The 'smart meters' being installed in northwest Florida by Gulf Power do no have a disconnect feature. They do sense power delivery and usage, as well as alarms for high temperature on the meter stabs. They report every 64 seconds and are tied to a computerized 'trouble' system. If a whole street stops reporting, it indicated the feeder for the street. If a few homes stop reporting it indicates a trouble for that transformer. If a single meter stops reporting it dispatches a person in a white car to retrieve the meter and report the unlicensed, un-permitted breaking of the seal and tampering with the meter. A number of contractors have found that the old ways no longer work!

There no way the disconnect can be large enough to handle any short . or even opening under load or at least prove it to me

Smart Meters violate the law and cause endangerment to residents by the following factors: Furthermore,information about the construction and operation of these meters are kept secret from the public. Smart Meters unlike electromechanical meters are 100% programmable; these electronic devices are software driven (e.g. it can be programmed to read and report kWh usage at a predetermined level). The bottom-line is power, control, money, and using less-and -less of the human element.

1. Smart Meters are, by definition, surveillance devices that violate Federal and State wiretapping laws by recording and storing databases of private and personal activities and behaviors without the consent or knowledge of those people who are monitored. 2. Your company has not adequately disclosed the particular recording and transmission capabilities of the smart meter, or the extent of the data that will be recorded, stored and shared, or the purposes to which the data will and will not be put. 3. Electromagnetic and Radio Frequency energy contamination from smart meters exceeds allowable safe and healthful limits for domestic environments as determined by the EPA and other scientific programs. 4. They individually identify electrical devices inside the home and record when they are operated causing invasion of privacy. 5. They monitor household activity and occupancy in violation of rights and domestic security. 6. They transmit wireless signals that may be intercepted by unauthorized and unknown parties. Those signals can be used to monitor behavior and occupancy and they can be used as an aid to criminal activity against the occupants. 7. Data about the occupant’s daily habits and activities are collected, recorded and stored in permanent databases, which are accessed by parties not authorized or invited to know and share that private data, by those whose activities were recorded. 8. Those with access to the smart meter databases can review a permanent history of household activities complete with calendar and time-of-day metrics to gain a highly invasive and detailed view of the lives of the occupants. 9. Those databases may be shared with, or fall into the hands of criminals, blackmailers, corrupt law enforcement, private hackers of wireless transmissions, power company employees, and other unidentified parties who may act against the interests of the occupants under metered surveillance. 10. It is possible for example, with analysis of certain Smart Meter data, for unauthorized and distant parties to determine medical conditions, sexual activities, and physical locations of persons within the home, vacancy patterns and personal information and habits of the occupants.

You can take a look at IEEE Standard 1308-1994 Recommended Practice for Instrumentation: Specifications for Magnetic Flux Density and Electric Field Strength Meters. I suspect that if it has not been recently updated it would not reflect the current technology. Still searching...

The smart meters installed in our area Do NOT have a disconnect feature. they have a MONITORING feature.3

If the meter is removed, it fails to "call home" and a person in a white care and a thin black tie responds and removes the meter from the premisis. There is no disconnect. no "listing" Meters are not addressed in NEC> up to either 1993 or 1995 they were not "ALLOWED" to be ahead of thee service disconnecting means!!!!!!!!!!!! all those years!!!

Bob, All the people say not our problem as electricians are right. If you are the local AHJ (B&S Dept.), there is a clear risk of fire due to smart meter also containing an appliance ( a 1W to 19W device for transmitting signal)that is on the supply side and without the clear information you are asking in your questions, how does one try to prevent fires as an AHJ in the face of mounting evidence of fire hazards. The head in the sand answers are good for safety of electricians but the fire hazard to buildings and their occupants.

PECO use Landis-Gyr smart meters. Here's their specs.

tinyurl.com/7u4xztk/

Note add the h.... before it since it won't let me.

Not to worry.

In my residential area, the initial smart meter installations were problematic - am aware of two homes on my street and three more in immediate area, where the units were replaced after various complaints by the homeowners or by an electrician that was contracted to perfom a non-related electrical update by homeowner. Affected residents were never provided failure mode information of the smart meter install. An electrician that I used to provide power to a greenhouse panel (just last week) was also 'aware' of some meter install problems, but was circumspect on root cause.

