Smart meter

ZigBee Radio Transmitter: How Many Do You Have?

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smart meterCatherine J. Frompovich – I’ll bet you dollars-to-donuts that most readers are asking, “What’s a ZigBee radio transmitter?”

Every person reading this probably has numerous ZigBees already, but doesn’t know it!  How can you have something you don’t know you have?  Give up?  Clue: Smart technology!

Every “smart” appliance in your home has what’s called a “ZigBee radio transmitter” installed by the manufacturer, which spies on your usage and reports back to Big Brother, i.e., the utility company for now, but will tie into the Internet of Things in the very near future.  The ZigBee chip allows each appliance’s electronic signature to be recorded so utilities and others, who track your data, can determine which appliance is being used, length of time, etc. thereby providing a profile of when you are home or someone’s in the house using appliances, plus the awful realization that your information relay can be HACKED by any two-bit hacker for any nefarious reason: burglary, surveillance, or whatever.

ZigBee radio transmitters are the ‘smart genies’ in AMI Smart Meters that electric, natural gas and water utility companies retrofit to replace safe analog meters.

AMI Smart Meter ZigBees also are working hard at emitting electromagnetic frequencies – EMF radiation – in all directions by utilizing the microwave frequency of 2.4 GHz that radiates out for approximately 250 feet; some claim up to 100 meters or 300 feet!  I bet you didn’t know that about that new digital meter the utility company forced you to take, or maybe didn’t even tell you that they installed.  Some homes can have all three (electric, gas, water) AMI Smart Meters!  How does that amplify your EMF exposure?  Have you felt differently and not your normal self since the new meter was installed?

So why is the ZigBee chip installed in smart appliances?

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Are Smart Meters in Same Category as Flint, Michigan’s Leaded Water?

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smart metersCatherine J Frompovich – In the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area there’s a tremendous show of support and solidarity for the people of Flint, Michigan, being forced to drink tap water that was contained with lead (Pb) for a year, perhaps more. Several Philadelphians have taken it upon themselves to conduct bottled water campaigns, which netted thousands of bottles of water. They even drove a truckload of bottled water to Flint, and then delivered it door-to-door. That’s how the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, shows its concern for others!

That concern has not stopped with ordinary citizens. Philadelphia leaders also got involved and showed their support. [1] PA State Representative Vanessa Lowery Brown is on record as saying, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” recalling the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

However, Minister Rodney Muhammad probably sized up the Flint water crises more accurately when he said, “This is not a government mishap. This is a crime.” [1] Muhammad inferred that yellow crime tape should be strung around the perimeter of Flint city! Councilwoman Helen Gym said the Philadelphia City Council is joining in the national outcry for the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation.

What happened in Flint was not an environmental problem, it was a man-made crisis and man-made crime. [1]

Let’s take that last statement just a bit further and apply it to all the issues citizens have to suffer with and from due to “man-made crimes,” especially AMI Smart Meters that are forced on everyone and their homes under the guise of “saving consumers money.”

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California Knew Smart Meters Were Dangerous

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Andre Fauteux – Counseled by the same physician who was the head of radiation studies at the World Health Organization (WHO) and at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), California’s Opt-Out Program offers non-emitting analog meters which Hydro-Quebec claims are no longer available.

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People who have become intolerant to electromagnetic fields (EMF) should be allowed to keep their electromechanical (analog) meter rather than be imposed a “smart” electronic (digital) meter emitting radiofrequencies (RFs), the former President of the the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) admitted in a 2010 email recently seized by authorities thanks to a search warrant.

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Utility-Issued ‘Smart’ Meters Explode On 5,000 Homes After Truck Rams Utility Pole

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Jonathan Benson – Thousands of California residents were left without power recently after their so-called “smart” meters exploded due to an unexpected power surge. According to CBS Sacramento, more than 5,000 homes in the Stockton area were left with blackened, charred, and completely destroyed smart meters after a dump truck crashed into a nearby utility pole, pulling the static line down onto the distribution line.

smart meterWhen the two lines intersect, stated PG&E spokeswoman Brandi Ehlers to the media, the resultant surge causes a major overload to the system. And when smart meters are involved, this overload can cause the meters themselves to pop and literally blow up, potentially causing a fire or other property damage not typically caused by traditional analog meters.

“The top lines are considered our freeways,” explained Ehlers. “The bottom lines are our distribution lines taking power directly to homes. So when the two collide, they’re at different voltages and the higher voltage wins out, causing an overload.”

Do you have a smart meter? Report problems with it to the Consumer Products Safety Commission

But this doesn’t explain why the overload caused the meters to explode which, again, doesn’t happen with traditional analog meters. All around the world, people with smart meters are reporting fires, explosions, electrical problems, and even burned out appliances as a result of smart meter installations, and yet utilities continue to install them without their customers’ consent. Continue reading →

Why New Smart Meter Technology Won’t Keep You Safe

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SmartMeterJust how safe do you think your personal data is? If recent hacking scandals involving big names like Sony and J.P. Morgan Chase showed us anything, it was that no one’s personal data is as safe and secure as we would like to believe. And beyond issues regarding personal correspondence, medical data, or financial information getting into the wrong hands, there is also a new way for power providers to track and monitor your energy usage – and this system isn’t safe either. The new “smart meters” put into practice in the United States are already raising serious cause for concern.

But what kind of data could be obtained by utility conglomerates from these meters without the knowledge of consumers, and how could that data could be misused or fall into the hands of hackers?

It’s been reported that the data these meters collect will be more valuable than the energy they’re intended to monitor – and that’s a tragically ironic situation if there ever was one. But before we get into the politics of it all, let’s talk about why the issue of “smart” meters – and the “smart grid,” in a more broad sense – is considered “desperately important” and why it’s capable of infringing on what seemingly little privacy we have left. Continue reading →