Electricity smart meter in communal cupboards

passau91

Hi all

I'm with Eon Next.  I'm not averse to having a smart meter fitted per se, but my "dumb" electricity meter is not in my flat.  Instead, it is in a locked communal cupboard on my floor, and although it is never an issue, I have to ask the concierge for meter readings (Eon Next ask for monthly readings).  As I barely get a signal on my mobile phone in my flat (doesn't matter which network), I would guess that a SIM card in a SMETS2 will struggle even more inside a cupboard with no external walls, in the middle of our modern, thickly insulated block of flats - it's like a Faraday cage I just wonder if it would be a hiding to nothing, just so they can tick that box that a smart meter was installed, even though in practice, it's likely to remain dumb.

I missed out on fixing at V11 and V12 with Eon Next partially because I was prevaricating about a Smart Meter (they said it was a condition of getting the tariff to agree to have a smart meter), but that is not the gist of this musing - I've consoled myself that at least for the next six months, I'll be on the price cap.

Does anyone else have experience of smart meters being fitted in communal cupboards? 

GingerTim

Yes, mine is in a communal cupboard to which we all have a key. The smart meter connects without any trouble to the IHD, Bright app etc.

Verdigris

If the meter cupboard is on the same floor you have a good chance it will work. It is meter rooms in basements that tend to be troublesome.

Chino

Verdigris said:

If the meter cupboard is on the same floor you have a good chance it will work.

Why, if the OP struggles to get mobile reception on the same floor?

QrizB

Chino said:

Verdigris said:

If the meter cupboard is on the same floor you have a good chance it will work.

Why, if the OP struggles to get mobile reception on the same floor?

Comms hubs for meters have different design requirements to mobile phones. Power consumption, for example, is a lot less of a limitation, nor is physical size. You can include "better" radios in a comms hub.

[Deleted User]

passau91 said:

Hi all

I'm with Eon Next.  I'm not averse to having a smart meter fitted per se, but my "dumb" electricity meter is not in my flat.  Instead, it is in a locked communal cupboard on my floor, and although it is never an issue, I have to ask the concierge for meter readings (Eon Next ask for monthly readings).  As I barely get a signal on my mobile phone in my flat (doesn't matter which network), I would guess that a SIM card in a SMETS2 will struggle even more inside a cupboard with no external walls, in the middle of our modern, thickly insulated block of flats - it's like a Faraday cage I just wonder if it would be a hiding to nothing, just so they can tick that box that a smart meter was installed, even though in practice, it's likely to remain dumb.

I missed out on fixing at V11 and V12 with Eon Next partially because I was prevaricating about a Smart Meter (they said it was a condition of getting the tariff to agree to have a smart meter), but that is not the gist of this musing - I've consoled myself that at least for the next six months, I'll be on the price cap.

Does anyone else have experience of smart meters being fitted in communal cupboards? 

The network operators now have a solution for flats etc: it is known as Alt-HAN. I suspect that this is something that would need to be dealt with on a collective basis.

https://althanco.com/building-types-potentially-requiring-the-alt-han-solution/

As suggested in previous posts, a SMETS2 meter in a communal cupboard may be able to connect to the DCC Network. Distance may be an issue when it comes to the local network needed to connect an IHD. The free App BRIGHT would be a workaround solution.