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I want to know which Smart energy meters from UK suppliers can or cannot be used in IoT home-automation environment. Mainly, if I can add them as sensors in my home networks (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, BT).

The fact that they are "smart" to communicate with the supplier or that they provide a screen to add to your home has zero value to me. I want to be able to monitor them myself (via OpenHUB or something similar).

So far I was not able to find this information.

Update

The current IHD (homedisplay) I got from EON seems to be produced byChameleon Technology UK and has a version SEDv3, with a serial number and what seems to be a MAC/hw address (8 bytes). I searched a little bit and it seems that this company is using ZigBee for at least some of their devices.

Since I got this IHD I switched from EON to another provider but the device still reports the consumption (when I plyg the car I goes orange).

Now, I really want to be able to monitor the consuption with SNMP or something similar. I don't really need 100% accuracy but I cannot add my a sonoff decide after the main switch which is 63A and hosted outsize the house (for multiple reasons). I am trying to find a way to gather the data already sent by the current counter.

The question is what kind of hack should I do to do this?

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  • Are there any ones in particular you have in mind? I suspect finding a list would be quite time-consuming and difficult, but if there are any further constraints you have, that might help narrow it down a little.
    – Aurora0001
    Jun 2, 2017 at 11:33
  • I really doubt that the list would long, most of them are not integrable with your home automation systems. I read that BT ones are using some sort of zigbee but is customized by them and no public docs. I want to hear at least one person that was able to read data from those smart meters (computer read)
    – sorin
    Jun 2, 2017 at 13:02
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    My guess is that they are all closed systems. If you're really lucky, there may be cloud side integration with IFTTT, Google or Amazon. Smart energy meters are a government funded thing, not a customer value-add. Or are you open to adding instrumentation which you buy to link with a more open system?
    – Sean Houlihane
    Jun 2, 2017 at 15:46

2 Answers 2

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According to ZigBee, their Smart Energy v1.4 application profile has been chosen for UK's smart meter rollout.

It is my understanding that this is a secure interface, requiring the service provider to provide access to the ZigBee network, but once enabled, would allow users, given a ZigBee controller, access the smart meter's information for application use, e.g., within a Home Area Network (HAN).

In British Columbia, Canada, BC Hydro has provided this interface to some vendors, not sure if available to the general public - but perhaps a similar program exists for UK suppliers.

With regards to Chameleon, I suspect that have a ZigBee controller within their gateway, you could hack this or contact the company to see if their platform allows modification (e.g., to send SNMP, JSON/XML, etc.)

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Check out the sonoff pow. I did not use this by myself but the sonoff s20 power switch has the serial port populated for uploading customs firmwares. Maybe this one have it too.

There is a custom firmware sonoffBoilerPlate that works with the s20 but I'm not sure if it works with the pow.

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  • There's a big difference between having "the serial port populated for uploading customs firmware" and providing an API to read data. If you cannot point to such an API, then you should not be posting a answer (a comment, at best)
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Aug 26, 2017 at 9:04
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    Looking at that device, it does not seem to be a Smart Meter compliant to UK standards, as specified in the question.
    – Chenmunka
    Aug 29, 2017 at 12:45
  • @Mawg I found it useful and if it can be programmed there is no need for an API, although it would be easier to do.
    – Luis Diaz
    Aug 29, 2017 at 12:49
  • @Chenmunka What are UK standards? A uk socket? or quality standards? if quality standards, it seems that there is some CE certificate here
    – Luis Diaz
    Aug 29, 2017 at 12:52
  • Communications standards. Smart Meters 'phone home' to the utility provider, requiring a SIM card. Also they may have some proprietary wireless link to an in-home display.
    – Chenmunka
    Aug 29, 2017 at 13:02

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