In Houston Texas, “Local 2 investigates Smart Meter fires” reports they looked into homeowners complaints of Smart Meter fires and found some people are left with no electricity and major damage to their homes, including burnt out appliances after a Smart Meter has been installed by the utility.
“Charles Phillips saw smoke coming from the transformer in his backyard one morning last November. When he went out to inspect the damage, he said he saw a CenterPoint Energy contractor at his meter box with a fire extinguisher. He told me it had caught on fire, Phillips said.”
“Inside Phillip’s home, two TVs were fried, his air conditioner and garage door opener stopped working, and all of the wires and cables hooked up to his electronics were melted from the jolt his electronics took when a fire sparked after the installer removed his old meter. Phillips was left with a total of about $2,500 in damages.”
According to the article, Centerpoint, the utility for Houston Texas, has admitted the connection, stating there has been less than 100 problems. “CenterPoint’s LeBlanc said the problem is mostly in older homes where wiring is not up to code or something has caused a strain on the wires running into the meter box.”
In other areas, news reports indicate some utilities are beginning to recognize the problem. According to this article, A CEO of Oncor, another Texas utility, says, “the company has a new procedure for installation of smart meters after two house fires in Arlington last week. Robert Shapard says old wiring in two homes could not support the new smart meters.”
In the State of Maine a news report states a utility supervisor admits finding Smart Meter fire hazards, “…the technicians are actually discovering more possible fire hazards than the company anticipated, and informing customers of dangers they otherwise would not have known existed. He said, so far, they have discovered 70 to 80 electrical issues in the Portland area.”
Powercor, a utility company in Australia, recognizes the safety risk from Smart Meters, stating, “A defect notice is issued when a wiring safety issue is identified.” In Victoria, Australia, installers identified possibly life-threatening electrical hazards in 3500 Victorian homes.
In July 2010 Cindy Sage, Sage Associates and James J. Biergiel, EMF Electrical Consultant wrote an article describing the risks of “Wireless Smart Meters and Potential for Electrical Fires.”
The EMF Safety Network has been collecting stories and news reports onthis issue. Two unreported stories involved house fires and suspicions of possible links to the newly installed Smart Meters. One fire started in a surge protector, which destroyed the older home. The other was reported to start in a swamp cooler and the owner died in the fire. Both had recently installed Smart Meters. In the second fire, a loud humming was heard in the home, an explosion sound and a computer fried, and later the fire erupted.
More info: Smart Meter Fires and explosions.
I have been an electrician for over 55 years and I agree with Bob Marley (I hope he’s not the dead one – LMAO).
“says old wiring in two homes could not support the new smart meters.”
How stupid do these power companies think we are? The wiring is to OLD TO SUPPORT THE FREAKING METER? Garbage. Even as an apprentice, I know that is a total lie. And even a non-electrician should know this. A Smart Meter does not do anything to the wires that analog ones don’t.
The reason for fires is because the people who install them are not qualified electricians and do not know how to check for damage on the lugs and will force the meter into the socket if it doesn’t go in the first time. The result? The meter lugs in the base crack from being treated so roughly, the power flowing through them heat it up, something ignites and FIRE.
A likely explanation for some of the damage caused by these meters may be in the solid-state relay for shutting your power off remotely in the meter.
Solid-state relays (SSRs) use triacs as switches. Triacs are paralleled SCRs (silicon controlled rectifiers), one to conduct the positive half-cycle, and the other to conduct the negative half-cycle. Sometimes they fail half-way, causing half-wave rectified DC (direct current) to flow in the circuit. This can blow up appliances connected to it, as well as burn out transformers supplying the circuit.
Having seen SSR failures like this, I know it can happen, and these results would be expected. Another reason such an unreliable device belongs on no home!
The cord ontario,canada gov. has recently installed smart meters.Since mine was installed my lights experience a power surge when a major appliance is turned on. In addition there is now a power drop when you plug in a small air compressor on an extension cord,which was fine before. These smart meters are defective,they are putting a strain on fridges,air conditioners because of amperage drop,which heats compressors and in fact uses more power thus there is your higher bill.
As an electrician for over 30 years, I can say that I have some very strange things happen with electrical wiring installations done many years ago. But these hoaky installations usually fail when someone comes in and tries to do things up to code.
I know that a good copper wire installation can last for 100 years or more, as long as nobody messes with it, even if it is knob and tube wiring done correctly.
For these power companies to claim that the fires, malfunctions of GFCIs and AFCIs, appliances that are UL approved, medical equipment, radio gear, switchgear and security lighting systems is not the fault of the new radio meters is a lie.
It is the fault of the new meters, it’s obvious when all the devices have been working fine for decades in a building.
When troubleshooting, we start at where the problem is and work backwards to the source, in the case of the malfunctioning new radio meters, that is where the problem is. If everything else checks out fine, then these power companies are completely liable for their faulty installations done by non-electricians who are not qualified or permitted to work on something as critical and important as an electrical system which is the most important system (besides water) for any dwelling.
It seems to be the new age of trashing electrical codes, complete disregard for citizens health and safety, trashing citizens property and privacy rights, propaganda brainwashing campaigns- using federal stimulus money to pay for all this BS, and basically treating everyone that is not one of the elite in the funny money club like dung.
How much longer will this continue before there is a real blowout ?
Even PG&E admits that the addition of all the new energy hogging meters will cause brownouts (voltage sags due to the new load of the meters), but what about actual blackouts ?
That is when traffic signals go dark, people get trapped in elevators, electric transit systems fail, water and sewer treatment plants and related pump stations are shut down, and the corporate looters move back in to really “clean up”.
Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights- and don’t give up the fight.
Bob Marley.