Forbidden items in my home...

[AtomicEraTom]

They went to digital meters in this area and I was not thrilled. Neither was my father, now when he says 'you're spinning that meter' it's only in a metaphorical sense.

A "smart electric meter." I just like the idea of forcing the foreign conglomerate who bought out our power company to keep a meter reader on the payroll just to come to my house.

 

[jamespowers]

Most likely a product from IKEA.

Definitely. That stuff is horrible junk. Don't sneeze on it. It may fall apart.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

A "smart electric meter." I just like the idea of forcing the foreign conglomerate who bought out our power company to keep a meter reader on the payroll just to come to my house.

If they have to call something "smart" then you know it isn't.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a lot of tin-foil hat talk about them, but for me the dealbreaker is that they put out obnoxious broadband AM radio interference. Sorry, I'll keep my rotary meter, thanks. Even if I have to pay for the privilege.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Any pine furniture or flooring - we're stuck with both at the moment as we're not moving to our house until next year (and are renting in the meantime) - I hate them both more every day - every cat hair, drip of tea, piece of fluff, crumb - all magnified.

 

[fortworthgal]

Also agree with Ikea. I have a well-to-do friend who thinks Ikea is the best furniture ever and will only purchase from there. She turns up her nose at antiques! Does not compute.

We had the same wiring issue, only months after my parents built their house.

I think not using them is safer. I'm not trying to scare you, but when we took down our kitchen ceiling, the potlight wiring had burnt through the protective plastic coating on the wires, meaning that the live wires were exposed. Each one had slightly scorched the ceiling above it- you could see where the wires had blackened the ceiling. They were only probably 10-15 years old.

Luckily the ceiling above it was abestos, because they would have lit paperboard on fire. No other fixtures in the kitchen looked like this, so it's not our power or anything like that. I've seen a lot of messed up wiring in my life, and my first thought when I saw those was that we were damn lucky we weren't dead. They were the same kind they still sell in the stores. I've decided that if we ever live in a house with them again, first thing we're going to do is rip them out, and cap off the wires if we can't afford to or don't have the time to replace them. I have low vision and I'd still rather live in the dark.

I think they just get too plain hot.

Scary! I do agree they get too hot. We almost never use them except in our hallway. We haven't had any problems since we moved in 8 years ago, but I'll definitely keep that in mind as something to keep an eye on.

We've had some other "interesting" wiring finds in our house, though. The best was last summer when we started having electrical problems in the kitchen and thought our dishwasher had a leak. During the replacement, we discovered that they'd decided to install some type of wire connector box thing (where a bunch of wires come together, don't know what it is called) behind the dishwasher and directly underneath the ancient copper water line that ran to our refrigerator's icemaker. You can imagine the fun that ensued when the water line finally corroded through and began leaking directly down onto that box o' wires.

A "smart electric meter." I just like the idea of forcing the foreign conglomerate who bought out our power company to keep a meter reader on the payroll just to come to my house.

Yes... imagine my joy when I came home from work one day last year to find the electric company had taken out our old meter and replaced it with a "smart" meter. This right after all our local news articles of people getting outrageously humongous bills thanks to the "smart" meters.

 

[jamespowers]

Yes... imagine my joy when I came home from work one day last year to find the electric company had taken out our old meter and replaced it with a "smart" meter. This right after all our local news articles of people getting outrageously humongous bills thanks to the "smart" meters.

Same thing happened to me but both electrical and gas meters were "smart." So much so that I had to have them come out and fix the leak to the gas meter soon after.:eeek::eusa_doh:

 

[Edward]

Definitely. That stuff is horrible junk. Don't sneeze on it. It may fall apart.

My experience has been opposite. They certainly do have some stuff that is not great. The stuff that is so cheap it is practically disposable (I've heard of a lot of it selling to students who need some extra shelves for a year then just junking it. They have plenty of stuff, though, that is actually very good. I have a couple of big, freestanding wardobes, book cases, and chests of drawers that are all solid wood, lovely quality and I've had them for a decade now with no problems. The stuff I bought is very classically styled, and very similar to stuff I saw in many more upmarket places. The quality is the same - the only difference is that I assembled them myself and paid about a third of the price. [huh] I'll be redecorating my lounge soon. I'd love to go with mid-century, vintage book cases. Late forties furniture would be perfect in there, bearing in mind that the block opened about 1951. Alas, it'll either be back to Ikea or something purpose-built (a home brew, can't afford to go for a carpenter). Space is at an absolute premium in my little flat, so I can't go for anything which "wastes" space by not taking up as much of the wall as possible.

They do of course have a lot of stuff that is hideous, but then doesn't everywhere?