That said, *if* installed correctly, have not seen any evidence that the new meters are less safe than previous types.

In our area all meters that are subject to fault currents above 10KA are Cold metered. I.E. after an over-current device. In practice Hot metering is restricted to 200 amp services. Add to that the capeability of electronic devices to switch at 0 crossing and interrupt currents would be small.

All utility meters are constructed to ANSI standards, not only for accuracy, but for durability including short circuit withstand. The new "smart meters" are constructed with the same standards as the older mechanical style meters.Testing is also covered under the ANSI standards. Utilities face an enormous amount of liability, therefore require that all metering equipment meet or exceed the ANSI standards. You as electricians do not really need to concern yourselves with meter safety, other than to stay out of energized meter enclosures. As far as the "disconnect under glass" is concerned, or service switch, the full-load/short circuit rating has to meet or exceed the rating of the meter itself. This is something we have scrutinized very carefully. This is not a new concept, some manufacturers have been employing this technology for many years in prepay metering systems, primarily in other countries, with an excellent operational record.

A licensed electrician is limited to even go beyond the load side of the meter (unless it is an unregistered sub-meter). The KWH Meter is the sole responsibility of the power company and they will not be allowed to provide technical information regarding this or they're (probably legally) in trouble too if bad things happen. If I mess around with the Utilities property resulting in accident, I get sued. Is the question relevant to the job, we as licensed electricians do? Just my opinion www.electrician2006.com

Bruce has a legitimate concern. If this were covered by the NEC, 110.10 and 230.82(3) would apply. In no case, whether covered by the NEC or the NESC, should equipment ever be applied beyond its short-circuit current rating. Unfortunately, even when covered by the NEC, equipment, such as a meter stack, has a short-circuit current rating that normally covers only the meter socket. It does not normally cover the meter. It seems as if the listing agencies close their eyes when it comes to what happens when a meter is installed in the equipment.

Probably not a solid state switching device. see post #7 here: forums.mikeholt.com and look for the thread "Smart meter causing damage to electronics?" started 05-15-13

Also for an internal look at an Itron see post #13,

See post #25 for withstand current on an Itron.

While not GE, the specs between the major vendors should not be drastically different.

Bruce has an interesting set of questions, but I suspect that no answers will be forthcoming from the utilities because they "don't want to and they don't have to". I think that since the meter is typically set (at least in SE Florida) in the middle of customer owned service conductors, in a customer furnished meter can that is mounted on a customer owner building, it should be the responsibility of the utilities to insure that the device is safe.

Check out this compilation of fires attributed to Smart

Lots of info on Google Search for the term:

Smart Meter Fires

Rgds, ArtM

It is a great point you make. But, our point of demarcation is after the meter. This is similar when the utility brings in feeders to a service that are a fraction of the NEC calculated load. If the feeders go the utility is responsible. You want a safe installation no less but, the meter equipment in my opinion is beyond us.

When I read your comment on "smart meters" I had to smile when you said the power company refused to "share" the information. This seems to be the attitude that is common to the co serving this area. I just read an article in a trade magazine that said benefits both company and customer, o really? I can not think of a customer benefit,with over forty years in the field, but I know that they can tell when the meter is pulled and they are paranoid someone will get "free" electricity.

Let me add a 2nd comment here. A smart meter or standard meter is not electrical service equipment as defined by NEC 110.24. The meter is on the supply side.. ANSI C12.1 is the testing cerfication of this meter. An electric meter is not considered a disconnecting means.

Assuming your smart meter has full wireless. It is controlled and monitored by the POCO. In Kansas we do not consider the meter as a disconnectin device. In fact it is illegal to pull any POCO meter. Westar the biggest POCO imposes a $500 fine against the electricians liability carrier. For total disconnection requires lineman to disconnect at the transformer. You might try the POCO engineering department or the lineman who services the area.

As in all solid state switching devices ... They are "0" switching ... The interruption is at the "0" mark in the sine wave ... I have worked for over 20 years in the traffic signal sector ... Traffic signal solid state switches work on this princible .. So do the solid state meters ...