Friday, April 30, 2010

Old Mechanical Meters Were Inaccurate

"The old mechanical meters were inaccurate." is the reply that Hydro One call centre people are telling you when you complain about your high consumption. "All these years you were ripping off Ontario Hydro."

Let me see if I have this right. You own a car that has a 100 liter tank and has gotten 100km per liter. For the past 60 years you have filled up at your favorite gas station that used mechanical pumps. One day you find they have replaced the entire chain of stations with digital pumps. You fill up to find that your tank is not 100 liters but 200 liters.

When you complain at the counter, the reply is "you have been ripping us off for 60 years, these new pumps are accurate." Thus all these years you have not been getting 100 kilometers per liter, you have been getting 50. So the car manufacturer lied to you too.

And this is not everywhere, your neighbour visits a different chain of gas stations, with digital meters, and his very same car as yours has a 100 liter tank on a fill up.

So what is the real story here?

Obviously the previous mechanical meters were calibrated by Measurements Canada. You don't go on for 60 years and not know millions of meters are inaccurate by 100% or more.

Thus, Hydro One is training their call centre people to lie with this story line.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

homeowners will see an increase of 25 per cent on a typical electrical bill in coming months

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Hydro+meters+smart+will+they+prove+practical/2963759/story.html

We are monitoring you!

I posted about my friend Dave, his 3500kJ bill for Feb, Jan and Dec. He had a Hydro One employee come and check his place out and check the meter. He pulled the meter and put in a detection device that checks the calibration. Came in at 100%, meaning nothing wrong. Put the meter back and since then Dave's daily consumption has been between 20 and 30kJ per day (compared to my 40-80).

The other day Dave gets a phone call from Hydro One. They noted his considerable drop in consumption, and stated clearly that he is being monitored for theft. He told them that a technician came and tested the meter. They claimed no such person existed and no record of the visit. It must have been a "rogue employee".

Right, rogue employee in a rogue Hydro Ont truck who put a rogue security band back on the meter.

Look out people, fix this problem and they will monitor you!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Class action suit

I have approached a well known law firm about suing Hydro One (at least) in a class action suit. If I, and anyone else, can get enough evidence together they are interested in pursuing this.

If we can get this going it could be the largest lawsuit in Ontario's history. Do the math. Assuming for every 1000 people who got over charged $100 for one month, that's $100,000 for one month. Multiply that by the percent more than $100 (mine was $300 more for Feb alone) times 12, times how many over 1000 people affected, and this could be in the hundreds of millions.

If you want to join in the class action please contact me at jrwakefield@mcswiz.com.

You must have a grow op!

I have been asked that when I called about our 3400kJ Feb bill. My friend Dave was asked that about his 3500kJ Feb bill, and I have seen it at least twice in the links.

Two things this reveals, other than it being an insult.

1) it shows to them that your consumption is abnormal. Why else would that even ask that? Thus they are aware of the high consumption readings.

2) it shows that the people on the phones have been trained to deal with caller's upset with their bills. Thus the utilities know they have a problem with the meters and have trained their call people to misdirect you as much as possible.

Me, I challenge such put to me. Ask the person on the other end how they like working for a company that knows they are ripping customers off, and how they like being trained to misguide us.

The utilities must be getting hundreds if not thousands of irate customers with huge bills, so these people must be dealing with them on a daily basis.

Do not take the nonsense they are putting back at you. Record the day and get the phone person's name and make notes of what they said to you. We will need that as evidence. See next post.

Soaring UK Energy Prices Destroy Britain’s Industrial Base

From: http://www.thegwpf.org/news/884-britains-green-suicide-soaring-uk-energy-prices-destroy-industrial-base.html

The American owners of Spondon factory Celanese Acetate today blamed soaring UK energy prices for their devastating plan to shut the plant with the loss of 460 jobs. Celanese Corporation said it was consulting with staff over proposals to close the site next year to concentrate production in Belgium, the US and Mexico, where power costs were cheaper. UK energy prices have skyrocketed by 16.7% in the last year against an average increase of just 3.8% in the European Union.

