Just dealt with this in the US. And what did they replace it with? A "4G" meter. So, what, about 8 years worth of functionality before that tech is turned off and yet another few million pieces of e-waste are generated?
But they also want me to be able to dial into the equipment later, and won't give me WAN access. But no cellular vendor in their right mind will certify that the adjoining towers will have any particular frequency available for more than ~5 years, typically limiting it to a warranty of 3 years. This isn't the only pain point - what about the licensing server that the proprietary IDE for the PLC calls out to? The operating system on which said IDE is installed? Security protocols on the SCADA uplink? Replacement parts and critical spares? Good luck!
Unfortunately, a huge amount of industry is effectively subsidized by breakneck investment in consumer smartphones, automotive, and PC equipment. People don't care or don't understand that their choices on the showroom floor for the glossier, flashier, 'smarter' gear result in painful, expensive obsolescence just a couple years in the future. Manufacturers are only incentivized to sell new products and ignore old products, we need a massive shift in consumer preference if we want to avoid this.
I have no idea why the industry hasn't converged into some sort of Linux platform by now.
Instead they care about the optics, so you get the ocassional Apple video about how they replaced foo material with bar, while creating not servicable BS - oh, and things like paper straws.
Recycling is also mostly BS (things in the "recycle" bins just end in landfills abroad).
So this is just another drop in the huge ever increasing pile.
My phone is 6 years old, and I'm hoping to be able to pay someone to replace the screen and battery at some point (knock on wood).
I specifically bought a gaming laptop to replace my hoity-toity Surface-with-the-dead-battery-base, thinking it would be easier to repair. Come charge port issues, I happily tear it down only to find that it's soldered in (my 2008 HP laptop did not have this problem).
Even when consumers are forced by circumstances to reduce, and make efforts to reuse, companies essentilly force recycle (which, as you said, is essentially "trash").
And then you still run into “repairing this phone screen is $200, you can buy a used one on eBay for $100” issue.
People on a tight budget are more concerned about the budget impact of repairability far more than the waste too (which makes sense).
And the hundreds of millions with not so tight budget, still buy all kinds of crap, like "fast fashion" and the latest gadgetry.
It does, but does it stay after the budget increases? Or is it a side-effect of the budget that goes away when it's not an issue?
But that's also immaterial. That a person's feelings, thoughts, and behaviors might change when they find themselves in a different socioeconomic context doesn't make those experiences any less meaningful - to themselves or society. If personal scarcity inspires more sustainable behavior amidst an environment of eventual, absolute planetary scarcity, which can be applied more widely, all the better.
That's money generated while the e-waste is not factored in. I know I'm stating the obvious. But it's a problem with being realistic, as you start seeing idiosyncrasies everywhere: I run my household on 4g as I can reach realistic speeds of 100Mb/s. Theoretically that goes up to 150Mb/s. A 4k stream (compressed without visual loss) requires 15Mb/s. So 10 people in a household could simultaneously watch 4k content.
Did I fail at math? Why does anyone need 5g? What for?
Now we finally reach a usable area, where I can zoom or netflix anytime during the day. :)
But let's say even $500 (it's probably cheaper) for something that lasts 8 years is still much cheaper than sending people to get the readings
I listen to these and other automated meter broadcasts with an RPi, a TV dongle, and this software: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr
You don't need to read monthly to bill monthly. Our electricity provider used to read yearly, yet we've always paid monthly.
Probably true, but only as long as one can continue to externalize the cost of handling the resulting e-waste to future generations or at least current-day taxpayers.
Maybe they meant "externalize" in the "externalities" sense—environmental damage, etc? If so that makes some sense, but for a full accounting you'd have to compare that to the externalities caused by all the people driving around to take readings (tailpipe emissions, adding to traffic, etc).
But either way, it's common for them to also chirp at 915MHz. They don't need their own band to operate, they can participate in these same bands used by other devices. They're not sending that much data.
The video is at https://youtu.be/G32NYQpvy8Q?si=YjQfnY9Ag7YUGJAd
Not here. I assume that as long as your consumption figures aren't wildly implausible, they just leave you alone. You can voluntarily upload a picture of your meter while submitting the reading, but I've never bothered and they've never requested it.
Probably there are random spot checks, but personally I've never been subjected to one of those. They might also catch you when the meter finally gets replaced at some point, but power meters seem to be relatively long-lived, so they probably won't rely on that alone.