info about smartmeters that you may want to be aware of
Judy Kosovich
From: Christopher B. Turner, Esq. <cbtur...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 12:07 PM
Subject: Fwd: fyi: link: smart meter fires: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?page_id=1280
To: judy.k...@gmail.com
From: Christopher B. Turner, Esq. <cbtur...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 4:17 PM
Subject: fyi: link: smart meter fires: http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?page_id=1280
To: phu...@pepco.com, pepcoc...@pepco.com, dco...@pepco.com, rwoo...@pepco.com
Dear Mr. Hughes, Mr. Francis, Ms. Cooper, Mr. Woodson,
Below is a section from the following website: emfsafetynetwork.org/?page_id=1280. I just found this article today when I was reading about a fire in California that might have been related to a smart meter. For the record I am not against smart meters. I am concerned about health, safety and accurate pricing issues. The below information is important. If the Smart Meters for example are interfering with GFI's then the consequences of that are not good (GFI's help prevent electrocution in bathrooms, kitchens, basements and other places where water may be present). Also I understand that some jurisdictions are using the powerlines, cable an/or fiber optic instead of wireless to run their smart meters. See the following article:http://gigaom.com/cleantech/the-case-for-powerline-communications/.
Sincerley, Chris Turner
Neighbors, Inc., vice president
Smart Meter Fires
1.Media report on a Smart Meter fire in Bakersfield. “Smart Meter Blows Up At Business”
“On Wednesday, a PG&E technician was called out to replace the meter after employees found the device burned up and lying on the ground. …”Basically it was an explosion. I saw the meter on the ground and the face plate was blew off and the whole meter was blackened. Even the breaker box that housed the meter was blackened by what seemed to be an electrical short,” said Vernon Nelson, an employee. Another employee wondered how safe the meters are in general, especially for residential families? ABC 23 contacted PG&E who said they are not aware of any smart meters catching fire or blowing up. However the PG&E technician told the employee as he was replacing the meter, that he had replaced at least 15 meters around town due to the same problem they had, said an employee.”
2. Online reader comment: “As a newspaper editor in little ole Cleburne County, Alabama we come out tomorrow with a story on a house which may have burned down because of a smart meter, another incident of a meter apparently getting so hot it almost burned along with circuit panel inside the home and people being told either by installer or power co that if they did not replace all the wiring in their home that the meter would indeed cause a fire!!!! I am told by a commercial builder that some meters may be faulty and allow 300-440 volts in on a home’s 220 and 110 lines. We’re seeing problems out here of burn outs in appliances, meltdowns of hair dryers, kitchen appliance , and a number of high-end electronics getting zapped. Goodbye Bose radio, goodbye wide, wide screen tv and see if the utility cos are going to pay for those items – don’t think so!”
3. PG&E Report[1]: “During the second quarter of 2009, PG&E discovered a limited number of cases of SmartMeter™ radio interference with customer electronics, including ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI) and arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI). In response, PG&E implemented a policy to defer meter installations at customer premises that PG&E is aware could potentially be affected by radio frequency interference. PG&E plans to install an adjustable voltage meter to prevent potential interference at these recorded locations. These adjustable meters are currently in final acceptance testing at PG&E. Upon final acceptance and approval, a schedule will be developed to deploy these meters at the premises where installation was deferred.” Pages 6-7
4. From New Zealand: Fire Prone Meter Boxes causing Concern
“Front line firefighters are concerned about the number of household power meter boxes that are bursting into flames.
There have been 67 callouts in Christchurch to electrical malfunctions so far this year, and new smart meters have been involved in three in the last five days. Graham Hobbs considers himself lucky. He was woken at 4:30am to find his smart meter on fire. ”I lifted this up it was still glowing and smoking, and slammed it shut to try and seal it off.” The following night Kelvin Dixon, who lives nearby, suffered a similar fate. ”I pulled into my drive way and found my meter box on fire great amounts of smoke.” Mr Dixon is a registered electrician and says the contactor that sits beneath the smart meter caught fire and melted.”
5. Modesto Irrigation District Finally Comes Clean About Smart Meters | THE VOICE OF MODESTO
Meters caused GFI problems-MID spent over $138,000.00 in overtime repairs to homes where the meters caused the GFI circuit breaker to trip causing service disruption for the homeowner. Modesto’s Head Electrical Inspector said while the people changing home wiring weren’t electricians, that it was the same as having a handyman in your home redoing the wiring so no inspection was needed, and that the homeowner assumed responsibility for the repairs. MID made the claim they weren’t aware of any homeowners paying for their own repairs, but if the homeowner didn’t know MID was at fault, they wouldn’t have contacted them.
