Agenda 21...

[Recoil45]

IIRC NYC has a "fire code" that the Fire Chief Marshall King Puhba whoever that an occupant cannot have more than 200 rounds of ammunition in their abode. Not sure if he needs a warrant to enforce this "safety code" but I'll bet that the communist NYC probably wouldn't.

It's a myth. It comes from the fire code for dealers. If you are a dealer you need a permit if you are storing more than 200rds for sale. It does not apply to individuals living in their home.

<- Former NYer.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

It's a myth. It comes from the fire code for dealers. If you are a dealer you need a permit if you are storing more than 200rds for sale. It does not apply to individuals living in their home.

<- Former NYer.

Is it true that in NYC you can only purchase ammo for guns that you have a permit for? And that you have to get a voucher from the PD every time you want to purchase a new firearm (of course assuming you even get approved for the permit to purchase firearms in the first place)? That's almost worse than only having 200 rnds.

 

[TX69]

It's a myth. It comes from the fire code for dealers. If you are a dealer you need a permit if you are storing more than 200rds for sale. It does not apply to individuals living in their home.

<- Former NYer.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

This is how a Texas woman said GFY to having a Smart meter installed

I got one, its does not bother me...THAT SAID

The SM does not read your appliances thru some kind of 'waves' or transmissions. HOWEVER the keyword here is "SMART" and its coming to your home sooner rather than later: SMART: fone, TV, washing machine, dryer, HVAC, your car (effective date IIRC is 2015).

Its the SMART that allows the utility company to TALK to your appliance and utilities are run by who???? THE FEDS. So they watch and manage your electric bill. Hot summer, you want to be cool, ONLY as cool as the EPA and Dept. of Energy allow it. Yes someone in Wash DC can flip a switch and turn off your AC or adjust your temp, make sure you only wash clothes at 2 am and shut off your TV at 10:30 or 9pm if you are watching FOX NEWS.

Clearly you don't may not like this.

Think this is bad, the go buy and electric car: The state/Feds will know where you go, when you, how long you stay and what route you take. Drive too many miles and they flip the switch on you.

TIPS: Buy a new HVAC, but pick your own thermostat, do not buy a electric car, do not hook your SMART TV to the internet...

 

[TheDan]

This is how a Texas woman said GFY to having a Smart meter installed

Unfortunately those "no trespassing" signs mean nothing for the power company. They have an easement to your pole and meter. Whether they can force you to get a smart meter or not probably depends on their contract. The good news is that you have a wide choice of electric provider here in TX.

 

[Younggun]

I got one, its does not bother me...THAT SAID

The SM does not read your appliances thru some kind of 'waves' or transmissions. HOWEVER the keyword here is "SMART" and its coming to your home sooner rather than later: SMART: fone, TV, washing machine, dryer, HVAC, your car (effective date IIRC is 2015).

Its the SMART that allows the utility company to TALK to your appliance and utilities are run by who???? THE FEDS. So they watch and manage your electric bill. Hot summer, you want to be cool, ONLY as cool as the EPA and Dept. of Energy allow it. Yes someone in Wash DC can flip a switch and turn off your AC or adjust your temp, make sure you only wash clothes at 2 am and shut off your TV at 10:30 or 9pm if you are watching FOX NEWS.

Clearly you don't may not like this.

Think this is bad, the go buy and electric car: The state/Feds will know where you go, when you, how long you stay and what route you take. Drive too many miles and they flip the switch on you.

TIPS: Buy a new HVAC, but pick your own thermostat, do not buy a electric car, do not hook your SMART TV to the internet...

That smart meter can't "talk" to any of your appliances. It really doesn't even know which ones are on. It can ably read the amount of electricity flowing in to the home.

It can't prevent your washer from coming on without lowering the amount of available power to your home below the amount required to run the washer or dryer. And it can't even do that.

It CAN track overall usage at different times unlike the old style which could only track total usage for the month via a meter reader.

If they want to limit available power the do it via regulators which are mounted on the poles and AFAIK must be adjusted manually still. The decisions on when to lower available power through in line regulators or almost always made by ERCOT. Not at the federal level.

 

[Vaquero]

That smart meter can't "talk" to any of your appliances. It really doesn't even know which ones are on. It can ably read the amount of electricity flowing in to the home.

