Replacing Your Smart Meter or Opt-Out Meter

 

More and more people in Michigan are taking the smart meter or opt-out meter off their home and replacing it with an analog meter. The people doing this run the gamut from young families with toddlers to elderly couples. All are doing this because they are experiencing terrible health effects from the smart and opt-out meters. All of them have experienced a marked diminution of health problems once the meter has been removed.

If you are thinking about taking the meter off your home, it is essential that you contact us for additional information! Do not remove your meter without contacting us first! We cannot stress this enough.

 

In This Article:

1. Removing Your Smart or Opt-Out Meter
2. Where to Purchase Analog Meters
3. If I Live in a Condo or Town Home, Will an Analog Meter Help Me If My Neighbors Still Have Smart Meters?
4. Will a Device That Blocks the Radiofrequency Waves Solve the Problem So That I Don’t Have to Replace My Smart Meter?
5. Stories from Families That Have Removed Their Opt-Out Meter Because It Was Making Them Ill
6. Legal Bases Supporting Your Actions—A Summary

 

Removing Your Smart or Opt-Out Meter

If you decide to remove your meter, be sure to take pictures (or, better yet, a video) of the entire process. By recording the entire process, if the electric company claims that you have improperly and unsafely installed the meter, you will have evidence to show that the meter has been safely and properly installed. (Of course, it is in your best interests to show only the meter—not the face and body of the person doing the installation.) If you decide to remove your meter, contact us before doing so.

In general, if you decide to replace your meter, you should be prepared for the distinct possibility that your electricity will be cut off. Unfortunately, that is what has ultimately happened in every case we are aware of, except one.  If you are suffering from health issues, please take a look at our page Protecting Yourself from EMFs.

You will find two groups in particular that tell you that if you follow their process, you will have success in removing your meter. These groups—Freedomtaker and the InPower movement—base their letters on faulty legal principles. Suffice it to say that people who have followed their advice are either living without electricity or have had a smart meter placed on their home. We have talked with many such people all across the state of Michigan. Their talk sounds good, but their methods do not work. and InPower shades the truth, to put it mildly. Despite what these groups may tell you, they don’t have some arcane, as yet unused, legal principle that will work. They have smoke and mirrors, in the case of InPower, or a hodge-podge of criminal and civil law that you can’t mash into one thing, in the case of Freedomtaker. We have helped many people who have been shut off after using their methods.  Here are links to a variety of articles discussing these methods: The Emperor’s Clothes and Smart Meter Resistance: by David Sheldon of Michigan Stop Smart Meters; A Critique of ‘In Power’ Episode One: by Warren Woodward (a dynamo of successful activism in Arizona, Warren details many of the fallacies and misrepresentations made by the InPower movement); Fake Back Your Power? The Emperor Wears no Clothes…: by StopSmartMeters. the California group that started it all; and Lawsuit Against DTE – Setback or Missed Opportunity?: Andrea McNinch case. By David Sheldon of Michigan Stop Smart Meters.

We are happy to be a resource for you.  Please feel free to contact us with questions.

 

Where to Purchase Analog Meters

You can purchase analog meters from one from one of the companies listed below. All these companies  recondition and calibrate electromechanical electrical meters (analog meters) to conform with ANSI standards. Meters cost approximately $25 plus shipping. You want to get a meter that does not need a mounting ring. Many people install the Tatar Meter Guard once the analog is on their home.

When you call or email the company, you do not need to tell them why you want the meter. Simply tell them what you want. You don't tell the grocer why you’re buying carrots, no need to do that here, either.  Go outside, look at your meter, write down all the numbers on it, and tell all the numbers to the customer service agent. See this page for some pictures of which numbers to write down. Make sure you get a meter that does not need a mounting ring.  You can also tell them specifically: “I need an analog meter, CL ___, FM __, does not need mounting ring.”  You can click here to learn how to tell what CL and FM you want.

Confirm with the company that the meter has no computerized components. Sometimes meters are back-ordered, so best to order soon.

Analog (electromechanical) meters are available from

• Hialeah Meter Company in Florida. Phone: 800-654-0821.
• Vision Metering in South Carolina. Phone: 803-628-0035.
• TD Surplus   Phone: 315-635-3017 or 800-456-4907. Email: sales@tdsurplus.com

Additional videos that show how to remove a meter can be found on YouTube, and include

• Smart Meter Removal.mp4—very informative
• Utility employee replacing analog

 

If I Live in a Condo or Town Home, Will an Analog Meter Help Me
If My Neighbors Have Smart Meters?

Yes, it will help you. Remember, the smart meter and opt-out smart meter generate dirty electricity. That dirty electricity is created by the smart meter, so if you have an analog on your home, you will not be getting that dirty electricity.

You will still be subject to exposure to dirty electricity wherever you share a wall with your neighbors. But, you will decrease the amount of dirty electricity in your home, probably a great deal, unless your condo or town home is quite small and narrow.

 

Will a Device That Blocks the Radiofrequency Waves Solve the Problem
So That I Don’t Have to Replace My Smart Meter?

Putting on a device like the Smart Meter Guard from smartmeterguard.com or blocking your meter with aluminum foil or aluminum mesh will only block the radiofrequency waves. It will not block the dirty electricity. The dirty electricity (line noise) is creating as much illness as the radiofrequency waves. Many people have replaced their opt-out smart meter because they have gotten as sick from it as from the radio-on smart meter, due to the RF. Read the stories below.

 

Stories from Families That Have Removed
Their Opt-Out Meter Because It Was Making Them Ill

Think the opt-out meter is a safe bet? So did some other families. Here are two stories of families that removed their opt-out meter because of the health problems it caused them. Both families experienced a marked decrease in symptoms within a day of removal. Click here  for a partial list of symptoms people have experienced from radio-off smart meters.

