A few years ago my elec company offered a smart meter. Interested in the idea of being able to improve on the variability of my currentcost with clamp sensor and maybe better opportunity to integrate with other things I agreed. But like most of you others have posted, was disappointed with it. The remote unit that displayed the usage insisted on cycle through various displays so only getting current usage 20% of the time - the others being things like current cost (which required an electricity rate that didn't match my tariff and that I couldn't change - ie useless). But most annoying was that neither the meter or the remote unit had any way of me getting that data "out" and into some other system.
Of course, with hindsight, this was probably a design *requirement* of the electricity supplier so I'd be hooked into relying on them for anything that used the data. But could I get a feed from them? Of course not. Whilst they told me they got a daily meter reading (great, I was so happy for them), the most they would give me was a website graph that showed *quarterly* usage. i.e just like they'd get with quarterly readings from an analogue meter.
I while later I moved supplier - the old one warned me that my new supplier couldn't use my "smart" meter -- so what, I said, I wasn't getting any benefit from it at all. So the mobile modem installed in the meter is no longer used and my current supplier relies on sneaker-net readings along with my ad-hoc web readings.
The sole benefit I got from the whole thing was that in replacing the old analogue meter with something newer, the "smart" meter has a pulse LED, so I upgraded the currentcost and improved the code in the RaspPi that I use to push the data into a DB & rudimentary graphing of usage. The remote unit supplied with the meter is gathering dust somewhere..... I guess the wallwart might be of use but they probably even spec'd that to be something so esoterically bespoke that it's useless...
As agree with what someone else posted, the whole smart metre narrative is an utter fiasco - expensive electronics being fitted as part of overall systems that are so poorly designed (in terms of features) that they either don't fulfill potential or just become disused. Lack of standards means that my smart meter doesn't even save the leccy companies the shoe leather. And of course, we, electricity consumers, are all paying for it one way or another. At a premium probably. And it gets 'smart'-this and that a bad name....
Remembering which forum this thread is in, one thing that I've never yet figured out is whether I can integrate my constant stream of electricity usage with Cortex (which actually is smart in a way the leccy meter isn't).
Of course, with hindsight, this was probably a design *requirement* of the electricity supplier so I'd be hooked into relying on them for anything that used the data. But could I get a feed from them? Of course not. Whilst they told me they got a daily meter reading (great, I was so happy for them), the most they would give me was a website graph that showed *quarterly* usage. i.e just like they'd get with quarterly readings from an analogue meter.
I while later I moved supplier - the old one warned me that my new supplier couldn't use my "smart" meter -- so what, I said, I wasn't getting any benefit from it at all. So the mobile modem installed in the meter is no longer used and my current supplier relies on sneaker-net readings along with my ad-hoc web readings.
The sole benefit I got from the whole thing was that in replacing the old analogue meter with something newer, the "smart" meter has a pulse LED, so I upgraded the currentcost and improved the code in the RaspPi that I use to push the data into a DB & rudimentary graphing of usage. The remote unit supplied with the meter is gathering dust somewhere..... I guess the wallwart might be of use but they probably even spec'd that to be something so esoterically bespoke that it's useless...
As agree with what someone else posted, the whole smart metre narrative is an utter fiasco - expensive electronics being fitted as part of overall systems that are so poorly designed (in terms of features) that they either don't fulfill potential or just become disused. Lack of standards means that my smart meter doesn't even save the leccy companies the shoe leather. And of course, we, electricity consumers, are all paying for it one way or another. At a premium probably. And it gets 'smart'-this and that a bad name....
Remembering which forum this thread is in, one thing that I've never yet figured out is whether I can integrate my constant stream of electricity usage with Cortex (which actually is smart in a way the leccy meter isn't).
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