If you live in British Columbia and you do NOT want a smart meter attached to your home, then you need to physically lock down your existing analogue meter to prevent the Corix installers from switching it over to a smart meter when they come to your neighbourhood. (Just make sure the meter reader can still read the dials on your old meter.)
A posted sign may NOT be sufficient protection. Corix installers have been disregarding posted signs and contravening direct verbal instructions from residents all over Vancouver Island.
Read my earlier posting for more details on this issue.
Sign the petition calling for a moratorium on wireless smart meters in BC.
Pre-register here to support a referendum on smart meters in BC.
Pig Squash Press 
COLLAR THIS! For those with very little time to wait or no skills to build, if you can act quick enough then call Pat at 1-250-335-2528. http://www.smartmeterlock.com
Leave an order for a hardened steel plain grey painted analog meter collar.
Don’t worry if you don’t reach him. He is busy welding. Just leave your name, number and your shipping address and ask him to expedite if Corix is due very soon in your area. (The installers know what they are doing is wrong so they are being secretive and no one knows really when they street or road is due for mass install)
Order as many welded hardened steel plain ordinary meter collars as you and your neighbourhood and family may need for all residences.
He ships them and if you pay more he can make it faster delivery.
Why not get a family pack or a neighbourhood watch pack?! He is a welder. He goes on trust. I know a woman who has a vacation home in the area he lives in. He went and installed it for her for $30 and she paid him later. But remember, she DID pay him – by cheque. He probably needs that form of payment not credit card.
PLEASE Don’t break the trust chain.
Whatever you do just be sure to pay him the $25 or $30+shipping.
It makes sense to share the cost of a multiple order of collars among friends, relatives, neighbours .
Your health, your children, your pets, all pollinators, all the birds bees butterflied bats and your life are all worth it.
He donates all cash above costs to the preschool where he lives.
There is even a 2nd welder there also named Pat who also makes them but details are not as clear for this option.
As for installing the collar?
You use one directional screws to install.
If needed it also helps to get a person who knows how to do it for you. Easy application.
Bear in mind you are a majority shareholder in BC Hydro. The analog meter is YOURS. Some people even have receipts for purchase still in their files.
So securing the analog meter is the same as theft prevention by using a tamper proofing tool.
Take back your power and hang on to your meter.
This collar will also buy you time to plan for whatever next steps. Security stops anxious worry and gets rid of feelings of vulnerability/ It also gives you the way to plan for a more aesthetic solution such as to enclose the entire meter except the face of it and to design a meter “birdbox” style with a small opening around the collared meter once the meter itself is secured, maybe with some house co-ordinated appealing looking enclosure box. Just leave the face visible to read the meter.
So far it is still against the law for a monopoly electrical supplier to cut off the electricity for anyone who has proof of payment that their energy bills are up to date. You are not stealing electricity. There is no mandate for WIRELESS METERS in the BC CLEAN ENERGY ACT. Don’t forget to secure you gas and water meters as well. Those too are slated for smart meters. Be smarter than all of this. Act now.
The B C Supreme Court ruled against the police being able to act as judge and jury regarding road side suspensions.
Part of suspension law struck down
Judge rules review process for suspended drivers inadequate, unconstitutional
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Part+suspension+struck+down/5794275/story.html#ixzz1fIimNxTNde suspensions for impaired driving .
Perhaps this can relate to the BC Government Bullies forcing Smart Meters on our homes?
