Where does a gas smart meter get its power from?

GingerBob_3

To get back to the original question - where does a gas smart meter get its power from? Answer - a battery.


So forgive my ignorance on this, but how long does the battery last before it needs charging, and how is it charged?


Please don't tell me a man comes round every three months to put it on charge! :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

GingerBob wrote: »

To get back to the original question - where does a gas smart meter get its power from? Answer - a battery.


So forgive my ignorance on this, but how long does the battery last before it needs charging, and how is it charged?


Please don't tell me a man comes round every three months to put it on charge! :rotfl:

Its a very long life lithium type battery which will last for donkeys years just like they do in non smart meters, no recharging needed, and the minute amount of power needed to transmit a reading once a day to the electric smart meter wont frazzle your brain if thats what you re worried about
Its a fit and forget meter and its good to see that Npower are at last fitting smart meters.Customer billing is nt their forte so hopefully their service will improve when all their customers proper readings are delivered to them every day. Customers will also benefit by getting charged exactly what they should and not getting prepays force fitted along with warrant and locksmiths costs if they get uppity about it.Suppliers will benefit hugely by being able to stop the thieves in their tracks and pull the plug on free energy before it gets too expensive ( about £300 I think would be reasonable ). This forums complaints would drastically drop because billing and reading mistakes are easily the number one complaint on here .Smart meters make sense to every one who has any sense.

joncombe

matelodave wrote: »

Why not - you need a meter so there's no reason why it shouldn't be a smart one. Hopefully you'll get accurate up to date bills rather than guesstimates. I wish I could get one to save me sending in readings every month.

There are various reasons why you might not want them and some possible reasons.

* They allow the supplied to remotely cut you off or switch to pre-payment mode. At present that requires a court order I believe. For most people this won't be an issue - but if your supplier makes a mistake you are not in a great bargaining position!
* They stop being smart when you switch suppliers
* They could be used to monitor your usage - by default I think they report back every 30 minutes. This might meen someone with access to the data could probably work out when you are on holiday, for example.

There are other things that may or may not happen:-

* There is potential hacking possibilities - what if someone works out how to remotely shut off the supply, switch to pre-pay etc or even fiddle the readings it sends out.
* Mandatory time of use tariffs. I.E. you have to pay more at peak times. The technology certainly allows it, some reports online show it is being considered.
* The possibility of Smart Appliances. These can be request to shut down at times of high usage (for example a fridge or freezer could be signalled to shut down if the temperature is not too high). I suspect in future all new appliances will have to be "smart appliances". It is possible that restrictions may go further and might restrict the use of high power non-essential devices (e.g. hair dryers) at periods of very high usage.

Of course as others have pointed out it is possible in future there will be higher charges for those who refuse smart meters, but I suspect if that happens, you would be able to choose to switch to a smart meter before the charges were introduced. So I'm certainly going to hold off for now.

[Deleted User]

joncombe wrote: »

There are various reasons why you might not want them and some possible reasons.

* They allow the supplied to remotely cut you off or switch to pre-payment mode. At present that requires a court order I believe. For most people this won't be an issue - but if your supplier makes a mistake you are not in a great bargaining position!
* They stop being smart when you switch suppliers
* They could be used to monitor your usage - by default I think they report back every 30 minutes. This might meen someone with access to the data could probably work out when you are on holiday, for example.

There are other things that may or may not happen:-

* There is potential hacking possibilities - what if someone works out how to remotely shut off the supply, switch to pre-pay etc or even fiddle the readings it sends out.
* Mandatory time of use tariffs. I.E. you have to pay more at peak times. The technology certainly allows it, some reports online show it is being considered.
* The possibility of Smart Appliances. These can be request to shut down at times of high usage (for example a fridge or freezer could be signalled to shut down if the temperature is not too high). I suspect in future all new appliances will have to be "smart appliances". It is possible that restrictions may go further and might restrict the use of high power non-essential devices (e.g. hair dryers) at periods of very high usage.

Of course as others have pointed out it is possible in future there will be higher charges for those who refuse smart meters, but I suspect if that happens, you would be able to choose to switch to a smart meter before the charges were introduced. So I'm certainly going to hold off for now.

