Dr. Bill Wattenburg, who does a weekend talk show on KGO, San Francisco (810 kHz, which you can usually hear pretty well up and down the West Coast after dark; you can also listen to it via their web site, <a href="http://kgoradio.com">kgoradio.com</a> ; hourly archives stay up for until overwritten the following week; Wattenburg's program is also available at a podcast through iTunes) on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. It'll be interesting to hear what he has to say about this article tonight.<div>
<br></div><div>A shortcut to his web pages at the KGO site is <a href="http://drbill.us">drbill.us</a> </div><div><br></div><div>Note that he has been criticizing the "smart" meters since 2006. He believes that no more of these meters should be installed until they are properly tested. He describes what tests need to be done on one of the links.</div>
<div><br></div><div>One of the links to one of his papers doesn't work right, but I found that the correct URL is:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.energy.ca.gov/2006publications/CEC-500-2006-058/CEC-500-2006-058.PDF">http://www.energy.ca.gov/2006publications/CEC-500-2006-058/CEC-500-2006-058.PDF</a><br>
<br></div><div>That paper is a report of testing done at Lawrence Livermore Labs on how a reduction in voltage would affect various pieces of equipment. Testing shows that current air conditions operate most efficiently at 210 VAC. He recommends they be redesigned to be most efficient at 230 VAC. He also recommends that utilities reduce the voltages supplied to 115 VAC and 230 VAC from 120 and 240 VAC. This would result in a power savings of about 2.7%.</div>
<div><br></div><div>In recent months, some people have reported that sub-contractors of PG&E have come to people's homes, cut their power (without warning) and installed "smart" meters. Dr. Bill has recommended that people who are concerned about the accuracy of these new meters have an electrician install one of the old style meters on the customer side of the new meters so they have something to compare the new meters against. He also believes that the "smart" meters can be easily hacked.</div>
<div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, May 23, 2010 at 13:30, matti <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mathew_2000@yahoo.com">mathew_2000@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<br>
interesting.. they are using a mesh grid<br>
and plan to start billing people more at<br>
peak time..<br>
<br>
hmmm.. I wonder about RF interference to<br>
that grid<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_15112878" target="_blank">http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_15112878</a><br>
<br>
best<br>
<font color="#888888">matti<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Stan Slonkosky<br><br>
</div>