I hope that is the correct term? What I want is an electricity and gas meter that automatically report their readings direct to the utility supplier. The alternative is to move the meters outside, which is extremely expensive.
Do they do the same for water?
Just curious, why?
My water meter supports remote reading.
You can have your water meter outside; it would appear that most are. Mine's indoors, but there's an "outreader" fitted so that the meter droid can take the reading in the back garden, a few feet from where the meter is.
I'd be wary of gas and electricity meters which can be read remotely. It's quite possible that somebody else (or even the meter reader in his/her spare time!) could establish a pattern of your use to find a time when the house is likely to be unoccupied...
They are called smart meters. At some point we will all have them. Whether you can get one now or not depends on the policy of you supplier/grid owner.
Changing your meter is expensive too, supposing they will do it at your behest they will charge for it.
In a list of implausible outcomes, that has got to be up there in the top 3. I despair at times reading some of the posts here.
I wonder if he goes around checking that no IR detectors/trailcams have been hidden on the trees nearby so someone can see when he goes out?
I phoned up eon and said can I have a smart meter please. They fitted it a few weeks later.
The only questions were..
do you know what the O2 signal strength is like where the meters are. do you have solar panels or wind turbines (both are incompatible with the meters).
They are free.
TBH all that is needed is to watch the house. And if you are not sure that the house is empty then knock on the door and say you are there to read the meter if someone answers.
I checked if I could have a smart water meter linked to my other smart meters, I found that Severn Trent used to have a subsidiary producing smart water meters, but they sold it off to Elster and now they don't offer them to their own customers ...
I used to monitor and record my electricity usage with a wireless device that recorded the information every minute or so.
Looking at the graphs it was patently obvious what the usage patterns were, and with a bit of calibration I could tell whether SWMBO was had set the washing machine to a 40 or 50 degree wash; ditto the dishwasher cycle. Making a cup of tea stood out like the proverbial. It's surpising how regular people's habits can be.
recorded the information every
Rather more difficult with one reading per month, which is all they take (at the moment).
True, but it won't stay that way. Smart meters are coming to deal with the projected energy shortage, by turning you off if you use too much during restricted periods, meaning near-real-time monitoring.
We had a student project (which didn't work as well as it ought to have done) which analysed changes in whole-house consumption to work out what had been switched on ot off - and kept track of it.
Not a very smart meter then if they can't measure exported power. No wonder they are free.
Your meter may be smart, but the Smart Meter planned for national rollout specifically has to cope with exported power.
Chris
Before arranging for mine to be fitted they checked if I had solar panels, though the meter they fitted seems to claim to have an export register
This is the gas meter it's paired with
I don't think they'll turn you off, far to many implications of plunging a place into darkness without warning but under their control (unlike a
power cut due to weather or a fault). They just have dynamic tarrifs so
at the peaks they'll just bung the cost up to £10/unit, this will be shown on the display so you have no excuse when the bill comes in.
Did you get a remote display Andy?
I'm confused regarding the energy monitors that are quite cheap eg Owl, The smart meters that some leccy boards are fitting that seems to be little more than fancy energy monitors and do not report usage back to base and the 'true' smart meters that we are all supposed to have by
2019 or whatever date it slips to.I heard on't radio 4 the other day that "by 2019 all householders would be *offered* smart meters" Can we refuse them??? I think this was some BG spokesman speaking on you and yours or similar programme.
Yes, the one shown within this PDF
it gives off a red/amber/green glow, depending if you're consuming below
200W, above 1kW or inbetween, shows daily/weekly/monthly/annual graphs for gas or electric and an instantaneous usage figure.
I used to have one of the "clip-on" energy monitors for electricity only, and of course they're not as accurate as the actual meter.
Doubt it, once they start rolling them out in earnest.
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