Seattle is moving toward more accurate and more efficient utility meters for residences across the city. The new meters “send information electronically to City Light, so we won’t have to dispatch a meter reader to your home,” is how the City of Seattle puts it on its “Advanced Metering” site. The new meters planned for the city also do one more thing — freak people out. Some are concerned about the radio waves. Some are concerned about the privacy implications. Some are concerned that Big Government will grab an even bigger chunk of their paychecks. Many of these fears and concerns apparently will be explored Saturday in a screening at 12th Ave’s Northwest Film Forum — here are the details on Take Back Your Power:
Wake up Seattle! Smart meters are coming in 2014! They have been approved by the City Council and Seattle City Light. Despite the green hype, they are actually highly dangerous NSA-type surveillance devices that are going to be placed in our homes/workplaces/public meeting spaces. It’s time to do something about it before it’s too late!
The showing screens at 1 PM, Saturday.
Meanwhile, the City of Seattle is holding another community forum on the advanced meters next week:
To provide opportunities for the public to learn about Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and share comments/feedback, Seattle City Light will host three community forums. Please refer to the event schedule below for more information.
Downtown Seattle Center – Shaw Room
Seattle Center 305 Harrison St. Seattle, WA 98109*Shaw Room is located on the corner of 1st Ave N and Republican St. (North of Key Arena)
Tuesday, September 10 5 – 7:30 p.m.
The ‘Take Back Your Power’ trailer is after the jump.
Was this produced by The Onion?
“Some are concerned about the radio waves. Some are concerned about the privacy implications. Some are concerned that Big Government will grab an even bigger chunk of their paychecks.”
DUN DUN DUN!
Paranoid Schitzo much?
Does this mean I’ll be able to visit Seattle Light’s webpage and view my electrical usage with a day of lag instead of two months of lag?
If so, sign me up.
Also, the gas company has been doing exactly this type of metering for years….
And the bar codes on road signs are actually instructions for the UN soldiers when they take over after the government takes all your guns away….(that is a really old one, by the way)
The phrasing “… they are actually highly dangerous NSA-type surveillance devices…” is over the top sensationalism. The intent is to use technology to be more efficient. However, there are worries over potential misuse of the collected information. Many hypothetical situations of abuse have been put forward. Placing a cap on the amount of power each home gets each day or week is one of them.
As far as the radio waves and magnetic fields are concerned, most of us in Seattle are bombarded with them all day long due to modern electronics; notebooks, ipads, mobile phones, TVs, dishwashers.
I’d be much more concerned with potential espionage capabilities in the chips used in everyday consumer devices then I am having someone detect that I ran my dishwasher half full and cut my power as a penalty. There are documented cases where “design flaws” in the microscopic circuit pathways of some products that when activated allow for remote access to the rest of the system. The NSA themselves won’t allow certain devices to be used in sensitive areas due to it.
power use and job loss, data collecting over solar, wind and real wise use of monies, that is the issue and the hype is well ,, after seeing Top Secret America on PBS the paranoia at the “top” seems worrisome and this just makes for more in kind of what created so many problems we face today
Everything new always brings out the disaster crowds. Do you know what happened when automobiles started being mass produced? They would be dangerous. They would cost jobs. They would despoil the air. Well, yeah, all those things came true. If we ignore the advantages, cars ruined lives.
Same thing with the new meters. They will cost jobs. There will be increased radiation. And yes, they can be hacked. So the Hell what! The new meters will give those who want it a lot more control. They will almost certainly save energy over the long haul. They will reduce air pollution because humans don’t have to drive around reading meters. And there will be one less stranger snooping around your house.
I want my meter now.
Complementary Tin Foil Hats for all attendees.
Shhh go back to sleep people, everything’s ok.
I want an electric meter with a readout INSIDE MY HOUSE. If we could see the electrical power we use with the same ease and frequency of looking at a gas guage in our cars, or remaining battery on our cell phones, we might make different energy choices.
Hopefully the screening of this paranoid/laughable film will attract very few viewers…that is what it deserves.
FYI as to comments from the generic middle, “Keep puling that blanket blanket over your head and keep dreaming. However you might want to consider – if the current trajectory was so progressive then why is dis-ease on the rise, the environment raped to the point of exhaustion, species diversity collapsing, climate change being addressed more in the profit/loss discourse than elsewhere, loss of the middle class, Detroit given the F off..yup looks promising -choosing from a narrowing field of possibilities (Quantum physics might help you understand the insanity of the course) The short term myopia many accept creates more in kind and if this was in a person we might call it a slow suicide. In a culture it is sadly now called “normal.”
