Smart meters question

50Twuncle

What powers the transmitters on smart meters ?
Our Gas meter is in an external box - I understand that they change the actual meter - so how does the transmitter work / get power ?

[Deleted User]

Smart gas meters have a sealed battery in them and the gas meter only sends a message every 30 minutes to the smart electricity meter via a low power, short range radio link. The battery cannot be tampered with, so when it runs out, an engineer is required to sort it out.
The smart electricity meter uses the national grid for its supply.

brewerdave

gsmlnx wrote: »

Smart gas meters have a sealed battery in them and the gas meter only sends a message every 30 minutes to the smart electricity meter via a low power, short range radio link. The battery cannot be tampered with, so when it runs out, an engineer is required to sort it out.

...this raises an interesting point..............so in a few years, as these batteries start to run out, an engineer is required to change the battery...may/will take several weeks for one to attend -so how is the gas usage going to be charged?? I can see lots of disputes coming!!

50Twuncle

brewerdave wrote: »

...this raises an interesting point..............so in a few years, as these batteries start to run out, an engineer is required to change the battery...may/will take several weeks for one to attend -so how is the gas usage going to be charged?? I can see lots of disputes coming!!

Thats the reason for my question.........

EachPenny

brewerdave wrote: »

...this raises an interesting point..............so in a few years, as these batteries start to run out, an engineer is required to change the battery...may/will take several weeks for one to attend -so how is the gas usage going to be charged??

The meter should have battery monitoring and send an alert when the battery drops below a certain level of charge (or an estimate of days life remaining)... giving more than enough time for an engineer visit to be organised.
(in theory )

I'd be interested to know if the battery type is standard, or if it is proprietary. If I was a meter manufacturer I'd be wanting to use the latter and ensure I was the sole supplier

I wonder if the government thought to add a requirement for standard/universal battery types (=cheaper) into SMETS?

50Twuncle

EachPenny wrote: »

I wonder if the government thought to add a requirement for standard/universal battery types (=cheaper) into SMETS ?

Don't be stupid - when did any government contract get set up correctly to save money ?

50Twuncle

Were you aware that the cost of installing smart meters in UK is supposed to be £390 per installation ?

EachPenny

50Twuncle wrote: »

Were you aware that the cost of installing smart meters in UK is supposed to be £390 per installation ?

In the old days it used to be said that somebody will get fired because of this.... now they say someone will get promoted because of this.

If the individual consumer had to pay directly for their smart meter how many smart meters would have been fitted by now? Because consumers are being 'taxed' to pay for them there is no choice and no cost control.

If smart meters were the only thing wrong with the UK's incoherent energy policy it wouldn't be so bad, but of course smart metering is just one of many things that have been so badly wrong for far too long.

50Twuncle

EachPenny wrote: »

In the old days it used to be said that somebody will get fired because of this.... now they say someone will get promoted because of this.

If the individual consumer had to pay directly for their smart meter how many smart meters would have been fitted by now? Because consumers are being 'taxed' to pay for them there is no choice and no cost control.

If smart meters were the only thing wrong with the UK's incoherent energy policy it wouldn't be so bad, but of course smart metering is just one of many things that have been so badly wrong for far too long.

There's also the question of how secure they are as well as accuracy (when they get the figures incorrect - do you have comeback ?
Or is it a case of "meter says you owe us £10,000 - and since you pay by DD - You must pay"

EachPenny

50Twuncle wrote: »

There's also the question of how secure they are as well as accuracy (when they get the figures incorrect - do you have comeback ?

Answering those questions fully could unleash a barrage of alternative views (have a look at some of the other smart meter threads on here to see what I mean).

My personal view is that any electronic data handling device which has a communications link to the outside world is only secure until someone figures out how to get into it. It isn't a matter of 'if', but 'when'.

The unauthorised access to data contained on a smart meter is only of limited concern to me - the thing I'm really concerned about is when (not if) someone figures out how to use the remote control facility to turn people's energy supplies off and - perhaps more damagingly - back on again.

50Twuncle

EachPenny wrote: »

Answering those questions fully could unleash a barrage of alternative views (have a look at some of the other smart meter threads on here to see what I mean).

My personal view is that any electronic data handling device which has a communications link to the outside world is only secure until someone figures out how to get into it. It isn't a matter of 'if', but 'when'.

The unauthorised access to data contained on a smart meter is only of limited concern to me - the thing I'm really concerned about is when (not if) someone figures out how to use the remote control facility to turn people's energy supplies off and - perhaps more damagingly - back on again.

I agree - cyber threats are the future concern !
There's GOING to be problems in the not to distant future - there are going to be encryption issues !