New City man: Smart Meter installation damaged home

<p>A New City man says his home suffered damage after a subcontractor installed a Smart Meter last month.</p>

News 12 Staff

Dec 29, 2017, 5:38 PM

Updated 2,308 days ago

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A New City homeowner says the installation of a Smart Meter resulted in damage to his home. 
Howard Lerner says he found damage to his home shortly after a new Smart Meter was installed at his home last month. He called Orange & Rockland Utilities, who sent a supervisor for the subcontractor that installed the meter. 
Lerner says the supervisor told him that there was "arcing" on the meter, which is a fire hazard. 
A spokesperson for O&R says their crews and contractors have installed 53,000 Smart Meters in Rockland since July and there have been four incidents of arcing – two were from faulty equipment and two, including Lerner's, were from technician error.
Learner says the meter is scheduled to be repaired on Jan. 4.
In the meantime, he has reached out to Sen. David Carlucci, hoping to prevent this from happening to other homes.
"Right now we have seen some minor damage, some burn marks, some appliances not working, but we want to make sure it's prevented from a real fire breaking out," says Sen. Carlucci.
The Rockland County fire coordinator has reached out to fire inspectors around the county, and says so far he hasn't heard of any fires starting as a result of the Smart Meters.
Orange and Rockland says there have been no fires, and no one has been hurt in any of the arcing incidents. They have had six complaints of appliances not working, but they say they were not related to the smart meter installations.


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