How could you say the gas company has been doing this type of metering when if you have a gas leak..the gas company ask you to not to go near it with your wifi phone.. I was out there needing a torch and you do not use your phone as a torch near a gas leak. Gas man got a normal torch and did his job.. told me they can not have wifi and gas together.
Why don’t you watch it before you judge it? I have seen it. Facts are laid out with full documentation to back them up. Check out the web site to it. http://www.TakeBackYourPower.net.
Why not watch it? Simple…because the premise that the meters are “highly dangerous, NSA-style surveillance devices” is so ridiculous as to be laughable. I wouldn’t waste my time on this sensationalist crap.
I just finished watching the film (you can stream it online). The film is not sensationalist. In just presenting peoples’ experiences and documenting the resistance to smart meters, it doesn’t have to be.
As my partner and I watched the film, we were both on our laptops fact checking what was being presented. Filtering for the anti-smart-meter bias, there’s enough fact-based evidence to raise serious concerns about being so quick to deploy smart meters.
Plus the fact that there’s been on evidence of energy or cost saving where they’ve been deployed. Even Consumer’s Digest reached the conclusion that smart meters might be a dumb idea (http://www.consumersdigest.com/home/article/why-smart-meters-might-be-a-dumb-idea/view-all).
calhoun, You are just the type of person they are counting on. Stay ignorant and slowly loose the rights you thought you had.
I’m not at all worried, or paranoid.
I just moved back to Seattle after living in another city where smart meters were recently deployed. The apartment complex I lived in there had just installed smart meters right before I moved in. Soon after, I heard my neighbors complaining of electric bills doubling. Having no previous bills with the analog meter, I chalked it up to the analog meter possibly being less accurate at measuring electric usage. Until a few months later, we noticed a refund on our electric bills, and a subsequent “adjustment” on every bill thereafter. Apparent the so-called “smart” meters were buggy and were measuring electricity inaccurately.
The utility company’s website allowed me to look up my electrical usage from as recently as the previous calendar day, as granularly as a minute-by-minute. With that level of granular data, I could easily see when I arrived home, when I left home, when I woke up, when I went to bed. Once smart appliances are able to transmit to smart meters, every interaction with an appliance that uses outlet energy will be recorded, archived and open to data mining. Is it really necessary for the power company to know, store and be able to share this level of information?
My partner and I just finished watching “Take Back Your Power”. (You can stream it online for $5.) Our initial reaction before seeing the film was, “Great, another paranoid luddite scared of advancing technology.” I am skeptical and questioning by nature. But my curiosity got the better me. Yeah, ok, the meters are kinda buggy right now. But harmful? I had to know what could possibly be the harm of smart meters. So we sat down and watched the film with a critical eye and my bullshit meter set on 11.
It turns out there’s a hell of a lot that’s not being disclosed that should concern us all. There are the obvious privacy and surveillance/Big Brother concerns. But then there are fire safety concerns. And there are serious concerns about the safety of the level of the microwave radiation emitted by these smart meters (how they communicate). The safety of these meters, which emit microwave radiation at levels well above what your wireless router or laptop emits, has not been extensively tested and conclusively deemed safe. And there are property rights concerns, where utilities are breaking into houses and installing smart meters against the expressed (and documented) wishes of homeowners. Shouldn’t you have the right to opt out of having a smart meter installed if you don’t want one?
There’s a scene in the documentary where a stay-at-home mom is arrested for not allowing the utility to forcibly install a smart meter on her own property. The tactics being used by utilities to force smart meters on people are anti-democratic and morally wrong.
Unfortunately, the strong-arm tactics are not isolated incidents. There are major profits at stake. Yet, still, dozens of communities have imposed moratoriums on, banned and even criminalized the installation of smart meters. This elevated level of public engagement is a red flag, and indication that you need to look into this more before you assume smart meters are a good idea.
I encourage you to watch the documentary (http://www.takebackyourpower.net). A few hours ago, I was on the side of thinking smart meters are a good idea, once the bugs are worked out and some privacy safeguards are put in place. Now after seeing the documentary online, I’m not so ready to dismiss anti-smart meter folks as paranoid, anti-tech luddites.
If you want a smart meter, I think you should be able to get one. Just don’t force me to have to get one because you want one. I urge you to inform yourself, and not make the decision blindly. If you think you still want a smart meter after seeing the documentary (or even just researching the controversy on the Internet), at least you can say you made the decision having a more complete picture of what’s at stake. For myself, I’m gonna pass.