Where do smart meters get their power from?

[Andy Burns]

Mine is on the 868MHz ISM band

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Reentrant formulated the question :

I have no idea how my water meter works at all, but they seem to be able to interrogate it from the road, some way from the back of the house where the meter is. The meter is a mechanical one in what looks like a brass body.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

We quite often see YW vans, but I have never spotted what might be a YW meter reading van. I suppose there would be nothing to prevent them equipping a numerous of their vans with the receivers, to pick up the alarms and report them.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Correct, except the gas meter updates the electric meter more frequently than that. Judging by the indoor displays gas consumption updates, its maybe every couple of minutes.

[Andy Burns]

My IHD certainly only receives gas readings every 30 minutes, whereas the electricity readings are about every 15-20 seconds.

[Reentrant]

Here's the brochure for the module on our meter:

[Simon Mason]

My kitchen display runs off the mains via a transformer PSU.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Simon Mason pretended :

As I presume will all of them. Here we are discussing how frequent the updates are from the gas smart meter, which operates from an internal battery.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Reentrant presented the following explanation :

It looks nothing like that - It looks just like a normal meter, entirely brass on the outside case and rather transmitting to a base, I understand they drive by to collect the data. I have seen several YW vans with a very short vertical antenna on them, possibly Ghz frequency, so I would suspect that may interrogate the meter.

[bert]

In article <qq77dc$lfr$ [e-mail], Harry Bloomfield <?.?@NOSPAM.tiscali.co.uk.invalid> writes

I'm duet o have one installed soon. Only to get the lowest possible tariffs. This thread does not fill me with a great deal of confidence. I'm not at all interested in sitting watching a display. I don't watch my current meters and don't intend to start now. The IHD can go in the garage. Apparently most people lose interest after about 1 month and the overall savings is about £11.00

[Martin Brown]

They may well be battery powered. My oil tank gauge is and it lasts typically about 5 years on a custom stick of expensive AAA alkalines.

[Terry Casey]

Don't you buy them from Poundland then?

Kodak. 10 year guaranteed storage life. Never hasd one leak. 5 for £1 or you can get a 12 pack for £2. >17p each.

Same for AA, if you have a use for them - most people do these days.

[charles]

Screwfix have AAs on offer - a box of 24 Varta ones for £7.95.

[Roger Hayter]

If it is like my oil guage the custom stick is potted with screw terminals to be rain (and perhaps oil) proof, so only the custom version will do.

[Martin Brown]

Academic here since the mains meter is right in the core of the house and there is no mobile signal to be had there for love nor money.

Indeed it may make more sense to leave all your usual kit on so that it doesn't choose the newly vacated band where your normal Wifi channel is.

The worst offender for blocking mobile phone signals I have come across was actually a handset charger for a BT phone. This seemed so unlikely a cause of bad signal that it came as a complete surprise when the thing was finally thrown out that mobile signal magically improved.

One problem I have encountered with pairing the Owl things with their sender is that they can under some circumstances latch onto any nearby Owl not necessarily the one you actually want for your own premises.

[Andy Burns]

Are you oop north? there's a dedicated 400MHz network covering DNO areas

15-18 & 23

elsewhere, mesh networking to neighbouring meters with better mobile signal is an option.

[Terry Casey]

Why bother? 24 from Poundland for £4.

I'm extremely reluctant to buy any thing other than Kodak these days because of their proven reliability, long life and no leaking.

Leaking in low consumption devices where batteries last a very long time is even more important these days and every time I've tried any other brand over the years I've lived to regret it.

I haven't looked for some time but I have come across the Kodak alkaline in other smaller Pound shops but, in the days when Pounfdland sold them at 6 for £1, the other shops only gave you 4! Even so, that's only £6 for 24!

I'd also be wary of Screwfix special offers on batteries. They had one on PP9s a few months ago - zinc carbon, of course, and all on or near their expiry date. This was not stated in the offer!

[Martin Brown]

When I say custom stick I mean a thing made of plumbing parts to disguise the contents and then charge an arm and a leg for it.

At £26 on eBay is a fairly good price for a new one. Official retail supplier would charge you *EVEN* more !

Dismantling it is made awkward but nothing that will defeat a keen DIYer. Contents are 4xAAA alkaline batteries and a spring.

I try to use rechargables in most of my kit. But I always have a stock of single use in case I need them. I have seriously gone off Duracell after having multiple leaking cell issues with them.

Some things like my phone LCD display won't work on rechargables as the terminal voltage is insufficient at very low currents.

[Martin Brown]

Zone 15 but I suspect topography plays a big part as well.

There is another village in a valley nearby with zero signal. Phones have to be on a windowsill facing the right way to get anything here. Not great for battery life...

[charles]

Leave them plugged in.

On the assumption that the user has an internet connection, you can use Vodaphone's SureSignal if you're on Vodaphone or the equivalent from another network provider. That how I use my phone here - and we're only 24 miles from Charing Cross!