Many of the latest smart meters have built in 4G LTE technology. This technology allows the smart meters to send the consumption data to the utility’s central database. From the utility’s perspective, this saves cost by eliminating the need to manually read every single meter. It also facilitates real time demand monitoring to help balance load generation. Overall it looks like this technology could help both the consumer and the utilities. However, not everyone seems to think so. In fact some people seem to consider the smart meters a health hazard.

Ever since cell phones started proliferating, we have been hearing concerns about how the phone’s radiation could potentially cook our brains. The same concern seems to have entered the smart meter market. According to IEEE Spectrum, this concern has gotten so bad, that many places in Texas and California have banned smart meters. With regard to cell phones, judging by the growing number of cell phone users, most people seem to have ignored these concerns. We can’t seem to disconnect ourselves from our cell phones.

Whatever be the merits of the radiation concern, it just doesn’t seem to make much sense in the case of smart meters. To begin with, the smart meters are located at a distance out of the home. Second, no one is ever going to walk around with the smart meter anywhere close to their ear/head. The option to opt-out of using smart meters makes even less sense. What would happen if one person opted out of the smart meter but every other house in the neighborhood installs a smart meter? This is quite likely scenario and in such cases, opting out of smart meters does not reduce the radiation impact on the one solitary house. Also, what do you think is the likelihood, that the person who rejects a smart meter owns a cell phone? I would guess it is pretty high.

Every new technology seems to bring forward some amount of resistance to its adoption. I expect this is the same with smart meters. For now, the smart meter community seems to be doing the right thing by educating consumers and providing opt-out programs. Over time, this will just fade away. The benefits simply far outweigh the risks.