It can't prevent your washer from coming on without lowering the amount of available power to your home below the amount required to run the washer or dryer. And it can't even do that.

It CAN track overall usage at different times unlike the old style which could only track total usage for the month via a meter reader.

If they want to limit available power the do it via regulators which are mounted on the poles and AFAIK must be adjusted manually still. The decisions on when to lower available power through in line regulators or almost always made by ERCOT. Not at the federal level.

Mostly true. Regulators regulate voltage, within a preset bandwidth.
They won't affect amperage, unless the line amperage exceeds their rated capacity.
A smart meter is only "smart" because it talks to the utility company via radio or othe means of communication. It does not communicate with your appliances. It could, possibly. But you would have to allow it. I've set these systems up.
They know what you use and when as far as power consumtion. Not by appliance. Not at all.

 

[Younggun]

Mostly true. Regulators regulate voltage, within a preset bandwidth.
They won't affect amperage, unless the line amperage exceeds their rated capacity.
A smart meter is only "smart" because it talks to the utility company via radio or othe means of communication. It does not communicate with your appliances. It could, possibly. But you would have to allow it. I've set these systems up.
They know what you use and when as far as power consumtion. Not by appliance. Not at all.

Thanks for clarifying that, one of the linemen for Oncor had explained it a little different, or I understood it a little different.

 

[Whistler]

Had a smart meter in Colorado, it "talked" to a controller box on the A/C. They can and did shut off my A/C compressor during peak usage periods (hottest part of the day) and setting the thermostat lower did nothing. It was a separate controller though mounted on the outside of the wall next to the compressor.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Had a smart meter in Colorado, it "talked" to a controller box on the A/C. They can and did shut off my A/C compressor during peak usage periods (hottest part of the day) and setting the thermostat lower did nothing. It was a separate controller though mounted on the outside of the wall next to the compressor.

Austin Energy does this as well. Sadly most of this stuff is in low income apartments and the residents don't really have much of a choice, the management gets incentives to do so from Austin Energy.

 

[Younggun]

Had a smart meter in Colorado, it "talked" to a controller box on the A/C. They can and did shut off my A/C compressor during peak usage periods (hottest part of the day) and setting the thermostat lower did nothing. It was a separate controller though mounted on the outside of the wall next to the compressor.

1 word


Bypass.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

1 word


Bypass.

Most apartment dwellers wouldn't know how to do this. Not to mention if management found out that they had done so then it could violate terms of lease (property destruction, not sure of the specifics but I'd imagine the laws dealing with renters would allow them to kick them to the curb). If you are in a house I suppose that's all fine and dandy....although I wonder if theres some clause in your contract with electric provider to where they have the right to shut off your power if you try and bypass (I'd imagine you can make the equipment know if this has been done). Just speculation but I'd imagine the electric companies that use this tech have thought this out.

 

[TheDan]

1 word


Bypass.

Or two words... window unit

If they really start forcing stuff like this on people I'm going off grid.

 

[Younggun]

Most apartment dwellers wouldn't know how to do this. Not to mention if management found out that they had done so then it could violate terms of lease (property destruction, not sure of the specifics but I'd imagine the laws dealing with renters would allow them to kick them to the curb). If you are in a house I suppose that's all fine and dandy....although I wonder if theres some clause in your contract with electric provider to where they have the right to shut off your power if you try and bypass (I'd imagine you can make the equipment know if this has been done). Just speculation but I'd imagine the electric companies that use this tech have thought this out.

From what I found it looked like the "smart switch was an "opt in" deal, but I didn't find a lot about it. From what I found about excel energy, it seemed that "smart switches" we're just one of many problems. Fairly common when you are only given one option for a provider.

A agree if it's an apartment you aren't left with much choice.

 

[Younggun]

Or two words... window unit

If they really start forcing stuff like this on people I'm going off grid.

Yup on both counts.

 

[JohnnyLoco]

That smart meter can't "talk" to any of your appliances. It really doesn't even know which ones are on. It can ably read the amount of electricity flowing in to the home.

It can't prevent your washer from coming on without lowering the amount of available power to your home below the amount required to run the washer or dryer. And it can't even do that.

It CAN track overall usage at different times unlike the old style which could only track total usage for the month via a meter reader.

