Smart gas meters

[Fredxx]

Is that your way of saying you're not familiar with Python?

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail]>, charles [e-mail]> writes

Huh! I get a demand for a water meter reading monthly. Highway verge, usually infested with Ants.

[Robin]

Business account?

[Andy Burns]

I've had smart meters for over 12 years, the non-rechargeable battery in the gas meter hasn't needed changing yet, it transmits half-hourly readings to the electricity meter which sends both meter readings to the in-house display (hence I hardly ever need the battery to power the backlight of the LCD), it no longer sends readings to the supplier.

Both meters can do remote disconnect ... assuming the SIM is still active after the supplier change?

I presume when it stops sending gas readings the supplier will become interested - maybe replace both smartmeters rather than just the battery?

[Andy Burns]

While my meters were still smart, the supplier sent estimated bills at tariff changes despite promising "no estimated bills again, ever".

[Andy Burns]

I'd have though that if the media had ever caught wind of someone being remotely disconnected by mistake we'd have heard about it by now, similarly hackers cutting off suppliers for a laugh, or burglars knowing you're away on holiday by seeing reduced power usage ...

[Tim Lamb]

Yes. Farm. Annoyingly the meter has *drive by reading facility* I think.

[Max Demian]

It happened a short time ago to the meter that supplies power to the shared parts of the flats block I live in. It took the managing agents three days to persuade the supplier they had made a mistake.

Meanwhile, no lights in the passages or on the stairs - the emergency lighting stopped after a few hours - no remote door entry, no porch light, no floodlight for the car park, no TV aerial distribution; and the fire brigade were ringing them up to say the fire alarm was out of action.

[Max Demian]

What's the range of the gas meter transmitter? Will the signal go through reinforced concrete walls and floors?

[Andy Burns]

I don't know, in my case the meters are more or less on direct opposite sides of a cavity wall.

[NY]

I tried a couple of the apps that were mentioned.

Bright doesn't seem to want to talk to my IHD, a Trio 2, though I may not have selected the correct number from the various ones printed on the Trio's case and accessible in the IHD menus.

geoHome works a treat: it give me instantaneous readings which match those displayed on the IHD itself (always a good check!) and it gives me cumulative usage for each day/week, including the usage-so-far for today. And the usage for a couple of days in the past matches the usage that the Octopus app is reporting for that day (another check!).

So now I can see the usage for yesterday by the time I wake up today (eg 8 AM) and add it to my spreadsheet. No need to wait until this evening or tomorrow to see yesterday's usage.

Ideally Trio should have suggested people use geoHome (or produced their own app with the same functionality), but no matter. I knew if I asked in a newsgroup like this one, someone would point me in the right direction.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Your in home display, should be near up to date - every few seconds for E, then I think every few minutes for gas.

Your 30 minute days worth of readings, are sent at around midnight.

The readings go to Capita, then on to your supplier. They probably do it in batches.

[Adrian]

No smart meters here, and I haven't seen a meter reader in years.

Adrian

[Robin]

Taking monthly readings seems to me a small price to pay for the ability to choose whose water you drink :)

[Jeff Layman]

I'd no idea if this was accurate or not:

But it seems to be:

Also, an interesting comment here:

[alan_m]

Misleading headline

Not cut off but the meter changed to prepayment because of non-payment of bills. Yes, if they don't pay in advance there is no gas or electricity. This is not meant to come out of the blue but after a period of correspondence. Long before smart meters people were changed to pre-payment on non-payment. The difference with smart meters is it can be done remotely and previously it required someone to enter the premises to physically change the meter. Again, before smart meters it required those on pre-payment meters to pay before use and if they didn't have a token/card with credit the meter would cut them off. After a rap on the knuckles the energy companies been told to comply with their codes of practice in all such cases.

The alternative is probably to impose a levy on the customers who do pay for their energy to bailout those who do not.

Another conspiracy theory?

If there is a shortage during peak period and there are enough people on smart meters willing to shift their energy usage then variable hourly tariffs may help with the problem but failing that it's likely whole areas will be switched off in times of network stress, irrespective of the meter type. I guess that maybe those wanting to keep traditional meters will soon only have the options of the most expensive energy tariffs.

The problem with our energy supply is not the introduction of smart meters and how they operate but the growing reliance on intermittent green energy which at times produces next to nothing when it's needed most.

[Andy Burns]

Don't think my smartmeter has any facility to be "topped up" via a payment card/token.

[Robin]

From memory I think it's routine (if not mandated) for SMETS2 electricity. What's your make & model? (The top up is delivered to the meter over the network.)

[alan_m]

From what I understand if the meter reverts to pre-payment there is also a card associated with the meter. The card doesn't need to be physically connected to the meter. It is just an identifier of the customer account to which money can be added in various ways. The credit is then transmitted to the meter.

[Andy Burns]

But my meter went "dumb" on changing supplier