Smart Meters, So Smart?

An argument is brewing about smart meters in the city of Fountain. These meters would measure home and business electric usage and beam that information directly to Fountain City Utilities. The meter reader would be bypassed as a result of this high tech. Some are worrying about possible medical problems because of increased radio frequency waves. Others are worrying about cost involved with the proposal.

Fountain Utilities tells me, the community’s electric meters have had radio’s in them to measure your power usage. A meter reader has to physically be there to push on a computer to collect the information. The new smart meter gets that information directly to Utilities.

Experts say the radio frequency exposure from cell phones when you put one up to your head is 30 to 10,000 microwatts per square centimeter. A smart meter electric device is .1 r.f. at ten feet. You can see the dramatic and negligible difference between the two.

Half of the money to pay for the smart meters is from the federal government. The other half which is roughly two million would be collected over three years from Fountain electric rates. Utilities doesn’t expect a rate hike because of the smart meters. Fountain Utilities would like the smart meters online by mid 2013. We’ve got the facts about smart meters. Go to our front page, links we mentioned.