Smart meters, less smart companies

My "smart" water meter has no wire/s coming out - even though it's in the ground.
The "smart" bit is a Diehl P/N 3135287 clipped onto a newly installed Diel meter. I could not read the old meter, and had complained to the water company about that... they offered to install a new meter, so I took them up on that.
"smart" in uncapitalised and in quotes, because it's not doing anything smart for me.
 
Oh... this thing is about 3 metres away - it has an antenna on the top of it. It may be the comms for the water pressure adjustment devices they installed in a huge hole in the ground about 6 months ago. Or it may be to read smart water meters?
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HugeMaximum said:
Oh... this thing is about 3 metres away - it has an antenna on the top of it. It may be the comms for the water pressure adjustment devices they installed in a huge hole in the ground about 6 months ago. Or it may be to read smart water meters?
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What happens if you get a suitably sized tin can lid, paint it black, and just quietly drop it over the antenna ... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I wonder if that would be enough of a Faraday cage/attenuator to upset the RF. might need some aluminium duct tape around it to seal the leakage gap I suppose.
 
antipodean said:
What happens if you get a suitably sized tin can lid, paint it black, and just quietly drop it over the antenna ...
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Maybe not much. I just tried a simple test. You'd expect a microwave oven to form a reasonable Faraday cage - the mesh over the glass in the door is probably tuned to stop 2.45GHz. I put a phone with hotspot switched on (2.4GHz band) in the microwave (door shut). Signal attenuated but still usable in the next room.

Maybe I should be worried the next time I microwave something!
 
SemiRamis said:
You are allowed to ask for a non smart meter to replace old one. If they say none available you can still ask for a smart meter in non smart connected status.
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trog said:
You need to insist that it is fully dumb. They can install a smart meter in dumb mode that can then be reactivated remotely back to being smart.
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Happened to find some browser tabs still open from when I was looking into it. Ovo and Octopus (I didn't check every supplier) said, respectively, "Traditional meters aren’t available anymore in the UK, as they’re no longer being manufactured" and "We install smart meters because traditional meters are no longer being manufactured or refurbished." Though of course the infamous Randy Mice-Davies quote applies.
 
Wildebeest said:
Happened to find some browser tabs still open from when I was looking into it. Ovo and Octopus (I didn't check every supplier) said, respectively, "Traditional meters aren’t available anymore in the UK, as they’re no longer being manufactured" and "We install smart meters because traditional meters are no longer being manufactured or refurbished." Though of course the infamous Randy Mice-Davies quote applies.
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Yes they install a smart meter in dumb mode if requested preventing it from reporting back but it is usually done in such a way that they can remotely make it smart again however there is also a way to fit it that prevents them having any remote access to the meter. I was lucky to get 2 older guys who have been fitting meters for many years and shared my views on smart meters and letting others have the ability to control my electric supply remotely even in dumb mode. I am not sure exactly what they did but for a while after I had EDF make a few sneaky attempts asking me to provide a code number for the meter. I refused saying as it was installed dumb they did not need any number.
 
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