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Smart Meter |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Suffolk, East Anglia
Posts: 665
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Smart Meter
Hi guys, as you may already know Smart energy meters communicate to the supplier via the mobile phone network but WHICH phone network do they use? or do they have access to latch onto them all?
They only use 2G Technology apparently. Reason I ask is I'm having my electric meter changed to a Smart one tomorrow. =) |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
Posts: 10,374
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They use a SIM which will select the strongest network available. I doubt they only use 2G in the most modern units.
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2,935
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It depends where you are in the country. Arqiva serve the North of England and Scotland with Sensus FlexNet long range radio systems, with BT providing the backhaul. Telefonica serve the rest of England and Wales through their mobile network (O2) with mesh radio systems supposedly covering hard to reach areas. 15 year contracts were awarded in 2013. Quote:
They use a SIM which will select the strongest network available. I doubt they only use 2G in the most modern units.
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Suffolk, East Anglia
Posts: 665
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Quote:
It depends where you are in the country.
Arqiva serve the North of England and Scotland with Sensus FlexNet long range radio systems, with BT providing the backhaul. Telefonica serve the rest of England and Wales through their mobile network (O2) with mesh radio systems supposedly covering hard to reach areas. 15 year contracts were awarded in 2013. No, that's a myth. |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: This forum
Posts: 3,388
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Quote:
No, that's a myth.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kent
Posts: 8,954
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Actually it all depends on the energy supplier and what network they have a contract with, SSE for example currently uses Vodafone.
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2,935
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Yes, sorry - to clarify - the date for energy suppliers to be using the DCC network (what I described above) for domestic smart meters is 1 August 2017 at the latest. Until then energy companies can make their own arrangements for meter connectivity.
So it could be anything until then. I'd got the go-live dates confused. |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Swansea, Wales
Posts: 145
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Quote:
Yes, sorry - to clarify - the date for energy suppliers to be using the DCC network (what I described above) for domestic smart meters is 1 August 2017 at the latest. Until then energy companies can make their own arrangements for meter connectivity.
So it could be anything until then. I'd got the go-live dates confused. I watched a TV show recently here in Wales called X-Ray and they talked about smart meters, and an 'expert' on there suggested that people wait until 'second generation' smart meters are released. What did he mean by that? That the second generation meters will be using this DCC network? |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Kent
Posts: 8,954
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Quote:
Interesting reading so far. A relative of mine is getting a smart meter installed shortly and I've always wondered how they communicate back to the supplier.
I watched a TV show recently here in Wales called X-Ray and they talked about smart meters, and an 'expert' on there suggested that people wait until 'second generation' smart meters are released. What did he mean by that? That the second generation meters will be using this DCC network? So if you currently have smart and change supppier you'll either have to have those meters replaced to the new suppliers smart meters or you keep them and they're just treated as if they weren't smart meters. Smets 2 is the next generation of meters which as far as I'm aware are going to be supplied by one company which all suppliers will use and are interchangeable between suppliers when customers want to switch. |
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Swansea, Wales
Posts: 145
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Quote:
Currently smets 1 meters are being issued by the suppliers which are not interchangeable between suppliers.
So if you currently have smart and change supppier you'll either have to have those meters replaced to the new suppliers smart meters or you keep them and they're just treated as if they weren't smart meters. Smets 2 is the next generation of meters which as far as I'm aware are going to be supplied by one company which all suppliers will use and are interchangeable between suppliers when customers want to switch.
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2,935
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Suppliers will be able to migrate SMETS1 meters onto the DCC network from some point in 2018, but it's likely to be a slow migration depending on the length of the existing connectivity contracts for each supplier.
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Cheshire/Shropshire Border
Posts: 589
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Mine (Eon, South Cheshire) is connected using 2G O2. The chap who came to fit it had a handheld device to check signal quality before fitting, as if he hadn't been able to get an O2 signal he said he wouldn't have been able to fit it.
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: This forum
Posts: 3,388
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Quote:
Yes, sorry - to clarify - the date for energy suppliers to be using the DCC network (what I described above) for domestic smart meters is 1 August 2017 at the latest. Until then energy companies can make their own arrangements for meter connectivity. So it could be anything until then. I'd got the go-live dates confused.
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Suffolk, East Anglia
Posts: 665
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The meter installed today by E.ON is a newer 2016 model and the sim card inside the meter can access all the 2G Networks.
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 41
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British Gas changed our meters out onto smart meters some time back. They were checked on install that they were connecting fine and yet BG still continued to estimate meter readings. Recently changed supplier and they cannot read the BG meters remotely. What a complete waste they are. I'm told by someone in the power industry that they are cheap rubbish anyway.
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 1,509
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I was under the impression they use a world sim, like most security companies do for alarms
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#17 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,436
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Smart People have Dumb Meters, Dumb People have Smart Meters !