Smart Meter Testing

This in the US from:

http://bakersfield.craigslist.org/com/1671232929.html

Testing Methodology

In order to evaluate the load at Mr. Jackson's home, the determination was made to use the Mega Beast, which provides a known kW load. The industry standard formula below was used to determine the time in minutes to use 1 kWh:

t= 1 kWh x kW (60)

The mega beast was connected in a manner that the meter would not register any load except the load applied by the mega beast. The mega beast applies a resistive load and we can safely assume a power factor of 1. Before the tests began, XXXXXX tested for any other load on the service and found none.

Timing was conducted using a wrist watch with a second hand.

Findings

The following data was collected:

Test 1 on Smart Meter # 73817844 (Landis & Gyr type ALF) Applying 92.5 amps at 120 volts results in a 11.1 KW load. With this given load, it should take 5.5 minutes to use 1 kWh Observed Time: 2 minutes to use 1 kWh

Test 2 on Smart Meter # 73817844 (Landis & Gyr type ALF) Applying 91.6 amps at 119 volts results in a 10.9 KW load. With this given load, it should take 5.5 minutes to use 1 kWh Observed Time: 2 minutes to use 1 kWh

The mechanical meter was then tested.

Test 1 on mechanical meter # 80216618(Landis & Gyr MX cyclometer type mechanical) Applying 91.4 amps at 120 volts results in a 10.9 KW load. With this given load, it should take 5.5 minutes to use 1 kWh Observed Time: it took 5 minutes to use 1 kWh

Test 2 on mechanical meter # 80216618(Landis & Gyr MX cyclometer type mechanical) Applying 91.0 amps at 119 volts results in a 10.8 KW load. With this given load, it should take 5.5 minutes to use 1 kWh Observed Time: 5 minutes to use 1 kWh

A second Smart Meter was then tested. Test 1 on second Smart Meter # 93394135 (Landis & Gyr type ALF) Applying 91.0 amps at 119 volts results in a 10.8 KW load. With this given load, it should take 5.5 minutes to use 1 kWh Observed Time: it took 3 minutes to use 1 kWh

Test 2 on Smart Meter # 93394135 (Landis & Gyr type ALF) Applying 90.3 amps at 119 volts results in a 10.7 KW load. With this given load, it should take 5.6 minutes to use 1 kWh Observed Time: it took 3 minutes to use 1 kWh

Conclusions

Based on the tests performed and a comprehensive audit of the meters programmed with the computer containing the incorrect meter multiplier, only three meters were found to contain a CT Multiplier of 2. Two of those meters were tested at Mr. Jackson's home, and the third was installed elsewhere on the system. As of July 9, 2009, the CT multiplier has been corrected on all three meters. The data error has been corrected, the Smart Meters have been confirmed to record kWh correctly, the kWh usage will be correctly adjusted for this account and this negates any further action.

PG&E’s sincerely regrets this error and the inconvenience it has caused our valued customer.

Monday, April 26, 2010

WE NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Smart meters are just about all installed in Ontario, and in July supposed to start to database your hourly usage and be billed on such.

Except one major problem. These "smart" meters are recording consumption as much as THREE TIMES your actual consumption. This is correct. As of right now my consumption, according to the meter, is some 70 kilojoules (kJ) per day (kWh, a Watt-Hour is a Joule). Divide that by 24 hours and my consumption is 3000 Watts per hour. That's thirty 100 Watt bulbs running for 24 hours.

All my lights are florescent, and other appliances are no different that yours -- high efficiency stove, fridge, two computers in sleep mode most of the time, etc. So it is not physically possible for me to use 70kJ per day. My monthly consumption is almost 2000kJ this last 30 days, when a normal house in the winter would consume 800. My Feb consumption was 3400kJ, the bill was $700 -- FOR ONE MONTH! That's an average daily consumption of 140kJ -- 60 x 100 watt bulbs running 24/7.

A friend of mine down the road "Dave", also got a huge bill in Feb, 3500kJ of consumption. He's on a fixed pension and cannot afford these kinds of utility bills.

This is not affecting everyone, seems it's spotty. Dave's neighbour across the street from him has an electric hot tub running all the time, and his consumption was 1/3 of Dave's. My brother-in-law has 5 adults living in a house and his Feb consumption was just under 700kJ.

So what is your horror story? I need more evidence that this is wide spread.

More posts to follow.