If they want to limit available power the do it via regulators which are mounted on the poles and AFAIK must be adjusted manually still. The decisions on when to lower available power through in line regulators or almost always made by ERCOT. Not at the federal level.

I think you're talking about what they're designed to do and normally do not what their capabilities are. Meaning, can they get hacked, just like the Skype, webcam, and microphone on your computer, or your smartphones?

They can use radio frequencies to control the temperature on certain thermostats, who's to say what they can monitor.

 

[boomgoesthedynamite]

In California, we were able to opt in to a voluntary metering on our a/c units. The power company was allowed to remotely kill it for x hours during the day. X was determined by what we opted in at. The longer amount of time, the greater the discount. It was a significant savings. This was done to avoid brown outs and rolling black outs. The smart meters just allowed them to read our usage remotely. A benefit was we could log in and see nice graphs of our usage displayed hourly.

 

[NeckBeard]

where i used to live, they forced the smart meters on people by using large fines/surcharges. needless to say, most if not all complied. Not sure if they do that here or not.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

Mostly true. Regulators regulate voltage, within a preset bandwidth.
They won't affect amperage, unless the line amperage exceeds their rated capacity.
A smart meter is only "smart" because it talks to the utility company via radio or othe means of communication. It does not communicate with your appliances. It could, possibly. But you would have to allow it. I've set these systems up.
They know what you use and when as far as power consumtion. Not by appliance. Not at all.

GOT "SMART" fone? if you do and its stolen you can have it turned off and erased on some models, all models soon. Lose it, go to your home computer and "Find my phone".

When we moved into a new house my wife could not find her car keys after the movers left and we got ready to head out for supper. Only 10 min earlier or so, I went outside to see if she left them in her car. Nope not there. We decided to take my car and headed out side to find no wife's car. Called OnStar and while I was on the fone with them they gave me the address of where the car was parked. We headed out and met the police there as they pulled up.

Back in the early 2000's they installed a SMART meter on our place in Scottsdale, I was there and it allowed them to just drive down the street and read your meter. In meter reader guy got a job as the SMART meter van driver. Now they read it back at the office and he is out of a job.

As more and more appliances come in compliance with the Feds it will give everyone from the local Utility company to Wash DC the ability to control your world. The big sell comes from convincing you that you can do it from your iPhone, and you can do everything from unlocking the font door, garage, turning on the HVAC and microwave. Certainly if you can do it from your cell fone bet money THEY can do it to you.

I am seeing HVAC thermostats on the market now with WiFi and Bluetooth at Home Depot now!

What can you do? In the long run not much as sooner or later ALL appliances will be SMART enabled and whether you plug it into the wall or rely on just Bluetooth or WiFi and battery power if electrons can touch it you and them will have access to it.

Technology to talk to remote electronic devices has been around a very long time...think answering machines. Tap in your code, the press "1" to hear your messages, press "2" to delete etc...that goes back at least to the 70's and I am sure way before. Today its become standardized and that makes it available to any and all.

 

[TheDan]

The big sell comes from convincing you that you can do it from your iPhone, and you can do everything from unlocking the font door, garage, turning on the HVAC and microwave. Certainly if you can do it from your cell fone bet money THEY can do it to you.

What can you do? In the long run not much as sooner or later ALL appliances will be SMART enabled and whether you plug it into the wall or rely on just Bluetooth or WiFi and battery power if electrons can touch it you and them will have access to it.

I really like home automation and remote control, but like you all I'm leery of the package deals that come from your service or utility provider. One of my coworkers has the full package from ATT. He has cameras and can unlock his doors remotely. Pretty cool stuff, but it gives me the willies to know that it's all managed by ATT. Anyone at ATT can watch him and unlock his house. ATT also colludes with the government for surveillance, and they have immunity from being sued for it as a telecommunications provider. If I were to install home automation, I'd find a roll your own solution.

What can you do about proliferation of "smart" equipment? Well, a lot actually. Cheapest solution will be to not buy new stuff. Get your old stuff repaired, or shop second hand. If you have to buy a smart appliance, internal antennas can be disconnected or wrapped in grounded foil to block the signal. In some cases you can even mod the software yourself; make it do what you want it to. There is a pretty active modding community for things like smart phones and game consoles, and people make tutorials for the less savvy to follow. The same will happen for smart appliances as they become more popular.