Quick Question Re Smart Meter...

[Scarletpimpofnel]

1 - How do they communicate with the power company? Is it using a SIM card? Around here I only get Vodafone, does the installer have a bag of SIMs of each telco and use the best?

2 - Can the installer condemn my electricity setup at my house (like a gas engineer can if they see something they don't like)? For example the plastic see through lid covering the MCB / RCD switches on my CU has long since gone missing but I believe is required. There are a few things not to current standards too (old house).

Many thanks.

[cw2k]

They run over the dcc network which for 4g is Vodafone based

[The Three D Mucketeer]

This explains why your supplier has little control of the SMART meter service.... thank OFGEM and Civil Servants



Also depends if your meter is SMETS1 or SMETS2 .. Also depends where you live North and South different, Radio network (Arqiva) used where poor mobile and I think for ALL SMETS2

No need for a SMART meter installer to enter your property if the Meter is outside.... Is your Customer Unit insight from the Meter Cupboard ?

Edited by The Three D Mucketeer on Saturday 14th June 09:48

[Scarletpimpofnel]

cw2k said:

They run over the dcc network which for 4g is Vodafone based

Thank you.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

The Three D Mucketeer said:

This explains why your supplier has little control of the SMART meter service.... thank OFGEM and Civil Servants



Also depends if your meter is SMETS1 or SMETS2

No need for a SMRT meter installer to enter your property if the Meter is outside.... Is your Customer Unit insight from the Meter Cupboard ?

Edited by The Three D Mucketeer on Saturday 14th June 09:43

Gas meter is in outside box.

Elec meter is indoors next to the CU.

[Rough101]

The installers generally aren’t electricians, the installation needs to be really ropey before they won’t install, but unlike gas, they’ll just not proceed, they won’t isolate you.

Missing front lid over the breakers is only a C3 anyway, a current regs unit is all metal, including the lid, if the unit can affect an escape route.

[Simpo Two]

Rough101 said:

a current regs unit is all metal, including the lid

I see it more as: 'There's electricity inside this box, let's make it from something conductive'.

[bigpriest]

The installer who did mine added some plastic safety shielding and also added an isolator switch. He wasn't surprised or shocked at a domestic 40+ year old mess of a meter cupboard.

[Rough101]

Simpo Two said:

I see it more as: 'There's electricity inside this box, let's make it from something conductive'.

We seen it more as the plastic boxes are combustible and fill the house full of toxic smoke.

Box is earthed, anything live in contact with it causes a short circuit and operation of the relevant breaker or fuse.

[Sheepshanks]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

cw2k said:

They run over the dcc network which for 4g is Vodafone based

Thank you.

As noted in an earlier post, it's radio in the north, cellular in the south. But the split is quite high up, around Liverpool, I think - we're in Cheshire it uses cellular here.


Not heard of an installation being condemed. Ours is very new after a house refurb and they put a card on the gas meter about a missing earth. In fact it's absolutely fine and has been done correctly.

[Sheepshanks]

bigpriest said:

The installer who did mine added some plastic safety shielding and also added an isolator switch. He wasn't surprised or shocked at a domestic 40+ year old mess of a meter cupboard.

I don't have an isolator and they didn't add one.

[Ardennes92]

Sheepshanks said:

Scarletpimpofnel said:

cw2k said:

They run over the dcc network which for 4g is Vodafone based

Thank you.

As noted in an earlier post, it's radio in the north, cellular in the south. But the split is quite high up, around Liverpool, I think - we're in Cheshire it uses cellular here.


Not heard of an installation being condemed. Ours is very new after a house refurb and they put a card on the gas meter about a missing earth. In fact it's absolutely fine and has been done correctly.

We are in Shropshire and are on O2 ( I checked first as that was the only provider that actually worked)although the test kit the installer used was on another network which only had intermittent coverage, farcical system really, why can’t it work via Wi-Fi/ethernet and use cellular as backup?

[ferret50]

My smart gas meter refuses to talk to my smart leccy meter!

Octopus for leccy confirm that they can communicate but EDF for the gas cannot.

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Ardennes92 said:

We are in Shropshire and are on O2 ( I checked first as that was the only provider that actually worked)although the test kit the installer used was on another network which only had intermittent coverage, farcical system really, why can t it work via Wi-Fi/ethernet and use cellular as backup?

I used to supply systems years ago that used the customers own comms. We had endless faults "your system isn't working" with endless customer caused issues (unplugging stuff, not payiong a BT bill etc). Far better to be totally independent of customer stuff especially as SIMs in volume for small amounts of data are pennies nowadays,

[Scarletpimpofnel]

Ardennes92 said:

We are in Shropshire and are on O2 ( I checked first as that was the only provider that actually worked)although the test kit the installer used was on another network which only had intermittent coverage, farcical system really, why can t it work via Wi-Fi/ethernet and use cellular as backup?

O2 ? A previous poster said DCC used Vodafone? So they do have a bag of SIMs and fit the most appropriate at the install time?

[Sheepshanks]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

O2 ? A previous poster said DCC used Vodafone? So they do have a bag of SIMs and fit the most appropriate at the install time?

It was O2 for 2G/3G. It’s Vodafone for 4G.

We’re a few hundred metres from a mast but they transmit in fan shapes on different channels and our house sits between two of the fans. They got it working by fitting the largest of two aerials they can add, although it was very iffy for the first few weeks. Even now the app will sometimes say unable to get reading for a day or two, then it’ll catch up.

I have read that Smart meters are also supposed to mesh with other nearby meters.

[Sheepshanks]

Ardennes92 said:

We are in Shropshire and are on O2 ( I checked first as that was the only provider that actually worked)although the test kit the installer used was on another network which only had intermittent coverage, farcical system really, why can t it work via Wi-Fi/ethernet and use cellular as backup?

One reason is there d have to be some way of putting your WiFi user name and password in and I suppose there would be concerns about hacking in either direction.

[Actual]

Scarletpimpofnel said:

O2 ? A previous poster said DCC used Vodafone? So they do have a bag of SIMs and fit the most appropriate at the install time?

Some equipment like emergency services and alarm systems use a SIM which can connect to all networks but I don't know if smart meters do the same.

[alangla]

When I had my monitored alarm installed it came with an Irish (353 code) SIM card, the reason given was that it allowed it to roam onto any UK mobile network.

[Sheepshanks]

Ohme EV chargers work on any network,