Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

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rjb
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Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by rjb »

Hurray, after trying for some years i finally got a smart meter installed a few days ago. Its a smets 2 version for both my gas and electric (Separate Meters) and works fine with my solar panels. The in home display reads zero electric for most of the time indicating that the solar panels are exporting to the grid and i am not using any electric from the grid, ie free electric. :D Whats not to like. You can see what your load is when you start putting appliances on and you soon realise that to make the most of it and keep your bills low you dont put all your appliances on together but stagger them in series rather than parallel.. So dont put the electric kettle, toaster and microwave on at the same time. :mrgreen:
The installer struggled to get a signal initially but he explained that he had a bigger aerial to cope with the poor mobile signal here but it still took him 2 hours to get it fitted and working. All the while it was chucking it down and he was working outside. As the intensity of rain increased he eventually got a brolly from his van and worked as best he could beneath it.
Some electric suppliers will configure their in home display to show what you export from solar panels but not Scottish Power my supplier. I was informed that you can read the export figure from the meter itself but havent investigated this yet.
[XAP]Bob wrote: 22 Apr 2021, 5:54pm I monitor the pulse output of my dumb E7 electric meter, and am about to add a Hall effect sensor to monitor my (very dumb) gas meter.
I check the pulse output from my export meter which monitors my solar panels which is inside the house by timing the pulses with a watch.
1 Kwhr of solar is a pulse every 3.6 seconds, 2 Kwhr is a pulse every 1.8 seconds. simples :D
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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[XAP]Bob
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Joined: 26 Sep 2008, 4:12pm

Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

rjb wrote: 18 May 2021, 11:49am Hurray, after trying for some years i finally got a smart meter installed a few days ago. Its a smets 2 version for both my gas and electric (Separate Meters) and works fine with my solar panels. The in home display reads zero electric for most of the time indicating that the solar panels are exporting to the grid and i am not using any electric from the grid, ie free electric. :D Whats not to like. You can see what your load is when you start putting appliances on and you soon realise that to make the most of it and keep your bills low you dont put all your appliances on together but stagger them in series rather than parallel.. So dont put the electric kettle, toaster and microwave on at the same time. :mrgreen:
The installer struggled to get a signal initially but he explained that he had a bigger aerial to cope with the poor mobile signal here but it still took him 2 hours to get it fitted and working. All the while it was chucking it down and he was working outside. As the intensity of rain increased he eventually got a brolly from his van and worked as best he could beneath it.
Some electric suppliers will configure their in home display to show what you export from solar panels but not Scottish Power my supplier. I was informed that you can read the export figure from the meter itself but havent investigated this yet.
[XAP]Bob wrote: 22 Apr 2021, 5:54pm I monitor the pulse output of my dumb E7 electric meter, and am about to add a Hall effect sensor to monitor my (very dumb) gas meter.
I check the pulse output from my export meter which monitors my solar panels which is inside the house by timing the pulses with a watch.
1 Kwhr of solar is a pulse every 3.6 seconds, 2 Kwhr is a pulse every 1.8 seconds. simples :D
(1KW is a pulse every 3.6 seconds, 1KWh is doing that for a whole hour)
The man was called Watt, the unit is a watt, and it's abbreviated to W
</pedant>

With a pulse counter I get historical data plotted.
There is something squiffy with my counting at the moment though, I need to figure out what (I think the debounce might be a bit off).
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
rjb
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Location: Somerset (originally 60/70's Plymouth)

Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by rjb »

Thanks for correcting me. I was getting carried away as the sun was shining. :D
The export meter has written on it,
1000 pulses 1 Kwhr. And I wasn't counting. :lol:
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

rjb wrote: 18 May 2021, 1:17pm Thanks for correcting me. I was getting carried away as the sun was shining. :D
The export meter has written on it,
1000 pulses 1 Kwhr. And I wasn't counting. :lol:
Yep - most meters pulse once per watt hour, which means that if my washing machine comes on overnight at the same time as the car is charging I could be pulling nearly 3 pulses per second, so I need to be quick at counting them.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
rjb
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 10:25am
Location: Somerset (originally 60/70's Plymouth)

Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by rjb »

You can sign up to have your meter readings sent every 30 mins, once a day or once a month. I elected for every 30 mins and did this on a drop down menu on my online account, I can easily change it if I need to but this means the data available to me to see how my consumption varies throughout the day could influence my usage. I know some think this could indicate if your house is occupied but as appliances cut in and out all the time, fridges and freezers are a prime example and one of the highest consumption items it would be difficult to discriminate if the house was unoccupied. The IHD also displays text messages sent by my supplier. As it uses the mobile signal can you send text messages from a phone? Anyone know. :D
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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Mick F
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Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by Mick F »

What about the standing charge?
Has this question been raised before on this thread?

How can you see your usage and equate that to your bill?
Need to add on the standing charge Shirley?
Is that divisible by the day?

Use zero electricity, and they still charge you for the availability of the supply.
Mick F. Cornwall
rjb
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 10:25am
Location: Somerset (originally 60/70's Plymouth)

Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by rjb »

Smart meters display your usage in real time. Your bill shows the standing charge as a separate amount ie no of days in the quarter X the standing charge. The smart meter information cant display your standing charge on top of your consumption in real time as the standing charge is fixed per day. The cost per day will show the standing charge which is added at midnight so the previous days cost of usage will include this. :wink:
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Mick F wrote: 18 May 2021, 9:03pm What about the standing charge?
Has this question been raised before on this thread?

How can you see your usage and equate that to your bill?
Need to add on the standing charge Shirley?
Is that divisible by the day?

Use zero electricity, and they still charge you for the availability of the supply.
You can't change your standing charge (whilst on a tariff), you can change your usage.
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
thirdcrank
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Re: Anyone smart enough to talk about 'leccy meters?

Post by thirdcrank »

I posted somewhere above that my supplier has been emailing me to arrange a date to fit a smart meter. In view of the Which advice I mentioned above to notify the supplier about having solar panels I tried and they have nobody able to be notified. I eventually spoke to somebody expected to field daft questions and she didn't know the answer in spite of consulting others but told me "off the record" that she wouldn't have one. Faced with my inertia, the flow of emails seems to have stopped. One daft thing is that my solar panel generation meter can be read online but they refuse to do this and insist on quarterly returns from me with an annual visit to make sure I'm not fiddling.
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