Electricity Smartmeter Data Transfer

[steamingbill]

Hey,

My smartmeter has never ever delivered the promised readings every 30 minutes.

We had a technician up today to check the meter was working properly and he stuck a reader onto the meter and downloaded the data at 30 minute intervals for the last 3 years. He allowed me to peruse the data but explained that he couldnt give me a copy.

I'd like to be able to dump that data into a spreadsheet and better understand my useage.

Seems to me that this reader is relatively simple technology and so is the data - anybody know if it is possible for Joe Public to buy a smart meter reader from Freds Electric shop and start using the data ?

The file isnt complicated Date, Time, Kilowatt Hours should be easy enough to tweak into a spreadsheet and look at.

Seems that in some rural areas this technology has never worked as initially promised but I dont see why we cannot get the data dumps ourselves as and when we want them.

Regards

Bill

[snowyskiesau]

Aren't the energy providers supposed to make this information available to users via a web portal or such?

[steamingbill]

Yes they are supposed to but it seems that in many areas the technology simply does not work.

The specific reason is very difficult to ascertain, I spent a very long time on the phone one day being flipped from one person to another, eventually one chap explained that the smartmeter would probably never work in the area that I live, the reason being "problems with the operating system".

Am guessing that there will be other forum members who have had smart meters installed 3 years ago and have never seen the data they generate.

Many of us received a $125 compensation payment recently for this failure of service. I think the meters cost approx $400 and my impression is that we were paying for this with increased electricity prices.

Bill

[AlexS]

Write them a letter, with a copy to the energy industry ombudsman (do you have one in Victoria) or your local member and the newspapers, explaining that they promised it, you want it, please fix it.

[malb]

We moved to Alexandra, near Lake Eildon, 10 weeks ago. Everything has smartmeters, but no control towers have been installed, and probably never will be. We get quarterly manual meter reads, then it takes 8weeks to get the data from the read through the system and an invoice. Heaven help us if we have some sort of high load issue that we should not have, because by the time we become aware of the issue, it will have bled our pockets for another billing period.
Yes we are still getting stung extra on our daily service charge to pay for the meter changeover some years ago, customers have no options other than smartmeter or disconnect, wholesalers seem to have the option to put customers on smartmeter but then not provide the control and interrogation infrastructure.

[snowyskiesau]

There's a lot to be said for old fashion methods.
None of my (4) electricity meters are smart. The meter reader pops by about the 3rd of the month and I get the bill via email about 1 week later.
No hourly usage details of course. I did ask if I could have an electrician install a monitoring system which uses clip on (i.e. no electrical contact) current sensors but that seemed to be to difficult for them to understand.
[Monitoring system I was considering (http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/)]

[alexm1]

There's a lot to be said for old fashion methods.
None of my (4) electricity meters are smart. The meter reader pops by about the 3rd of the month and I get the bill via email about 1 week later.
No hourly usage details of course. I did ask if I could have an electrician install a monitoring system which uses clip on (i.e. no electrical contact) current sensors but that seemed to be to difficult for them to understand.
[Monitoring system I was considering (http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/)]

You do not need permission to install electricity monitors, it is your switchboard.

[steamingbill]

Hey,



anybody know if it is possible for Joe Public to buy a smart meter reader from Freds Electric shop and start using the data ?


Bill

To answer my own question I found this a couple of years ago and then promptly forgot about it, might be useful to other folk as well only $65.

Watts Clever Energy Monitor - EW4500 - My Smart Meter (http://www.mysmartmeter.com.au/in-home-display/energy-monitor/)

Works off the flashing red light. I think the red flashing light roughly sort of approximates to the black mark on the old spinning wheel in the meters ie 1 flash = 1 spin of the wheel. So the new electric gadget simply counts the flashes for an hour and ....... voila.

Anybody know a bit more about how these work ? Is what I've said above the guts of it ?

Bill