god i really hate all the damn tax gabs i see, from mcguinty, now the HST for god sake, does anyone make 20 - 30 percent ore every yer to accomidate these?
fo f_ck sake.

I wrote today to challenge my recent Hydro One bill. May 6th 2010 a 'smart meter' was installed on my property. I was paying a recent bill, covering two months service $1,207.09 when I decided to call Hydro One to see if there were any further charges due...to my SHOCK I was told my balance due was $5991,99!!!!!! When I called customer service I was informed that some past bills had been estimated and now this bill was a 'catch up bill?" We ar not running our pool or hot tub or pond. I had credit to my account in December and again in March so I find this impossible!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have two adults living in our home. The normal bills are high enough $400 to $600 because we run a kennel.I do not believe this current bill to be correct. I believe the error must have happened when the numbers were manually put into the new meter May 6th.
Linda Young

All you guys complaining about Smart Meter pricing should look into getting a contract with an Energy Retailer such as Direct Energy.

If you get into a 3 year contract with Direct Energy for example, they fix your rate at 6.99cents/kWh, which is 2 cents cheaper on average with what you'll being paying with the Smart Meter during On-Peak and Mid-Peak hours (which is really the only times you will actually be using electricity, Off-Peak hours are sleeping hours in case anyone hasn't noticed).

In Rural Ontario My Hydro bill was consistent about 700 KWH on the summer 900 KWH in the winter... They installed the smart meter and all of a sudden I have bills for 1300KWH in the summer and 1500KWH in the winter...

I changed out the washer and dryer for high efficiency models. all the bulbs to CFL's.. Got rid of the 2nd freezer and refridgerator in the basement... My usage has gone up...

The real joke.. Out here in BC the bill for the same amount of the electricity is less then half of what Hydro One is charging.. Who are the crooks?

This past year i visited texas for five months and before we left home i turned off power to my hot water tank,turned off all household appliances t.v., computors, coffee pot heaters,turned off overhead fans,turned down heat to 55degrees electric heat, instant water heaters, shut off cube makers in fridge, all were either uplugged or shut off at the breakers. when we arrived home a survey arrived by mail from hydro showing me a comparison of what my hydro bill would be if we used it in the off hours verses the high consumption period and low and behold for that five month period i was in the negative of $1.50 as i used to much power during the high consumption period. can you figure this one out as no one was even home for that period. Our bill since the meter was installed went from under $200.00 a month to $336.00 per month. In texas they installed smart meters and they are getting the same crap hugh increases and the answer is the same the old measure did not measure the true consumption sound familiar. If you are starting a lawsuit i will be happy to join and stop this crooked billing system. Donald J Couchie

Tell your stories here too!

Below is my previously posted problem . . .

Yes i have same problem, no history, yet it seem that the rate at which the smart meter reads can be changed, yes it is my contention that these meters can send and receive information & settings. i have done tests:
1.) 115 kwh in 23 hrs
2.) 2400 kwh in 36 days with no one home . . . house at 9 degrees
3.) Last visit 18 kwh in 24 hrs
4.)18700 watt load for 6 min = 3kwh logged ,should have been 1.87kwh

i agree lawsuit or at the very least who controls the interface with these meters we are supposed to blindly trust, which by the way i do not. i want to see the full schematic of this thing.

one idea is an aluminum rain cover (to protect you prized meter) aluminum blocks RF signal!

call Weights & Measurements Canada at 1~877~325~3996 to start the complaint process, they say that it takes 4~6 weeks And your meter is shipped to them & you can be present for the actual testing. but again i think the rate at which they read can be changed remotely . . .

talk to me!

How do I get this smart meter removed from my house? I was afraid of a huge increase in heating for next winter, as we have forced air electric heat. We are rural, and have no access to gas. Now I am reading about inaccurate meters which benefit the greedy power companies! We just moved in last fall, the meter was installed a couple of months ago, and have no way to compare past consumption. Do we have a choice in whether or not we use these things?

How do I get this smart meter removed from my house? I was afraid of a huge increase in heating for next winter, as we have forced air electric heat. We are rural, and have no access to gas. Now I am reading about inaccurate meters which benefit the greedy power companies! We just moved in last fall, the meter was installed a couple of months ago, and have no way to compare past consumption. Do we have a choice in whether or not we use these things?

You are all asking what can be done. We need to get together, maybe even launch a class action suit against HydroOne. They know about the smart meter problems, and they do not know the cause of the errors. They have been inundated with calls about high bills, so they know that the meters are reading too high (as they are in California and Texas where there are lawsuits pending). Since Hydro One is not dealing with the problem, not coming clean publicly with the issue, means they are taking money from you they should not. THIS IS THEFT!!

Please post your horror stories at my blog on this issue, just started it.

http://h1ripoff.blogspot.com

I'll be posting more in the coming days.

