Smart metering in new construction

  • Erstellt am 2012-12-30 17:46:51

MacDisein

2012-12-30 17:46:51
  • #1
Hello,
I am new here and would like to ask my first question.

For next year I am planning to build a single-family house, and at the moment I am trying to get an overview of the options offered by the individual trades.

Since I am a software developer by profession, I am professionally interested in technology and have looked into a bus system – after some research, including here in the forum, I have come to the conclusion that it probably does not pay off and one would simply use such a system too little.
Now, during the Christmas season, for example, what annoys me in my current apartment is that I cannot switch the Christmas lights in the house on/off with a central switch – but for the four or five weeks a year when that is relevant, the effort is too great for me.

It would certainly have its charm to be able to switch any lamp or socket with any switch, but usually you set it once as desired and then don’t change it anymore.

Now I have dealt a little with smart metering, that is the electronic monitoring of energy meters – this topic interests me a lot, I would like to provide monitoring of electricity, gas, and water meters for my new build.
There are apparently different options for this – I would prefer a connection via Ethernet – basically the important thing would be just reading the values via software on the PC.

Has anyone done something like this already, especially for gas and water meters?
I’m not sure what my energy suppliers would say if I don’t use their meters, or are there no problems?
Or do I always need a meter from the energy supplier and then simply connect my smart meter behind it?

I have now read something about KNX FacilityWeb, which apparently are devices that have a KNX bus but each have their own web server – basically that would be a possible way. Actually, I want a pretty integrated solution, so no makeshift solution where some scanning module is placed on the existing meter, or is that the only possibility because the energy suppliers otherwise do not cooperate?

Which other systems are also recommended?
I also have no idea what a normal electricity, gas, or water meter costs compared to an intelligent meter – maybe such an effort is not worth it again in this case.

MacDisein
 

Der Da

2012-12-30 19:01:35
  • #2
As a software developer, you shouldn't be fascinated by the topic, but shocked. :D

I have tried everything to prevent a smart meter, but unfortunately you are powerless against the power companies. Am I paranoid? Maybe a little. I work professionally in pattern recognition and know the power that the smart meter has. Here it is possible, through consumption behavior, to firstly create fancy habit profiles of the family, all the way up to the TV program that is turned on. A nice opportunity for the power companies to earn some extra money on the side if they then sell this data to industry. Because many smart meters can transmit data almost in real time. Thus, you become transparent at home.

You won't be able to read out the device, I HOPE. Because if you can, everyone else can too. Hopefully, it is transmitted over a secure connection with a blocked port. But security costs money, so they can surely increase the electricity price a bit. It is in our interest that the data is secure. You can read out the devices via special websites, which you then either have to crawl, or they are free enough to offer you a web service. Which, to be honest, I don't believe.
 

MacDisein

2012-12-30 19:30:31
  • #3
It's not about smart meters that send their values to the energy supplier, but about a solution that allows me to analyze and monitor the consumption values within my intranet.

Although I have to say that I'm not so paranoid, some things can be seen too critically, we leave our traces everywhere, I don't see such a big danger there.
 

Der Da

2012-12-30 21:35:21
  • #4
Then the answer is as already written. If at all, you will only be able to access it via the web interface. I hardly believe that the end user is allowed to access the Ethernet interface, let alone that I would connect the thing to my router :D That would mean I would always have to keep it on.
 

MacDisein

2013-01-02 19:45:41
  • #5
As I wrote above, it's not necessarily about a meter from the energy supplier for me, but about a solution that can be accessed via LAN.

Nevertheless, thank you for your answers.
 

nablo

2013-02-07 16:20:56
  • #6
It has already been described that you will usually access it somehow via a web interface; ideally only with a proprietary device from the provider, which will cost several hundred euros. Unfortunately, studies in recent years have shown (I'm too lazy to look up the references) that the promised energy-saving potentials for the customer are rather limited. Instead, the provider gains huge advantages through the possible analysis of your data. I myself was involved in a research project where one of the central terms was "Dynamic Pricing" related to times of day. In short, this means: to make it better for the customer, the price should vary during the day: most expensive during peak times and cheapest at night (even worse and more complicated: peak times are dynamically determined and prices are made even more dynamic, in terms of supply and demand). Realistically, "some" consumers can benefit from this occasionally, but in the end only one wins...
 

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