out late every night coming home at 2-3 so they see you as a higher risk. You can see where all this goes with this information thats nobodies business but yours. This is no differant then someone sitting outside your window peaking through your windows and writing down everything you do with electricity, water, gas. This is a bad tread and many of you guys will defend this saying they are offering electric, water, gas and if you dont like it dont get the service. Soon they will have a camera in our house selling us security. All I need is a meter to be read 1 time per month, not every 15 secs. They transmit MOST of the day in the field since its a MESH system meaning 1 transmitts to another and so on till it reaches a relay which forwards to another relay. But your meter isnt just sending your info, its sending everyone elses befor you on its way to the relay. These meters are MONITORS not just meters. The wireless part is concerning as it does seem to be affecting people health wise and for sure is messing up other electronics.