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| reply to djrobx
Re: got my smart meter today said by djrobx:Psh. I've had my smart meter for 6 months. Despite all the glossy hype we got about what we will be able to see online, we still don't have access to online tools, just plain old monthly readings.
I've had my Cellnet Focus since December 2005. At the time it was installed I had asked the utility when they would be offering more frequent readings than once a month, for example weekly, daily, or hourly. As you might expect from a regulated utility with no competitors, the answer was "not anytime soon." I'm still waiting.
I was happy when they installed it, though, because:
(1) I never liked the meter reader coming into the back yard.
(2) They only read the meter manually every other month, and the estimated bills were always off by 30-50%. As a result my usage showed a yo-yo effect even thought it was seasonally pretty consistent.
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 Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | = ArgMeMatey  ]
I've had my Cellnet Focus since December 2005. At the time it was installed I had asked the utility when they would be offering more frequent readings than once a month, for example weekly, daily, or hourly. As you might expect from a regulated utility with no competitors, the answer was "not anytime soon." I'm still waiting.
I was happy when they installed it, though, because:
(1) I never liked the meter reader coming into the back yard.
about 3 or 4 years ago the POCO changed out our meters so they could be read remotely from the street.
when they read ours manually they actually read it every month. No estimated bills.
When they changed the meters out all my neighbors got all electronic meters with digital readouts. Since I have 300 amp service they had to install a meter with a rotor and dials. (old Technology). I guess they're counting the disc rotations.  |
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | reply to ArgMeMatey
said by ArgMeMatey:(2) They only read the meter manually every other month, and the estimated bills were always off by 30-50%. As a result my usage showed a yo-yo effect even thought it was seasonally pretty consistent.
My utility offers a level-billing option, where they take your expected cost (derived from the prior year's billing, IIRC), then average the total out over 12 months and bill that flat amount monthly. This saves you from the yo-yo effect, and it might be something that I would like to take advantage of, except that being on the TOU pilot like I am now makes me ineligible for that! |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | said by scross:My utility offers a level-billing option, where they take your expected cost (derived from the prior year's billing, IIRC), then average the total out over 12 months and bill that flat amount monthly. This saves you from the yo-yo effect, and it might be something that I would like to take advantage of, except that being on the TOU pilot like I am now makes me ineligible for that!
Same here. I'm on the budget plan. Makes it a whole lot easier to have it averaged out in 12 payments. |
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| reply to scross
said by scross:My utility offers a level-billing option, where they take your expected cost (derived from the prior year's billing, IIRC), then average the total out over 12 months and bill that flat amount monthly. This saves you from the yo-yo effect, and it might be something that I would like to take advantage of, except that being on the TOU pilot like I am now makes me ineligible for that!
My utility offered the same thing, but it seems too much like carrying a credit card balance to me.
But my other frustration was that their "tools" showing energy consumption would show false bumps in the actual read months. I am guessing they were allowed to do every-other-month readings because at the time they were following a schedule to automate readings in the entire service area.
They have refined their algorithms somewhat now - for example they let me view usage controlled for degree days, which seems much more useful that simply comparing usage between the same month in different years.
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | said by ArgMeMatey:My utility offered the same thing, but it seems too much like carrying a credit card balance to me. More like the escrow balance on a mortgage; some months you're ahead of the game, some months you're behind, but overall for the entire year things should balance out close to zero. I could see where this might be a problem for someone trying to move or something, though, where they could get hit with a heavy "catch-up" bill at the wrong time of the year, which could be a real financial burden considering moving expenses, possible job issues, and so on. Hopefully the utility would be understanding and flexible under these circumstances. |
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 brianPremium
join:2002-05-02
Lake Forest, CA
·DSL EXTREME
| reply to djrobx
said by djrobx:Psh. I've had my smart meter for 6 months. Despite all the glossy hype we got about what we will be able to see online, we still don't have access to online tools, just plain old monthly readings.
Valencia is SCE territory, correct? We just last month got access to the online tools to see usage data here in Orange County.
We got our smart meter in September of last year when we did our panel upgrade. As far as I could tell, we were the first house in our immediate neighborhood to get it. It had the "Closed" message on it for at least two weeks before the rest of the neighborhood got their smart meters installed. I'm not sure if we were charged for usage during that time or not. We didn't have much anyway since we were doing renovations and hadn't moved into the house yet.
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 djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
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| said by brian:Valencia is SCE territory, correct? We just last month got access to the online tools to see usage data here in Orange County.
We got our smart meter in September of last year when we did our panel upgrade. As far as I could tell, we were the first house in our immediate neighborhood to get it. It had the "Closed" message on it for at least two weeks before the rest of the neighborhood got their smart meters installed. I'm not sure if we were charged for usage during that time or not. We didn't have much anyway since we were doing renovations and hadn't moved into the house yet.
Yep, we're SCE. Good to hear that the usage tools aren't vaporware. If your timing is any indication, maybe we'll get access soon. They started installing the meters in our neighborhood in october/november. They skipped me because I had solar panels, but then came and installed a Net Metering compatible one in January.
