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Smart Electric Meters
To view an excellent power point presentation on Smart Grid & Smart Meter Architecture, presented by engineer and fellow building biologist
Tom Wilson of Orlando, Florida, at the
Wireless Safety Summit in Washington, D.C.
on October 5, 2011, click
here. This page last updated January 24, 2012. Smart Meter News *New*
PG&E offers to let customers keep analog, mechanical meters *New*The
Center for Safer Wireless has released a
Citizens Call for Action by the Congress and the Administration. This is based upon information presented
at the Wireless Safety Summit, held this past October 2011 in Washington, DC. To view the document, click
here.
A new nationwide citizen's action website,
Smart Meter Help, has been launched by
Joshua Hart's
Stop Smart Meters and Sandra Maurer's
EMF Safety Network, both in Northern California. Highlights of proposed Opt-Out program: Commissioner Michael Peevey of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed Decision Modifying Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) Company's Smartmeter Program to Include an Opt-Out Option on November 22, 2011. This decision would also apply to the state's other regulated electric utilities, Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E). It would also be adopted by local non-regulated municipal power companies, such as Glendale Water and Power. The earliest this determination could be adopted is within 20 days after the next meeting of the CPUC, which is scheduled for January 12, 2012, and it could be implemented some time after that. To download a PDF file of the proposed decision, click here. The following are select quotes from the CPUC draft, dated November 22, 2011, followed by commentary from Oram:
Commentary on Opt Out program by Oram: My first thought is that I am grateful that the California PUC commissioner has made the decision to issue an opt-out provision at all, even though the CPUC and the utilities consider that wireless radio transmissions from smart meters are safely below the FCC's guidelines and their decision will slow implementation of this federally mandated program to upgrade the electricity grid. The fact that this petition came before the CPUC and that they have decided to implement it is due to steady pressure by the public to protest this unwanted and harmful technology. I am most appreciative that electrically-sensitive individuals will at least have the option of not having radio transmissions enter their home from their own electric meter. Yes, there will still be harmonic frequencies of voltage spikes riding in on electric circuits (see below), which do need to be filtered within every digital meter, but there is some degree of shielding potentially possible for this if you are lucky enough to live in a home with metal-clad wiring and you shield your plastic AC power cords (see below). We will also still be exposed to incoming signals from neighbors' smart meters that are part of the "mesh network," but again, there is shielding also available for that (see below). The issue of who bears the cost of any opt-out plan is still being hotly debated and is a price we may have to pay for now in this ongoing battle, but at least it appears that an opt-out option will become a reality in one fashion or another. Ultimately I believe that just as public pressure has brought us to the point where an opt-out option is about to be imposed upon a first adopter electric utility, PG&E, we will in time also arrive at a more definitive point of resolution where they will have to find a way to affordably replace wireless communications with strictly hardwired options and all smart meters will have internal filters to block unhealthy voltage spikes. Finally, bear in mind that if this opt-out program goes through and you are presently on a delay list (see below), you will need to excercise the opt-out option as spelled out in the final plan authorized by the CPUC within the timeframe allowed or else a smart meter will be installed. For comments made on November 25, 2011 by Joshua Hart from San Francisco, which is ground zero for this issue, click here. Here are news reports on the Southern California Smart Meter Forum held on Thursday, November 10, 2011 in Glendale, California, sponsored by BurbankACTION and Stop OC Smart Meters, featuring Cindy Sage, Mindy Spatt, and Orlean Koehle:
Oram's initial Smart Meter article: Smart meters are becoming a serious health threat for some people in California and around the world. Reports of headache, dizziness, tinnitus, and lethargy abound. I personally hear reports every week from clients who say they have lived in their homes, sometimes for decades, without symptoms, and the day their smart meter was installed or soon thereafter, symptoms began. Electric (and water and gas) utilities are installing digital smart meters as part of a world-wide program to reduce electricity use and improve efficiency in homes and businesses. There are many down sides to these meters besides health. These include concerns about potential breaches of privacy, reports of overcharging, and unintended damage to household appliances, particularly low-voltage systems such as landscaping lighting, even an occasional fire. Clients tell me they hear these actual reports from the smart meter installers and utility officials themselves. One utility worker reportedly stated that all he does now is fix problems caused by smart meters. While the reason for deploying these meters is laudible, there are consequences to their