Smart meter advice.

[rules&rulers]

Hi we are thinking of having electric and gas meters changed to smart meters.
Question is we live in a block of flats on floor 5 the meters are on the ground floor in separate locked meter rooms.
Can we have smart meters and very importantly the energy monitor ?.
We have asked bg this and they did not reply,last year so not expecting a reply now.

Thanks.

 

[MeterMonkey]

Its unlikely that the monitor will work due to the distance. The gas may work depending on the distance between the electric meter and gas meter.

Worst case scenario, no smart meter, middle ground is just the electric meter, best case is that you get both gas and electric smart meters

 

[75pete]

Ive done very little reading about these smart meters. I think I will not push to have them as one article said that these meters can change your tariff by the day/hour/min. So in peak times you are paying more per kW, could be you pay less at other times and then a middle type rate at others. Either way, I kind of think the smart will be loaded in their favour...hope I'm wrong and it's an even playing field for all.

 

[big-all]

the amount you pay will be what it says on your written contract
you would have to agree to variable charges does the paperwork for changing the meter include any changes allowing variable charges ??

 

[MeterMonkey]

not yet, BG have only just in November I think, gained approval from Ofgem for Time of use tariffs.

 

[MrTherm]

Everyone will have smart meters (gas & electric) fitted free by 2020, just wait a while.

They will have remote controls with 'at-a-glance' bill balance updated every 10 seconds.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/may/11/smart-meters-energy-efficiency

 

[shagster]

Hi we are thinking of having electric and gas meters changed to smart meters.
Question is we live in a block of flats on floor 5 the meters are on the ground floor in separate locked meter rooms.
Can we have smart meters and very importantly the energy monitor ?.
We have asked bg this and they did not reply,last year so not expecting a reply now.

Thanks.

I believe they use Zigbee for the gas -> electric leg so 10 - 20 metres range. I think this keeps the power down and allows the battery in the gas meter to last 4-5 years. They told me 'a bus length' when describing how close the two meters had to be, without asking what was in between. I have a couple of double-skin walls in between the two. For some reason it took a long time to get the two bits talking to each other, so I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting it reliably working over 5 floors.

 

[rules&rulers]

Thanks for the replies,so the signal to the in property energy monitor from meters is via a type of wifi that's news to me. Well that wont work in my place,as the insulation in the walls/floors/ceilings (think its double foil backed plasterboard and a lot of sound reduction stuff) and dense block walls/floors,for example my nextdoor neighbour bt router is 600mm away and I can only just pick up a very low signal 1 bar.

Also the 30 gas meters are all installed very neatly together and the 31 electric meters in an adjacent room are also installed neatly together so I suspect some interference in them talking to each other. These are installed in a purpose made meter rooms made from concrete.

Maybe the smart meter boffins need to rethink or british gas could link the meters to their hive sysyem,idea.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[gas112]

Do a bit of googling on them electric ones are being found to register too much on initial start up of appliances and it is not unusual for gas ones to register gas even when they are not even connected , you do not have to accept a smart meter .
The gas ones have been an exceptional nightmare constantly turnin off usually after they have transmitted a reading which then result in a visit required to reset them at present BG are exchanging all the mark 1 smart meters due to faults this runs into hundreds of thousands of meters