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Old 08-11-2013, 01:20 PM
 
75 posts, read 154,536 times
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Anyone have a smart meter from the electrical company? What do you think of it? Has it helped you save money? Are you less comfortable using it?

-swahili
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Old 08-11-2013, 01:26 PM
 
Location: San Antonio. Tx 78209
2,649 posts, read 7,407,354 times
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There are only 40k cps customers with smart meters. It won't be till 2014 that they start installing more.
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Old 08-11-2013, 01:44 PM
 
Location: Mid South Central TX
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I have one. Prior to getting the current thermostats, we had the other CPS digital thermostats...prior to that we had our own digital thermostats. Since we've always had programmable thermostats, we're not really saving $ now in comparison.

What's really nice about the CPS Home Manager is the ability to program remotely, especially via the smartphone app. Recently, we were on vacation, so I had the thermostats set to vacation mode. I was able to turn the AC back on about 4 hours before we returned home. We came home to a nice, cool house, but it hadn't been running like that all the time we were gone.
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Old 08-11-2013, 01:46 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,102 posts, read 85,880,338 times
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I have that thermostat too, but I think OP is talking about the electricity usage meter (Smart Meter), which is located outside a home.
Here is a picture:
http://www.ksat.com/news/defenders/K...z/-/index.html
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Old 08-11-2013, 01:51 PM
 
Location: Mid South Central TX
3,216 posts, read 8,516,443 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elnina View Post
I have that thermostat too, but I think OP is talking about the electricity usage meter, which is located outside a home.
That's just it...this meter is installed in conjunction with the newer thermostats. Gives you instant access to usage stats, etc.
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Old 08-11-2013, 02:01 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,102 posts, read 85,880,338 times
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^^^ oh, I didn't know that! My son has one, but he don't have the thermostat ( Houston)
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Old 08-13-2013, 10:49 AM
 
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I currently live in Central California, and Southern California Edison (SCE) installed a smart meter on our place about a year ago. We really didn't pay attention to it much until about a month ago when we finally had AC installed in our home. Just as a note, we live in the mountains at around 4,000 feet of elevation. We really don't need AC except for a few months during the summer when our evaporative cooler makes the house more muggy than cool. With our smart meter, we were able to monitor on a daily basis how having AC was going to affect our power bill. This did lead us to make some adjustments as to how we used it, and in the end I think it did help us save some money. This may be more critical to folks in areas where they have tiered metering, and high energy costs. I think on average, I pay around $0.22 per KWH.

In case your are curious why I am posting to the San Antonio forum, I am about 3 week away from moving out there.
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Old 08-13-2013, 10:55 AM
 
Location: New Braunfels, TX
7,105 posts, read 11,741,328 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CA Alan View Post
In case your are curious why I am posting to the San Antonio forum, I am about 3 week away from moving out there.
Welcome to SA - I think you'll find it a neat experience!
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Old 08-13-2013, 11:12 AM
 
4,497 posts, read 4,994,096 times
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Our town here in Illinois is FORCING residents to install a smart meter. In fact 2 families that fought it are in court now over it and will be fined for resisting. They may save you money as you can, as mentioned, see how much electricity you're using. But the main objective for installing them is that the electric company can control your usage. When there is a peak in usage (such as a hot spell) they will be able to shut your AC off and control the grid as they see fit. It's kind of like the speed cameras that are there for "Safety", not revenue.
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Old 08-13-2013, 11:20 AM
 
37 posts, read 93,514 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nodpete View Post
Our town here in Illinois is FORCING residents to install a smart meter. In fact 2 families that fought it are in court now over it and will be fined for resisting. They may save you money as you can, as mentioned, see how much electricity you're using. But the main objective for installing them is that the electric company can control your usage. When there is a peak in usage (such as a hot spell) they will be able to shut your AC off and control the grid as they see fit. It's kind of like the speed cameras that are there for "Safety", not revenue.

To do that there has to be a connection between the AC unit, and the electrical meter. This connection is not automatic. In our case, the utility companies offer rebates if you install one of their connected thermostats. We didn't take that option.
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