deployment that need to be addressed. Workarounds do exist, which we discuss below. In our profession, we focus on the health impact of smart meter deployment. These devices contain two radio transmitters. The first communicates with a neighborhood area network (NAN) at approximately 900 MegaHertz (MHz). This allows each meter to send its data to neighboring meters up a heirarchy of the mesh network until the data from hundreds of meters is collected at a single designated meter and then sent via cell phone freqeuncies to a neighboring cell tower, and from there to the electric utility company. Thus radio frequencies are traveling through your home and neighborhood from one meter to another several times a minute. Some utilitiese, such as Glendale Water and Power (GWP), are putting these collector transmitters on utility poles, not people's homes. The other radio transmitter in each smart electric meter is designed to send a signal to and from appliances within your home to monitor and manage electricity use by appliances. Right now, some appliance manufacturers are already selling products with a built-in radio transmitter and as the appliance stock is turned over in the coming years, new refrigerators, stoves and washing machines and other appliances will contain this radio transmitter. This is called the home area network (HAN) and operates at 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz), often referred to as a Zigbee system, the same frequency used by some cordless telephones and all wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) routers. These radio transmitters emit pulsed digital frequencies up to several times per minute that enter the home. This transmitter is not yet activated in the smart meters deployed by some utilities and reportedly will only be done so if and when the homeowner signs up for monitoring of electricity usage from appliances. That is the position of Glendale Water and Power (GWP) and Pacific Gas and Electric in Northern California. The frequencies transmitted by either radio transmitter are similar to the frequencies used by cell phones, cordless telephones and Wi-Fi routers, devices already in use by the population (and which are also causing health problems). The power intensity is also roughly the same, particularly the closer you stand (or sleep) near the actual smart electric meter. We verify this with our radio frequency measuring devices and unfortunately find that many people in Southern California are sleeping right inside the location of their smart meter. The metal backing of the box that the meter is mounted upon provides some degree of protection, as does the stucco that most California homes have in their outer walls, but some frequencies still get through, particularly from your neighbors' houses through glass windows, which offer no protection whatsoever. There are shielding strategies that are effective, and they are reviewed below. I am finding an unfortunate phenomenon with some people that is somewhat baffling. That is, people who are otherwise normally tolerant of cell phones and other wireless devices find themselves having in some cases significantly uncomfortable symptoms when they are near smart meters, even when standing inside their own homes when it does not have a smart meter on it but those homes around theirs does. Some even complain that when they leave their home they feel better, but as soon as they drive back into their neighborhood, feelings of pressure, headache and dizziness return. The electric utilities claim these meters emit the same frequencies as cell phones and Wi-Fi routers but at an even less intensity, and frankly, my radio frequency meter generally bears this out, at least here in Southern California. What seems to be so harmful to these people, however, is the mesh network where signals are being broadcast as microbursts lasting only several milliseconds several times per minute from the meter on their house to other meters on a nearby house, on and on throughout the neighborhood, right through our walls. These people are extremely sensitive to this and are having trouble finding relief. The baffling thing to engineers and electric utility officials (and sometimes to those of us who are EMF consultants) is that our radio frequency meters do not pick up the frequencies beyond a certain point and yet these clients are symptomatic at further distances than our meters can measure. Utility officials incorrectly assume that if a radio frequency meter shows no measurable levels (and their safe threshold is much higher than ours), then everything must be safe. Researchers, building biologists and electrically-sensitive individuals know otherwise, that the human body can be more sensitive than sophisticated radio frequency detectors, meaning these people can still be bothered by these devices beyond the distance that our meters pick them up, even at the more stringent levels that we accept as safe. Also many of these people know they are electrically-sensitive and had to remove cell phones, cordless phones and Wi-Fi-enabled routers from their homes years ago because in their case, they react to them. They are having a particularly tough time with smart meters, finding that they feel relatively well when away from home but now feel ill when they return. This is very distressing and affects their lives and the lives of their family. Electric utilities, at least in Southern California, do not indicate publicly that they are aware that their smart meters affect some people, however, customers in Northern California have