Sure. It would be _very_ cheap to replace the huge difficult to service electromechanical meters with networked solid state sensors. This has already been done with our gas service, years ago. In addition, it's far safer for us. Every couple of years there is a spate of robberies where the thieves pretend to be meter readers; a pair will gain access to the house and while one distracts the homeowner, the other steals what valuables can be immediately found.
So why do we still have the meter service? If you ask the electric company, they predictably complain about the evil meter readers union. Well, I'm here to tell you, most unions in this town are so horrifically corrupt and toothless, that they are kept around _only_ to provide cover such as above. The actual reason is very simple, if you can buy electricity at 4 cents a KW/H off peak and sell it at 16 cents KW/H, WHY IN BOGS NAME WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO CHANGE THAT SYSTEM??? No such discount can be had on gas, so the all powerful union was simply crushed like a bug, and the system was upgraded. The company could profit more from firing the workers and using the networked sensors, so that's exactly what happened. Another thing the electric company does is to not send the readers around when they want to manipulate their earnings reports. My office is right here in the house, so I'm always around. Last year I went for about 6 months without a reader coming. What they then do is estimate the bill, which means picking a number to hit their earnings estimate. They then send the readers around after the quarter ends, and readjust accordingly. What this means is I basically pay whatever they claim is the bill. They might as well have no meter at all. They call their company Con Edison for a reason. Hey, if it looks like medieval feudalism, well maybe it is... K. -----Original Message----- From: Jones Beene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 11:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: What if all cars ran on electricity . . . Keith wrote: > >At least where I live, we are charged the same premium rate( 16 cents/KWH ) regardless of the time of day. There is no off-peak hour for my residential service. > This calls for expensive and sophisticated meters. Not necessarily, in the near furure. I think this metering capability could and will be done **very cheaply** (less than $25 capital cost) and without replacing the existing meter. One would need only to provide a tiny clamp-on current probe to one side of the existing meter, BUT this probe would be designed to have enhanced-RFID capability. When the meter-reader comes around each month, the enhanced-RFID wireless system reports the off-peak usage deduction- or alternatively the whole reading is completed, dispensing with the cost of a human reader, using cell phone transmitter technology. Once desingned and in mass-production this part is cheap and now in prototype stage. Some computer-on-a-chip enhanced RFID-units are said to have a cost of only a few dollars (presumably if you buy a million of them). Think of it as a single-purpose, miniature cell phone without baterries, glitz, and all the bells-and-whistles. Jones
