On Fri, 8 Dec 2000 15:43:35 -0500, "kilopascal"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>2000-12-08
>
>A change in the home meters, such as gas, water and electric will eventually
>be done in an upgrade to a digital system. There will come a time, when the
>meters will be tied to your phone line or some other means, so that the
>energy companies can in an instant get a reading. This might be cheaper and
>safer then sending someone house to house every couple of months and
>estimating those months not being read. In fact they will even be able to
>get a better grasp of peaks and valleys for consumption.
>
>Such a system might be designed in SI or FFU or use some type of unitless
>method. A host computer could then display or calculate for billing in any
>units desired. when these units are installed in everyone's home, and FFU
>is still and use and these companies decide to use FFU at first, it won't be
>a big deal for them to go to SI, as all they would have to do is change
>something in the program. A one-time instant switch that is costless.
There has been a programme for replacement of UK gas meters for a few
years now. The new ones use the latest technology for measuring gas
(ultrasonics, IIRC), and are designed ready for a transponder module
for remote reading. I've not actually seen one of these meters 'in the
flesh', but they currently show m3 of gas used. The old meters show
ft3, not kWh - this used to be translated to therms on bills; now it's
converted to m3, then kWh. What flexibility there is in the display
options, I do not know, but a straight conversion to kWh is not
possible, as the calorific [sic] value of the gas varies.
Electricity meters have shown kWh for as long as I can remember.
--
Chris KEENAN
UK Metrication: http://www.metric.org.uk/
UK Correspondent, US Metric Association