had smart meters longer than those of us in SoCal. Rate payers in NorCal who are symptomatic have been speaking out to the point that almost fifty municipalitiese have issued moratoriums on the installation of smart meters. While most of these resolutions do not have the force of law (though that is being debated), at least these cities and counties are on record as opposing smart meter installation. Whatever the legality of any one resolution, the good news is that as a result of this citizen push back, the California Public Utilitiese Commission now has before it a request to mandate an opt-out program for all publically regulated electric utilities in the state. The decision is expected sometime in the first quarter of 2012. (See above for a draft of the decision, dated November 25, 2011.) There is even another health concern that occurs within a home that has an electrical smart meter mounted on it. That is, high-frequency harmonic transient voltage spikes generated by what is known as the switched mode power supply within the electric smart meter. This is a type of transformer that steps 120 Volts coming in on one of the phases of power from the utility down to 3-5 Volts to run the circuit boards within the digital meter. The switched mode power supply has the unfortunate side effect of generating harmonic frequencies that radiate from all plastic-jacketed circuits in your walls throughout the house, as well as any plastic AC power cord that you plug in. These voltage spikes are a form of "dirty electricity" and they bother some electrically-sensitive people. An engineer in San Francisco, Rob States, measured these transient voltage spikes on his oscilloscope in the home of one of his clients living in the San Francisco area who has been symptomatic since the installation of a smart meter. He measured voltage spikes in the range of 50 KiloHertz (kHz), with a harmonic at 3.5 MegaHertz (MHz), and has indicated in other communications that he usually sees spikes at 100 kHz, with harmonics at 5 MHz. You can download his report by clicking here. I now have equipment to measure these harmonic frequencies with an oscilloscope / spectrum analyzer in client's homes here in Southern California. Unfortunately, to save $1-2, most smart meter manufacturers do not install a simple filter in their meters that would normally stop these irritating transient voltage spikes. Manufacturers of stereo equipment, that also use switched mode power supplies, do put these filters into their products because otherwise there would be an audible hum from the speakers. We advocate that smart meter manufacturers install these filters to stop this source of ill health for electric utility rate payers. See below for details. I should also add that Rob States, the engineer in San Francisco, stated in his report that he plugged in a Stetzer filter to see if it would reduce the transient voltages on the electric circuits in the home he was evaluating. Unfortunately, he stated that, "Inserting a Stetzer filter attenuated little of the power transients or harmonics." This is in distinction to what Dave Stetzer himself told me, which is that his filters should take care of the primary frequency from a switched mode power supply, and when you do that, they also filter out secondary frequencies in the MegaHertz range. This is because Stetzer filters are designed to filter out frequencies that are anywhere in the range of 2-150 kHz (from such sources as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), dimmer switches, halogen lights and other low voltage devices). The primary frequency found by Rob States for the switched mode power supply of the smart meters he usually measures in greater San Francisco is in the 50-100 kHz range. These frequencies should be taken care of by Stetzer or similar filters. Perhaps one needs to plug in more than one to see attenuation on an oscilloscope of the frequencies caused by a smart meter. The simple solution to all of this, as advocated in the position paper by Michael Schwaebe discussed below, is for smart meter manufacturers to insert a filter for the switched mode power supply at the factory and to have utility service technicians install filters into existing smart meters already deployed on people's houses. Since your old glass-encased analog meter with the spinning disc has neither radio transmitters nor this switched mode power supply, the ultimate solution, of course, is to keep your analog meter, if possible and to turn off the radio frequency transmitter(s) within smart meters and install filters for the switched mode power supply. Hopefully all California regulated electric utilities will be forced to at least shut off the radio transmitter(s) if the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) mandates it under the opt-out program being reviewed by the CPUC (this, indeed, seems to be the case -- see select quotes from a draft above). Of course, if your neighbors don't opt out and they still have smart meters, you still have the mesh network, but this is a step in the right direction until enough is known about these meters that they only use hardwired connections (no radio frequencies) to convey information and filters are installed for the switched mode power supply. Click here for details on suggested ways to shield against these transient voltage spikes from smart meters, if you are sensitive to them. Finally, I should mention that the radio frequency readings I am measuring with my Gigahertz Solutions HFE-35C radio frequency meter are less in intensity than what I see other