Any pine furniture or flooring - we're stuck with both at the moment as we're not moving to our house until next year (and are renting in the meantime) - I hate them both more every day - every cat hair, drip of tea, piece of fluff, crumb - all magnified.

Heh. Most of my furniture is pine (the only realistic option in a small place - dark wood would close it in terribly), and I know exactly what you mean. I'm a big fan of wooden flouring, though - so much less hassle than carpet!

 

[sheeplady]

Also agree with Ikea. I have a well-to-do friend who thinks Ikea is the best furniture ever and will only purchase from there. She turns up her nose at antiques! Does not compute.

We've had some other "interesting" wiring finds in our house, though. The best was last summer when we started having electrical problems in the kitchen and thought our dishwasher had a leak. During the replacement, we discovered that they'd decided to install some type of wire connector box thing (where a bunch of wires come together, don't know what it is called) behind the dishwasher and directly underneath the ancient copper water line that ran to our refrigerator's icemaker. You can imagine the fun that ensued when the water line finally corroded through and began leaking directly down onto that box o' wires.

I hate Ikea and the rest of that type of stuff that is pressed board. Urgh. It's like throwing money into a bonfire or something. I know a lot of people who buy it just so that they can be "minimalists" and throw it all out everytime they move. Apparently dragging it out to the curb and buying new stuff is easier and cheaper than getting a moving van.

Ok, the junction box under the water pipe tops my worst story (I think that's a junction box). We did find junctions made without the metal box- just dangling wires fastened together- some of them didn't even have plastic nuts on them. But nowheres near as bad as a junction box under a water pipe!

The really nasty thing about our house is it is the updates that are horrible about our house. Original wiring? Overall still good and done well. (Not grounded and not enough plugs, but not put in by idiots.) Anything past 1960 in our house? Death trap. I know that a contractor did the death trap wiring because it was beyond the former homeowner's skill level. Which is really sickening to me, because the contractor should have known better.

 

[fortworthgal]

^ Oh sheeplady, I'm right there with you! Everything done to our home in 1958 (and by that first owner) has been well-done, even if it may not meet 2011 code, as you said. But, at least it has been good quality workmanship. Unfortunately the 2nd owners, who bought in the early 90s, are not the same story. The cosmetic remodeling they had done is lovely and very high-quality materials & workmanship, but other things are obviously not the same story (i.e. junction box). We've also had a great deal of fun trying to decipher which breaker goes to which area of the house, as we have about 30 total and they have 3 sets of labels each, apparently from the 2 different owners and who knows what third person. Ah the joys of home ownership!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yes... imagine my joy when I came home from work one day last year to find the electric company had taken out our old meter and replaced it with a "smart" meter. This right after all our local news articles of people getting outrageously humongous bills thanks to the "smart" meters.

I intercepted the meter-changing hireling just as she was about to swap me out -- she wouldn't tell me what she was doing right off, so I had to say "This is that smart meter thing, isn't it. Well, I'm opting out of that, so please leave the old one right where it is."

There were a series of lawsuits here and finally there was a consent decree requiring the power company to allow those of us who didnt want the new meters to keep our old ones. They charge $12 a month for the privilege of keeping the old one, but there's no way I'm going to have one of those things on the side of my house blasting radio static all day. It's bad enough I have to tune it in from my neighbor's meter.

I got no advance notice whatever that they'd be coming to swap me out, even though the consent decree required it. Apparently they haven't been in this country long enough to figure out what "NO" means.

 

[jamespowers]

Apparently they haven't been in this country long enough to figure out what "NO" means.

The ones out here have been in this country for over 100 years and they still don't know what no means.

 

[Stray Cat]

I'm so glad we don't have "smart meters" here... lol

 

[Gregg Axley]

Yep, they have that here Lizzie. A test was in the most liberal, earth friendly part of town, and they went for it.
There is nothing wrong with this, but others around town as a group have refused it. I've got to get to work, but later this evening I'd love to delve into the lovely idea of having someone shut the power off to your appliance because they think you are using too much power....

 

[AtomicEraTom]

They snuck them in by us, too. We were outside one day and there they were! At least we haven't gotten them in Pardeeville, yet.

 

[fortworthgal]

Y'all are lucky. There's no way to opt out here.

 

[Edward]

what is a smart meter?

 

[LizzieMaine]

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.

 

[C-dot]

We have that issue around here, aswell. The other big scam is the "high efficiency" trend for water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners etc. People are sold on them thinking that they're saving energy. Actually, these things only work if you have a house that was built within the last 5 years, and as such is completely sealed.

My neighbour got conned into buying the whole suite, and his house (like mine) was built in 1957. There isn't any wall insulation in these houses, so he's wasting energy. Not to mention the occasional whiff of natural gas we get...

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

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.

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