6. The Utility Reform Network: Are Smart Meters a Better Way to do Business?
“They have shorted out appliances, they’ve caught fire, they interfere with garage door openers or security systems.” said Mark Toney of the Utility Reform Network.
7. Berkeley Fire Department Report: Smart Meter Fire
It states, “Investigation revealed the newly
installed PG&E Smart Meter in the kitchen was hot to touch and
smoking, with a orange glow inside the meter housing”
The issue was turned over to PG&E.
The following scan of the Berkeley fire department report is a large file and may take a long time to load:
8. Media Report: Vacumn Shop Fire Raises Smart Meter Questions
“There may have been warning signs that the electrical system wasn’t working properly before the 6:30 a.m. fire. Rawles and a friend of his, offshore crane operator Ty Allen, both said the remote meter appeared to have stopped working months before the fire. Rawles said calls to the utility went ignored.
Allen also described unusual marks on the meter before it caught fire.
“It looked like it’d been hot or burned inside the meter,” he said.”
“An incident report filed by the Bakersfield Fire Department the day of the fire appears to blame the meter. It said department personnel arrived at the scene and found “a problem with the electric service meter.”
“The meter had appeared to failed and shorted out causing arcing,” according to a copy of the report.”
9. Another account of a smart meter fire: “ The smart meter on the side of my house caught fire and per the Fire Inspector it was the cause of the fire. Hydro came and took the meter saying it was there property. Who is at fault and if there property burnt my house why should I have to pay my deductible and risk my insurance to go up? Will my insurance go after the Hydro company? Should I get a good Lawyer? “
10. Fires Spark During Smart Meter Installations
ARLINGTON – Smart meter installations are being blamed for two house fires in Arlington this week.The problem isn’t the meters themselves, but instead what’s happening to electrical wiring.
The first fire happened Monday on Brook Hill Lane and the second happened Tuesday on Grants Parkway. Arlington fire investigator Morkita Anthony found that when the old meters were pulled out, the main electric feeds to the houses were accidentally pulled as well.
“What it’s doing is making contact somehow with the electric box or the wiring inside and causing a short, which is causing a fire,” Anthony said.
11. Media Report: Danville (Virginia) Woman says meter is a fire hazard
” Kari Pyrtle says the meter, provided by the city, actually exploded and that it could have set her whole house on fire. The incident happened back on October 8, 2010.
“We were getting up, getting ready for school and for work,” said Kari Pyrtle, a Danville resident. “All of the sudden the lights started flickering on and off and we hit the breaker box. Go outside and we could smell electrical burning. And we looked and our whole smart meter was turning black.”
12: State of Maine Utility CMP Supervisor admits finding Smart Meter fire hazards Media report
Russ Farwell, a CMP unit supervisor, said 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. “I didn’t think they’d find that many,” he said.
“Farwell said recently a customer’s television was destroyed during a meter replacement because the man allegedly did not come to the door when a technician knocked and then left the television on during the meter change.
On November 8th, 2010 Anonymous (not verified) says:
The smart meter that was installed two months ago sparked and made exploding noises. I am still getting a bill. However, after that last boom with fire sparks, I am sure it isn’t running. I can’t see inside the meter because the front of it is black now! I am going to let tit sit there for a while and see if the bill continues to rise drastically. I haven’t seen anymore sparks since the last big one. I am assuming my rising PG&E bill is created by the “energy fairy” at PG&E!
———————————–
14. “When PG&E installed their SmartMeters on my duplex in Sunnyvale they almost burned the place down. All the power plugs had burned insulation and wires where the wires connected to the plug receptacle in one of the units. PG&E’s SmartMeters are a safety hazard and any good judge would stop PG&E before more people are hurt and more property is damaged.” Michael E. Boyd – President, CAlifornians for Renewable Energy, Inc.
———————————–
15. “VICTORIA’S [Australia] energy regulator has conceded smart meter contractors might lack required skills and is reviewing the qualifications of workers rolling out the $2 billion scheme.
The Sunday Age [newspaper] can also reveal that, in the course of their work, smart meter installers have identified dangerous and possibly life-threatening electrical hazards in 3500 Victorian homes. Smart Meter Shock: electrical hazards found in 3500 homes
_____________________________________________
Wireless Smart Meters and Potential for Electrical Fires
Typical gauge electrical wiring that provides electricity to buildings (60 Hz power) is not constructed or intended to carry high frequency harmonics that are increasingly present on normal electrical wiring. The exponential increase in use of appliances, variable speed motors, office and computer equipment and wireless technologies has greatly increased these harmonics in community electrical grids and the buildings they serve with electricity. Harmonics are higher frequencies than 60 Hz that carry more energy, and ride along on the electrical wiring in bursts. Radio frequency (RF) is an unintentional by-product on this electrical wiring.