people are measuring as shown on YouTube videos from smart meters in the San Francisco Bay area and in Ontario, Canada. Those were some of the first places in the US and Canada to deploy smart meters and the networks are now fully deployed and operational. I am hearing from clients that they are being told by their electric utilities in Southern California that as smart meters are being deployed here, the power density of radio frequency transmissions from each smart meter will be increased when all have been installed in a given neighborhood and the network has become fully operational. That may explain why I am measuring lower power density levels than those elsewhere. Also, there are several brands of smart meters on the market around the world. The electric utilities in Southern California almost always use Itron brand meters, while those in San Francisco use other brands and there are differences between manufacturers. Here are the options you have at present to avoid the ill effects of smart meters for electric utility customers in Southern California:
We have developed a consensus document on smart meters drafted by a building biologist and professional engineer, Michael Schwaebe of San Diego, with help from other engineers who are also building biologists and from practicing building biologists, including Oram. Michael prepared this document for a meeting he had with representatives of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to outline the true health impact of smart electric meters on the electrically sensitive and the general public. Our intent in preparing this document was to collobarate with electric utilities to identify the problem and propose technical solutions to result in a win:win solution for all concerned. To see Michael Schwaebe's "Wireless Smart Meter Networks Problem Statement and Solution," in Word format, click here. To see a power point presentation of this same document in PDF format put together by engineer and building biologist Tom Wilson, click here. Here are links to websites on Smart meters that you will find informative and helpful in learning what you can do for yourself and in your community. To see links to websites with information on how to shield yourself from smart meters, see further below. The People's Initiative -- Local Los Angeles initiative Burbank ACTION -- Local Burbank and Glendale, California initiative
Stop OC Smart Meters -- Local Orange County (California) initiative Stop Smart Meters Irvine -- Local Irvine, California initiative
Center for Electrosmog Prevention (CEP) -- A nonprofit based in
San Diego, California Smart Meter Help -- A joint project of EMF Safety Network and Stop Smart Meters. Encourages you to submit your smart meter complaint online to create a nationwide database to be submitted to utility companies, regulators and government officials. Sage Reports -- Cindy Sage's website with her report on "Assessment of Radiofrequency Microwave Radiation Emissions from Smart Meters." Her firm, Sage Consulting, is based in Santa Barbara, California EMF Safety Network -- Sandra Maurer's initiative in Sebastopol (Northern), California
Stop Smart Meters -- Joshua Hart's organization in Northern California "Just Say No to Smart Meters" -- Orlean Koehl's initiative in Northern California Refuse Smart Meters -- Based in Northern California Center for Safer Wireless -- Based in Virginia. The Center hosted the Wireless Safety Summit in October and will have audio and video of that conference available in December. Attendees met with their congressional delegations. As a result, "We have drafted a letter from Members of Congress to the US Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, asking her to investigate and issue health advisories concerning the potential adverse health effects due to nonionizing electromagnetic radiation from wireless communications technologies." Smart Meter Safety Coalition -- Based in Maine Smart Meter Matrix -- Based in Florida
Coalition to Stop Smart Meters -- Based in British Columbia Citizens for Safe Technology -- Based in Canada Smart Meter Shielding If you already have a smart meter and are awaiting the opt out program, you can shield yourself from your smart meter, at least to some extent. It turns out that the diffusion pattern of the 900 MHz radio signal that communicates with neighboring smart meters on nearby houses as part of the neighborhood (mesh) area network (NAN) is 90% outwards from the smart meter and only 10% behind it back into the house. The other signal that the smart meter is capable of transmitting, the 2.4 GHz Zigbee transmitter, is designed to broadcast back into the house, but this has not been turned on yet by some utilities until appliances are installed that have the transmitter to talk back to the smart meter as part of the home area network (HAN) and the homeowner has requested it. At least one utility (Glendale Water and Power Company) says it will only turn on the 2.4 GHz HAN transmitter when a customer signs up for the home area network option, designed to allow you to monitor electricity consumption by your appliances. Regardless of the frequency, the strength of radio transmissions also decreases exponentially with distance. I customarily measure up to a 90% reduction in signal strength of the radio transmission from a smart meter when I simply step back eight to ten feet from the meter outdoors. The readings that I get from the Itron smart meters used by electric utilities here in Southern California generally drops from 8,000-15,000 microWatts per square meter (uW/m2) at 