Forbidden items in my home...

[jamespowers]

A day-old smart meter short circuits and starts burning.
[video=youtube;8s2ujiJUDz0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s2ujiJUDz0&NR=1[/video]

If that happens here someone is getting sued and run through the Tv networks by me!
As an aside, I love how the neighbor is just watching.:eusa_doh:

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I also hear that house insurance will not cover smart meters.

 

[jamespowers]

I also hear that house insurance will not cover smart meters.

Thus my illusion to suing their posteriors off if that happened to me.

 

[scottyrocks]

Why is no one putting out the fire with, say, a garden hose, instead of just watching it burn? Is getting video more important than saving a neighbor's house?

 

[PoohBang]

Why is no one putting out the fire with, say, a garden hose, instead of just watching it burn? Is getting video more important than saving a neighbor's house?

Probably not the best thing to hold a garden hose to an electrical fire...

 

[jamespowers]

Why is no one putting out the fire with, say, a garden hose, instead of just watching it burn? Is getting video more important than saving a neighbor's house?

Sort of my point. Using the correct fire extinguisher could have knocked that out easily in a few minutes. I know. I knocked out an electric dryer fire that way.
They could have called the fire department as well. I am sure they would have gotten there in a few minutes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

About a month ago, about a week after the wave of meter installations, I was leaving the theatre after closing up and smelled smoke. I looked down the street and the hotel down the street had flames licking up the side of its back wall, right where the electrical meters were. I was stuck there for the next two hours, since the fire crews had my car blocked off in the parking lot, and as I stood there watching I was interested to see a truck from the power company drive up. A technician jumped out, ran over to the side of the building, removed something, got back into the truck, and drove away. Of course, it was all perfectly innocent, and we all know that big foreign-owned corporations would never do anything shady or corrupt, but still....

 

[jamespowers]

A technician jumped out, ran over to the side of the building, removed something, got back into the truck, and drove away. Of course, it was all perfectly innocent, and we all know that big foreign-owned corporations would never do anything shady or corrupt, but still....

Yes, yes they would. Especially out here.:eusa_doh:

 

[PoohBang]

US owned corporations do shady and corrupt things too...

I have the new smart meter and a week after getting it, it fired my thermostat for my Air/Heater.

 

[LizzieMaine]

US owned corporations do shady and corrupt things too...

Indeed they do. But this particular corporation is foreign-owned, and its Spain-based parent is, in fact, a global spearhead of the "smart meter" movement.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

About a month ago, about a week after the wave of meter installations, I was leaving the theatre after closing up and smelled smoke. I looked down the street and the hotel down the street had flames licking up the side of its back wall, right where the electrical meters were. I was stuck there for the next two hours, since the fire crews had my car blocked off in the parking lot, and as I stood there watching I was interested to see a truck from the power company drive up. A technician jumped out, ran over to the side of the building, removed something, got back into the truck, and drove away. Of course, it was all perfectly innocent, and we all know that big foreign-owned corporations would never do anything shady or corrupt, but still....

That sounds like something out of Blade Runner.

 

[fortworthgal]

Great. So not only do I have to worry about my house bursting into flames thanks to all the blasted can lights, now I gotta worry about the smart meter too? Jeesh!

 

[Gregg Axley]

You are correct maam.
Install a good smoke detector (some also detect radon and carbon monoxide), have a nice drink each evening, and relax.

 

[Edward]

It's an electronic meter for measuring electricity use, as opposed to the mechanical winding-wheel ones that have been around for the past hundred years or so. The "smart" aspect of it is that it's linked by radio signals to a central relay station to report on your electricity use so that the power company can fire all its meter readers and let the computers do all the figuring. The power companies say the savings, etc, will be passed on to the consumer (as if), and that the new system will be better and greener in every way. Opponents say the meters have the unfortunate habit of catching fire, report inaccurate readings, can be maliciously hacked, and that the radio signals can interfere with equipment in the home. It's a very hot issue around the US right now.

Ah! THank-you, I've never heard of these before. I had my old meter replaced with a digital version a few years ago, but they still have to come around and do a reading. Bit of a pain, really: I live alone with two cats, so when they call and I'm not in (as happens a lot, given I work during the day), they estimate it, but typically the estimates are based on the average family of four. I do pay my bill by direct debit, though, and the other year when I queried how their estimate was a radically different figure than my meter they realised they'd been overcharging me for years, and I received a cheque for a couple of grand. Which was nice. I wouldn't object to them being able to 'read' my meter remotely (after all, that's effectively what the telephone company does), but the other problems you mention I can see being a major pain.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Yeah they have that here Edward.
They have the ability to read the meter (digital ones) remotely.
I have the old style currently.
Usually I DO try to read the bill to see if it says estimated, because I've done a lot to my house to save energy. Not so much for the planet, but for my wallet.
To keep this on track I'll say any furniture covered in fur.
I've seen a few items for sale, and actually I think it's just unnatural.
Then again, I guess in a lodge or something it might be okay.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Along those same lines, I wouldn't have one of those animal-skin rugs with the head and feet on it. Until and unless it's just as acceptable for bears to have a human-skin rug on the floor of their cave.

 

[Stray Cat]

Until and unless it's just as acceptable for bears to have a human-skin rug on the floor of their cave.

I'd like to see that one...

 

[Gregg Axley]

The problem is, they eat them too quickly to think about that.

 

[Stray Cat]

:roll:
Yeah.. you might be right....

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

It's not a bearskin rug... it's... it's a... Victorian teddy bear!
...yeah, that's it