Smart Meters

kinetic747 said:
What signal are they taking about?
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The meters send their data back via a wireless mesh network. They can talk direct to DCC (the government company that collates the billing data), or talk with each other to transfer data around.

If you're in a bad signal area, you can't talk to DCC, and there aren't enough other smart meters around to make the mesh network viable. It's also possible that your meter is somewhere (such as a basement) where it can't get a signal out.
 
Steampunk said:
The meters send their data back via a wireless mesh network. They can talk direct to DCC (the government company that collates the billing data), or talk with each other to transfer data around.

If you're in a bad signal area, you can't talk to DCC, and there aren't enough other smart meters around to make the mesh network viable. It's also possible that your meter is somewhere (such as a basement) where it can't get a signal out.
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No they don't.

South of Manchester the old O2 2G network (GSM data network) is used north of that it's Aquiva (not sure what network cannot remember). Mesh is only used for large building with multiple meters in one position so as not to swamp the local network with requests on one tower.

I work in Bath where most meters are in cellers or out in the sticks across the Mendips and out of the 100sq miles I cover there is only a very small section that has poor signal, and I e only had one celler install fail and that was because it was 6m bellow road level.

Honestly some people have not a clue what they are talking about!
 
kinetic747 said:
What signal are they taking about?
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See above
darkgen said:
They're a waste of time and money and unless you live in a strong-signal area, where they can eventually fleece you with surge / hourly pricing model, not to bother?
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It's not costing you anything, under regulation your provider is not allowed to charge you for a smart meter (currently) surge/hourly pricing is something you would have to optin to have they cannot as per regulation just put you on a tariff that would vary without your prior knowledge.

kinetic747 said:
EDF are taking the **** now. They've asked for a meter reading as the smart meter isn't sending readings. They've also asked if they can close my complaint as in their words "the signal is weak in my area" What does that even mean?:mad:
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What area are you in and type of meter have you had installed?
 
BigBoy said:
It's not costing you anything, under regulation your provider is not allowed to charge you for a smart meter (currently) surge/hourly pricing is something you would have to optin to have they cannot as per regulation just put you on a tariff that would vary without your prior knowledge.
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I think you've qualified my point. There isn't any consumer benefit in the current crop of smart metering. The technology isn't quite there, the standard isnt definitive and the rationale behind their introduction to the consumer is based on a fallacy of "saving energy".
 
darkgen said:
I think you've qualified my point. There isn't any consumer benefit in the current crop of smart metering. The technology isn't quite there, the standard isnt definitive and the rationale behind their introduction to the consumer is based on a fallacy of "saving energy".
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The standard has been defined, provider do not own the meters they are rented from MeterFit2020 the government entity set up to standardise things, they provide a selection of meters the providers they then chooses what ones to use. The current crop as you put it are all we are getting! No provider want to put R&D money in to smart, it's not cost effective for consumer level smart metering.

The selling of smart was done a wrong, I at no point dissagree with you on that point. It's been a car crash from start to finish!
 
BigBoy said:
No they don't.

South of Manchester the old O2 2G network (GSM data network) is used north of that it's Aquiva (not sure what network cannot remember). Mesh is only used for large building with multiple meters in one position so as not to swamp the local network with requests on one tower.

I work in Bath where most meters are in cellers or out in the sticks across the Mendips and out of the 100sq miles I cover there is only a very small section that has poor signal, and I e only had one celler install fail and that was because it was 6m bellow road level.

Honestly some people have not a clue what they are talking about!
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Isn't that SMETS1? I though SMETS2 was the more sophisticated mesh network? Is the information here all wrong then?
 
Steampunk said:
Isn't that SMETS1? I though SMETS2 was the more sophisticated mesh network? Is the information here all wrong then?
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No smets1 meters were provider dependant so each provider had its own contract with a mobile company to provide data carriage.

Smets2 use the DCC provided network, in th south it's O2. O2 have basically converted the old GSM network to a secure smart meter only network for the DCC's sole use.
 
BigBoy said:
See above

It's not costing you anything, under regulation your provider is not allowed to charge you for a smart meter (currently) surge/hourly pricing is something you would have to optin to have they cannot as per regulation just put you on a tariff that would vary without your prior knowledge.


What area are you in and type of meter have you had installed?
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It's Smets2 and I'm in the Manchester area, a town called Atherton. EDF CS has been absolutely shocking since the smart meter install and yet I had no issues at all previously.
 
kinetic747 said:
It's Smets2 and I'm in the Manchester area, a town called Atherton. EDF CS has been absolutely shocking since the smart meter install and yet I had no issues at all previously.
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Sorry to say it but you are now a tick in the box marked Smart Meters installed, meaning once it in they don't give two hoots about you :( I hear its not just EDF that work this way
 
BigBoy said:
Sorry to say it but you are now a tick in the box marked Smart Meters installed, meaning once it in they don't give two hoots about you :( I hear its not just EDF that work this way
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Bigboy, you seem like the guy to ask with this; this is where the power comes into a house which we are going to attempt to proceed on. It feeds multiple consumer units as you can see from the wiring block after the meter. My questions (thanks and sorry!);

1) This is a smartmeter, right?
2) If yes, can we power the meter down without complaint from whoever the supplier is? Currently we cannot isolate that distribution block and therefore cannot work on the conssumer units connected to it. I would like to insert a breaker between the meter and that dist block. On an old meter we would pull the 100A fuse and think nothing of it.
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Jez said:
Bigboy, you seem like the guy to ask with this; this is where the power comes into a house which we are going to attempt to proceed on. It feeds multiple consumer units as you can see from the wiring block after the meter. My questions (thanks and sorry!);

1) This is a smartmeter, right?
2) If yes, can we power the meter down without complaint from whoever the supplier is? Currently we cannot isolate that distribution block and therefore cannot work on the conssumer units connected to it. I would like to insert a breaker between the meter and that dist block. On an old meter we would pull the 100A fuse and think nothing of it.
jcEwE3K.png
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Yes that is a smart meter most likely a British Gas SMETS1 possibly SMETS2 no reason you cannot pull the mains fuse although it is technically against the law for you to do so. It's not ideal to power down by pulling the mains fuse but it's the only way if you don't have and isolator switch.

That's connector block is of a standard type but would recommend replacing it with two separate blocks (one live one neutral) to make isolation (separation) cleaner. I would also add and isolator switch after the meter to make it easier in the future to work on the installation in the future.

Is that a toilet pipe above the consumer unit?:eek:
 
Good advice about the blocks, i would like to separate the blocks too which will also add more capacity to add further consumer units if required at a later date.

BigBoy - definitely no issues with powering that thing down, then? I didnt want to cause monitoring alarms as we'd get in the office if a server went down :)p), as i know that technically you shouldnt really pull the main fuse. As you say, i have no other options and once a breaker is in place i wont need to do so again - can you tell that i know nothing about these meters?

SMN/Bigboy - it is an extractor pipe, connected to a cooker hood the other side of that wall. No water (or poo) luckily :D
 
Jez said:
Good advice about the blocks, i would like to separate the blocks too which will also add more capacity to add further consumer units if required at a later date.

BigBoy - definitely no issues with powering that thing down, then? I didnt want to cause monitoring alarms as we'd get in the office if a server went down :)p), as i know that technically you shouldnt really pull the main fuse. As you say, i have no other options and once a breaker is in place i wont need to do so again - can you tell that i know nothing about these meters?

SMN/Bigboy - it is an extractor pipe, connected to a cooker hood the other side of that wall. No water (or poo) luckily :D
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Absolutely no issue pulling the fuse to power it down, It will hold change to safely turn its self off, then power up as it should have there were a powercut.

Word from a supplier DO NOT CUT THE SEALS ON THE METER they have tamper switches that will ping an alarm to the supplier/provider.
 
BigBoy said:
Absolutely no issue pulling the fuse to power it down, It will hold change to safely turn its self off, then power up as it should have there were a powercut.
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Cool, i was worried that someone would be monitoring it (or something, i dont know if it sends a shutdown signal to the supplier or something) and i'd get in trouble for pulling the fuse out :)
 
Jez said:
SMN/Bigboy - it is an extractor pipe, connected to a cooker hood the other side of that wall. No water (or poo) luckily :D
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A cooker hood that will likely be extracting steam, i.e. water? Yikes. I dont mean to be overly dramatic, but i'd get a Part P sparky out to get their thoughts. That seems dangerous as **** to me.
 
I dont agree with you on that one, an extractor hood extracts moist air on and off for short periods sure, but the pipe is clearly sealed and represents a very low risk indeed. Fair though, i do agree that it isnt ideal.

As it happens we plan to gut the house to an extent anyway, the cooker will be moving entirely due to a new kitchen being built. So any element of doubt will go :)
 
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