I have contacted a reporter at the A-Channel who is investigating this and also in email contact with Connie Woodcock at the Toronto Sun who has done a recent article on this and planning another. (I sent her the comments here).

Richard

I and my neighbours in a townhouse row have experienced an increase in power comsuption this pass winter. I have been disputing the monthly charges for hydro since this smart meter was installed in the fall of 2009. By the way my smart meter is located 26 feet from a transformer. Basicly my concerns fell on deaf ears. I demanded that this smart meter be "tested" and was told nothing wrong with the smart meter. ha ha. Some of my neighbours hydro has been shut off because their bills are out of wack. Finally I get to talk to someone at the local utility and was told that the i would have to put up 50 dollars to have the meter tested. Do I get my money back if this meter is measuring wrong? We have just experienced the warmest winter this past winter on record however power usage is up. As well I was told that the local utility is not measuring smart meter rates and times. I think the local utility installed these smart meters so that they would not have to send someone around to read the meter.
What about all the elderly people whom do not consume much hydro power but just pay the bill?
Which brand of Smart meters appear to be the faulty ones.
I noticed two different brands in my complex.

Have a cottage north of North Bay -- high efficiency furnace, NEW, insulated. Had a regular meter until Nov 2009. Was tracking at about 38 kwh per day prior -- new meter installed and lo and behold the useage jumps to 350 kwh per day. This cant be right.

Spoke to Hydro One several times and got the firm committment that "meters cant be wrong" . They are no longer a public utility so they have have no need to provide any customer service?

Next call to Measurement Canada -- lets see what happens

we have a central meter system which has been converted over to smart meter but our multiplier is x20 everyone else i know is x 10. what is up with that. It was x 20 before they changed it as well. Can anyone help with this question. I live in the country and have power going to two separate buildings.

I'm so confused about this Smart Meter. I use miminal electricity, and have the new bulbs as well. My bill is very low monthly. I am also on a Cap with Universal. I'm on a contract and was told my rates would not go up. How does this affect my rates?

Purpose of this writing is
1. to inform people about what is going on
2. to get feedback about dispute procedure.

Without my knowledge they come and installed a smart meter and then left a pamphlet about benefits to home. Anyways since then my consumption skyrocketed. After waiting 4 months, I started testing closely since no improvement whatever i do. I called hydro company in Markham and they told me meter cant measure wrong. I ve told my test of course they did not care here is my test
The test :::
I unplugged everything out of the outlets , i shut off heating (gas - but electric fan right ), i shut off completely fridge and so on. Then meter outside displays 0.58 (580 Wh) Then I switched 3x40w lamp . (120wh) meter then started display (1.1-1.2) so almost 520wh for 120wh load.
4 times the actual value.
Then I have repeated test multiple times , when i turned of .058 when i turned on 1.1-1.2 ( all numbers approximate) The bottomline is meter is not measuring the load correctly. Then i replaced the 3 bulb with 11W (33Wh total ) CFL . Then I switched on and off meter showed 120 wh difference with on and off this three bulb. Not bad ha! consistent dumb meter is very consistent in making errors multiply by 4. Read a number and multiply by 4.
Unless i m terribly wrong in my calculations , these meters are CRAP!

So I send mail to measurement canada and i got a response -not read mail deleted without being read message from automation of mail server- .

So what do i do now ? Any idea how to make this progress faster . As far as i can see hydro company since getting benefit of these readings does not cooperate to change the meter. Mesaurement canada deletes my mail without reading. Where do i go now ?

Please let me know in this case what can i do to get my meter changed ? and get my money back.

NOTE 1 : Please READ >> Note to everybody ; one more thing you can do which i did not do it yet .You can measure the current without penetrating the cables , from exit of the meter the round plastic pipe (make sure it is plastic otherwise you can NOT measure it correctly because magnetic field will be blocked somewhat. There are devices like a circle clamp if you put around it will detect the current due to magnetic filed running on the main entry cable to the house. So basically the proof is very easy if that meter shows 4.0 KW , you need to see these deivce to show 4000/120 = 33 Amp.

STATISTICAL DATA REQUEST: A question to all of the people here , how many of you meter installed and had problem proved/suspected to be meter problem and it was also you just moved in to this house. I moved twice to a new house following that right away they installed the smart meter. is this also coincidence since i dont have any history in that house and i can never compare the previous months. Please contact me if you had the same replacement and hike just after you got a move to a new house.

Regards,

We have had a cottage for 9 years and our usage runs around 1700 per year. A smart metre was installed in Sept 09. We are on equal billing and they have estimated from Sept 09 to Jan 10 3750kw. I read the metre when I was there this weekend and it shows 7019kw. No one lives there and other than 2 weeks at xmas it was been empty and the heat turned down to 15. How is this possible? HELP!

my house is 23 x 42.

never mind hot water, i don't even have running water.

all my bulbs are CFL.

i have no water bed, no AC

i heat with wood, the only exception is a small space heater (900W) in the bedroom because with a preschooler and an expensive bird, i have to have at least one room consistently warm in the house.

i have a small TV in the bedroom, a larger one (32") in the livingroom.

i have a PC that gets used MAYBE an hour a day, if so much.

i have no laundry machines.

i have no oven and the two big burners on my stove don't work. the majority of my cooking is done in a 900W microwave or with a 1500W kettle that shuts itself off automatically.