1 foot to 300 uW/m2 or less at ten feet. Furthermore, the metal backing of the large metal box that the electric meter is mounted upon affords good shielding and effectively blocks most frequencies from coming indoors straight through the wall. Additionally, stucco siding found so commonly on California homes affords about 75% reduction of radio frequency transmissions on its own that come indoors at an angle. The net effect of having only a small portion of the major radio transmission aimed into the house coupled with the natural reduction in field strength of any radio signal with distance plus the shielding effect of metal and stucco all results in more than a 90% reduction in the signal strength that I measure inside a typical house as compared with the readings I get at the same distance from the smart meter outdoors, without any added shielding. The reading at 1-2 feet from the wall indoors is generally 300 or so microWatts per meter squared. When I then move six to eight feet further inside from the exterior wall, my radio frequency meter drops closer to less harmful exposure levels of 30-40 uW/m2 (we consider readings below 10 microWatts per meter squared to be safe for sleeping areas for all except the most electrically-sensitive). If this is your bedroom, however, you don't want to be sleeping in an environment with microbursts of radio waves with a field strength of a few hundred microWatts per meter squared pulsing into your sleeping area day and night every ten to fifteen seconds. Until you can opt out of the smart meter program altogether, you want to either sleep in another room or add additional shielding in order to further reduce your exposure to these radio frequencies. This would include the use of any of the fabrics or non-toxic carbon-based paints sold by the retailers linked to below. These may be necessary, depending upon your level of sensitivity, even if you can opt out because radio frequencies can still enter your bedroom from smart meters on neighbors' homes. A more affordable, though less aesthetically pleasing alternative, at least temporarily, to these fabrics and paint is to use several layers of aluminum foil or several sheets of a thermal blanket sold for $4 from Big Five or other sporting good store. For windows, you can purchase a roll of aluminum window screen and place it over your window, or have a local hardware store replace the vinyl plastic window screen found on most windows today with true metal (aluminum or steel) metal mesh window screen. Even though we can see through it, to a radio wave, the metal mesh screen material looks like a solid wall and it is effectively blocked. More expensive transparent tinting material for windows is available from the retailers below. You can also shield smart meters by wrapping them in aluminum foil outside. This will help to further reduce the transmission of radio frequencies to the side and back into your house at an angle through the stucco. As a reminder, you also don't want to sleep with the head of your bed against the wall that the electric meter is mounted upon, whether digital or analog, for a different reason. That is, due to the inevitable magnetic field exposure that all meters create within four feet or so in all directions. Here are links to websites of companies that sell shielding material for radio freqeuncy transmissions: Less EMF -- Information on how to shield your indoor living and work space from a smart meter, including what techniques and materials to use. Includes information about reflections, gaps and other pitfalls in shielding. Smart Meter Shield -- A full kit to cover your smart meter outside, including a shield for the inside of your wall. Protects you but still allows the utility to read the meter. Based in North San Diego County. If you are sensitive to the harmonic transient voltage spikes, or "dirty electricity" caused by the switched mode power supply in smart meters, here are suggested strategies to shield these high frequencies for those who are bothered by them. These include living in homes with metal-clad wiring in walls as well as replacing unshielded plastic AC power cords with shielded MU cord on lamps and other appliances (available from Less EMF -- I can provide a protocol for a small appliance repair shop or an electrician who can do the rewiring). We also recommend sliding shielded grounded conductive tubing over those plastic cords, such as to a refrigerator, that cannot be replaced or unplugged. This conductive tubing, which must be grounded to a properly grounded outlet, is also available from Less EMF. You can also use plug-in shut off switches, available at local hardware stores, to have these unshielded cords on for only a short time, or simply unplug them. These strategies should reduce all the electric field component of the transient voltage spikes, and much of the magnetic field component of these spikes, at least those above 1 MHz. This may help those who are suffering from voltage spikes, at least to a partial extent. Shielding is also possible using Finemet and Cobaltex fabric from Less EMF for those who need to create a safe room, such as a bedroom, particularly in apartment buildings where you have high frequency transient voltage frequencies coming through walls from neighbors' smart meters.
If you are part of or know of an organization that maintains a website covering this important issue, please pass the link along to Oram at info@createhealthyhomes.com. © 2012 Create Healthy Homes. All rights reserved.
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