I miss the old electric meters.

The editorial in the Oct. 14 Maine Sunday Telegram (Our View: “Smart meters will make for smarter customers, too”) has me puzzled.

The fact that the utility can automatically read the meters is quite an improvement (except for the meter readers), but I haven’t figured out how they make me any smarter.

I find the digital numbers blinking on the face of the new meter to be inscrutable, and after struggling on the Internet to set up an account with Central Maine Power, I can’t discover anything that tells me how much electricity or current I am using.

Perhaps it’s buried in there somewhere, or maybe that feature has not yet been activated for my account.

Even if I can eventually go to my computer and dig out that information, I will still miss the old meters.

Mind you, I am not afraid of the new smart meters (despite their slightly hooded appearance), but those blinking numbers don’t make me any smarter.

This time of year, as we slowly closed up our summer cottage, and whenever we would leave our cottage or our winter house unoccupied for a few days at a time, I took great comfort in observing the speed of the wheel on the old meter as I went out the door.

The rate the wheel turned easily informed me whether we had left a heater, the fridge or even a 70-watt light on, and I could go right back in to correct the problem.

I guess this is the kind of smarts the utility no longer wishes you to have, but I call that hands-on management of one’s account.

Philip Brooks is a resident of Freeport.

 

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