Over in Northern Ireland smart prepayments have taken off in the last three years with 41% of domestic customers now using the Secure Liberty keypad smart prepayment meters.The very high operating costs of the old card/key meters have been replaced by much cheaper rental costs and overheads so much that the smart keypad users now receive a discount on standard credit meter prices.
Here in the rest of the UK we are subsidising the key/card meters to bring the true cost down to standard/variable rates when it could be the other way round if the smart technology was accepted without all the silly stuff about hackers and wifi.
Misguided MPs who voted to make smarts optional have only made sure that some of the poorest will carry on paying the highest prices for their energy. They were all quite happy to vote to invade Iraq at what they thought was the greater good over evil .
Northern Ireland is showing the rest of the UK what`s possible and they going for smart prepays in a big way because its cheaper and more convenient topping up online or phone or by the usual methods. The prices can only drop further and I would expect in the future that smart prepays will see lower prices than the best direct debit fixed deals. I can see a future where smart prepayment will be the cheapest form of buying your energy. Money paid in advance, no billing systems with attached call centres for all the people who won t manage their own lives and get into debt . Once suppliers get confidence in the new meters it will go the same way as the early mobile phones once were to what they are now, with an iphone app to buy £50s worth in two seconds.

C_Mababejive

matelodave wrote: »

That's helpful:(

Apologies...

Gas meters for domestic use typically come in two flavours..

Positive displacement..where the internal mechanism consists of accurately manufactured chambers of known volume to positively measure within strict parameters, the volume of gas passing

Inferential..various designs but commonly using ultrasonic technology where known volume is not used as above but the volume passing is inferred from other parameters,,in this case using an ultrasonic transducer.

The former is old world tried and trusted technology and if you have a typical metal box type meter, it will be one of these.

New smart meters and small white digital meters are the latter

brewerdave

Forget the tin foil helmet - the MAJOR issue, in my view anyway, is the lack of portability -for example I'm on my 4th utility supplier in 4 years - who wants a smart meter that becomes "dumb" in 12 months (or less) ??

smjxm09

It doesn't become dumb. In most cases it will carry on working but in the short term you might go back to a meter reader.

Can I switch tariff or supplier if I have a Smart meter? Selecting this link will show the additional information below
Yes. You're free to switch npower tariffs or switch to another supplier if you've had a Smart meter installed, in line with the terms and conditions of your current tariff.
Wherever possible your new supplier will make sure the smart functions of the meter, such as remote meter reading, are still available to you.
If you've had a Smart meter installed by another Supplier you can still switch to npower as normal but for now we'll treat your meter(s) as a traditional meter and we'll send a meter reader to read your meter. You can also provide a meter reading to us yourself. You can send us your reading online at npower.com/meterread or by calling us on 0800 073 3000 from a landline, or 0330 100 3000 if you're calling from a mobile phone. Lines are open 8am – 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 6pm on Saturdays.

[Deleted User]

brewerdave wrote: »

Forget the tin foil helmet - the MAJOR issue, in my view anyway, is the lack of portability -for example I'm on my 4th utility supplier in 4 years - who wants a smart meter that becomes "dumb" in 12 months (or less) ??

I must admit to not bothering whether my meters were smart or dumb, mine lost the smart function with BG to Eon and regained it when I switched to BGs cheaper brethren Sainsburys Energy. Its not an issue if its dumb or smart. With all the faffing about in the UK compared to Northern Ireland I fully expect smart switching around 2030.

Bark01

brewerdave wrote: »

Forget the tin foil helmet - the MAJOR issue, in my view anyway, is the lack of portability -for example I'm on my 4th utility supplier in 4 years - who wants a smart meter that becomes "dumb" in 12 months (or less) ??

The universal SMART meter specification was been agreed in November 2014. no suppliers should be installing meters that don't meet the SMETS 2 specification.

As long as you get a SMETS 2 meter you should be able to swap to another Supplier and retain the SMART functionality.

tdw197

No.. SMETS1 installs are permitted up until August next year, and likely much longer.

The DCC is currently doing a study on how they will become adopted and able to function correctly once a customer switches.

SMETS2 is still not finalised.