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Doing this is illegal to do to your meter. Read the energy tariff, BC Hydro needs to have access to its equipment at all times. Also if there is a safety issue such as a fire, locking down the meter as is shown in the pictures above, will prevent the firefighters form being able to do their jobs due to safety issues. Contrary to the above statement that the meter is “yours”, it is in fact the property of BC Hydro, customers only own from the meter base back to the house. There are a lot of misleading facts out in cyberspace right now about the whole Smart Meter issue. Being played up is the “major health risks” that are linked to the meters. Here is some facts that are over looked, Smart meters only relay their information for a total of 1 minute a day out of 24 hours, the amount of wifi exposure that one would come into contact with from the meter is about 0.1 cm/ 10 square meters. This is compared to wifi from a cell phone which is between 50-500, and that of wifi from cafes or fast food chains that offer the services for free which can exceed over 1000 cm/ 10 square meters. The total exposure for the meters entire life span of about 20 years is equivalent to a 30 minute cell phone call. Smart meters are in use and have been in use in many countries around the world, including the UK which is light years a head of North America for clean/ green energy. A huge thing about smart meters is their ability to detect power outages the moment it happens. As it is now BC Hydro has to wait for customers to call in to report the outages. For those that were affected by the outages from the massive storms in the lower main land would have greatly benefited from this technology as the crews could have been dispatched as soon as the meters reported the outage, not at 8 am when the first calls started to come in about the outages. People have to do solid research into issues like this, and not just jumping on the band wagon of every nut out there that can post what they want to on line and claim it for fact. In talking with friends and neighbors, I have been unable to find the exact articles that are saying that the meters are spontaneously exploding, or cause tumors and birth defects. The same accusations have been made about microwave ovens, cell phones, even eggs and milk have all been said to cause said health complications. The only way to move forward to better our lives is to embrace change . The only way to move forward to a better future is to change what we are currently doing, greener ways to produce power for our consumption needs to start some where. Smart meters are an effective way to start to change an old failing infrastructure that we currently are using. Short of us all giving up all our electronic devices and going back to living off the land (which wouldn’t be too bad) we need to start thinking about making major changes, not just living with the status quo , and then complain when things aren’t changing. Change is good, not changing will eventually bring us to our end, not just with smart meters but with our total thinking about everything we do be it clean energy, heath care, or economy. Changes need to be made to grow.
There are a lot of lower level BC Hydro managers, foremen/women, and employees that have been with BC Hydro for 20 plus years refusing smart meters because of health, safety, privacy, etc. The smart meter may let Hydro know when the power goes out, but it will not get the power on any sooner. With the cap on overtime there may not be any extra staff to go out and repair the outages as soon as they have in the past. They will pay OT for contractors at 10 dollars more an hour but will not pay OT for their own staff. Alot of the contractors have an OT cap also. As for the meter barricade and firefighters, they are not qualified to touch the meter, and have to call Hydro to disconnect the power. Hydro can take care of that with no problem.
Thank you, Lyla, for making these points. All very valid and important for people to know! 🙂
I agree with “smrtsnotallbad”.
If you read the Hydro Tariff – hydro employee, including Corix and Accenture are required to have access to the Meter on the side of our house.
And that the Meter is the proprerty the BC Hydro and not the Home owner.
As far as all of you bleeding Hearts out there thinking that all that the big bad hydro wants to do is &*^% you.
Get over yourselves.
If you don’t want a smart Meter that’s fine, try living without power for a couple days and see what you say then.
Smart Meter are the Future stop kicking and screaming into the 21st Centry
The notion that a citizen’s only two choices in a free and democratic society are: 1) accept a corporation strapping a cancer-causing surveillance device onto your house against your will, or 2) live without electricity, that is ludicrous in the extreme, John. Surely you have heard of this thing called civil liberties…?
If you think a smart meter causes cancer than you better not ever use a cell phone. Hey you better not even use your cordless home phone, seeing that they use more radio waves than the smart meters.
And I’m sorry to say but you don’t have a choice. Everybody is getting a smart meter , like it or not.
Maybe you should have made more of a stink years ago when SMI hadn’t been approved yet.
I don’t use cell phones or cordless phones. Or microwave ovens. Or wifi internet. Or wireless mouse/keyboard. Or any of that crap. Nor do I have any of that crap anywhere on my property. And some corporation is not going to change that. If they do, I will remove their device. Here is the video showing everyone how to do it (best to hire an electrician to do the actual deed, of course): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ8YR7Kzj_M
And you sir, are a victim of BC Hydro advertising! O, and lack of energy to do the research on these meters!
YOU ARE A COMPLETE IDIOT!!
You and smrtsnotallbad are naive as a 6 year old to believe BCH BS. But that is your choice to be sheeple.Stand up for your rights ppl.This whole thing stinks from top to bottom! We will see if the power is cut to thousands of ppl who do stand up to this BS.My meter is locked and Registered mail is in to Minister and BCH CEO.Corix has come and gone and guess what….I still have power.
kinda obvious who you work for, ever thought that you get bombarded by every smart meter you happen to be near all frikin day and night so a little here a little there all day long get it mr smarty pants da!! it’s not just mine but everybodies
Well I could take issue with just about everything you’ve written, but it would take too long. I’m thinking you either work/subcontract with/for BC Hydro and/or the BCLibs! Or you’ve listened to way too many ads ($5.5 mil of our TAX $) to try to foist this onto the public. You need to do research (easily found thru Google), about the $ ties to this project – Corix, BCLibs …. now those are facts you can believe – not the hogwash you’re spouting! To anyone reading this, I say: PROTECT YOUR HEALTH, YOUR ANALOG METER, YOUR PRIVACY, AND YOUR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS! Lock up your meter and be sure to take pictures (dated) of it (for court if/when they damage your property).
