Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/04/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Some of this progress has been met with extreme resistance in Silicon Valley. My town, Palo Alto, supplies all utilities and apparently has eschewed modernization of the electric meters. But the rest of the area, served by P. G. & E has has the old meters replace by "smart meters" which transmit the data by ultra high frequency radio to a nearby central receiver. The smart meters also take into account peak usage and the time of day of the usage. Many people complained about steep increases in their bills, and the paranoid among them complained about the radiation making them ill. My recollection is that such a fuss was raised that P.G. & E was offering to allow use of the old meters for a monthly fee to compensate for the cost of having a guy read them. Herb Herb >For a small town, we seem to be making progress. Some months ago, I >noticed that an attachment had been added to my natural gas meter, >allowing the meter to be read from the street. > >http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Gas+Meter+Attachment.jpg.html > >In the last couple of days, my power and water meters have been >replaced. The battery-powered water meter sits in the same hole in >the ground, beneath a cast iron cover. > >http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Water+Meter.jpg.html > >The power meter replaced the old meter that had been in service for >many years. > >http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Electric+Meter.jpg.html > >The power and water meters will tranmit to a pole-mounted receiver >which will relay the information to the central office via existing >fiber optic cable. > >E-1 with Leica Elmarit-R 60mm Macro, ISO 200, RAW > >Comments and critiques welcomed. > >Jim Nichols >Tullahoma, TN USA > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org 650-326-8204 Question authority and the authorities will question you.