The ones around here never said "Closed", they started showing kWh totals right away.
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brianPremium
join:2002-05-02
Lake Forest, CA Reviews:
·DSL EXTREME
| Here are a couple screen shots of what they give you.
Recent Usage
Hourly
As you can see from the hourly, it's pretty easy to tell that we probably weren't home for a good portion of the day, and probably turned on the A/C when we got home, then went to be around 9.
There's also a "Billed Month" view that's similar to the Recent, but the date range is set to the billing period.
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | Unfortunately, my house is active most hours of the day (outside of midnight to 6 AM, maybe), so even with TOU billing and active load shifting on my part, I still may not come out ahead of the game over the course of an entire year. In fact, I looked at the rates again last week (these changed several times before the TOU pilot went live, and may have changed again since then), and it turns out that the average rate (between the high and low rates) is now higher than the regular rate, meaning that I'd have to consistently run at something like a 2-to-1 ratio (low-rate usage to high-rate usage) in order to even match the regular rate. This is probably going to be hard to do at my house. |
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | reply to scross
said by scross:said by Zach 58:The 'A' within the darkened circle indicates the power is on, within the proper range and the meter is connected to the system for which it's programmed. If this icon is blinking, either the voltage is out of range or the meter has a configuration problem.
The other upper case 'A' in your pic is the TOU rate-period indicator. Usually, 'A' indicates the off-peak or base-rate period while B-D indicate a peak-rate period.
I checked my meter this afternoon during peak rates and it showed a 'D'. Right now during the evening off-peak rates it shows a 'C'. If I can remember I'll check it again in the morning off-peak hours to see if it shows anything different then. I checked again this morning, and noted that the meter again shows 'D', even though it was still at least an hour away from the peak rate start time. Hmmmmm. This is something that I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on. |
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 FronkmanAn Apple a day keeps the doctor awayPremium
join:2003-06-23
Saint Louis, MO | reply to brian
said by brian:Here are a couple screen shots of what they give you.
[att=1]
[att=2]
As you can see from the hourly, it's pretty easy to tell that we probably weren't home for a good portion of the day, and probably turned on the A/C when we got home, then went to be around 9.
There's also a "Billed Month" view that's similar to the Recent, but the date range is set to the billing period.
Perhaps...
...or maybe no one was home until 4pm, upon arrival you turned on all the lights, cooked a big microwave pizza, cranked up the sound system and then left at 9pm.
...or maybe you were home all day just reading a book or taking a nap and then from 4pm-9pm had everyone over for the pottery class you teach in your basement and ran 10 potting wheels, then went to bed
...or maybe you are on vacation and you have high wattage lamps set to come on from 4pm-9pm to give the appearance that you were home.
...or maybe your wife was home all day and cleaning the house, playing games and reading books to your children and working in the garden and then around 4pm you came home, dinner was cooked, you and wife watched the TV in the living room while the kids played xbox on the home theater in the basement and then you all went to bed at 9pm.
That is the problem with the "conspiracies," there is nothing about this usage pattern that truly predicts what you did. All of these scenarios would look exactly the same on the graph. Thanks for sharing though, that is some very interesting output. It is fun to see how your power actually gets used!
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| reply to jchambers28
it's been a week and 1 day still cant log in |
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1 edit | reply to jchambers28
Do you think all the "savings" will be passed on to consumers? Or will this cost more money in the long run. |
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| reply to jchambers28
It took 6 weeks from the time ours was installed before we could login and see the usage. Even though they claim it's live usage it's delayed 3 days for us. |
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| reply to jchambers28
said by jchambers28:Do you thing all the "savings" will be passed on to consumers? Or will this cost more money in the long run.
Our co-op gives participants a bill credit every month for load control.
Not sure what it's going to be like in investor owned territory. Most likely your savings will go to pay CEO bonuses and dividends. |
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Jack_in_VAPremium
join:2007-11-26
Mathews, VA
kudos:1 | said by fifty nine:said by jchambers28:Do you thing all the "savings" will be passed on to consumers? Or will this cost more money in the long run.
Our co-op gives participants a bill credit every month for load control. Not sure what it's going to be like in investor owned territory. Most likely your savings will go to pay CEO bonuses and dividends. In Virginia if they have "excess" profits the SCC will force them to reduce the rates and give refunds to customers. |
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | reply to jchambers28
I FINALLY got a working In-Home Display delivered this morning (it's over a year late), and I'm just starting to get a good look at it. But within minutes after the utility guy left my wife was already complaining about it, and telling me how she's "not going to let that stupid, ugly little thing dictate to me what I can do!" As if she has any real control over the matter! |
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| reply to jchambers28
I was able to finally set up my power tools on the provider web site. |
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 SparkChaserPremium
join:2000-06-06
Downingtown, PA
kudos:3
·Verizon FiOS
| said by jchambers28:I was able to finally set up my power tools on the provider web site.
So, what do you think of the information and tools? |
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