Smart Meter? What can I do with it?

thanks for all that info, Andy. Yep its missing that module alright. Even if you buy the module, there's an encryption key required to allow access to the data from the phone app. And guess who has that key??? "Contact your supplier". So as someone else said, up the thread, this stuff isn't designed to empower the consumer. Its to bamboozle us. I'm going to look at the regulator website and see what they say about consumer access to their own data.....

It really is crazy the meters were installed by esb networks at taxpayers expense but we can't have access to our own data without going through a private company under the specific conditions of changing to a plan that for most would mean increase in bills

I had someone come round last month for the same reason, he said that they had to replace the backboard when they installed the meter (feb 20) which is true, i saw the fella do it originally, the old one was really old and perishing.

New fella told me it was to check if the cabinet was having damp issues, he replaced the cabinet door (it didnt leak but one of the hinges was broke) and put some sealant in the bottom.

Useful info in this thread, thanks. I've had a smart meter installed for a year or two now but I was with Iberdrola so didn't have any insight into usage or any smart meter tariff options.

Recently switched to Electric Ireland through absolutely no choice of my own and started viewing my smart meter usage through their website. Not a great experience but it did provide some insight into our electricity usage, albeit with some unusual gaps in data.

Now I'm switching over to SSE for our gas / elec and I've been checking their smart meter time-of-use tariffs. Everyone's use-case is different but having done the sums it looks like we could manage savings of about 50 to 80 euro each year but only if we're strict about running the washing machine, dishwasher, dryer, panel heater etc at off-peak (11pm to 8am). But then we get stung with running the oven and generally existing during peak (5 - 7). And honestly I'm not a fan of running the dryer at night when we go to bed.

If we had an electric car it would make sense to use a smart tariff, but not at the moment, so we're sticking with a non-smart-meter plan. Maybe in the future they will make the off-peak rates more attractive.

In the meanwhile I've been learning a tremendous amount about our usage by installing a frient / Develco smart meter monitor (here: Electricity Meter Interface). It connects via zigbee to my home assistant installation and works fine with the kamstrup smart meter I have installed. Took about 5 minutes to set it up, no tools required. It reads the LED pulses on these smart meters. It's no surprise that none of the electricity providers are willing to provide local access to data or even some sort of API or standard format for this data. And even then their data doesn't compare to the live feed of usage from the frient device - I can see the impact within a few seconds of boiling the kettle, for example.

I'm going to order a Frient  Electricity Meter Interface as you recommended. I have a Sonos system in the house and an Amazon Echo. I'm not sure if I can connect the meter to any of those via Zigbee to get the data. Any thoughts?

smart meters surely if working and put to work as they should negate a person coming round the house to read the meter, thats a plus, stop making the home owner going outside to read the meter and submit it to the utility company, stop all this 'estimated reading' malarky and if connected wirelessly to an indoor energy meter unit let the customer read in real time what items in the house are using the most electricity, as well as accurate than the old analog electricity meters which should have been calibrated from time to time but never were.

ah right I shall have to look into that - I think we signed up for a smart tarrif and still cannot view in real time on a device in the house or on a phone app ... well not yet anyway. They (esb or their approved contractors) put in our smart meter into the box last February and I dont think its got that wireless add on adaptor installed in it either at the top of the meter, its just blanked off with a blanking plate and an anti-tamper wire

copy of a post i did a while ago about energy monitoring

I did a lot of research about the different power monitoring options, there is a number of options the TLDR is I went for the Emporia Smart Home Energy Monitor with 18 CT clamps, but everyone might pick a different options for different reasons that work best for them.

being able to monitor each circuit is very helpful, as you can see what each power draw is and it's easy to see the affect of small things like changing sleep setting on laptops/pc and the affect it can have as well as when a spike happens you know in which room so it's much easier to track down what caused it.

I have saved the cost of the Emporia in only 4-5 months from savings. I was able to save about €30-40 a month with changes to usage, but we would be high use, 25+ a day even after savings.

Emporia Smart Home Energy Monitor - this is what I ordered a few months ago as I think it's the best option, I ordered the one with 18 clams as I wanted to cover all the circuits I had, it has CT clamps for two main supply (only need one in Ireland) and 16 small 50amp ct clamps for each circuit, down side is the space needed and the number of wires, it connects to a cloud service for the data which i don't like but people have gotten ESPhome and home assistant to work with it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Jv4nO9OWg) you can pull the data from the cloud to home assistant as well. I might move it to fully local at a later date.

I have it linked to my Home Assistant with the data in InfluxDB and Grafana for visualizing the data, it works home assistant Energy with the integration in the home assistant HACS

there is 3 options- main supply only, main and 8 CT clamps, main and 16 CT circuit clamps

cost - €80-180

Shelly - I like Shelly stuff but the power monitor is a bit limited unless you buy a lot of them making the cost quite high and you then end up with a lot of them to fit in the box, it seems to be designed to just monitor the main incoming supply from what I have seen. (I know it can monitor any supply but it starts to cost a lot)

cost €50-500

Sense - again it just uses two CT clamps on the main supply (USA two for split supply, one in UK), they then use "AI" to identify what is using power, reviews are mixed on how well it works. issues with picking up things that stay powered all the time and things that might use different levels of power at different times. although it would need less space to setup

cost €300+

Home - Sense.com

Home - Sense.com

https://sense.com/

Welcome to Sense. Take command of your energy use with total home monitoring Meet Sense Welcome to Sense. Take command of your energy use through total home monitoring. Meet Sense Engage customers and manage to the grid edge. Sense’s AI unlocks value with real time, detailed device detection and in-home intelligence Engage customers with lower […]

ESPhome - very DIY and very cool but takes a lot more setup also to get 18 clamps like the Emporia it's expensive but it's total local and will give some more info i think at a faster poll rate if you want it.

cost - €80-500 depending on what you buy, shipping, import etc.

ESPhome website - https://esphome.io/index.html#

shop for power parts - https://circuitsetup.us/product-category/power-management/