What readout do smart meters give in UK?

treezleef · Oct 5, 2021

Hi,
Domestic single phase smart meters in UK....what readout do they give to the house owner?
That is, if the house owner goes up to the smart meter, can they see a reading there and then?
What reading is it?
Presumably the reading they can see is the average power over the last 5 minutes (or something like this?)

..Or is it the average power drawn between some time interval? If so, which?

Kind Regards

newfutile · Oct 6, 2021

The average / daily/instant power use is logged , but I’m not sure of how much is readable on the meter other than KWH’s used since installation .
The remote viewer (a small display) is used to read the above.

snowhead · Oct 6, 2021

I doubt there is a standard, so it will depend on what each manufacturer has set it to or what the Energy supplier who owns / leases has had it set to.

Non "Smart" meters usually display the total for the rate it's currently on i.e Standard or Off peak.

Avo Mk8 · Oct 6, 2021

Agree with the above
The meters themselves show a 'totalised' reading of consumption (kWh) that's passed through it since it was made! (unless reset etc)
It is displayed 'there and then' on the front (typically lcd) display.
Dual rate meters generally have a button you press to cycle through the total for each rate, and maybe the sum of those, and sometimes other things like the time etc. It depends on the design/ manufacturer.
With some meters, after pressing the button it is possible to leave the meter displaying something other than rate 1 or rate 2. Asking a customer to just go and read what's shown on the front of the meter might not always be useful!

Having said all that, a smart meter generally comes with a separate "in-home display", placed somewhere convenient in the house, which communicates with the smart electricity meter (and I believe a smart gas meter also communicates with the smart electricity meter, which then in turn communicates the gas readings to the in-home display). If I've misunderstood that last bit, someone let me know please!

The "in home display" can show, for example, instantaneous power consumption, or total for the day, week etc.
Suggest you Google 'in-home display' ?

treezleef · Oct 7, 2021

Thanks, google says an "In home display" is a display on a smart meter which updates every 10 seconds with the kwh total for the house (since the smart meter was installed).
I presume all smart meters have this?
Also, presumably its positive for imported kwh, and negative for exported kwh, or does it have two different displays...one for exported energy, and one for imported energy?

Avo Mk8 · Oct 7, 2021

The IHD is a seperate piece of kit that communicates via the "home area network" that the smart meter genrtates.
It can show all sorts of information, but the frequency of the data points taken is variable. Depending on what the customer prefers. The 10 seconds you mention is probably the refresh rate of the display, not necessarily the data collection rate.
I think you need to study the various IHD guides more carefully. Have a look at some of these: