CFE Changed Our Electric Meter Today

[Dibbons]

Comision Federal de Electricidad (nationwide Mexican electricity provider) technician knocked on the door this morning to tell me power would be interrupted momentarily in order to improve service. When he left, I noticed he had replaced the meter with a newer model. I am guessing it is a "smart" reader so they can eliminate another job (meter reader person). Here the electricity bills are not sent out every month anyway, it is every two months.

 

[Ranger16]

They did that to mine a year or two ago. I asked the installer if that was going to eliminate the meter readers jobs and he said that they where going to find other jobs for them. Whether or not that is an empty promise is anyone's guess.

 

[Sam69sat]

Yes and the aholes where i live will charge you a monthly fee to have someone come out and read your meter in person if you don't agree to their smart meter. They get rid of a job and none of the savings are passed on to the end user.

 

[Cranky]

Mine was changed to the smart meter over 10 years ago and my bill went down quite a bit. That tells me the old mechanical meter was spinning faster than it was supposed to.....and I'm fine with the fact that a meter reader isn't tromping though my back yard anymore and taking a short cut though the hedge row and breaking down the plants to make a path way out to head over to the next house. Walk in and walk out via the driveway damn it and yes, I told more than one reader to do that and if they couldn't do that on their own, I'd make it where they would have to.

 

[khryslerkid]

They changed mine last year. Maybe they can read it by satellite? Or just for "drive bys". They can do the water meter that way. Thing is, now I can't read it. I understood the old one. This one flashes and flashes the numbers.

 

[Budnicks]

They did that with ours 5+ (guessing like 7) years ago...
unfortunately, it's fucken' PG&E

one cool thing is
you can turn **** on & go out & actually see
exactly how many watts stuff uses to operate
some of the stuff will shock you, how much wattage

we haven't had PG&E people peering over the fences
coming in the back yard or in-person meter readers for a long time
maybe (?) over 10+ years now
even when we did, the past few years they did it house to house
it was done remotely
they didn't look at the meter or even get out of the vehicle
it sent them a signal when they drove by

& we had contested our bill/alleged usage/readings many times

It's nowhere near as bad as it was now
far fewer overcharges or contested bills
(haven't had any I can remember off hand since)

they did have to "change it out/replace it" once since too

 

[Dibbons]

Sometimes the meter reader's in the past have become real "heroes" (or heroines?) when they have found something amiss at the home (elderly fallen, smoke, burglar, etc.)

 

[Budnicks]

Sometimes the meter reader's in the past have become real "heroes" (or heroines?) when they have found something amiss at the home (elderly fallen, smoke, burglar, etc.)

& it's (or was) a decent paying job too
anybody basically with a breath/pulse could do

 

[multimopes]

I hate to be skeptical but about 35 years ago at my former house, the glass on my meter (MAGICALLY) broke. I called the electric company and reported it. They came out but instead of a new glass, they replaced the whole meter. From then on, my electric bill increased by about 1/3. I called them about it and they said the old meters usually slow down over time and they were not deliberately screwing me.
Recently, got a notice from my current electric provider saying (all) meters will be replaced in the next year. I don't like this because (1) I don't really trust them & (2) I currently have an on-peak & off-peak
meter. I can somewhat control my electrical usage by doing anything that uses a lot of juice, out of hours which is 9pm to 9am daily and all weekend plus holidays. My bill breaks down the usage separately.
I average 66% off peak which saves quite a bit of money. No one knows if a dual use meter like this will be offered at all. The other thing is my local meter reader is a big Mopar Man! So I will potentially not get to shoot the bull with him anymore if it is read remotely. By the way, they can't do a drive-by reading as my house is 1/4 mile back in the woods, they have to come down & turnaround!

 

[tonysrt]

Just had mine replaced last week and it probably will get to be read by a drive by. Water meter was done a few years ago for a drive by reading. I guess gas meter is next, but that will be pretty involved.

 

[moparwacko]

I read meters for our power company so long ago my first vehicle I drove was a 74 Bronco 302/3 on tree. Did it for 7 years, 99% of people are nice.
Then there's the guy who blocks off shortcuts through their backyard........
Dogs weren't the problem, people bitching how high their bills are were.
Where i worked most routes were rural, meaning driving all day, 300 + in and out of a vehicle, try it sometime. 2 things I got out of it, strong legs, and the ability to go in reverse about 40 mph.
Smart meters are Currently in their 3rd generation here. Latest is a mesh grid RF signal, transmitted through micro boosters to a central collector. An entire route of 300 meters can be read in 3 seconds every 15 minutes. Oh and don't pull your meter, the power company knows when it stops signaling immediately.

 

[kiwigtx]

Comision Federal de Electricidad (nationwide Mexican electricity provider) technician knocked on the door this morning to tell me power would be interrupted momentarily in order to improve service. When he left, I noticed he had replaced the meter with a newer model. I am guessing it is a "smart" reader so they can eliminate another job (meter reader person). Here the electricity bills are not sent out every month anyway, it is every two months.

View attachment 1080667

Do not fear the Smart meter.

You will get a more accurate bill, as they are done automatically, and readings are not reliant on some dopey old dyslexic meter reader with a clipboard.

The old mechanical meters are prone to failure of slow down due to aging bearings etc....hence - lower and less accurate readings.

The job of replacing those meters has been a mammoth task even in a small country like ours...I did that job myself for 4 months as a filler.

Remember this - the Smart Meters are accurate, and you only pay for what you use....so if your bill is too high, switch some appliances off...simple as that.

