Exactly what are these benefits besides more cash in their pockets ? I know how much my smart meter has benefited me.. $45.12 more a a month.

I knew these meters where bad news right from the start and I’ve had signs up for a year now with “do not install” so far so good and no meter yet. Just wait until hydro rates will be higher for certain times of the day.

My Hydro bill has gone down about $10 a month since I got switched out.

The figures in the article work out to $1,070/meter.

That sounds like a lot to me.

They must have built in the cost of a meter replacement program before for preventative maintenance. What was the average replacement rate? 20 years? 40 years? What was the current cost to replace a broken meter or simply a meter trade out? $100 for the installation? $150 for the cost of a meter? Can’t have been much more.

We use electricity for kitchen and laundry appliances plus lights. Most of the light bulbs have been replaced with the new CFLs and many of the appliances have been replaced with newer ones which also tend to reduce the energy requirements. The light bulbs, however, give the most savings.

My electric bills have gone down by 50% over the last 10 years. The meters, as far as I am concerned, are not going to save me anywhere near the amount the other technology changes have made.

BCRacer:
You are so close to the truth.
The smart meters are going to be used to determine different loads and different periods of the day and charge the most for high usage times and high consumption devices, like charging an electric car.

This is a way for them to say that they have variable rates, yet in the end that is where we will get it, in the end.

When they switched out our meter, they forgot to note the replaced units reading, and when our next bill came, we owed about $2500. Frickin’ pin heads.

I am still fighting that bogus charge. On top of that irregularity, this situation has caused them to cancel our equal payment plan.

So, we are paying more because they changed our meter.
We are paying more because they screwed up that installation
We are paying more because they say we owe, and we don’t.

Here is a little story about CFLs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/cfl-bulb-uv-rays_n_1764892.html

My wife insisted on the CFL bulbs and I hate them. They take a long time to warm up, the light from them is strange and outside in the colder weather, you might as well flick your bic. Besides that, some of them give off a squeal that is really annoying. And what exactly are you supposed to do with the broken ones? Put them in a box and drop them off at your local MLA’s office?

Hey Olddog, did you read the story, or did you not make it past the headline?

“Well, here’s the thing: unless you fashion a DIY tanning bed out of Plumen bulbs or position your pretty little face 3-inches away from a CFL bulb with numerous “bald spots” for several hours every day, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. It’s concerning, yes, but with normal use, the rays emitted though cracks and chips in the UV-absorbing coating of CFL bulbs won’t give you skin cancer, so there’s no reason to freak out about indoor sunburn and give them the old heave-ho. “

BC Hydro is a disaster. It needs a forensic audit, and some serious dismissals.

Its main business concern seems to be to get us to reduce the use of electricity so that they can sell the surplus to the good old USA for more dollars.

We need a couple of natural gas generating stations. One in the Peace River area, and one in Prince George. They could generate cheap electricity and maybe be a draw to have some industry build here. In addition gas generating stations would eliminate the need for Site *C* which is another **stupid** venture by Hydro. We dont need a site C, or D, or E. Time to wake up and smell the roses.

We should have cheap natural gas for at least the next 100 years. Let quit flooding prime land, for American dollars.

Folks you do realize Hydro is run by the government of the day.

CFL’s contain mercury. Do a Google search about cleaning up a broken CFL, interesting.

We have cheap power because of hydro electric power but the fiberals are screwing us on that, forcing Hydro to buy very expensive power from their friends, IPP’s independent power producers.

A smart meter will only last about 25 years, the old ones 50 but they are no longer produced.

Site C will be built eventually, that is a given but if it is turned into a P3, bend over.

If those LED bulbs weren’t so danged expensive…

natural gas is only a short term solution – they’re just not making that stuff anymore (well, given the geological process for turning plant life into petroleum, not very quickly anyway…), and we’ve used up an inordinate portion of the planet’s reserves in a blink of time-100 years is nothing. Hydro power is the safest, most efficient renewable we have.

Loki: $2500 amounts to 25000kwh (at .10kwh at step 2) the most I ever used was 4000kwh in a 2 Month Period and we have Electric Heat. Can you not fight them based on your yearly Usage History ?
Yes the Meters will be used for Time of Day Metering and Charges, only why the Government says it won’t, doesn’t mean it wont come in the near Future ! I will trust a mechanical Meter any time over an Electronic one!

tarn: “natural gas is only a short term solution “

Not so. Thanks to technologies like fracking, world supplies of natural gas have never been higher. Companies have had to pull back on their exploration just to keep prices from dropping even lower than they already are.

point taken re new natural gas technologies, but i still maintain they’re not making the stuff any more – fossil fuel reserves are finite, it just depends how you define short andd long term