Smart Meter Reading Frequency?

SPMR

Evening all,

It recently was pointed out to me on this forum (on another thread I created) that I had the wrong type of Electricity meter installed in my property. 

I have since started the process with EDF to have a new Smart Meter installed but had one question which I came across during process of arrangement the appointment. 

What frequency do you folks have your meters read? Is it:

- Every 30 minutes
- Daily
- Monthly

I was previously submitting my readings manually on a monthly basis and moving to the smart meter I understand the benefits of every 30 minutes or daily but just wanted to gauge what everyone else’s choices were?

Thanks in advance!

QrizB

Personally I chose 30-minute but unless you choose a smart tariff it's unlikely to make any difference at this time.

[Deleted User]

Ofgem is moving towards making 30 minutes the smart meter default profile. It brings with it benefits for the consumer such as detailed usage information. Moreover, in the future, price comparisons will be based on 12 months of historical data downloaded from the meter (with your permission). Your cheapest tariff will based not only on the total energy used but the times when it used.

MWT

SPMR said:

What frequency do you folks have your meters read? Is it:

- Every 30 minutes
- Daily
- Monthly

Just in case it helps, even with the 30 min option, your meter is only polled once a day, so you are choosing the level of detail rather than the frequency of the meter reading when you get down to 30 mins.

Chino

Dolor said:

It brings with it benefits for the consumer such as detailed usage information.

Explain in what way having "detailed usage information" is of any practical benefit to a consumer?

milgo

Chino said:

Dolor said:

It brings with it benefits for the consumer such as detailed usage information.

Explain in what way having "detailed usage information" is of any practical benefit to a consumer?

You're able to spot any "unusual" usage patterns within your home. 

[Deleted User]

Chino said:

Dolor said:

It brings with it benefits for the consumer such as detailed usage information.

Explain in what way having "detailed usage information" is of any practical benefit to a consumer?

I have been playing around with the boiler flow temperature on my meter and I can see how changes impact on gas usage. As all my electricity bills are based on HH usage data (not index readings), I am able to check my bills independently of my supplier. Through HH usage, a number of people ( myself included) were able to show that a reactive load from battery storage was resulting in a constant additional baseload of between 50 and 200 watts.

Shedman

MWT said:

SPMR said:

What frequency do you folks have your meters read? Is it:

- Every 30 minutes
- Daily
- Monthly

Just in case it helps, even with the 30 min option, your meter is only polled once a day, so you are choosing the level of detail rather than the frequency of the meter reading when you get down to 30 mins.

Are you sure about this or am I misunderstanding what you are meaning by "polled once a day"? 

Mine is set to 30 mins and using Bright app (which gets data from DCC) can see the half hour usage (and other time intervals) figures throughout the course of the day usually with about an hours lag if I use the update function on the app.  The energy providers may only use the end of day figures (BG app shows previous end of day meter reading each day) but my experience with Bright (and Guy Lipmans model) suggests that DCC gets data every 30 mins and that is accessible if so desired.

[Deleted User]

Shedman said:

MWT said:

SPMR said:

What frequency do you folks have your meters read? Is it:

- Every 30 minutes
- Daily
- Monthly

Just in case it helps, even with the 30 min option, your meter is only polled once a day, so you are choosing the level of detail rather than the frequency of the meter reading when you get down to 30 mins.

Are you sure about this or am I misunderstanding what you are meaning by "polled once a day"? 

Mine is set to 30 mins and using Bright app (which gets data from DCC) can see the half hour usage (and other time intervals) figures throughout the course of the day usually with about an hours lag if I use the update function on the app.  The energy providers may only use the end of day figures (BG app shows previous end of day meter reading each day) but my experience with Bright (and Guy Lipmans model) suggests that DCC gets data every 30 mins and that is accessible if so desired.

Suppliers 'pull' data from the smart meter once a day. Along with the index reading/s (each smart meter has 4 registers) comes a XML file with usage every 30 minutes. Hildebrand also polls the meter once a day for the data that populates BRIGHT App; however, it is also possible for the homeowner to do a manual refresh/pull. For example, as I post BRIGHT app is showing no gas usage so far today. A simple swipe of the page brings up 34.5kWh.

Some people have also purchased the Hildebrand IHD/CAD which connects to the smart meter Home Area Network. BRIGHT app is then updated every 10 secs using data transmitted to Hildebrand via the CAD side of the device connected to the home router.

[Deleted User]

wittynamegoeshere said:

How do people access these sort of readings?  I'm with Eon Next, they seem to know I have a smart meter (installed by Symbio) but don't give any data or settings related to it in my online account.  They also seem to have forgotten how to read it since they did do an initial read, so perhaps it's being treated as a dumb one now - they keep asking me for readings.

If you have a smart meter that is connected to the DCC network, you can access your data by downloading the free App BRIGHT. It is sponsored by Hildebrand a Registered DCC user. This is the type of information that you can see (both in kWh and £s):

QrizB

wittynamegoeshere said:

How do people access these sort of settings?  I'm with Eon Next, they seem to know I have a smart meter (installed by Symbio) but don't give any data or settings related to it in my online account.  They also seem to have forgotten how to read it since they did do an initial read, so perhaps it's being treated as a dumb one now - they keep asking me for readings.

As well as the BRIGHT app, you can also get your DCC-connected smart meter data from http://www.n3rgy.com/