First Utility/Siemens Smart Meter. How does it work?

zolablue25

Hi

We are having Siemens smart meter fitted next week as part of First Utilities requirement to fit these to all customers' supplies. Apparently they send meter readings back to FU every half hour. My question is...how do they do that? I have tried to find the information but have so far drawn a blank. Whilst I am happy to have a smart meter fitted in the vain hope I will actually save energy, I am concerned that these data bursts will interfere with my wifi or with the mains data transmitters that I use. Is this a reasonable concern?

Any help gratefully received.

Nada666

Even on the off-chance that they do use similar frequencies it surely will not matter. A few kB every half hour is not going to affect MB or GB coming the other way - protocols do exist to automatically resend/fetch the occasional lost or broken packet. (Well, I think that's how it works.)

As to whether it will save energy - of course it won't. Existing (electricity) meters are more than adequate for those with the will to change their behaviour. If you don't bother already a new meter will not help (although it can trigger a change in behaviour or energy-saving blitz). But the smart meter itself is not going to help.

zolablue25

Nada666 wrote: »

Even on the off-chance that they do use similar frequencies it surely will not matter. A few kB every half hour is not going to affect MB or GB coming the other way - protocols do exist to automatically resend/fetch the occasional lost or broken packet. (Well, I think that's how it works.)

As to whether it will save energy - of course it won't. Existing (electricity) meters are more than adequate for those with the will to change their behaviour. If you don't bother already a new meter will not help (although it can trigger a change in behaviour or energy-saving blitz). But the smart meter itself is not going to help.

Thank you for your response. I know the meter in itself will not save me anything just as I know that after the first 2 weeks of going "ooh look it costs us £x to have that plugged in, best unplug it" things will revert back to how they are now. It is a typically misguided piece of legislation that just costs consumers money for no real gain. On the other hand, I do find myself attemting to get the ave mpg readout on my wife's car as high as possible whenever I am allowed to drive it (I don't have the readout in my car)!

Edit: I assume they can't use your own internet connection to transmit the readings as there are still some people in the country without a connection and they will still have to have one of these smart meters fitted.

espresso

The smart meter passes consumption data to your electricity supplier over a mobile network connection.

It will not interfere your WiFi or Ethernet power line adapters.

Cardew

Regardless how the Smart meter works, it would appear from posters on MSE. that First Utility will mess up your account like every other of their customers..

macman

They usually have access to a choice of 2 mobile networks, by swapping the SIM card in the meter.
In my case it was a complete waste of time applying, as the electricity meter is cellar mounted-so no mobile signal at all. This can hardly be an exceptional case.

zolablue25

Cardew wrote: »

Regardless how the Smart meter works, it would appear from posters on MSE. that First Utility will mess up your account like every other of their customers..

Thanks for that, I will look forward to it. So far (12 months in) they have been fine (*touches wood*), but I shall prepare myself for the inevitable.

bulltoad

I am due to have one of these meter's fitted, and after reading this thread I'm thinking that if I made a short call from my mobile every half hour forevermore this would have a substantial energy cost.
Why would an energy provider need to know such extensive details of my usage, I would think every 3 to 4 hours would be more than enough information on my home life.

Carrot007

While the meter does record a read every half hour they are only reported in once a day.

lstar337

Where are the foil hat brigade?

I expected at least a couple of "IF YOU GET A SMART METER IT WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY" posts.

Oh well, I'm sure they'll be here soon.

Pincher

lstar337 wrote: »

Where are the foil hat brigade?

I expected at least a couple of "IF YOU GET A SMART METER IT WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY" posts.

Oh well, I'm sure they'll be here soon.

Let me have a go.

With half hourly readings, they can tell when you have a shower. The HMRC can cross check the electoral register, schools registration, child benefit claims, and work out what your consumption profile should be. If you have a student tenant or two, so your consumption is off-profile, they can pounce if you don't declare rental income.