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Seems there would be a check and balance system here. Say the water company notices that you are using 30x your normal amount they would automatically contact you and ask if there is a reason.
One of the benefits of the new smart meters is it gives the utility the ability to contact you well before the meter is read. The meters typically report hourly consumption. If the utility sees a residence that has a 24-hour period with no zero consumption hours, they can contact them to investigate a possible leak.
One of the benefits of the new smart meters is it gives the utility the ability to contact you well before the meter is read. The meters typically report hourly consumption. If the utility sees a residence that has a 24-hour period with no zero consumption hours, they can contact them to investigate a possible leak.
How do the new meters make contact? I thought that the meters which didn't require eyeballing had what amounts to something similar to Bluetooth. A very inexpensive radio that was triggered by a meter reader who was nearby (10s of feet, say out on the street rather than having to go into a backyard). If a meter reports hourly, then it would need some kind of communication network, most likely an internal cell phone. And I'm guessing that would be too expensive.
Also, while it is nice to imagine that the public service commission's bureaucracy has the resources to evaluate each customer's bills for out-of-common-sense-range values, and then investigate them, my experience with city governments leads me to believe it's more likely that they just have their computers kick you the bill each month. If there is a problem, it's your own responsibility to notice. They would only do more if you become the squeaky-wheel and force them.
No the city will not notice that your bill is larger than normal. If you have shut off the water at the house and the meter is still going, then either you have a leak in the line between the meter and the house, or the meter is bad. The most likely cause is a leak between the meter and the house and that is your responsibility so you should call a plumber. It could be a very long time before you notice any water from a buried broken pipe. The city will (or at least used to) adjust your bill if you can show you have had a leak. Don't remember how much the adjustment was when ours broke, but at a minimum they should at least deduct the sewer charges.
How do the new meters make contact? I thought that the meters which didn't require eyeballing had what amounts to something similar to Bluetooth. A very inexpensive radio that was triggered by a meter reader who was nearby (10s of feet, say out on the street rather than having to go into a backyard). If a meter reports hourly, then it would need some kind of communication network, most likely an internal cell phone. And I'm guessing that would be too expensive.
Also, while it is nice to imagine that the public service commission's bureaucracy has the resources to evaluate each customer's bills for out-of-common-sense-range values, and then investigate them, my experience with city governments leads me to believe it's more likely that they just have their computers kick you the bill each month. If there is a problem, it's your own responsibility to notice. They would only do more if you become the squeaky-wheel and force them.
It's some kind of mesh network I think. They use batteries and are guaranteed 10 years or something. Not sure how it works exactly as that's some serious battery life.
No the city will not notice that your bill is larger than normal. If you have shut off the water at the house and the meter is still going, then either you have a leak in the line between the meter and the house, or the meter is bad. The most likely cause is a leak between the meter and the house and that is your responsibility so you should call a plumber. It could be a very long time before you notice any water from a buried broken pipe. The city will (or at least used to) adjust your bill if you can show you have had a leak. Don't remember how much the adjustment was when ours broke, but at a minimum they should at least deduct the sewer charges.
How do the new meters make contact? I thought that the meters which didn't require eyeballing had what amounts to something similar to Bluetooth. A very inexpensive radio that was triggered by a meter reader who was nearby (10s of feet, say out on the street rather than having to go into a backyard). If a meter reports hourly, then it would need some kind of communication network, most likely an internal cell phone. And I'm guessing that would be too expensive.
Also, while it is nice to imagine that the public service commission's bureaucracy has the resources to evaluate each customer's bills for out-of-common-sense-range values, and then investigate them, my experience with city governments leads me to believe it's more likely that they just have their computers kick you the bill each month. If there is a problem, it's your own responsibility to notice. They would only do more if you become the squeaky-wheel and force them.
There are two technologies currently in use - AMR (Advanced Meter Reading) uses the walk-by, drive-by, fly-by method you reference. In that case, the utility would only get the data once a month (or when the meter is read).
The next generation is known as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure). This allows gas, water and electric meters to communicate on a near real-time basis (usually over RF). For gas and water, since they are battery powered, they typically talk to an electric meter. Electric meters can also talk RF to other meters until it gets to an aggregation point that has some kind of a WAN back haul (cellular, fiber, phone line, etc) to connect back to the utility. The gas & electric meters usually wake up every hour or so and report usage data. The utility typically polls the meters once a day. Leak Detection is a feature that can be enabled to generate an alarm/event to alert the utility. They don't have to manually examine usage data.
This area has significant operations by several major players in the Smart Grid arena, such as Elster, ABB and Sensus.
Seems there would be a check and balance system here. Say the water company notices that you are using 30x your normal amount they would automatically contact you and ask if there is a reason.
You would think that. Yet the electric company does not either.The just collect the numbers and feed them to a computer.
Good luck getting it corrected, we had an issue with a bad electric meter and Progress Energy told us to pound sand. We ended up just having to pay.
That is funny since the power company owns the meter and the state requires them to maintain it. Sounds like lack a communication. I have had a problem with usage with Duke power. Guess what they came out tested everything on their side. Turned out it was my heat pump had went bad. They still worked with me on the charge. I had to pay . They did however break it up into smaller payments.
There are two technologies currently in use - AMR (Advanced Meter Reading) uses the walk-by, drive-by, fly-by method you reference. In that case, the utility would only get the data once a month (or when the meter is read).
The next generation is known as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure). This allows gas, water and electric meters to communicate on a near real-time basis (usually over RF). For gas and water, since they are battery powered, they typically talk to an electric meter. Electric meters can also talk RF to other meters until it gets to an aggregation point that has some kind of a WAN back haul (cellular, fiber, phone line, etc) to connect back to the utility. The gas & electric meters usually wake up every hour or so and report usage data. The utility typically polls the meters once a day. Leak Detection is a feature that can be enabled to generate an alarm/event to alert the utility. They don't have to manually examine usage data.
This area has significant operations by several major players in the Smart Grid arena, such as Elster, ABB and Sensus.
That's pretty cool. I hadn't realized the state-of-the-art had gotten this far along. I wonder if the power company is thinking of using this for doing residential Time-of-Day peak avoidance credits. I know of one electric company tried (10-15 years ago) to add radio controlled disconnect switches for the A/C compressors. If you let them put them on your HVAC outside unit, and the peak got too bad, they could radio off a bunch of residential units for an hour or so in the hottest of summer afternoons. For that, your bill got a goodly credit.
That's pretty cool. I hadn't realized the state-of-the-art had gotten this far along. I wonder if the power company is thinking of using this for doing residential Time-of-Day peak avoidance credits. I know of one electric company tried (10-15 years ago) to add radio controlled disconnect switches for the A/C compressors. If you let them put them on your HVAC outside unit, and the peak got too bad, they could radio off a bunch of residential units for an hour or so in the hottest of summer afternoons. For that, your bill got a goodly credit.
Wake Electric has had a wireless meter on our house some time now. They recently rolled out this program - too bad its an additional charge for the cool stuff.
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