Smart Meters - Gas & Electric

Yep. We have one. No issues. There were lots of stupid conspiracy theories in the press for a while, but it has died down.

we have them in London and no problems at all.

I have smart meters, the smart gas meter saved me a lot money.

I keep an eye on the energy monitor and I noticed the monitor was recording erratic high gas consumption. The monitor was indicating gas consumption during the night when no gas was being used. The gas meter was even incrementing when the main stop cock was turned off, proving it was faulty.

The information stored on the monitor enabled me to prove to my supplier the amount of gas I usually use. The refund I received was very favourable.

We now have a smart meter, and also a very slight but lingering suspicion that the audio system is not quite as engaging as before. I really can't be sure, as the effect (if real) is certainly less than that of my mood at the time of listening. Still, it would be nice to know exactly how smart meters work and whether there is any technical reason to suspect that SQ might be degraded by their presence, i.e, are they injecting RF energy into the mains?

Searching the net turns up an oft repeated paragraph asserting that " Extensive measurements have demonstrated that all of the meters measured so far, including ABB, GE, and Landis Gyr, emit noise on the customer’s electric wiring in the form of high frequency voltage spikes, typically with an amplitude of 2 volts, but a frequency any ware from 4,000 Hertz, up to 60,000 Hz."

I've not been able to find the original report. I wonder if these spikes are any different from those already transmitted along the distribution wiring from surrounding sources?

Don't tell the energy company, they'll want to charge you extra

Elec, not gas. No issues. Works on a  mobile signal as we had the Sim card updated recently.

Thanks for the feedback chaps - that's good to know. The ones i was looking at used GSM rather than mains signalling so quite happy that no extra crap is going into the mains. 

Thanks again

James

On BBC news they are reporting Spanish user are "hacking" their smart meters to reduce the cost of power. Are ours similar?

Hi,

Interesting thread.

I suggest you do your OWN research on these things.

Take a look at theindependent documentary film " Take back your Power"  for instance.

& a great website full of info is www.stopsmartmeters.org.uk

Of course you could just believe what the the massive energy corporations tell you that having a smart meter is the best thing since sliced bread!?

Best of luck

Ed.

Thanks Ed - i took a look at the stop smart meters website a while and it looked to be rather a lot of nonsense and scaremongering which didn't really convince me of any significant issues - Opinions on the web seem very black and white hence the original question  

Unless the GSM RF signal is coupling to the mains...

There are two things going in a smart meter. The first is the digitization of the instantaneous voltage and current. This means an analog to digital converter (ADC) ; is this converter running all the time? How much noise is the ADC injecting into the mains? Do they use audiophile ADCs? Next the meter transmits the data. In the case of the Landis-Gyr meters, this is done in milliesecond pulses that add up to a total duration of less than 90 seconds per day (in Québec at least).

http://meters.hydroquebec.com/...-energy-hydro-quebec

It's the A to D conversion that has me wondering about possible side effects on the power supplied to the audio system. It's easier to wonder about than Ebola.

http://www.analog.com/library/...1/smart_metering.pdf

Digging a bit further:

" The ADC’s sample rate should be selected to be sufficient to meet the Nyquist rate for the types of measurements the meter will be required to make (i.e., slightly greater than twice the highest frequency that is desired to be measured). In the case of power measurement, this is the fundamental frequency (50 Hz/60 Hz) multiplied by the number of harmonics that are of interest. For 60 Hz systems, a sampling rate of 3 to 4 k samples/s is usually sufficient to monitor phase variation, over voltage, non-symmetrical voltage, brief over currents, and other common line perturbations related to power-quality monitoring." *

Is the ADC activated only when needed, or is it running all the time?

* http://www.digikey.ca/en/artic...pecifying-components

Thinking about it some more, the ADC has to be running constantly, since it's measuring power consumption...

And then there's the SMPS that powers the digital electronics in the meter...

You're not being serious are you Jan. I'd rather not apply audiophile neurosis here 

Well, in the grand scheme of audiophile things, I would rank it as more important than Ethernet cables. It is, after all, the power supply that we're listening to, and here we have two possibly quite noisy sources (ADC, SMPS).

There's a lot more things connected to the mains here that i'd worry about first before a Smart Meter. Each to their own though. 

Ooh yes, let's all steal some electricity.

Or did I misunderstand?

I'm just wondering if it would be a good idea to get some solar panels to power the pool pump

Agreed. I've filed it away for now, because the past weekend's listening was to die for. The UnitiServe & Mirus front end into the 82/Hicap/250 simply transported us. My state of mind obviously has far more influence than the possible effects of the smart meter. Availability and receptivity, but that's a topic for a separate thread.

Thanks for listening,

Jan