Search with Wattson

Notifications

Clear all

Joining the Renewable Heating Hub forums is completely free and only takes a minute. By registering you’ll be able to ask questions, join discussions, follow topics you’re interested in, bookmark useful threads and receive notifications when someone replies. Non-registered members also do not have access to our AI features. When choosing your username, please note that it cannot be changed later, so we recommend avoiding brand or product names. Before registering, please take a moment to read the Forum Rules & Terms of Use so we can keep the community helpful, respectful and informative for everyone. Thanks for joining!

Does anyone have experience of a smart water meter?

Majordennisbloodnok · 2025-08-18T13:56:18Z

I've just received a letter from my water company saying that the region in which I live is classified as "seriously water-stressed", giving the water company legal basis to perform a compulsory installation of a water meter. In fact, this happens to coincide with my doing a bit of research that suggests we may be financially better off with a water meter, so I'm not fundamentally opposed to the idea much as I dislike having something forced upon me. However, I have heard several people believing anecdotally that there are issues with the accuracy of a smart water meter and, obviously, I have no intention of allowing the installation of something that is not fit for purpose. With all that in mind, I've tried researching and have found very little mentioning the accuracy of smart water meters. Although still rare, I can find more articles on the increased accuracy of bills but if the meter's not accurate I'm not sure that's relevant - garbage in, garbage out. Nonetheless, my instinct is that if there were an endemic accuracy problem with water metering it'd be all over the Internet like a rash and it's not. Does anyone here have any experience of a water meter? And, in addition, is it a smart water meter? If so, any information you can give about living with one would be much appreciated.

Page 3 / 3 Prev

Your Home

Last Post by Toodles 15 minutes ago

27 Posts

6 Users

1 Reactions

5,531 Views

RSS

Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 2153

Topic starter 12/10/2026 1:17 pm

Thames Water have installed a smart meter in our home so, with a bit of extra background reading, I can say with a fair degree of confidence you are likely to have a Sensus 640C water meter; it's pretty much guaranteed to be a Sensus of some sort at very least. These meters have an onboard battery, and the battery state should be transmitted to TW at the same time as any readings. As with all other aspects of the meter, it's TW's responsibility to maintain it.

That said, it's debatable whether or not we have a smart meter after all. TW are well into their programme of installing meters but are behind the curve in installing the mobile data network to receive the meter reads. We've had a smart meter since mid July 2026 and as of today (12th October) they still don't have a working mast covering our area. A smart meter that can't get its signal received isn't too smart really, is it?

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

ReplyQuote

Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 2153

Topic starter 12/10/2026 1:27 pm

Posted by: @downfield

↑

...

This arrangement is often called Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Unlike one-way automatic meter reading, AMI can support two-way communication, letting the utility receive usage data and send commands or receive equipment diagnostics.

...

Just for the absence of doubt, whilst AMI can support the sending of commands by a utility company to a smart meter, that meter is still just a meter. There is no solenoid onboard, so the meter is unable to affect the actual flow of water through it. Any commands it can actually fulfill are limited to what it has control over and that in practice means the management of its own electronics and any data it is storing. A water company could, conceivably, send a command telling the water meter to change the frequency of transmission or send a command telling the water meter to report back on its battery status, but a command to turn the water supply off would be like giving me a command to indulge in some time travel.

You haven't even implied any different, btw, @downfield, but I mention this here since I'm well aware of some of the urban myths circulating about smart water meters.

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

ReplyQuote

Toodles

(@toodles)

Famed Member Contributor

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 2998

12/10/2026 1:58 pm

@downfield I wonder if the flow of water powers a mini waterwheel connected to a generator?! I am not aware of any battery swapping in 20 plus years. Toodles.

Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.

ReplyQuote

Page 3 / 3 Prev