{"id":15855,"date":"2019-10-13T01:39:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T08:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=15855"},"modified":"2019-10-13T01:39:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T08:39:35","slug":"north-vancouver-man-may-lose-power-after-refusing-smart-meter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=15855","title":{"rendered":"North Vancouver man may lose power after refusing smart meter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Howie Harrington, 72, was among the about 60,000 B.C. Hydro customers who rejected installation of smart meters in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CHERYL CHAN<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
Updated: October 8, 2019<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A North Vancouver man said B.C. Hydro is being a \u201cbully\u201d by threatening to cut off his power because he doesn\u2019t want a smart meter installed in his home.<\/p>\n

Howie Harrington, 72, was among the about 60,000 B.C. Hydro customers who rejected installation of smart meters in 2013 when the company transitioned from analog meters to the new technology. He has been paying $34 a month to retain his \u201clegacy meter\u201d \u2014 paying, in total, more than $2,000 over the last five years.<\/p>\n

But, last December, B.C. Hydro began pressing him to switch to a smart meter. Two weeks ago, he received a disconnection notice, giving him until Oct. 7 to switch.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder no circumstances should they be cutting off a senior\u2019s power with winter coming,\u201d Harrington said. \u201cThere is no way they should have the right to shut power off to someone paying the bills. That\u2019s just not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrington doesn\u2019t own a cellphone and doesn\u2019t use computers, although his wife does. He doesn\u2019t like smart meters because he\u2019s worried about the potential impacts of radio-frequency radiation, and because it feels \u201cbig brother\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still against it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis smart meter is constantly reading everything in your house \u2026 then it sends the information to some other location. Technically, it\u2019s an invasion of privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrington said he was offered an option of having a \u201cradio-off\u201d smart meter, meaning the device will have its transmitting feature disabled. He will have to pay a $22.60 setup fee and a $20 monthly fee to cover the cost of manual reading.<\/p>\n

If he agrees to a regular smart meter, he said he\u2019ll have to pay a $55 installation fee \u2014 adding insult to injury, he said, since he doesn\u2019t want one in the first place, he said. \u201cNow they want me to pay for a smart meter in my home. No way I\u2019d do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrington was charged $68.50 for a failed meter installation in December. He received a second notice in August, when he was away on vacation, warning him his meter has to be changed.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 23, Harrington received a final disconnection notice saying his power will be cut off unless he arranges for a meter exchange. If his power is disconnected, he will be on the hook for a $700 reconnection charge. By print deadline, Harrington still had power to his home.<\/p>\n

B.C. Hydro said it\u2019s currently replacing the last remaining 2,500 electromagnetic and digital meters with expired seals, with the goal of transitioning everyone to a smart meter or a radio-off smart meter. About 99 per cent of B.C. Hydro customers already have smart meters.<\/p>\n

The old meters, which are usually reverified and resealed every two to 10 years, have to removed from service when their Measurement Canada accuracy seals expire, said spokeswoman Susie Rieder. B.C. Hydro said it no longer stocks or services the old meters.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisconnections are always a last resort,\u201d Rieder added.\u00a0\u201cWe provide a number of letters and phone calls over many months to customers that have meters with expired seals to advise them of the need to exchange the meter and the potential for disconnection prior to attempting the meter exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrington, a retired electrician, is worried about how he and his wife will cope if their power is disconnected, but is determined to stand his ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they cut my power off, I\u2019m not going to bow down. It\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Howie Harrington doesn\u2019t want to give up his old analog meter for a smart meter. B.C. Hydro has issued him a disconnection notice.<\/span> ARLEN REDEKOP \/ PNG<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

chchan@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

twitter.com\/cherylchan<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

source :\u00a0https:\/\/vancouversun.com\/news\/local-news\/north-vancouver-man-may-lose-power-after-refusing-smart-meter?fbclid=IwAR248BzHN6SLqB_tc_L7JqOT6MMJuUxzZh9HW4GTj3Rh1-ZzWGZF7_QxV1o<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Howie Harrington, 72, was among the about 60,000 B.C. Hydro customers who rejected installation of smart meters in 2013. CHERYL CHAN Updated: October 8, 2019 A North Vancouver man said B.C. Hydro is being a \u201cbully\u201d by threatening to cut off his power because he doesn\u2019t want a smart meter installed in his home. Howie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bchydro","category-bc","category-smart-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15856,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15855\/revisions\/15856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}