It has been recently announced that B.C. Hydro has rethought its position on forcing everyone to use the signalling option of the new meters providing that they are willing to pay an extra fee to have their meters manually read.
This raises some interesting questions. My meter reader reads both the gas and electric meters on the same trip. He leans over the fence to get the gas reading then takes, say, 20 seconds to climb the stairs, 20 seconds to record the numbers, and another 20 seconds to descend to the street. One minute.
The meters are read once every two months or six times per year for a total of six minutes per year. Given that my timing might be out a bit let us say twenty minutes per year at say $36 per hour in wages and benefits for the reader and B.C. Hydro is chasing $12 per year. This is ridiculous.
I don't know who actually employs the meter readers, B.C. Hydro, B.C. Gas, Fortis or whoever? The labour saving by reading one meter per home is small, but is there a grander scheme afoot? Is B.C. Gas soon going to announce that they, too, are switching to smart meters? Time will tell.
Paul Bjarnason,
Burnaby