..... so how is it i canNOT, for the life of me, get my hydro bill below $150 a month!??

My first bill came today with the smart meter took effective. I will almost pay $40 more for this bill comparing with the last one. Too smart for taking money from my pocket.

Most people will pay more than before. who will get the money?

The above, while more or less true, is (literally) not the half of it. Only the price of the actual electricity is mentioned. Don't forget that you also have to pay for delivery charges, debt retirement charges etc., bringing the total cost for a kilowatt of high-peak electricity to $0.1381, not $0.092.
You can find a full discussion on the potential impact of Smart Meters at Cornwall Free News

Dan you are showing the market price of electricity in the province also known as the Hourly Ontario Energy Price or HOEP. There is another factor called the Global Adjustment which is additive to the HOEP.
Most of the electricity generated in the province is under contract which means that when the market price is low, these generation contracts must be paid by a separate pool of money called the Global Adjustment.

The "true" cost of power is the HOEP plus the Global adjusment with is about 6 cents. And we pay this even if we conserve and dont use the power.

TOU and conservation will only save us money if we are not required to contract any further generation. However the green energy act will see much more contracted generation for the next 20 years, and these contracts will be paid even if we dont use the power.

I fail to see what the incentive is here for me to sign up for the smart meters, especially if one is already energy concious. I live in Ottawa and we got a call from the energy company to come and install a "smart meter", which we agreed to (apparently at no cost to us!), but then we sold our house and cancelled the installation, thinking that it was not fair for us to pass this on to the new owner. We recently bought a new house, it does not have air, so no smart meter for now. I've been doing a lot of research and I've come to the conclusion that unless a legislation is passed, I'll pass on the 'dumb meter'. We always install CFL in our homes, I rarely use the dryer, even in the winter, I'll hang clothes up, I generally run the dishwasher overnight, our appliances are efficient and I dislike air conditioning and avoid using it unless my husband starts to complain too much ;) Hence, the 'dumb meter' sounds like more headaches than its worth! At the same time there are a lot of people who would wake up to their wasteful ways. This summer has been cool here in Ottawa, many mornings the temp. is below 18 degrees celsius, when I walk my dog, most of the a/c units on the houses are going full blast, when all it would take to cool the house is opening some windows! Likewise during the day, when no one is home, a/c is going at full tilt!

Smart meters have been on my house since Jan 2008.
I have recently escalated a dispute about Smart meters to Measurements Canada!

After months of high bills, and doing everything I could do to curb my usage, my bills were still high.I complained about my "high bill" through the proper channels, and after their rude customer service telling me basically "pay or get disconnected"

I requested that my meter be checked or changed ,2 people from Hydro One showed up to "test" my smart meter.

They spent the first part of our meeting in my lane way , telling me that the meters are never wrong, and that, if they were wrong they always errored by billing less electricity than was used, they slowed down.

I had been warned that if the meter was in error, I would be billed the difference.

Perhaps that WAS the case with old analog meters, with gears and magnets, but it is definitely NOT the case with my new Smart meter.

After removing my meter and hooking up their test equipment, between the meter and the house, they ran the test, High load (30 amp) and Low load (3 amp)

I watched the display closely as it displayed 173.x% high load and 173.x% low load.

You should have seen them, the look on their face was shocking, they re did everything a second time, checking each step, SAME RESULTS!

After getting another similar meter, from a different manufacturer, from their truck, they ran the tests again, with this meter in place of mine.
The substitute meter was reading at 100%.

They told me that I was the first person they had ever seen with a bad meter. (reading too much)

Measurements Canada is now involved, We will get to the bottom of this.

Hydro One will owe me a refund cheque.
And some apologies from the persons at the billing office, that refused to believe that I could possibly be correct.

And perhaps some changes need to be made in the roll out of these to ensure accuracy.Before thousands of consumers get ripped off, and abused by the collections staff.

I went out and bought a "TED" The Energy Detective, it reads the loads on the inside of your house,and logs all to a computer, it further verified the test results. Much more on the meter outside than I was actually using.

The power monitor from Black and Decker only monitors the optical port of the meter, so it will not catch a bad meter.

CONSUMER BEWARE!!

there is no way this is anything but a BIG hike in electricity rates. I will further state that the charge passed on to us for the meter is at least 3X the actual cost. Gouging the public once again, when will it end

I agree with your comments Dan. But you have mentioned the "rental" price per month for the smart meter - I head that it will be about $2.00/month. So tack that onto your bill also!!!

And McGuinty tried to tell us we would same money - not on your life!!!