Smart Meters Good Or Bad?...

I can remember when we first got married in the 80's having to scrape a -15c frost off of the car windscreen before we could go off to work (pre war bungalow so no garage)

I just hate being cold especially after being brought up in a Victorian Terraced house and as there was twelve of us living in the house my parents couldn't afford to heat it so we have always had the heating on in the winter.I did try once to have the heating off and more layers but once I had got cold it took too long to warm myself up so we have it on and just pay the bills (Well Mr Kandy pays them)

Very interesting subject and reading all the comments I don't think we shall have one of these meters despite the fancy adverts on the telly and will resist for as long as we can or until they force us to have one

 

@CanadianLori it does seem your government is going at it a bit wrong. I don't know the answers, but I am not a scientist. We do enjoy some good electric rates, most of Texas is on it's own grid, not part of the national grid.

@PeterS you don't need air conditioning? Then you can't complain!!!

 

We have decided to get a generator. I'll be able to plug into it to run the central vacuum and lots of other appliances.

 

We lived in hurricane country for most of my life. When you take a direct hit from a hurricane, a generator is a nice thing to have. The only drawback is if you don't have power, neither does the gas station. Gas can be hard to come by and long lines at the stations that do have a back up power source makes it a difficult situation. I worked for a garbage company when hurricane Ike blew into Houston and the Texas coast. It landed a HUGE oak tree on my house, poked holes in the roof, smashed the end of the house, rain poured into the house, it was a mess. I was back at work the next day. The boss sent out a driver everyday with everyone's gas cans and the driver had to go over 100 miles one way to find a gas station with electricity. At least I was able to plug in the freezer to keep from losing everything in it. On that particular storm, because the tree fell on the power hook up coming into the house, we were a month without power.

We left hurricane country and now we live in tornado country. I want a storm shelter!

 

Out of the frying pan ... ?

 

You still have hair? Who knew?

 

Luckly our heating and cooking can be done with out power, as we used to have power cut offen but no lights only touches and tea light (candles)

 

I would love to be able to go completely off grid but I have discovered that the cost is pretty heavy. Approximately £18,000 to for a shack the size of my house.

I can always dream

 

I live about 50miles away as the crow flies, and we regularly get Three days a year when its in the 90s
Never needed air con, cant even work out why they put it in cars over here, might use it once during the summer.

Now heating "costs", and we keep having to pay for all those wind farms that dont work when there is no wind and shut down if there is a gale.
We dont get extreme cold, granted, but those cold grey damp winter days wear you down, and its dark most of the time so you need the lights on.

 

Our utility companies are offering free installation of a new thermostat (theirs) and no charge for the equipment but it is a thermostat that they can wirelessly access, control and use to throttle in home appliances including air conditioners etc.

Obviously I declined. Sneaky sneaky people...

 

Don't ya'll find it funny that those who want to curtail YOUR energy consumption and ultimately control what you can use and when, have no plan to do so themselves?