Smart Meter Fires: They Just Won’t Go Away

Cerise Edwards was asleep inside her home when a small explosion woke her children, who then woke her.
“I did a little research, and I’ve seen we are not the first people in the KC area to have experienced that kind of thing.  KCP&L had problems last year with them.”

Company leaders said they’re in the process of switching all customers to the new digital meters because the analog meters are no longer being manufactured.

Source: Stop Smart Meters

October 9, 2011 at 6:20 pm
I want to add that changing out a meter is very simple and quick. If you are changing out a “smart” meter then there is nothing at all to worry about. If a new meter has been successfully installed in an existing socket by Wellington, and it has not arced and started a fire yet, you are good to go.
The most important thing that I want to stress is to turn off all loads being fed by the meter before removing and replacing it.
Most buildings have a service disconnect located after the meter, it could be a fused disconnect switch or a circuit breaker, turn that off first. If there is no service disconnect, then go to the main load center panel being fed by the meter, there will be a main breaker inside that panel, turn it off. If there is no main breaker, turn off all the individual circuits inside that panel.
The reason for this is when a load is disconnected, it creates an arc, no load, no arc.
Make sure to take a picture of the reading on the meter that you are removing, and also write it down for your meter reader, because the new meter will be zeroed out.
Carefully snip the seal that has your meter number and a PG&E serial number, pull the seal out and put it back in the ring after you change out the new meter. I have done this hundreds of times in my career, and I have never had one problem in doing so.
Your meter reader will probably recognize that you have a different style of analog meter, but they don’t care, and most likely will not report it, they are concerned about keeping their jobs, and the more analog meters still in use, the better.
If you have to do it when it is raining, put up an umbrella the night before, and then put out a dry wood palate or some kind of non-conductor on the ground.
Wear 2 sets of gloves, rubber gloves under good leather gloves (dry of course).
When you remove the “smart” meter from its socket, you might have to gently wiggle it out of the jaws. Then once removed, simply insert the new analog meter carefully (right side up, please) into the jaws, you might have to push hard to do this. Make sure that the new meter is completely snug in the socket, test it by trying to wiggle it, it should not move at all one way or the other. Then you are good to replace the aluminum ring and seal and party on, you are pau hana (done with work). Make sure to remember to turn back on the feed to the load center, the main breaker in the load center, or all the individual circuits in the main panel.
Keep in mind that even though these new radio meters are using your electricity to transmit radio signals 24/7, they only transmit a packet of total usage data every 4 hours. So depending on when you you remove the transmitter, if your meter is actually connected with a data collector, (most are not, and still need to be read monthly by a meter reader), then PG&E will see a drop of data signal. That is the wonderful feature of the new radio meters, that if working, they can sense a power interruption in a 4 hour block, and will consider it an outage or removal of the transmitter.
That is one of the biggest jokes of all about the new meters, that they can detect power outages. When there is an outage at my house, I am on the phone within one minute to report it. The operator asks if I have any information about what might have caused the outage like: trees, wind, exploding transformers or cut out fuses.
It is the FIFO deal with PG&E, first reported gets to be on the top of the list, and chronologically after that. That can be important in a major storm.
Another tip from a PG&E lineman, if you see any downed power lines, that is the number one priority, and that will get the fastest response. [CJF emphasis]