[meldrewreborn]

Interesting TV show this week on microwave ovens - their history and development. .essentially all microwave ovens are faraday cages where radiation exists on one side but not the other. The microwaves bounce around inside but don’t get out.
Hannah Fry demonstrated putting a mobile inside a closed microwave oven and it then wasn’t contactable. I tried my mobile in an enclosure made from two aluminium food trays and lo and behold it became invisible to the network.

so covering your smart meter’s communications hub with anything that forms a faraday cage will stop it communicating, if that’s something that appeals to you.😇😇

[WizzyWigg]

@meldrewreborn My better half has a way of being uncontactable. Switch to "Do not disturb" , place phone in handbag, then place handbag in wardrobe. 😂 Simplz. 🤗
Minor problem occurs when she can't remember which handbag she put it in. 🕵

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

Easy enough to build a jammer that you sit on top of the comms hub, runs from a PP3 battery and just hashes out the WAN frequency.

Or move to West Wales...

[meldrewreborn]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@meldrewreborn

Easy enough to build a jammer that you sit on top of the comms hub, runs from a PP3 battery and just hashes out the WAN frequency.

Or move to West Wales...

But using some aluminium trays from a takeaway meal doesn't even need a battery!

[DebF_EONNext]

I wonder though @meldrewreborn what would be the thought process behind this? It would be interesting to learn more about why people wouldn't want their smart meter to communicate 🤔 most of the time when things go wrong with smart it's people getting in touch it's because their meter isn't communicating.

I understand that people are concerned about security etc but as far as I'm aware the only data that an energy company is really interested in or have access to are the readings and the peaks in your usage (when we get half hourly data) as this allows us to be able to get a more accurate representation of how much energy needs to be purchased and any savings can then be passed down. The only other data is what we actually send to your meter that we already have on our system.

Are there other reasons people wouldn't want their meter to send the data? It's an interesting experiment though I don't think I would be brave enough to shove my phone in the meecrowavvy as Nigella calls it!

[meldrewreborn]

@DebF_EONNext
the microwave isn’t on jest inactive but with the door closed.

Some people are really anti smart meters for privacy reasons. Being able to reject “state surveillance “ might well appeal in those circumstances. The population is being coerced into the smart meter regime without their consent, and there is resentment. Being able to defeat the authorities with a simple adaptation might be attractive to them.

for me I think the system is a complete waste of money, I don’t regard privacy as a legitimate issue.

[Andy65]

I can understand the various reasons why anyone wouldn't want smart meters installed but not why they'd want to block the comms hub, I'd have thought that any privacy concerns regarding smart meters would be bottom of the list of modern devices.

[meldrewreborn]

Originally Posted by Andy65

I can understand the various reasons why anyone wouldn't want smart meters installed but not why they'd want to block the comms hub, I'd have thought that any privacy concerns regarding smart meters would be bottom of the list of modern devices.

by blocking the data transmission you effectively have a traditional non smart meter. All this promotion of smart things passes over my head.
Example. I grew up with a cheque book, made payments using that and standing orders and got a statement once month, and it was mandatory to keep the account in credit.
now it seems I can do all banking by smartphone. But it’s never really explained why it offers any advantage to someone who grew up in my cohort. So although I have the requisite tools I don’t bank using an app - there just isn’t any need.

[WizzyWigg]

@meldrewreborn You've forgotten to mention there were banks on the high street 😂. An extremely rare occurrence here in the north western sector. Oh yes they had real people manning the tills as well.👴 😂

[meldrewreborn]

@WizzyWigg

memory usually does fade with age, that’s true. But even in the age of reduced bank branches I don’t need a phone app to do my banking . And I don’t ever recall visiting a bank manager, even when they existed!

my own local area has lost all the banks - just Nationwide and the Post Office remain. As individuals we must adapt to change otherwise we go under. But we are free to choose which changes actually make improvements to our lives.