I read some gumf the other day, saying Arqiva are rolling out a comms system for Smart Water meters (it's the meters that are presumably smart, not the water)
What is a smart meter, have I already got one ? The present one has some sort of RFID functionality I assume, coz the van from South East Water drives up our road, emitting a signal, that causes the meters to 'ping' back their readings ?
So, are these meters going to be the same ones used for the smart metering, or will they come and change my meter (for the third time in
10 years now !) And if they are the same ones, how on earth will the magic 10 megawatt ERP signal from Arqiva reach my meter that's 600mm below the ground ?
Well I don't know, but mine is under the pavement outside and the guy comes along with a little gadget on a telescopic stick to read it every so often. I'm sure there are as many methods as there are companies. Standardisation is not a strong point amongst most services providers it seems. Brian
Meters can be tied together. One scheme, allows a dumb meter, to piggyback off the radio of a smart meter. A cable would run from the dumb meter, to the smart meter in that case.
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Our water here, using the RFID concept. An especially strong "ping" from the truck as it drives by, causes the meter to transmit a "usage packet" back to the truck. The meter is battery powered, and the battery needs replacement every ten years.
Since the water meter stays in a low power state, most all of the time, the ten year battery interval is really the "shelf life". Counting pulses at extremely low rates, uses no power to speak of.
Now, my meter it is claimed, has "leak detection", which implies at the very least, some notion of time in the metering. And including a measure of time would waste power. I've never heard of anyone getting a warning on their water bill, that "something is leaking". This would not be real-time detection, more a delay of a month or two, to find out. The radio on the unit, cannot be heard by anything, otherwise. Only the truck driving by can "hear it".
When the toilet valve was leaking, there was no notification on any bill. I detected that by watching the visual meter dial one day, and seeing the fastest moving spindle, "pipping a bit". Then I went hunting for the miscreant. So if there is leak detection, I'm still waiting for a demo.
Well yes. That's exactly what I've got at present, (it's exactly what I described in my post) but it doesn't explain how they will continuously (once per hour/day etc) monitor my use (if that's the plan) ?
"Northumbrian Water Group, one of Britain?s largest water providers, to deliver an initial roll-out of a smart metering network in Essex, where it operates as Essex & Suffolk Water."
Thames don't claim to be able to get every meter connected to the Flexnet network. But I think some of the smart water meters have an aerial wire - although I've no idea if those have been used.
Around here the mechanical indoor water meters are cabled to a ~10cm round black plastic 'puck' that's mounted on the front wall of the house. To my knowledge there's no power supply or battery in the meter (never had to change one in 15 years, although I suppose it could be powered from the water pressure).
I had assumed that a meter reader went around with a battery powered gadget and touched it to the puck, which illuminated a coil in the puck with RF and that stimulated some resonances within the meter digits, so you got an RF resonance that corresponded to which digit was in which position. That means you can read it passively like an RFID without needing a power supply.
But I have no evidence for this, and I now can't find a picture. I've never seen anyone read it, but they could do this without ringing the bell.
Are you saying this kind can be read from a van? I'm rather surprised at the amount of RF power needed if so. Or maybe there are multiple types.
I had two water meters fitted in 2010 and about a year later I caught sight of a Yorkshire Water van parked outside my house.
Intrigued I approached the driver and asked if he was reading my meters and was given a demonstration of the handheld reading device.
He explained that information gathered fro each meter includes the total amount of water, the maximum flow and the amount of reverse flow (this very serious and can result in to very heavy penalties).
It makes it impossible to read the meter. I read mine every week just in case there's a leak somewhere. Still, with meter inside you'd be aware of leaks and wouldn't be charged for leaks outside.
err no. You'd be charged for any water passing through the meter. My water meter is on my boundary, so outside leaks arec my problem. But I had a plastic pipe installed before the days of water meters, so I shouldn't get a leak there.
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