Wow, I think I may recall you mentioning smartmeter problems in your area some time ago? It's gotta be that your utility is buying cheap and crappy ones. Too bad.

It's been 5 years or more, I think, since we've had smart gas and electricity meters installed. Some people groused about it at first - you know, the cosmic ray, aluminum foil helmet for protection types - but I think that's subsided. We've had no problems and I haven't heard of anyone having a problem. Our weather is considerably milder than Ontario but yes, they do get rained on.

Smart meters will come to us sooner or later, just depends when the pud starts ending the talks and does what people are saying no to now. Hope they work better here but I doubt it.

I think it was in December or the beginning of January that my meter overheated exactly to the day it did the same thing the year before. This is my 3rd meter. I am happy the meter is doing its job and informing the utility of the malfunction but I don't want to have to worry if my house is going to burn down because of a malfunctioning meter if it decides to go rogue haha and not send that info. From what i gather I may be to blame and they will be sending me a "letter" This house has been in my family since 1946 and no problems until the smart meter was installed. And why aren't these things made so that water can't get inside the meter.

I keep wondering about the smart meters as I try to keep it warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. If you keep the thermostat at 75 and they do the reduction it will be really warm in our 100+ summer. Winter I can wrap blankets around me for a while.

My regular meter went rogue in December. Supposedly only sent an additional reading but my bill went from $60 something to over $1,000. A new thing was installed on the top of my gas meter in early December and I think something happened when the gas was shut off to this block when the house next door caught on fire.

cherryfiizz: I suspect that your water meter may be an indoor type that has been applied outside.

I now have 3 smart meters: Gas, Electric, and Water. All three are read by a 'drive by' from the street. The water meter (Badger Meter) is inside and has never failed. (It has never been rained on or wetted either.) Its only service has been being replaced every 10 yr for calibration purposes as required by law. The gas meter has been replaced only for calibration purposes. The electric meter did get replaced once for an update and a failure caused by a lightening strike.

The style and construction of my gas and electric meters are controlled by these utilities; However, the water meter and its location are chosen by my local town authority.

Cherry,

Perhaps the water is encroaching from other connections near the meter, such as wall mounting, a mast or weatherhead if you have one, or even seeping through the wall and causing corrosion inside the control panel. I would contact a certified electrician to inspect all the connections from meter to control panel. A double tap inside the control panel is a violation of NEC and can cause a meter to run hot. Millions of control panels are double tapped. Have it inspected to be sure and safe.

What is a weatherhead?

The technician showed me the meter after he took it off and the water that was inside of it. Shouldn't these things be made so that no water gets inside? To me, that is the fault of the manufacturer of the meter. I have a friend who is a certified electrician, I can't afford to hire one so when he gets home from Florida in May I will have him check it out. After the flooding we had in August I am still waiting to be able to afford having my washer and dryer installed in my kitchen but I guess this meter business will have to come before that so I know my house will be safe

Ours went under water for several days and never stopped working. I was surprised. They did come and replace all of them recently. I guess just to make sure they were OK.

You may have to get a little roof over the meter.

Well, if there's water inside the meter, it can't be your fault unless you have no rain gutter in that area. I don't know what you have, but I've seen many houses in your area (riverside) that are missing eave troughs. A flood of water can penetrate just about anything mechanical.

Anticipating what the letter will say.

I do have an eavestrough in front and back of my house. My neighbour said she is going to find something to put over the meter. I will have to go out back and look to see if the eavestrough breaks on either side of the pipe or if it goes behind. I think though it is one continuous trough. I never had this problem with the standard meter we used to have.

That makes sense. The old meter didn't detect problems beyond the meter connection, inside your premises. The Smart Meter does, so it's actually safer.

Side question. Here the term Smart Meter only pertains to the electrical utility so that they can reduce electrical usage during the summer. Do the people posting on here have the same thing with all of their utilities or are you using the term Smart Meter to only mean one that can be read either by a vehicle driving down the street or as here via satellite?

My 'Smart Meter' for electricity and water allow for the reading of the meter to be done from the street. The meter reader doesn't have to walk up to read it.

My utilities aren't restricted in any way by the meter, we just get nicer graphs that compare one week to the next (with a separate comparison with the average neighborhood users) and a yearly graph with comparisons from the previous year. I get price breaks in the summer for power when they text me that they expect higher usage and I can limit my usage for a specific range of hours. That helps prevent rolling blackouts when it's really hot and usage is sky high.

My Smart Meter has never malfunctioned.

My smart meter is somehow linked via some kind of network connection to the utility's computer systems. I suspect the network connection somehow runs along the electricity wires, or it's some kind of mesh net. I can see electricity and gas usage daily, the next day. I have no restrictions of any kind.

Eavestrough= word used in Canada for roof gutter. I know this thanks to the Mike Holmes shows.

My electric utility started installing smart meters a couple years ago. There has been some rate payer resistance, and the local news has done some spots on it. I was one of the first customers to receive the new meter, and it has performed flawlessly. I was told by the installer that initially they will be read from the street, but when the system is completed they will communicate with the utility through the homeowners wifi or use satellite. The system will be monitored 24/7/365, no need to call to report problems. This from a co-op in the TN boonies. They are also looking into providing internet via their electric grid. If they do, they may sound the death knell for our local phone co-op.