1.  Family with Young Children Removes Opt-Out Meter
A family was moving from a home with an analog meter to a home with a smart meter. The mother says, “Knowing the dangers of radiation from a smart meter, I opted out thinking it was all going to be fine because we wouldn't have the smart meter transmitting wirelessly.” DTE installed the opt-out meter, the family moved in, and the next day the mother and one of her children woke up with flu-like symptoms. Both then proceeded to throw up. The mother also awoke with a headache. She thought it was perhaps something that they had eaten. That same day, her and her children’s ears began ringing. At first her husband did not experience any problems and thought maybe it was all in his wife’s head, but a month later he began spending more time at home and began suffering as well. The children were agitated during the day, and also when they slept. The toddler rubbed her ears a lot, though she didn't have an ear infection.  The mother also experienced the following problems:

• intermittent brain fog
• ears: buzzing, constant pain and pressure and feeling like her ears were going to pop
• pressure at her temples
• face felt puffy

The mother’s symptoms were even stronger when she was near the opt-out meter, which was attached to her kitchen wall. She thought there must be something wrong with the opt-out meter, that perhaps its radio-transmitter had not been turned off. She called DTE. They came out and showed her the radio-off sticker on the meter and said there was no problem with the meter. An opt-out meter is still a smart meter, just one with the radio-transmitter disabled. Click here to learn why the opt-out meter causes health problems.  The symptoms continued, and the mother called DTE daily for over a week because she and her family were being harmed. DTE would not listen, and one supervisor told her she must be one in a million, that they had never before received any complaints.  The family spent a couple of months debating whether to remove the meter. Finally, the symptoms were so bad, and they were so afraid for their children’s health, they removed the meter. (Click here to read about some of the other health problems experienced by people exposed to opt-out meters.)  After just one day, their symptoms improved. The mother says, “My ears don't hurt and have pressure anymore, no pressure feeling on my temples and head. And I don't feel the weird sensation in my body. There still seems to be a small electrical noise in the house, but definitely not as loud as before. I still here a ringing noise in my ears sometimes, but hopefully time will resolve it.”

2.  Elderly Couple Removes Opt-Out Meter
Murray and his wife became ill upon installation of a smart meter on their home. They opted out, thinking that that would solve the problem. It did not. They became more and more ill.

The meter was causing

• high blood pressure
• insomnia
• anxiety, jitteriness, impatience
• heart palpitations
• intermittent buzzing in the ears (tinnitus)
• low-grade headaches, and
• respiratory problems

for both the husband and wife. Unable to sleep, their mood affected by the meter, and worried about their pre-existing heart conditions, they removed the meter from their home and within a day felt relief. However, the wife had become electro-sensitive. While she is okay if she stays in her own home, if she goes into any building with a smart meter, she is severely affected—she is unable to sleep at night, and has severe heart palpitations and intense headaches. She can no longer attend church without suffering the consequences of the smart meter. Her husband now does all the grocery shopping.  This illustrates the fact that the sooner you get the meter off your home, the better, because the longer you are exposed, the greater the likelihood you will become electro-sensitive.

 

Legal Bases Supporting Your Actions—A Summary

You have a right to keep off your home a device that injures your health, takes your property (by making it uninhabitable if you are electro-sensitive), and monitors your activity (acts as a surveillance device).

There are a number of legal bases that support your decision to remove your smart meter. Here is a summary of some of them. More information can be found at Michigan Stop Smart Meters and on our Appeal of DTE Opt-Out page. Also read the preceding section for more information.

1. The DTE tariff, Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) regulations, and state law all give the utility the right to install a meter as that term is defined under the law.  The definition of meter does not encompass the kind of meter DTE is now installing. In addition to serving as a metering device, the smart meter and the opt-out meter monitor your activity via your electrical usage (in other words, they operate as a surveillance device) and they are devices that are injurious to health. There is a felony statute that makes it a crime punishable by 2 years in prison (for a first offense) to attach a surveillance device to a private residence without the owner's knowledge and consent. Michigan Penal Code, Act 328 of 1931 prohibits the installation of surveillance devices like smart meters. MCL 750.539a defines “Private Place”, “Eavesdrop”, Surveillance” and “Person.” MCL 750.539d prohibits installation of a device for the purpose of observing, recording, transmitting, photographing or eavesdropping in a “Private Place.” The surveillance capabilities of smart meters is clearly documented in the February 3, 2012 “Smart Meter Data: Privacy and Cybersecurity” report published by the Congressional Research Service.
   
   
2. The Michigan Public Service Commission has held no evidentiary hearings on the acceptability of this new technology, even though they are under an appeals court order to do so.
   
   
3. All utilities were order by the MPSC to provide opt-outs to customers. The “opt-out” meter provides no benefit to the customer and therefore is not a legal alternative to the radio-on smart meter. For the MPSC to approve a program, a benefit must be shown. Therefore, the MPSC’s approval of the opt-out program is legally indefensible. The MPSC ruling regarding the DTE opt-out plan has been appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals. DTE presented no evidence that the radio-disabled smart meter will benefit the opt-out customer.

4. The opt-out meter is still a smart meter; therefore there is no opt-out of smart meters, which the utilities were ordered by the MPSC to provide.
   
   
5. By approving the opt-out program, the MPSC enabled DTE to mandate smart meters for all customers. The MPSC cannot do this without statutory authorization.
   
   
6. Under the law, you have an inherent right to defend your person and your home against a known harm.

 

Disclaimer: This contents of this page are offered for informational purposes, not as legal advice or advocacy.

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