Smart meter?

In message , Huge writes

I don't think there is one provided it does not have the ability to disconnect your supply.

NPower fitted them here when I changed to a *group buying* tariff.

It just looked like a conventional mobile telephone fitted inside the meter case.

As you say, it saves on meter readers.

Likely it will have remote disconnect (my e.on fitted gas and leccy meters do) on the plus side, I haven't seen a meter bod for 2 years and far less building up of credit to them and altering of direct debits,

Can you change supplier without having your meter changed? (I have seen mixed comments in recent years)

As well as the in-house combined display, they both have LCD readouts that could be read by a meter reader bod, so I can't see why not.

I don't think they're geared-up for a different supplier to read them as smart meters though, so there's some "soft" lock-in if you don't want to go back to normal readings.

Only a catch if you have solar panels and a meter that goes backwards.

mark

The real Gotcha will come when most of the populace have succumbed to these meters. At the moment the wording is something like they will be installed with the 'cooperation' of the householder.

The charging regime can then go over to time of day variant tariffs. Not so much a discount for off peak more a case of much higher prices at popular times ie just when you need power. Also there will be the ability for remote disconnection for extremes of load management as well as non payment (fair enough)

Until then, having a smart meter is OK unless you have PV panels AND a PV diverter (Such as SolarImmersion) into some sort of storage system. In this event the export payment will drop to very little instead of the assumed 50% of generation where no export meter is fitted. Smart Meters will measure export correctly unlike most analogue or digital meters in current use.

My sis-in-law had a visit from a man about fitting a smart meter, so I did a bit of Googling which got me even more confused.

The report at

seems to say that the technology has not been firmed up yet.

Her visitor told her that the smart meter would have to be fitted in the kitchen and showed her a picture of something like a mobile phone. She became alarmed as her current meters and fuse boxes etc. are under the stairs, and she didn't want them moved to the kitchen.

I think there could be problems with mobile phone signals where many existing meters are installed, and here I have to go upstairs to get a reliable signal on one major provider.

My chum in LA seems to like his smart meter, as their previously unpredictable power outages have become more controlled. I suspect we are being groomed for the descent into 3rd world power provision at premier 1st world prices..

As that report says, the official "Smart Meter" roll out is running late. However, various companies are providing what could best be described as meters which are smarter than the old ones, which will probably have to be swapped or modified in order to be fully compliant when the final standards are agreed.

I think that may have been a misunderstanding. I would expect the actual meter location to be unchanged, but a wirelessly linked display unit to be fitted where it would readily be visible.

Chris

On Thursday 04 July 2013 14:34 Bill wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Did someone do that, or did it grow?

Agreed the normal thick as s*it "sales" droid "It's got a display on it, so it's the meter innit".

But the point about trouble with mobile phone coverage is very valid. There is no mobile signal where our meters are, something to do with

They can remote disconnect you and they can reduce your power supply remotely.

Methinks it's rats not crows.

I think that's right, what have been fitted so far are minimally smart meters.

The new meters stay exactly where the old ones were, the display unit has a range of at least 30' and a couple of brick walls.

e.on dis ask me before fitting if I knew whether O2 got a got 2G in my house (it does) and checked that I didn't have PV panels.

I can't see them using the remote contactor for regular disconnections for rationing supply, it's not fine-grained enough for that, the idea of smart devices that look for dropped mains frequency sounds better for that.

true, but I'd only expect it for non-payment.

What do you mean by "reduce"?

I can foresee a future where domestic electricity supply can reduced by either supply less volts, or having 2 circuits - a permanent one (premium cost/KWh) and an interruptible one (economy cost/KWh).

It's patently obvious that the present UK energy strategy (or lack thereof) is going to lead to the lights going out. Rather than addressing the underlying issue (lack of power generation) it seems our lords and masters are quietly working on deciding *whose* lights go out. Personally I think they haven't a clue as to how complex the modern world has become. It's all very well keeping domestic customers lights on (and therefore, ironically, in the dark about the scale of the problem). However it's not much use if they can't watch TV or use the internet because a key resource has lost power.

I mean load control, in exactly the same way an ISP can throttle your connection if you are downloading too much.

None of them say that they are using it 'at the moment', but in time when we have power shortages, it will be used.

By turning the volts down? By turning power off for x minutes per hour?

can't see either of those with present meters ...

So what, and I mean in reasonable detail, happens when you hit your personal cap? Let us say you have a 2kW limit. Various things on such as lights using a fair proportion of that. Then a big load such as switching on a vacuum cleaner, or grill or oven or two rings on the hob. Perhaps it is the heavy motors with high starting currents that cause the over-demand but only for a very brief period as it starts to spin up.

Does the voltage get dropped? Do you get totally switched off? I think it is very different to an ISP throttling your bandwidth.

Is it safe to switch off supply to our appliances at full load, then switch back on. Possibly repeatedly?

Direct Load Control : Under direct load control, heavy usage appliances, such as pool pumps and air-conditioners are cycled on

- and off during peak periods to reduce network load, either directly through the home area network or remotely by a third party

- for instance, a network business or retailer

- using the communications infrastructure of the smart meter

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