An article in the Otago Daily Times on July 25, (http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/north-otago/350297/safety-smart-meters-questioned ) features the following sentence:
“…[A] former electronic engineer [Trust Power employee Graeme Purches] …went through his entire home, which had a smart meter, with analysers and concluded there were no emissions from the meters.”
Assuming that Mr Purches was not misquoted or misunderstood, any statement to the effect that there are “no emissions” from smart meters flies in the face of commonsense. Smart meters are designed to produce microwave radiation emissions. These emissions are used to transmit data about electricity use and/or are used for “admin” tasks within a smart electricity meter network – such as time checks.
One of the reasons that the electricity industry is so vigorously pushing smart meters is that their microwave radiation emissions allow wireless transmission of data about electricity use and reduce/eliminate the need for meter readers, thereby lowering labour costs.
(Smart meters also have other advantages for the industry, including allowing electricity retailers or lines companies to take control of appliances in a home via a smart meter and also making it possible for companies to charge more for electricity at different times of the day…great for profits…not great for consumers…please see these links for details: www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/could-a-smart-meter-mean-you-are-miserably-cold-during-winter/ and https://stopsmartmeters.org.nz/latest-news/what-is-time-of-use-tou-pricing-and-how-could-it-affect-you/)
So what are we to make of an apparent claim by an electricity industry employee that there are “no emissions” from the smart meter at his home?
There are a few possibilities:
1) He may not have used appropriate equipment to measure the microwave emissions from the meter.
2) He may have done the measurements at a time when the meter was not transmitting information about electricity use and/or otherwise producing microwave radiation.*
3) Some other reason or reason(s)???
Whatever the reason that this electricity company employee apparently had “no emissions” from the smart meter in his own home, you can be assured that if a smart meter is installed in your home, it will produce microwave radiation. That is, after all, what these meters as designed to do.
* NB: Test results of in-use smart meters in NZ, which have been shared with www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz in the the meters emissions have been data-logged over 24 hours have shown variations in microwave emissions ranging from pulses as often as every few seconds to as infrequently as every eight hours.
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