If you still feel aggrieved by your electricity consumption as noted on your bill, call the supplier and tell them your current reading (Sparkie joke), and they can verify with the computer records instantly. That would have been nigh on impossible with the old system.

 

[kiwigtx]

Oh and don't pull your meter, the power company knows when it stops signaling immediately.

Tamper switches take care of that.

Sorry, no disrespect intended towards yourself above.

 

[moparwacko]

I don't know whether or not to be offended
Dopey and dyslexic?
Way back when if you were a prick to the meter reader every month we had a system for that:
Meter gets read every month - minus 200 kwh, next month , minus 400, etc , Christmas time correct reading!!
Bill is about $1000
Boom asswipe

Disclaimer- this is of course a fictional account, none of the scenario listed above actually occurred..... .. ...

 

[Roger63]

Mine was changed to the smart meter over 10 years ago and my bill went down quite a bit. That tells me the old mechanical meter was spinning faster than it was supposed to.....and I'm fine with the fact that a meter reader isn't tromping though my back yard anymore and taking a short cut though the hedge row and breaking down the plants to make a path way out to head over to the next house. Walk in and walk out via the driveway damn it and yes, I told more than one reader to do that and if they couldn't do that on their own, I'd make it where they would have to.

I caught a meter reader driving his truck across my yard so he didn't have to get his lazy *** out of his truck.

 

[CudaChick1968]

We still have electric and water meter readers.

The gas company installed a new smart meter last summer. The bill the next month was almost $400 -- versus the usual $12-15 "warm weather" charge it had been for 13 years living here. When the gas crew came out to investigate, they found FIVE leaks on and around every part of the assembly.

I'm not sure if it's everywhere, but electric rates vary by time of day here just as @multimopes said earlier. Peak hours are when most businesses are open (between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.), then a bit less between 7:00 p.m. to 10:00, and the lowest rate hits between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and all weekend.

Unplugging everything that wasn't necessary saved $5 a month! (i.e., microwave, cable boxes, clocks in unused rooms, etc.).

The biggest change was doing laundry after 7:00 at night -- it seriously knocked it down a LOT. When I added an old unused purple beach towel to the dryer and left it in there permanently, it went down even more; that oddball purple always-dry towel allows me to run a full load on the shortest time setting instead and everything gets just as dry. Tell your wife to try it and see what happens.

The shop has its own meter and bill. Now, between it and the house, our electric bill every month is around $100 or less! I'd snag pics of the ones I paid yesterday but I left them in the Durango. The house was $67 and the shop's was $36.

Remember guys, what ya don't spend on utilities can go toward car parts. (Or better still, fancy CudaChick Car Parts LOL!!! )

 

[kiwigtx]

I don't know whether or not to be offended
Dopey and dyslexic?
Way back when if you were a prick to the meter reader every month we had a system for that:
Meter gets read every month - minus 200 kwh, next month , minus 400, etc , Christmas time correct reading!!
Bill is about $1000
Boom asswipe

Disclaimer- this is of course a fictional account, none of the scenario listed above actually occurred..... .. ...

I did make an apology directly afterwards....I guess the calibre of meter readers is different here than in your parts.

Did you ever come across coats hanging over the meter in your time? On the old meters here, that was a common theme. The meter reader would remove the coat, and the meter would start spinning. My Tutor years ago told me a story of one he uncovered....suspicion made him carefully lift the coat until he was just under the meter.....only to discover a horse hair, and a very small hole in the meter face plate leading to the dial...which caused enough drag for the meter to stall.

Other ones I found included mainly various 'switching' methods for turning the Neutral line off, and the most blatant was a Hot Water relay bypassed to the live side of the meter. Seal tampering is a real problem.

Oh yes....I got stung hard with my water meter last year...a monthly bill of about $1,000 extra....because the meter reader didn't bother wiping the mud off the dial.....luckily I had been taking photos of my readings for a while. The knock-on effect of that is, that next year's estimated alternate monthly bill is out of whack because of historical data. So I asked the lady on the phone to make sure that reading was completely erased from the system and the reason why.

 

[69Coronetrt]

Yes and the aholes where i live will charge you a monthly fee to have someone come out and read your meter in person if you don't agree to their smart meter. They get rid of a job and none of the savings are passed on to the end user.

1) 'Savings', if any, are nominal.
2) New meters cost more than old meaning there should be an increase in cost to pay for the new meter, not a decrease for taking out an old less expensive meter whose cost has already been amortized and paid for.
3) Meter cost and remote reading is cheaper than labor and benefit costs. As an end user, your cost for service increase does not go up as quickly due to increasing labor costs. Your savings comes in the form of mitigating costs.
4) 'Smart metering', and I don't know if that applies here, is designed to use energy more efficiently therefore lowering or stabilizing the cost of generation and distribution. The new generation of meters is designed to, again, keep service costs as low as possible to end users.

 

[Slap Stick]

If the savings are "nominal, if any" how does it keep costs low?
Your points contradict each other.

 

[kiwigtx]

If the savings are "nominal, if any" how does it keep costs low?
Your points contradict each other.

Savings to the consumer are based upon the fact that the new meter will not require a labour-intensive method of gathering the readings monthly. Information is collected electronically, and therefore the more streamlined process requires less cost.

Savings to the supplier are similar, except the new meter costs are absorbed into the network, and the revenue gained back from outdated (and likely deficient) meters, counteracts the initial investment.