Smart meters

miken99

My energy provider is telling me that to have a gas smart meter I must have an electricity smart meter with them too.  Is this correct?

TadleyBaggie

Pretty much, since the smart meter needs to connect with a wireless network it requires power, and so the hub that does this will be part of the electric smart meter. The gas meter will have no local power source and so will have to be powered by a battery. The gas meter will then connect to the nearby electric meter hub using a low power wireless connection, hence meaning the battery in the gas meter will not need to be replaced for a reasonable time.

Netexporter

miken99 said:

My energy provider is telling me that to have a gas smart meter I must have an electricity smart meter with them too.  Is this correct?

Yes. The electric meter talks to the outside world. The gas meter can only communicate with an electric smart meter.

Spoonie_Turtle

Basically yes, as TadleyBaggie explained. 

There are occasions when a gas meter can be fitted with a communications hub (the bit that connects with the network to send readings and get service messages, firmware updates, etc.) but from what I've read that's only for situations where there is a large distance between meters and the gas has no chance of communicating with the hub if it's on the electricity meter - think along the lines of, a block of flats, with the gas meters in the basement and electricity meters in the individual flats.  I don't think they fit them in anything other than exceptional circumstances like that though.

ArbitraryRandom

They might if you were willing to pay out of pocket for the privilege - assuming it's important enough to you.  

Keep_pedalling

If you are going to have a smart gas meter why would you not want one for electricity as well? Getting the electric SM will open up a whole range of tariffs you don’t have access to at the moment.

Ectophile

I'm one of those odd cases that some people don't think is possible.

I have separate suppliers for gas and electricity.  As my gas meter was old and rusty, I had the gas meter replaced with a new smart one.  But the electricity meter is still an old spinning disc type and definitely not smart.

And it's all working.  I'm getting billed using my smart meter readings.

The reason it works is that the comms hub has been wired into the mains, rather than being plugged into the top of an electricity meter.

EssexHebridean

Yes - with the comms hub connected directly rather than through the electricity meter there’s a soliton reason why a gas smart meter on its own isn’t possible.

ArbitraryRandom

Ectophile said:

I'm one of those odd cases that some people don't think is possible.

I have separate suppliers for gas and electricity.  As my gas meter was old and rusty, I had the gas meter replaced with a new smart one.  But the electricity meter is still an old spinning disc type and definitely not smart.

And it's all working.  I'm getting billed using my smart meter readings.

The reason it works is that the comms hub has been wired into the mains, rather than being plugged into the top of an electricity meter.

Who's saying 'impossible'? Not sure you saw, but spoonie turtle's post earlier in the thread outlined exact that arrangement.

i.e. the answer to the OP is if there's an industry reason then they can, but not just because the customer wants it that way (unless the customer wants to pay for it)