There needs to be an option for us to say "No" to BGE. There is absolutely no sense to the notion that a person would sit around watching their electric meter tick off its use.

We have solar heat, solar hot water; our electric usage -- in units of kilowatt hours -- has been pretty much the same for 30 years. We turn on the AC once a year for about 3 hours, because we were advised to do that to make sure the system was working. It is. Otherwise, if it gets hot we run a fan or two.

The heat pump system serves as backup heat in the winter, and that usage has also been stable over 30 years. We manage the thermostats by hand and they are set very low for winter (63 degrees). The solar heating system is pretty complicated, and there is no option for one of these fancy thermostats.

BGE has no right to upset this nicely balanced apple cart. If they want to do "smart meters," that's fine. But we don't want one, we don't need one and we surely don't want to pay for one.

Emily Johnston, Westminster