It's new; It's good for you; Do you smell smoke?

| No Comments
This is going to be some major litigation. From The Vancouver Sun:
�Unusual� number of fires, smart meters linked
Smart meter installations are the suspected cause of an �unusual� number of fires similar to a recent electrical fire at a home in Mission, according to a recent investigation by the Ontario fire marshal�s office.

BC Hydro is in the process of a $1-billion installation of the meters, which use wireless technology to transmit information about electricity consumption to power utilities, following the lead of provinces and states including Ontario and California.

There�s no evidence to suggest that the meters themselves are overheating and catching fire, but it appears from an Ontario fire marshal�s report, dated June 15, 2012, that the base plates, or four-pronged sockets that meters plug into, can become compromised and start to burn if they�re old or suffer rough handling during installation.

�It�s like everything else, once it�s installed and intact nothing usually happens,� said Surrey electrical contractor Bill Strain, a former president of the Canadian Home Builders Association.

�A lot of times, when you pull something apart, if it�s been there for 30 years it�s probably going to be rusted in or hard in. So they have to give it a little bit of a jerk or a twist. That jerk or twist may be what sets the whole thing in motion,� Strain said Friday. If there�s a problem, he added, it�s possible that a contractor without formal electrical training may miss it.

A resident of Mission, Trish Regan, recently lost her home in a fire that the district�s fire department said appeared to originate from a broken base plate that became overheated and caught fire a few hours after an employee of Corix, the company contracted by BC Hydro to install the meters, plugged one in at her home.
Not a big fan of smart metering -- this is invasive. I can see the need to get a better handle on ones electrical consumption but this should be performed within the house and by the owner. The utility should not be keeping the data. Begnin now but how would you like to see an extra $5 on your monthly bill because you ran the washing machine at Noon instead of at 3:00AM. Invasive. A commenter brought out some damning information:
Smart meter fire on Darwin Ave., Coquitlam this morning. BC Hydro is blaming the smart meter base again. Problem for them is that this is a brand new subdivision so they can't blame it on a cracked, old crumbling meter base.
Lots of other great comments and links -- this is not a small story. Like I said, the litigation will be interesting...

Leave a comment

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on August 6, 2012 8:18 PM.

Congratulations Curiosity was the previous entry in this blog.

Here's how you do it - the Cheesecake Hospital is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9