DIRTY ELECTRICITY

DTE’s so-called opt-out meter is just a smart meter with the wireless turned off. It will hurt you nearly as much as the smart meter. Many older-style digital meter do not seem to create the dirty electricity problems that smart meters and so-called opt-out meters do. The reason is this: the older-style digital meters do not measure electricity in the fine-grained manner that the new meters do. These meters are constantly active, recording data and making computations at up to millisecond intervals. This means they are cycling—on-off, on-off—constantly. It is this on-off cycling that is part of what creates the spiky dirty electricity.  These new meters have what’s called a chopper circuit—the name is illustrative of what we’ve just been talking about—which rapidly switches the voltage on and off. In so doing, it creates ultra-high frequencies, and very sharp, fast  transient voltage spikes, up to 70,000 volts/second. Part of the reason some people hear their smart meter making sounds is that the ultra-high frequencies they generate can be picked up by some human ears.

 

Linda Kurtz either via email or at 734-769-4241. A phone call is best. You can read more about dirty electricty on our Dirty Electricity page and on our Smart Meters 101 page. 

 

Linda Kurtz
Director of the Smart Meter Education Network