Apologies for going slightly off topic, but you really should stop and think why expensive smart meters are being promoted so heavily. Basically it's because the industry hasn't invested in sufficient generating capacity, so when it gets cold or power stations are shut down for maintenance there simply won't be enough juice to go round. Rather than sort out the supply problem, the bean counters have quietly resorted to rationing.
Once the rollout is complete, Smart Meters will rip you off in all sorts of ways. Cook the Sunday lunch at lunch time and it will be prohibitively expensive, so shift it to 2am. That'll be ideal, that's also the only time you'll be able to afford to use the washing machine and tumble dryer. Use more than your monthly CO2 allowance and your cost per kWh will rocket dramatically. Similarly, what the hype never mentions is that every smart meter also has a remotely controlled Kill Switch. So if the massive Time of Day tariff hikes don't stop you using as much electricity as you want at the times when you need it, when push comes to shove then the lights will happily stay on only for the Smart People with their Dumb Meters. However, the Dumb People with Smart Meters will then find they have their very own private power cuts. For them, it will be 1974 all over again !
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2016
Posts: 149
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Oh look, some tool from the David Icke thread has come along to join us...
Firstly, the UK demand is usually between 50% and 70% of what we have available, compared to other countries like France who are usually at 80-90%. Furthermore, the UK capacity is constantly increasing with large amounts of wind and solar farms appearing across the country and gas-fired energy reserve facilities in some places. As Devonbloke will tell you, many future buildings will have large batteries like the Tesla Powerwall, and even electric vehicles connected to the grid, this will create a mass network of batteries storing excess energy from the grid when the load is low and then selling it back to the grid when extra capacity is required. Also, I don't know which smart meters you've been looking at but the vast majority of the ones in the UK have no switching/relay circuitry so whichever conspiracy group gave you the idea of a 'remotely controlled Kill Switch' is speaking a load of crap. |
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#19 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Hertfordshire
Posts: 2,935
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Quote:
Apologies for going slightly off topic, but you really should stop and think why expensive smart meters are being promoted so heavily. Basically it's because the industry hasn't invested in sufficient generating capacity, so when it gets cold or power stations are shut down for maintenance there simply won't be enough juice to go round. Rather than sort out the supply problem, the bean counters have quietly resorted to rationing.
Once the rollout is complete, Smart Meters will rip you off in all sorts of ways. Cook the Sunday lunch at lunch time and it will be prohibitively expensive, so shift it to 2am. That'll be ideal, that's also the only time you'll be able to afford to use the washing machine and tumble dryer. Use more than your monthly CO2 allowance and your cost per kWh will rocket dramatically. Similarly, what the hype never mentions is that every smart meter also has a remotely controlled Kill Switch. So if the massive Time of Day tariff hikes don't stop you using as much electricity as you want at the times when you need it, when push comes to shove then the lights will happily stay on only for the Smart People with their Dumb Meters. However, the Dumb People with Smart Meters will then find they have their very own private power cuts. For them, it will be 1974 all over again ! ![]() Besides, have you not considered that in this dystopian world you describe there will surely be government sanctioned death squads hunting down and eradicating smart meter refusers? |
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 14,633
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Not to mention that, even if we had a plentiful supply of electricity, what's so wrong with finding ways of using less? If it means we can save enough electricity to avoid an expensive power station, or a ton of emissions, what's so bad about that?
No, you're not going to be penalised for cooking your Sunday lunch. What nonsense. It might lead towards a future where the load for non-essential appliances is spread to off-peak times. Like economy 7, but not just overnight and not just for heating. People who don't have water meters typically pay more than their metered counterparts (well, the people who leave all the taps on 24/7 might not). The same may be true of luddites and their old meters. Assuming that the govt doesn't just threaten disconnection on those who won't allow a switch. |
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 405
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There's one thing refusing one and one thing it not working.
We has a chap from British Gas come and spend 2.5 hours trying various kit only to realise there wasn't enough signal (terraced house in a large town in the Midlands, o2 mast 2 streets away.) probably because our meters are under the stairs and bricked up by the stair walls. Will we eventually get penalised because their equipment doesn't work or a technicalogial solution in the future (DCC, mesh?) |
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Sandy Heath, Beds. UK
Posts: 10,374
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Quote:
There's one thing refusing one and one thing it not working.
We has a chap from British Gas come and spend 2.5 hours trying various kit only to realise there wasn't enough signal (terraced house in a large town in the Midlands, o2 mast 2 streets away.) probably because our meters are under the stairs and bricked up by the stair walls. Will we eventually get penalised because their equipment doesn't work or a technicalogial solution in the future (DCC, mesh?) |
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#23 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 12
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Quote:
For large electricity meters in business premises they install a landline if they can't get a mobile signal at the meter.
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#24 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 12
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Quote:
Also, I don't know which smart meters you've been looking at but the vast majority of the ones in the UK have no switching/relay circuitry so whichever conspiracy group gave you the idea of a 'remotely controlled Kill Switch' is speaking a load of crap.
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Scotland
Posts: 4,965
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Aren't Smart Meters supposed to give you cancer and fry your kids brains?
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