smart meter opt-out fees meters are now on most American homes. The federal Energy Information Administration counted more than 147 million of them in the United States at the end of 2025, covering houses and businesses. If you moved into a place built or renovated in the last ten years, the electric meter on the wall almost certainly has a radio inside it. That radio sends your usage data back to the utility in short bursts over a wireless network, without anybody walking up to read a dial. The industry calls this advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI for short.
The meter does not transmit all day. It sends in short bursts, and how often depends on the utility’s network setup. Published measurements of radio energy near smart meters have come in at a small fraction of the Federal Communications Commission’s safety limit once the on-and-off pattern is averaged out. The level drops quickly as you move away. Distance does most of the work.
Still, some people want a meter without a radio. Most utilities will swap one in for you, but it is not free. Opting out usually comes with two costs: a one-time fee to switch the meter, and a monthly charge after that. The monthly fee pays for a person to come out and read the old-style dial by hand. The amounts vary a lot from one utility to another. Some utilities, including the big ones in California, list a lower monthly rate for low-income customers.
The one-time fee and the monthly charge are not set by some vague policy. They live in a public document called the utility’s tariff. A tariff is the official rate sheet that a utility files with its state regulator. It spells out exactly what the company can charge you for each service, including meter reading. Some tariffs charge twenty or thirty dollars a month for manual reads. Others are lower. A few are higher.
To find out what your utility charges, look up its tariff. You can usually find it on the utility’s website under rates or tariffs. It is a long legal document, but the part about meter reading is often in a section labeled something like meter reading or special services. Read that section before you call the utility. You may find that the number a customer service representative gives you over the phone does not match the number in the tariff. The tariff is the binding document.
This article is about fees and documents. It is not medical advice or legal advice. If you have health concerns about radio frequency energy, talk to a doctor. If you think your utility is charging you something the tariff does not allow, talk to a lawyer or your state public utilities commission. If you want to know the technical limits on radio emissions, the FCC publishes them. The utility’s tariff is the place to start for the dollar numbers.
There is a fuller write-up at smart meter opt-out fees.
