Last week I wrote about the pair of Notre Dame football tickets I purchased for the home game against the Stanford Cardinals from the Notre Dame Ticket Office as part of its ‘friends of ND’ sale back in July.
Well, just a few days ago I obtained another pair from Don, a season ticket holder out in California, for the same game vs Stanford. Don is not able to attend that game and his seats are near the 30 yard line vs the tickets we originally purchased which were in the end zone.
Now, why am I writing about this?
Well what I didn’t know (one of those minor factoids 
), was that the season ticket holders for Notre Dame home football games receive different looking tickets from those which non season ticket and other special folks receive.
Here once again is the pair of tickets we purchased which are in the end zone only a few rows from the very top of Notre Dame Stadium (which some call the ‘House that Rock’ built, as a tribute to Knute Rockne the legendary student and then football coach of the Fighting Irish):
The background of these tickets has a faint picture of the Golden Dome, which is the Main Administration building on the University’s campus, taken across one of the two lakes, Lake Mary or Lake Joseph.
Compare, if you will, to the picture below which are the pair we received for the same game from Don, the season ticket holder:
Notice the very attractive colour background. If I remember correctly this is what you actually what you see when you are entering Gate E in the stadium. Very cool! 
I’ll have to check for sure when we, Harvey and I, are there in less than a month from now for the football game.
Here is a picture I took inside one of the stadium gates last year, albeit from a different angle and a little further away, for comparison.
Looks pretty similar, don’t you think?
So, are both sets real tickets?
Well to be sure I called the Notre Dame ticket office in South Bend.
They said that yes, there is a difference in the tickets but both are real.
Apparently, they use a printing establishment located in Arkansas (surprised why not one in Indiana where South Bend is located … I should have asked) for season tickets and other special tickets.Whereas for the rest they are printed right within the ticket office itself.
Above is a comparison of the two different types of tickets for the same football game. Yes, if you are a die hard Notre Dame Fighting Irish fan, both sets would be nice souvenirs; however, I know which set I would prefer.
Now, what to do with the original tickets? I already have some feelers sent out to folks who may be interested.
GO IRISH!
Post Script: After I wrote the above article I was able to find someone who could use the tickets, a current Notre Dame graduate student who wanted the pair for his parents.
OK, so you went ahead and like us installed a
PowerCost Monitor to provide you with real time information on the amount of electricity consumed in your home. Armed with this information, you found that you were more pro-active in reducing the amount of electricity used in your home.
Then, also like us, you received the notice that your local electric utility was soon going to be switching your electric meter to a Smart Meter.
Will your PowerCost Monitor still work once it was already configured for a different type of electric meter?
Well, the answer is ‘Yes’. What follows is what I did to reconfigure my PowerCost Monitor to work with a Smart Meter after I had it working on an electromechanical (i.e. old fashioned non-Smart Meter).
First I went to the PowerCost Monitor web site and accessed their on-line installation guide.
Next, since it had been about 9 to 10 months since I first installed this energy saving device I proceeded to change the AA batteries in both the Display Unit as well as the Sensor Unit as shown in the picture below:
Next, I determined the type of Smart Meter which was installed for my home. I knew it was not, per the installation guide, Type 1 being the Electromechanical meter which was the old Type 1 used to have that had been replaced.
Now, I needed per the instructions to find the optical port. To be sure, I simply printed this one page from the installation guide, took it outside with me so I had it when I looked at the electric meter to be certain. At first I could not find it.
Then, I noticed that there was an additional picture on the page I printed which showed that for some meters there may be two, side by side, optical ports. This was my situation as you can see from the picture below. Per the instructions, I needed to measure the distance from the outer rim to the port which was on the inside; i.e. the furthest away from the outer rim.
For me, it measured exactly 1.5 inches which meant I had a Type 2 meter as defined by the guide.
I then wrote down the Power Factor which, again, per the guide, is the number beside the letters Ks (for me); in my case it was 1.0 as shown in the picture above.
Next, I found my most recent electric bill from my local utility and found the rates per KWh, which is based not on time of use (yet) but two tiered based on volume (amount used).
I then followed the instructions to (re) configure the Display Unit using all of the above data.
Previously, because I used to have the Type 1 Electromechanical electric meter, the Sensor Arm was pulled as far as it would go out from the Sensor Unit.
Following the instructions I opened the Sensor Arm Latch and pushed the Sensor Arm all the way back into the body of the Sensor Unit.
I then took both the Display Unit and the Sensor Unit back outside and installed it on the Smart Meter. I placed the PowerCost Monitor Sensor Unit over the Smart Meter so that the dark red LED light bulb within the Sensor Arm was directly over the optical port on the meter.
Then, I pressed the RESET button and after a few seconds the STATUS indicator started flashing to indicate that the Sensor Unit has detected the signal from the Smart Meter.
Lastly, following the instructions, I pressed and held the PROG/SYNC button on the Display Unit until I received two beeps.
Nothing happened. The Display unit was still not picking up the signal.
Other than putting in a second set of new batteries I started from scratch.
Still nothing.
I contacted the PowerCost Monitor Customer Support on the phone who took down my information and situation. Shortly I was contacted by a technical support person.
Long story short. it was user error why I could not get the PowerCost Monitor’s Display unit to pick up the reconfigured Sensor unit’s signal. While I did everything correct per the installation manual, I failed on the last step. I did not hold down the PROG/SYNCH button at the top of the Display Unit long enough. Once I did (about 15 seconds or so) then the Display Unit showed, per the instructions, the ID.
Once I did this, I then pressed the reset button one final time on the Sensor unit which was on the Smart Meter and the connection was made.
So, yes, you can reconfigure the PowerCost Monitor to work on a different type of electric meter if, as was our situation, your local electric utility changes your electric meter after you purchase the PowerCost Monitor.
And yes, it will work on Smart Meters.
Of course, both of the above assumes that the new electric meter is one which will work with the PowerCost Monitor. Apparently there are a few models which do not. Their customer support has the full and current list if you are not sure.
So, all’s well that end’s well. Now, let me see who has that light on in the room that is empty!
