How do Hydro’s smart meters work?
Can anyone explain to me how Hydro’s smart meters work? They must be emitting some kind of signal, but how, and what’s picking it up? Do they work on an exclusive cellular frequency? Anyone wanna geek out on this?
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Kate
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Alex 16:22 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
Each meter acts as a repeater for other meters in the area, creating one large ‘mesh style’ network where they talk to Hydro Quebec through each other, they place ‘collector’ meters in strategic places that are connected directly to Hydro Quebec’s system.
Alex 16:23 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
Its pretty much a giant wifi network
Jim Royal 16:30 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
They use transmitters that are similar to those used in wireless phones, typically in the 902 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands. They are fairly low power and short range. They send data at infrequent intervals (such as monthly) by communicating only with each other. The devices themselves form a private network, so they don’t need to use cellular services.
J 17:12 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
@Jim, check your Consumption Profile on the website, then weekly, the data is sent at least daily, I can see how many kWh I’ve used yesterday.
Kate 17:33 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
Thank you, lads!
Chris 20:53 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
And if you don’t want one, you can get a non-transmitting model, though they charge something like $200/year, then someone visits yearly to take a reading.
Bert 20:53 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
Also, it is the same method that HQ can detect outages without people calling in. No signal from meter 1234… There is something to look in to.
Kate 22:41 on 2019-02-26 Permalink
Maybe I should make clear: I have a smart meter and have no issues with it. Someone asked me what I knew about the data collection side, so I said I’d investigate.
Bert 09:49 on 2019-02-27 Permalink
Typically readings are relayed every 15 to 30 minutes along with relevant information such as the reader ID and a date-time stamp. Hydro can use this information for peak period billing, making nice graphs to show hourly / daily usage etc. Interestingly, in the data you can download from H-Q also includes the average temperature. I am not sure if they use some Environment Canada reading or have sensors in the smart meters.
Of course you can use that data to try to interpret things, e.g. night-shift workers and the like. I am not sure how feasible it would be to try to sniff the customer side of the power line to try to identify devices, say by power usage patterns or even identifying signatures or even try to sniff devices that may use power lines to communicate, such as Ethernet over Power Line devices.
Chris 10:08 on 2019-02-27 Permalink
It’s certainly another way our modern world invades on your privacy. They certainly could build a profile of you, there’s lots written on the topic already, ex: https://takebackyourpower.net/comprehensive-report-how-smart-meters-invade-privacy/
Bill Binns 13:27 on 2019-02-27 Permalink
Being able to see my usage down to the hourly level and connect that to what I was doing in my home at the time has been a huge eye-opener. It more than makes up for any possible privacy concerns IMO. I have been able to learn that lighting (all L.E.D.) has no measurable impact on consumption even when comparing every light in the house on to no lights at all on. My 2 year old washer and dryer aren’t nearly as big users as I expected. My creaky old dishwasher and the two big TV’s are the major offenders (other than heat and AC of course).
GC 21:20 on 2019-02-27 Permalink
Sure, Bill, but it would be possible to make that data available to just you and to no one else. That would allow you the info and also protect your privacy.