Unimpressed with technology: smart meter edition
They tried to fit me with a smart meter last December. It didn't commission properly, so I had to do manual readings until about a month ago when they got the electricity working.
Only to discover that the gas meter couldn't communicate with the electricity meter because it uses Bluetooth and my walls are too thick (the electricity meter communicates to the supplier, the gas meter only connects to the electricity meter).
So now they have to fit *another* new gas meter that uses a lower frequency to communicate. See this. And according to the engineer, such miracles do not yet exist, and aren't expected to until January 2021.
I really can't believe that my normal sized house has its gas and electricity meters unusually far apart. Which means the people who designed these systems have done a really substandard job. This, of course, on top of an original smart meter design which couldn't cope with you changing suppliers. I really do despair. Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.
Only to discover that the gas meter couldn't communicate with the electricity meter because it uses Bluetooth and my walls are too thick (the electricity meter communicates to the supplier, the gas meter only connects to the electricity meter).
So now they have to fit *another* new gas meter that uses a lower frequency to communicate. See this. And according to the engineer, such miracles do not yet exist, and aren't expected to until January 2021.
I really can't believe that my normal sized house has its gas and electricity meters unusually far apart. Which means the people who designed these systems have done a really substandard job. This, of course, on top of an original smart meter design which couldn't cope with you changing suppliers. I really do despair. Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
comments there.