to smartnotallbad: Lots of empty rhetoric in your VERY long comment! I suggest you check out the down-side of “smart meters” of all types and the potential for such “Change” that you cannot even imagine. A good start would be a recent Cambridge University study and its subsequent results. Change is good, yes, in fact “change is the only constant” BUT change without forethought, and change without PUBLIC INPUT BEFORE that change occurs (especially in OUR PUBLIC UTILITY) is NOT a good thing….in fact it is downright fascist!!
You are absolutely right Kate! There is no way I will have one of those things on my property either! We do live in a democracy, and just because BCHydro spent all that money on smart meters in order to line the pockets of themselves and their cronies,
does not mean, nor give them the right to force these things on to us!
When calling Southern California Edison about the safety of the Smart Meter early on, I spoke with one of the Safety Engineers. He told me that the Smart Meters emit EMI/RFI 24 hours a day in bursts of a few seconds to a minute or longer.Your information of only
1 minute a day out of 24 hours is totally incorrect.
But the point is that it tracks and monitors what is going on inside your home continually, and monitors when you are not at home. It is also the biggest marketing tool. Who is all of this informationabout you being sold to?Why would anyone want their personal privaci invaded in such a devious way?? Please get yourself educated with accurate information.
There are videos showing how the meters are constantly broadcasting much more than just one minute!?
smrtsnotallbad says: “Doing this is illegal to do to your meter.”
Smrtsnotallbad, you need to educate yourself properly on the issues involved with forcible installations, etc.
It is absolutely illegal to forcibly install a Smart Meter without the consent/knowledge of the owner – period.
If you are content to live and continue to exist in a fascist, totalitarian dictatorship, ruled by extremely corrupt corporations, then that’s your own problem. It doesn’t mean everyone else wants to.
BC Hydro needs access to READ the meter (which these barricades do not prevent). BC Hydro is NOT entitled to further access. Tens of thousands of residents have barricaded their analog meters thusly with none being taken to court for doing so. No evidence whatsoever that a barricade that still permits meter-reading constitutes anything illegal.
Smart Meters – something to be afraid of? http://www.squidoo.com/beware-of-smart-meters
Every single person out there can choose to believe any lie or truth they want just like all human beings we have a choice in everything. The day we have no chioce in if we want to have anything attached to our house, be it cancer causing or not, is the day we are no longer human. I don’t believe that anyone can say that we have NO chioce, that we are going to get a smart meter if we like it or not. Stand up for what you believe in, Decisions are made by those who show up.
Exactly!!
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I’m sorry you’ve been brainwashed Kim, the fact is the world is changing and we will leave you behind. It’s sad to see that you sit in your house 24/7 and you still get bombarded with wireless waves. Clearly you don’t use a cellphone/cordless phone/microwave, and I hope you have never used an AM/RM radio, rabbit ears, CRT television.
When you move/are born into a country you agree to abide by that countries laws, if you don’t abide by them you face consequences. Just like the law, BC Hydro has given you rules to follow if you want to use there services. If you don’t want to follow their rules you don’t have to use there service, go and generate your own power. Don’t con all these people into losing power because of your made up facts that have no support.
It’s time to grow up and embrace the change, it took change to light up your home and I won’t have people like you who are afraid of change ruining life for those who have a little common sense.
Like it or not, James, BC Hydro is still a Publicly-Owned corporation; we paid for all the dams and infrastructure with our taxes and Hydro bills; we paid for “our” Hydro analogue meters, too.
Common sense means checking the unbiased science not paid by Big Telecom, and following the money trail before you call anyone “afraid of change.” How is it that turn-coat politicians, aka Liberal supporters, and Hydro directors, aka friends of Liberal supporters, received an $80m contract to install smart meters across BC?
How is it that WHO/IARC deemed radiation from one cell phone held against one user’s head to be a Class 2B carcinogen, but didn’t mention the massive increase in radiation from cell networks, smart grids, home and public WiFi, cordless phones, baby monitors as damaging to DNA, calcium metabolism, and heart rhythm? Or the environmental effects of all that radiation on eg. migrating creatures, throwing them off-course by interfering with their magnetite homing devices? Or the DNA damage to eggs and sperm caused by using a laptop or texting with the device held near your gonads? Could it be the at least three Big Telecom representatives on the IARC panel skewed the results of the so-called “unbiased” committee?
