Re: SmartMeter: power for gas side

David Lesher wrote:

hal-usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Hal Murray) writes:

PG&E rececntly installed SmartMeters at my place.
<http://www.pge.com/myhome/customerservice/meter/smartmeter/howsystemworks/>
(They did it without dropping electrical power or killing the pilot light
in my hot water heater.)

The URL above says it uses RF to communicate. It's easy to see where
the electrical meter gets power. Where does the gas meter get power
to run electronics?

I'd guess battery power; and interrogation by the electric meter.

Correct. The gas and electric meters are independent and don't depend on
each other to interrogate. My local utility (PSE) installed these some
years ago. They also provide gas service (with the same equipment) in
Seattle, where the electricity is supplied by a different utility, who
use different technology (people running around reading meters). So the
gas meters don't depend on a compatible electric meter nearby.

They did drop my power for a few seconds. The pilot light was a non
issue, as the gas meter register can be replaced independently from the
meter itself. So it wasn't necessary to shut off the gas.

The utilities were all agog over BPL for Internet access, with the "oh,
by the way, we can also use it for meter reading & SCADA" part in tiny
print on page 43. With its debunking for access, the utilities seem to be
looking again at UHF RF for the backhaul.

PSE has their own wireless mesh network in my neighborhood. But the
meters are capable of being read by a van equipped with r.f equipment
driving down the road where no such mesh exists. No Broadband over Power
Lines needed.

--
Paul Hovnanian mailto:Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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