Posted by
Article One on
Jun 28, 2011; 1:43am
URL: https://www.es-forum.com/Can-I-partially-shield-a-smart-meter-so-it-still-works-tp3109024p3116087.html
Hello Stewart,
Thanks for your thorough replies!
You make good points. The best thing to do is some comprehensive testing
when I'm there. I think I am planning to try it out; if I find I do well
there, or no worse than here, then I should make the most of the chance to
spend some time in an otherwise clean, quiet, rural setting. I'd likely try
out putting up a piece of sheet metal on a post first, as it takes away the
risk of tampering with the actual smart meter itself.
The meters, to the best of my knowledge, operate strictly wirelessly. The
area is fairly rural; people don't even get cell reception without driving
way up a hill on the property, thank goodness. (I swear, if people ever
come to their senses about all this, the whole "smart grid" thing, along
with the rest of the wireless madness will turn into a "What the hell were
we thinking?" laughingstock.)
The charger we have for the batteries does generate some AM noise that
sounds typical of a linear transformer, but doesn't seem to carry into the
trailer wiring at all. The magnetic field is high but drops off fairly
quickly with distance. If I could run it from that far away I would, but
we've already invested what is for us a lot of money in heavy duty extension
cords and water piping. Good idea, though.
The fridge runs on propane; whisper-quiet, very efficient, never bothered
me. Uses the flame to circulate ammonia; never tried plugging it into AC
before. It's made by Dometic.
How did you rewire the furnace (if you can explain in layman's terms)? The
furnace is an old Duotherm that came with the trailer, it still works fine.
It does generate a local magnetic field, and some "hot spots" in the
trailer walls (probably from wiring), and some RF noise from the
blower/motor, but I've found that staying away from it when running (ie, on
the bed) hasn't proven problematic. But what you said about the furnace
sounds interesting; I'd like to hear more if you've got the chance.
As for their WiFi (not counting the wireless broadband reception they get,
which, as we discussed, may not be that bad if it's mostly line-of-sight),
CFLs, big TVs and DECT phones, well, the unfortunate truth is that it's
mighty hard to find people who don't have some such combination in their
homes these days. The good news is that almost everyone I've taken the time
to inform has listened and acted to some extent. These people might be
tricky, since they've really entrenched themselves in it, but we'll see.
One farm family even refused a $12,000/year rental offer from a telcom
company to put a tower on their land because of what I told them, even
though they really could've used the money.
The house (where some of this "gear" is) is pretty far from the trailer.
The office building is closer, but has what are likely thick walls and is
partially shielded by a metal roof. It's maybe 200 or more feet from the
trailer, and not directly line-of-sight, more off on an angle, and there is
some degree of terrain between us and it. The trailer's about as far away
as possible from the buildings, short of a very prohibitive investment in
long, long, heavy gauge wires, hoses and fiber optic cable.
I, if I stay, plan to have as little as possible to do with/in their
buildings.
Thanks again!
Take care,
R.
On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 10:38 AM, S Andreason <
[hidden email]> wrote:
> **
>
>
> Hi R. and all,
> This reply touches on a couple threads.
>
>
> > Now, what I can say, at least from having stood for a few minutes with my
> RF
> > meter in hand by where my trailer is parked on this property, is that I
> was
> > not picking up pulses from the smart meter(s) every second or numerous
> times
> > per minute. I think that there are different types of smart meters, and
> not
> > all of them send a signal the same number of times per minute/hour/day.
> >
>
> I think the determining factor, is now many other smart meters are around.
> Culverpratt just wrote yesterday that the pules are completely
> unpredictable.
> Of course, one meter emits an outgoing packet every _x_ hours. It
> transmits to the next closest meter in a mesh network, or to the tower
> if close enough. That meter sends the packet on to the next meter, and
> so on until it reaches the tower.
>
> The more smart meters around, the more often the chirping, and the
> higher the exposure, and the faster people will get sick.
> So if you are in a very rural area, and IF the meter is wireless, and
> not just transmitting back along the power line, as they are going to do
> here, then there are simply more than one possibility and outcome to
> check for. etc. Make sense?
>
>
> > So, Stewart, are you saying that if I stood to the *side* of a smart
> meter
> > and picked up its transmitting pulse with my RF meter, that would
> indicate
> > that it's omnidirectional?
> >
> Yes, I can't imagine them not being omnidirectional. I would simply want
> to know if it broadcasts wireless.
>
>
> > I'm not talking about wrapping these things in foil (tempting though that
> > sounds); I'm talking about maybe sticking a piece of clearshield on the
> > front of them, or putting a square of sheet metal on a post some distance
> > away from whichever part of the smart meter is pointed toward where my
> > trailer is, to bounce back some of the RF.
> >
> >
> Good plan, maybe even bounce it up or down or away from your friendly
> and helpful neighbor.
>
>
> > That's over forty thousand smart
> > meters. The one on this house is closer to my bedroom than the two on
> this
> > rural property would be to my trailer.
> >
> But the exposure levels are going to be different, as I think you have
> figured out. One bird chirping is not like a flock of starlings.
>
>
> > The charger I have generates some AM radio noise at the source
> > (the charger), but that doesn't seem to carry at all into the trailer. It
> > drops off fast.
>
> What I did when in a trailer, was to put the NAPA auto automatic battery
> charger 50+ feet away in or on a building close by, providing power.
> Then run a 12 guage romex/insulated set of wires to the trailer
> batteries. Then I ran the Norcold amonia fridge (no compressor) on a
> heavy duty extension cord, so that it wouldn't use propane, and didn't
> bother me up front. (bed in back, away from power box). Re-wired the
> furnace so it wouldn't use the chassis as a ground loop, and it was quiet.
>
>
> > they've got CFLs, WiFi routers and DECT phones.
> That is disturbing. That should be a higher concern than one smart meter.
>
>
> > The man who owns
> > the place runs a company; he looks dazed all the time. The AM radio goes
> > ape-sh*t when I bring it into his office, I've never even heard the
> noises
> > it makes in there before; it's quite something.
> >
> And so it may be starting to affect him.
> Are there any hills/buildings/trees to block the "view" from his place
> to your trailer?
>
>
> > All I can say is that I'll have to try the place out. If I feel better, I
> > stay. If not, I go.
>
> Hope it goes well,
> Stewart
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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