It may be contributing to electrical fires where there is a weak spot (older wiring, undersized neutrals for the electrical load, poor grounding, use of aluminum conductors, etc.). The use of smart meters will place an entirely new and significantly increased burden on existing electrical wiring because of the very short, very high intensity wireless emissions (radio frequency bursts) that the meters produce to signal the utility about energy usage.
There have now been electrical fires reported where smart meters have been installed in several counties in California, in Alabama, and in other countries like New Zealand. Reports detail that the meters themselves can smoke, smolder and catch fire, they can explode, or they can simply create overcurrent conditions on the electrical circuits.
Electrical wiring it is not sized for the amount of energy that radio frequency and microwave radiation. These unintended signals that can come from new wireless sources of many kinds are particularly a worry for the new smart meters that produce very high intensity radio frequency energy in short bursts. Electrical fires are likely to be a potential problem.
Electrical wiring was never intended to carry this – what amounts to an RF pollutant – on the wiring. The higher the frequency, the greater the energy contained. It’s not the voltage, but it is the current that matters. RF harmonics on electrical systems can come from computers, printers, FAX machines, electronic ballasts and other sources like variable speed motors and appliances that distort the normal, smooth 60 hertz sine wave of electrical power and put bursts of higher energy RF onto the wiring.
Wireless smart meters don’t intentionally use the electrical system to send their RF signal back to the utility (to report energy usage, etc). But, when the wireless signal is produced in the meter… it boomerangs around on all the conductive components and can be coupled onto the wiring, water and gas lines, etc. where it can be carried to other parts of the residence or building.
It is an over-current condition on the wiring. It produces heat where the neutral cannot properly handle it. The location of the fire does NOT have to be in close proximity to the main electrical panel where the smart meter is installed.
A forensic team investigating any electrical fire should now be looking for connections to smart meters as a possible contributing factor to fires. Every electrical fire should be investigated for the presence of smart meter installation. Were smart meters installed anywhere in the main electrical panel for this building? For fires that are ‘unexplained’ or termed electrical in nature, fire inspectors should check whether smart meters were installed within the last year or so at the main panel serving the buildings. They should question contractors and electricians who may have observed damage from the fire such as damage along a neutral, melted aluminum conductor or other evidence that would imply an overcurrent condition. They should also look for a scorched or burned smart meter, or burn or smoke damage to the area around the smart meter. Problems may be seen immediately, with a smart meter smoking or exploding. Or, it may be months before the right conditions prevail and a neutral circuit overloads and causes a fire. The fire may or may not be right at the smart meter. Some questions that should be asked include:
• Were smart meters installed in the main electrical panel for this building? Problems may be seen immediately, with a smart meter smoking or exploding. Or, it may be months before the right conditions prevail and a neutral circuit overloads and causes a fire. The fire may or may not be at the smart meter.
• Any smart meter installed in a main panel might start an electrical fire in that building; it would not be necessary for the unit itself to have a smart meter. The RF emissions from any smart meter in the main panel might trigger an electrical fire at any location in the building served by this main panel because harmonics can and will travel anywhere on electrical wiring of that building.
• Is there damage at the smart meter itself (burning, scorching, explosion)?
• Was there fire damage, a source, or a suspicious area around the neutral where it connected to the main panel or at the breaker panel?
• Was the damage around a lug at a connection on the neutral conductor in the attic at Xanadu? Was there any indication of heating or scorching or other thermal damage around the neutral in the area of the fire?
• Was aluminum conductor present? Aluminum conductors that were installed in the ’70s are today recognized as more of a problem for heating than copper wire. Was the aluminum, if present, showing heat damage or melting?
Even before smart meters were being installed widely in California, people who know something about EMF and RF were expressing concerns that this kind of thing would likely happen (electrical fires due to overcurrent condition from RF signal). What is already postulated, and of concern, is that the rising use of equipment that put RF harmonics onto the electrical wiring of buildings may overload that wiring. Faulty wiring, faulty grounding or over-burdened electrical wiring may be unable to take the additional energy load.
[1] Advanced Metering Infrastructure; January 2010 Semi-Annual Assessment Report and SmartMeter™Program Quarterly Report (Updated), Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
- No comments yet.
--
Christopher B. Turner, Esq.
--
Christopher B. Turner, Esq.