Do people actually rewire their houses before the meter to steal power? That sounds suicidal.

Some people in California are swapping their meters back themselves. That would scare the dickens out of me.

http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/10/09/buy-your-analog-meter-here/

I doubt very much that the utility lacks the right to replace its own equipment at any time. You've been told that it's not likely to work for one reason or another, if you're interfering with the utilities ability to service its own equipment there are going to be repercussions.

You have alleged that there will be a change in the ToS, there is no reason to believe that any changes are going to effect you in a negative way.

Personally, I have better things to do with my time than to argue with somebody that's clearly invested in maintaining a delusional world view.

I know it's possible to do safely, but there are some things I'd just rather not do for risk of... well, dying;)

I've never seen it, but it can be done. I've seen pictures anyway. This would still be 120/240 voltage so not quite as dangerous. Swapping meters or taking a meter out and tampering with it to try to slow down the dial is more common. I know swapping meters sometimes happened where I worked at.

Some of the old timers told stories about some customers that would try different things. There were a few stories similar to the one I'm going to tell about some who wouldn't pay their bills. The lineman would first disconnect the meter and put in a standoff insulator that would plug into the socket. The customer would remove the insulator and plug the meter back in themselves. If you don't do that right, you risk getting a high amperage flash in your face. So they would disconnect the meter again and this time padlock it. Cut the padlocks and plug it back in. Alright fine, we'll just unhook the transformer from the 7,200 volt distribution line. The customer got a tractor with a bucket loader and a broomstick to put the hot-line clamp on just enough to get the transformer back online. It must have been insulated just enough. This happened a couple times (while warning the customer about high-voltage) and the next time the customer tried it, boom electrocuted and fell out of the bucket. Dead. True story.

Edit: I think the power company took the position that if you don't talk about it, it's less likely to happen. Kind of like saying "Thou shall not..." actually gives people the idea to do it. Maybe I should delete my post but I don't work at one anymore.

See this is why I like the UK system no over head transformers just a brick building with a solid steel door every 1/4 mile add to that the way each connection is done in that building (cutting off a house is literally just throwing the right switch then removing a foot of cable (so the person cant just smash in the door and flick the switch))...

That sounds all right. I'd have to study the UK system to know more about how that all works. It sounds pricey too. I doubt rural systems will be doing that any time soon.

We had a nationalised grid until ~20 years ago so everything was in place the safety and usage requirements etc etc were all laid out before that and the cost wasn't even that high we're currently discussing moving all powerlines underground which is a much more expensive proposition than the safety based transformer move was :P

It would look nicer than having wires everywhere, that's for sure. I always wondered why)besides cost and difficulty obviously) the utilities/cities didn't just move all wiring underground(restructure sewers or drainage tunnels to be compartmentalized into sewer/drainage/power/etc sections, and make it easy to access for utilities to fix stuff but not consumers to tamper with......think of all the benefits: No/low risk of storms and such bringing down power lines. Nicer looking views/cityscape. etc.....

The only overheads in (most of) the UK nowadays are the main backhauls and taps off the main transformers to the street level ones (though they go underground when they reach residential areas)...

Yeah underground is great when it works (No more ice storm damage!) When it doesn't it sucks. The wire is a lot more expensive too. The company I worked at installed quite a bit of it ~40 years ago. It was the quickest way to replace some terrible overhead lines that were falling apart. Now it's causing them all kinds of problems with faults. Part of it is because they contracted out the work and the contractor used shitty wire and protection parts. Sometimes it pays to not go with the lowest bid on a job :) Part of it is because it's mixed with overhead lines that get struck by lightning which then can go into the underground wire and when it's there it doesn't have any place to go. It just keeps bouncing back and forth, building up. Part of it is just because underground wire has a limited life span. You have to budget for when it's at the end of its life span to replace it. There's no easy solution to it. It has to be replaced somehow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JNFr_j6kdI < 4.5 minutes.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/are-smart-meters-real-time-surveillance-spies

http://www.federaljack.com/?p=146557

http://farmwars.info/?p=6530

I neither endorse, nor condone, the views in these links. But I do on occasion laugh at, or facepalm at them ;)

Where is our local conpiracy nut when you need him?

hiding in his 2012 proof bunker