Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
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Whilst some may try to argue that there is a health risk, i dont think this is so true, what concerns me is the data being sent.
As you know I am currently buying a new home, and am not happy about the fact the home HAS to have a water meter, i would rather just pay like i do now without the meter. Its not like in cumbria we have a water shortage, its called the lake district for a reason.
But the thing that concerns me even more is the fact they are putting in a "smart" water meter, which not only sends out how much water i am using, but exactly when I am using it, with the electric meters then they dont only monitor kilo watt hours over say 1 month, but can use each load signature over real time monitoring to enable it to dectect which appliences are active and exactly when (each appliance has a unique signature based on its voltage, current and power) so it does not take long to figure things like, when I am out at work, what time I get in, what appliances i like to use, when no one is in, when we are on holiday, this type of thing. I think i should have a choice of meters and wether or not to have any sort of water meter at all.
Any way looks like i will be stuck with 3 smart meters for the short term, so the only way to solve this problem i am thinking is to surround each meter with an earthed faraday cage, thus prevent it receiviing and transmitting data. luckily as the cage can be mesh, then it leaves each meter so it can be read in the good old manner, revealing only how much of each supply i used since it was last read. Forcing the Orwellion 1984 vision is not something i think is in the interests of the people.