Smart meters

[rick.oshea]

Not seen one of these yet - am I right in understanding these meters are recording in real time? Anyone seen one of these in action?

How do they get the data back - built in GSM?

Is this the end of estimated bills??......I used to look forward to ripping into my Npower call centre handler, after they increased my DD based on a figure between 1 & 10, multiplied by the day in the month and divided by 0.02.....

 

[Paul.M]

I haven't worked with them but I've seen the info on them. Basically a meter reader in a van can collect up to 3 readings at the same time just by pressing a button on a laptop without getting out of the van! I might retrain and become a meter reader.

 

[meter man]

These smart meters have a sim card built in and work on various phone networks. They also have the capacity to be turned into a pre-payment meter.
In the near future, not sure exactly when, these meters will only activate when a correct code has been entered. i.e. meter change or when main fuse has been pulled!

 

[oldtimer]

My wife works working with cards in a supermarket and she has a small hand computer that uses the mobile network.

And while we are on smart meters these things will tell you how much electricity you are using in a lot of formats but my opinion is that it should be able during an emergency on the grid have a limiter built in so the grid can transmit a setting to it thus leaving the grid intact and no power cuts.
Funny thing is people will bitch that they are limited to say 15 amps that will allow the gas central heating to run a boil a brew instaed of the other option a power cut

 

[Marvo]

Where I am it's legislation that every domestic installation has the hot water cylinder supply circuit run through a 4x4 box above the DB. This is to give the supply authority the option to install a ripple relay so they can load shed HWC's during peak load times. This is the best link I could find although it mentions it as a New Zealand system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_control#Ripple_control_for_many_years_in_New_Zealand

I'm guessing the smart meters might be capable of more complex load shedding.