New Thames Water Smart Meter installed

brook_heather

Yesterday Thames Water replaced my "dumb" water meter with a new smart meter (with sim card) - does anyone know how long before the new meter will appear in my account?  How frequently does it upload readings to my TW account - daily/monthly?  I assume there are no apps currently which can be connected to the readings like Bright does for electricity/gas.

MattMattMattUK

brook_heather said:

Yesterday Thames Water replaced my "dumb" water meter with a new smart meter (with sim card) - does anyone know how long before the new meter will appear in my account?  How frequently does it upload readings to my TW account - daily/monthly?  I assume there are no apps currently which can be connected to the readings like Bright does for electricity/gas.

It will take as long as it takes, which can be a few weeks, though it can be up to 90 days. I do not think that they have published the data on how often they receive the data from the meter, it is also not granular like smart energy meters, it just shows totals in large blocks, rather than minute/hourly data, I think the blocks might even be a week at a time. No apps to access it.

brook_heather

@MattMattMattUK thanks - I just checked the meter now and strangely it is still showing all zeros after 24 hours - doesn't the counter on the LCD update in real time?  It shows 00000.000 m3 so if we used even 1 litre of water it should register?

Sterlingtimes

brook_heather said:

Yesterday Thames Water replaced my "dumb" water meter with a new smart meter (with sim card) - does anyone know how long before the new meter will appear in my account?  How frequently does it upload readings to my TW account - daily/monthly?  I assume there are no apps currently which can be connected to the readings like Bright does for electricity/gas.

My Severn Trent smart water meter does not have a SIM card.

Radio Frequency Features Protocol wM-Bus T2/C2, LoRaWAN™, Sigfox®, OMS v4 Modulation FSK, BPSK (Sigfox®), CSS (LoRa®) Frequency carrier 868 MHz ISM Band Radiated power < 25 mW Battery lifetime Up to 15 years* Functional Specifications Power source Lithium batteries Protection IP 68 Relative humidity 0 to 100% - submersible Operating temperature** -10°C / +55C*** Accidental temperature -20°C / +70°C

The idea is that Severn Trent will provide Smart Tracker to the customers, and readings will be collected hourly. After 18 months, there is no sign of Smart Tracker yet, albeit that the is a placeholder for it on the customer account web page.

MattMattMattUK

brook_heather said:

@ MattMattMattUK thanks - I just checked the meter now and strangely it is still showing all zeros after 24 hours - doesn't the counter on the LCD update in real time?  It shows 00000.000 m3 so if we used even 1 litre of water it should register?

It should show something yes, unless there is a weird situation where it needs to activate first, then starts showing readings. I guess the other question is are you sure that it is your meter? Are you in a house or block of flats?

brook_heather

I am in a house and it is defintely my meter - the installer phoned me to let me know he was installing a new smart meter so I went out to watch - the old meter had my serial number and the new meter had my house number written on it.  The real issue here is that when I took the final reading from the old meter I realised that it had recorded 3x my previous annual usage when there should be no change so either the meter was faulty/over-reading or I have an internal or external leak.  To diagnose this I need the meter to be recording usage so I can see if I still have a leak - the pavement chamber holding the meter does fill up with clear water once bailed out so to me that looks like some sort of leak around the meter?  I did check the toilets and didn't hear any water flowing but as the cisterns are mostly built-in it's going to be some work to properly check them and I need to confirm I have an internal leak first.

From looking at actual meter readings for the past few years I wonder if this has been going on for a long time as I think the 2016-19 readings are about right at 260-269m3 per year - after that they start climbing rapidly even though I had one son as Uni between Oct 2019-Jun 2023 and two away between Oct 2021-Jun 2022 so I would not have expected increased water usage.  I am away now for a week so will restart investiagtions when I return - hopefully the meter will be working by then.

Sterlingtimes

I discussed leaks with a technician from Leakbot who visited my home. He told me that if there is a leak between the pavement meter and the house, there is always a considerable drop in water pressure. The legal minimum water water is 1 bar but a water company may try to deliver 1.5 bars minimum. I measure my water pressure with a cheapish meter: it varies but comes out at between 2 and 2.7 bars. Have you noticed low water pressure that would evidence a leak?

I am a high water user with four adults using power showers in a four-bedroom property. We use 0.67 cubic meters a day or 245 cubic meters a year. This appears to be consistent with your lower annual readings. 

An internal leak in your case would be self-evident.

brook_heather

Sterlingtimes said:

I discussed leaks with a technician from Leakbot who visited my home. He told me that if there is a leak between the pavement meter and the house, there is always a considerable drop in water pressure. The legal minimum water water is 1 bar but a water company may try to deliver 1.5 bars minimum. I measure my water pressure with a cheapish meter: it varies but comes out at between 2 and 2.7 bars. Have you noticed low water pressure that would evidence a leak?

I am a high water user with four adults using power showers in a four-bedroom property. We use 0.67 cubic meters a day or 245 cubic meters a year. This appears to be consistent with your lower annual readings. 

An internal leak in your case would be self-evident.

My water comes into a number of tanks in the basement and then there is a pump to send it up to the three floors above - the pump is only on when there is demand for water so as the pump only comes on when required (e.g. shower or flushing the toilet) I'm not yet convinced there is an internal leak such as a toilet cistern (though I do need to check the tanks and make sure there isn't water overflowing there).  The water pressure on the two mains fed internal taps seems fine and is also fine on the outside tap so either 2L/min is leaking somewhere else or the meter readings were faulty.  Once the new meter is up and running then I will be able to narrow it down.

Sterlingtimes

My insurance company provides a Leakbot which is clamped to the incoming pipe. The Leakbot connects to the internet via WIFI. Even very tiny leaks are identified and then a Leakbot technician visits and rectifies them. 

brook_heather

Sterlingtimes said:

My insurance company provides a Leakbot which is clamped to the incoming pipe. The Leakbot connects to the internet via WIFI. Even very tiny leaks are identified and then a Leakbot technician visits and rectifies them. 

Yes I was looking at them on ebay - about £35 to buy so will probably install one.

brook_heather

The new meter is now showing on my account with a reading from the 20th so just waiting for a second reading to show to determine current usage and whether there is a leak.

I was hit with a huge bill of £3,500 on the 21st with a huge monthly payment increase to £500pm but three days later TW issued a revised bill which removed the increased charges for the past year so not sure whether TW will just charge me on an estimated basis for the past year or if they are just going to monitor ongoing usage with the new water meter to set a baseline usage.  Assuming no leaks then my usage should drop substantially back to where it was before 2020.