A lot of people think a smart meter is just a new electric meter that lets the utility know when they turn on the air conditioner. That is partly true, but the real story is bigger. A smart meter is simply an electric meter with a radio inside. Nobody has to walk up and read the dial. The meter records your usage in short intervals and sends the readings back to the utility over a wireless network. The industry calls the whole setup AMI, short for advanced metering infrastructure. They are on most walls now.
The federal Energy Information Administration, or EIA, counted 147.1 million smart electric meters in the US at the end of 2025. That number includes homes and businesses together. If you moved into a house in the last decade, there is a good chance one was already there. The spread started in the late 2000s. Utilities pushed them out because they save money on meter readers and give customers more detailed information about their power use. Some states adopted them fast. Others moved slow.
Why does adoption differ so much from state to state? It comes down to the rules each state’s public utility commission sets. In some states, the commission told the big utilities to install smart meters for everyone. In other states, the commission left it up to each utility. Some utilities decided the cost was worth it. Others did not. California is one of the places where adoption is high. The big California utilities have been swapping out old meters for years.
The meter does not transmit all day. It sends in short bursts. how many smart meters are in the US often depends on the utility’s network. Published measurements near smart meters have come in at a small share of the FCC limit once the on-and-off pattern is averaged in. The level drops quickly as you step away. Distance does most of the work.
Some people still want a meter without a radio. Most utilities will swap one in. It is not free. Opting out usually means a one-time fee plus a monthly charge that pays for someone to read the meter by hand. The amounts vary a lot between utilities. A few, the big California ones among them, list a lower rate for low-income customers. Your utility’s tariff is the document that actually sets your fee. Read it before you call. If you have health questions about radio signals, talk to your doctor. If you have legal questions about your rights, talk to a lawyer. The FCC sets the safety limits on these signals. The utility sets the fees.
More notes on this topic are at how many smart meters are in the US.