Electric meters are my life and I can tell you that if you have a "Smart Meter" on your house, playing games with the power Co is over for you. What that meter can tell the power co is really everything. Stealing power is really serious and it can cost you big time. If you have a fire, count on your ins co to look into it. As far as reactive power goes, residential single phase has little affect on the bill, big 3 phase it does. The killer for us domestic rate people will be when TOU (time of use) hits us. I know, this is TMI.