Could Hydro’s talking heads really not know that humans (and all living creatures) are electrical beings, and that manmade electromagnetic microwave radiation directly interferes with that natural living wavelength? Haven’t they ever had an ECG to measure electrical impulses of the heart, or an EEG for electrical impulses of the brain? Or do they not have hearts or brains? Common sense, James, just common sense.
To refuse to have a smart meter installed because it emits radio frequency waves is ludicrous. There is not one place on earth that radio waves do not reach, there is no escape from it. These meters emit a power of 1 watt for an approximate total of 1 minute throughout the day. The average FM radio or television station transmits at about 50,000 watts of power 24/7. Besides the millions of cell phones and cell phone towers there are also the VHF/UHF radios used by police and fire departments, taxi cabs and many other businesses and industries. What about the radios and radars used in the marine and aircraft industries. What these meters emit is a drop in the ocean compared to all the other RF sources out there. Think about that!
I’m sorry James Murphy, that YOU have been so brainwashed as to believe that the people who own BC HYDRO, that is US!! should have no say in important, perhaps life altering, “Change”. “ruining life for those who have a little common sense”…first off, keeping our analogue meters would not be ruining anyone’s life…what it would be doiing is PREVENTING a helluvalot of WASTE! What do you think is going to happen to all those old, perfectly functional meters?? the junk heap at great cost both environmentally AND monetarily. Why do you think our Hydro costs are going up by FIFTY PERCENT???? these so called smartmeters are a part of it…check out the Cambridge study on smartmeters AND google BC HYDRO Debt…it might enlighten you to “change”….
Cheers!
I am right there with you, Kim. don’;t let bullies like this guywho has to have all the “toys” and goodies to make his life more bearable. Some of us DO have a life away from all the “toys” of the world and would rather relate to humans face to face rather than machines that take away our humanity, are emotionles and omit much of the personal human communication. May I suggest that you get yourself a life an take your face out of your gadgets and lookl around at the beauty without your “toys”.
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Read
http://www.optimumenergy.com/how-to-test-your-smart-meter-for-accuracy/
I live in the Durham region in a townhouse that is about 32 years old and has baseboard heaters. But we have new windows. Now when I got my hydro bill back in August of last year and it was over $800 for 3 months, I almost choked. I thought well if this is how much it is in the nice weather what am I going to do in the winter. We got a gas fireplace so that we wouldn’t have to use the baseboards. Well as the months went by and we got another bill that was 800.00+ I didn’t understand since we had a smart meter and we were being vary carful when we used the washer/dryer, dish washer etc. I spoke to the hydro guy and his explanation for the high bills was because we have baseboard heaters and the “Smart Meter’s wouldn’t be turned on until December of this year (it was installed early last year). When I told him that we didn’t even turn them on he didn’t have an explanation, other than there were other people like me in certain “pockets” getting enormous bills. Well I got another 800.00+ bill in May. I tried to speak to someone at the Hydro company to test my energy consumption but was told that we would have to pay an outside company to check this. They didn’t even tell me about the “dispute Test” that Mike mentioned. I just keep paying the bill because well we all know what happens when you don’t. I just got a new bill yesterday and low and behold my bill was just over $400.00 dollars and I have had my “window shakers” on for the last month or so. So if I am using more power then how the does my bill go down by half.
In order for a smart meter to be in installed the old meter must be taken out resulting in loss of power to your home for a few minutes. Along with your meter lock add a simple sign “LIFE SUPPORT EQUIPMENT-DO NOT TURN OF THE POWER”
I don’t want a smart meter. If you are on life support equipment, it should always have a backup power supply. You never know when the power may go out. Currently you can register as not wanting a smart meter with bc hydro by email or phone or letter. Give your name, address,and account number and they will bipass you for now. Their email is smartmeters@bchydro.com
Interesting
The hack-ability of these smart meters will wake everybody up, especially in mid-winter.
David Chalk, one of the world’s most notable hackers, claims he and a small team would be able to cause such bedlam, in a matter of a couple of days, causing a very large part of the North American power grid to go down, and not be back on line for weeks if not many months.
A smart hacker could confuse a power station to put out more and more juice for no reason than to run the equipment to the ground, even burn up.
