I’m in the UK and would like to measure the realtime usage of natural/mains gas to my property.
Whilst I have a smart meter, it’s a slave to my electricity one (common practice in the UK I think). The issue is that the radio connection is unreliable so the smart meter data is not good/constant.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to sense/read the data passively from this type of meter (EDMI GS-68B).
Alternatively, I was wondering if I could get an in-line gas flow sensor fitted to my 22mm supply ‘behind’ the meter. Haven’t found anything suitable and cost effective for that option.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Options are limited when it comes to UK smart gas meters.
Gas meters connect to the network access point at the electricity meter, using a local (Home Area Network) Zigbee connection. This network is secured and only the hub can be further connected on to IHDs, so AFAIK there is no way to connect or piggyback onto the existing gas meter to electric meter connection. Gas meters only wake up every 30 minutes anyway to save the battery.
If you are having gas-meter HAN issues, perhaps try a HAN Zigbee repeater to boost the gas-to-electric connection. I have not had need to try these, so no idea if a ‘standard’ Zigbee repeater would do the job just as well.
Other HAN options include using an IHD with onward connection to PC or Home Assistant, but this does require a working gas-meter connection to the HAN first.
If you are with Octopus Energy, the Octopus Home Mini works very well, connecting to the HAN and passing ‘live’ consumption back to Octopus, where it can be retrieved using the Octopus Energy Integration. This gives current gas consumption (albeit as 30-minute blocks, just after each half hour, which is the best you can get this way).
After that, adding passive attachments to the gas meter to track optical or magnetic calibration pulses is another more direct way. However, I note that the meter you have is new and ultrasonic with no moving parts, so I assume that there are no visible calibration pulses available, and external magnetometers will not work either.
Adding your own in-line flow sensor to gas pipework is possible, within your own pipework after the meter. Naturally you can’t do anything to the supply pipework and the meter itself, and it is probably advisable to avoid doing anything in the limited space of the utility box itself. All work on gas installations must of course be carried out by a gas registered engineer, and you probably need a point in the internal supply that is accessible, has room to work on, and has a power supply in the location. Not really a practical solution!
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