Drive by water meter readings.

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It's to record how much H2o you use - much,much cheaper than water rates. Mine dropped from £400+/an. to £17/mth.!:)
I know ! My post was in jest..but thank you, anyway.

Living where you are, are you on Severn Trent or Welsh Water ? When we lived on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border we were probably one of the furthest East's customers for Welsh Water. The problems we would have if there was a problem as the WW operations room refused to accept we were one of their customers.."...but you can't be living where you do". To which my reply was "Well, in that case, why has our waterbill got gibberish printed on the reverse?". Turns out that our 'account' was, according to WW, a water trough in the middle of a field. :ROFLMAO:
 
I know ! My post was in jest..but thank you, anyway.

Living where you are, are you on Severn Trent or Welsh Water ? When we lived on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border we were probably one of the furthest East's customers for Welsh Water. The problems we would have if there was a problem as the WW operations room refused to accept we were one of their customers.."...but you can't be living where you do". To which my reply was "Well, in that case, why has our waterbill got gibberish printed on the reverse?". Turns out that our 'account' was, according to WW, a water trough in the middle of a field. :ROFLMAO:
 
I uessed - g it was . Better if you'd said; " What's a water metre?" :ROFLMAO:

Dwr Cymru! I'd like to know where the confluence of rivers Severn & Trent is? :unsure::ROFLMAO: Been puzzling me for yonks.
 
This brings back memories for me. Back in the 80s I worked for a company that manufactured radio telemetry equipment which was being widely adopted by utilities like water companies for reading things like water level in remote service reservoirs. Prior to this it was done using telephone lines and dail-up modems, but after the GPO privatisation this started to get costly.

Anyway, the holy grail was always the dream of being able to read domestic meters from the roadside, rather than having to enter peoples' properties.

My company was one of the market leaders but the best we could quote was c£500 per property. No takers 😁.

Interesting to see it's finally getting there after all these years.
What a prompter!
From within a nationalised organisation I recall the prototype of electricity smart meter being developed - a "bread-board" approach. Prior to the internet, so any communication had to be via dial-in but the system couldn't cope with certain comms disruptions. Commercial companies were also asked to develop meters.
 
One major problem with water meters is that the sewerage charge is a prorata of the water consumption, in a previous property this was 85%. We had a serious leak outside our house, not flowing into the foul water drains. We were charged several hundred pounds, which took months to fight (with a threat of a County Court judgement) before winning.
 
We had a communication from the water bandits recently. They are going to replace our meter with a new one that can be read from a moving vehicle, apparently. I've heard of these already, of course, but then I got to wondering how these things are powered. I know I could probably Google it, but I like to speculate pointlessly.
So batteries? Possibly, but I'm guessing the receiver would need to be active frequently, if not permanently. So maybe they incorporate a micro turbine to keep a battery topped up?
Interesting! I wonder how the smart gas meters works then? lithium battery? Umm, thought they were the cause of many a fire in hold of planes, behind the fire of the cargo ship full of new cars and nany a house fire from charging scooters! I wonder what caused the fire at the airport car park just weeks ago? Technology, dont you just love it! I wonder when they will bring in the charge per mile on your car? European tech already there on new cars, according to programs I've seen on box, car wont start until your destination is entered, miles calculated, charge taken from bank and car starts with any deviation also being taken from account. The system aslo knows if one has broken the speed limit! Road tax going ofcourse. Brave or stupid Government, I remember Maggies poll tax riots? What times we are heading for, I wonder if they will charge us for a clean air filtration system just like in that film on Mars with Arnie, was it Total Recall? Bandits, harsh, bless their little cotton socks they do have share holders to consider!
 
Interesting! I wonder how the smart gas meters works then? lithium battery? Umm, thought they were the cause of many a fire in hold of planes, behind the fire of the cargo ship full of new cars and nany a house fire from charging scooters! I wonder what caused the fire at the airport car park just weeks ago? Technology, dont you just love it! I wonder when they will bring in the charge per mile on your car? European tech already there on new cars, according to programs I've seen on box, car wont start until your destination is entered, miles calculated, charge taken from bank and car starts with any deviation also being taken from account. The system aslo knows if one has broken the speed limit! Road tax going ofcourse. Brave or stupid Government, I remember Maggies poll tax riots? What times we are heading for, I wonder if they will charge us for a clean air filtration system just like in that film on Mars with Arnie, was it Total Recall? Bandits, harsh, bless their little cotton socks they do have share holders to consider!
Lithium cells are used in every smartphone on the planet these days. Yes, they can catch fire if you use a ©®@ppy charger, but there's a lot of hyperbole, especially from the anti-EV brigade(see "joke" thread). Charge per mile? What's wrong with that? Sounds like a fair way of doing things to me. Never understood why vehicle excise duty wasn't implemented entirely by bumping up fuel prices. Mind you, I thought the so-called poll tax was a good idea, from a fairness perspective. Even though I despised Maggie, I could separate the art from the artist.
 
I had gas connected two years ago and they installed what I took to be a smart meter alongside the electricity meter. The gas box with its meter is outside and we have to read it each month and supply it to the energy company! I photographed the two intallations and showed it to a friend who is a gas engineer. He said the "outside" meter has a battery that will last 10 years or more, he has only seen two cases of the need to change the battery, which no doubt is lithium.
All of the trains I have been on recently ban electric bikes and scooters, obviously scaremongering? Charge per mile like smart meters is about control and revenue. If everyone uses less energy the energy companies will raise their prices to keep their profits up. It will be so easy to push that rate per mile up at the push of a few buttons, which will price ordinary people off the road.
 
John Brown, That might be true in nature but we are talking mankind here. I have seen numerous businesses fail due to parasites. A pefect example recently was a fire in Midhurst, West Sussex that burnt down a listed Hotel, the "authority", insisted in closing the only through road, for three months. This was to "save" the brick chimney stacks that were still standing, inspite of the owner vowing to rebuild using the original bricks. Several small shops closed as a result.
 
John Brown, That might be true in nature but we are talking mankind here. I have seen numerous businesses fail due to parasites. A pefect example recently was a fire in Midhurst, West Sussex that burnt down a listed Hotel, the "authority", insisted in closing the only through road, for three months. This was to "save" the brick chimney stacks that were still standing, inspite of the owner vowing to rebuild using the original bricks. Several small shops closed as a result.
I take your point, but will that "authority" be successful on an evolutionary time scale?
 
We are but a pin-prick on an evolutionary time scale. Evolution has taken us from small local councils, with local control to mega-authorities, with CEOs on more than twice a Primeminister's salary.
 

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