I’m an industrial electrician, and I’ve seen power stations after explosions and fires, due to human error. It takes a long time to bring things back. Just think what will happen to society when the N.American grid gets a hit to it’s vulnerable head. The problem list will include the disruption of food, transportation, heat in winter, water supplies, police, fire, hospitals, etc. We know they all have stand-by power, but how long does that last before gas can’t be delivered?
To join all the grids with smart meters, opens up this Pandora’s box. Keep things simple, keep the analogue meters, keep privacy [so hackers don’t know if you’re away from an unsecured home] keep the meter-readers.
What just happened in India should be a warning not to amalgamate power grids. no power for days, right in the middle of a heat wave. It’s not a matter of entering the new century, it’s a matter of not going along with the bullshit that dot com airheads gladly swallow. Wake up fools.
Clark and Coleman, just two of the many bags of donkey shit, think of only one thing, lining their own pockets, and the shite friends they have hiding behind those dark, conniving doors. They’ll be gone soon, gone to choke on the martinis in their retirement clubs. They couldn’t give a kipper’s dick for the mess they’ll leave behind. Fuck ’em!
I’m holding back on the really bad words.
RIGHT ON Liverpool Pete!
There are no words to describe the current governments blatant self interest and flagrant disregard for our supposed “democracy”.
BARRICADE your analog meters – Flood the Legislature with OPT OUT DEMANDS – FLOOD the MEDIA with your OUTRAGE!!! MAIL IN your REMOVAL DEMANDS to Hydro, the PREMIER, to Adrian DIX, to BC Utilities commissions – to BC’s OMbudsman!!!! Support the Lawsuits with your $Money$ via StopSmartMetersBC.ca and CitizensforSafeTechnology.ca
– DO NOT GO QUIETLY on this or we will be saddled with RF emitting surveillance devices which will incrementally chill free speech by monitoring peoples movements, habits and whereabouts in their own homes, via this Itron meter’s embedded Zigbee chip.
At the following link, even Dr. Blatherwick, Hydro’s big gun supporting their claim that everything is just hunky dory, states in the video that he does not know anything about the way these meters burst thousands of time per day. Starts slow but is a great informational video!
Brian Thiesen: Technical Facts and Political Adgenda of SmartMeters
Why do some of the comments seem to sound like straight out of the play book of BC Hydro
These employees of the inner circle of plutocrats that run BC Hydro do not have the right to dictate a persons choice when it comes to their homes.This devises are anything but green made of plastic and cheaply in a third world country.How about you guys get out of the Fossil fuel industry and use something green like glass instead of Dinosaur left overs to make your meters.
BC Hydro is a monopoly originally for the collective of all BC residents not for some Liberal insiders to make money from meter installation ie: David Emerson.This whole scheme is Fascist to the very core.British Newspapers are already discussing the big brother aspect of being forced to have the power grid be able to manipulate your appliances.This is not about Environmental anything its about control and money period.Citizens not consumes need to wake up to the obnoxious futre that this Fascists are serving up fast to a apathetic populace.
Cant you just cut the tab they have on the case and rip out the smart meter yourself. What could happen if I did this?
Yes, you can absolutely remove the smart meter yourself and replace it with a properly certified and safe analogue meter that you purchase online for $50. It is best to follow the steps shown in Jerry Day’s video here, so that BC Hydro can’t accuse you of “stealing” power: https://pigsquash.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/how-to-replace-your-smart-meter-with-a-safe-meter/
However, BC Hydro will likely respond (after a battle with you) by cutting off your power altogether. That is what they did to Deb Stutters in Peachland earlier this year, when she did precisely that. Story here: http://electroplague.com/2013/04/18/bc-hydro-cuts-power-to-smart-meter-refuser/
Still… I believe if hundreds or thousands of us did this, it would be effective civilian resistance to corporate invasion of our homes, privacy and health. It is hard to imagine BC Hydro cutting power to hundreds or thousands of homes.
Yesterday 2 March 2015 Hydro came to install a Smart meter against my wishes, even after years of letters, emails and tel calls, they still plan to over-ride personal choice. Yes I pay the monthly penalty, the highest on North America. The Hydro guy, when asked said “Yes, we will install the Smart meter even if you are not home”. So any so called agreement with Hydro is BS.
Outrageous that Hydro is still doing this. What city/town are you in? Others need to be alerted that BC Hydro is STILL forcing death meters on people.