That's great, thanks!

Ours is a little different:

The ripple is baked into the meter on ours in the image - assume that's fairly standard now.

I'm sure if you're set on having the meter outside they'll do it, but there will likely be a cost, and i can't see how it would be worth it. 

Best of luck with your build - may it be low stress!

Twincamr2:

 

That's great, thanks!

 

Ours is a little different:

 

 

That's a TUD, distributed by Transnet and everything is underground.  There will be a fuse for your property in there.

tweake:

 

lxsw20:

 

You're talking about a what once in 15 year inconvenience of them swapping the meter? Just because the meter is outside its not standard that i've ever seen to have a main switch there too. 

 

 

yes its rare event. but on the other side i've never seen meters inside a house before, despite working on/in houses for a decade. 

 

the standard here is meters, ripple switch and main switch is outside. if any the most common thing needed access was to reset the ripple switch.

 

Older houses had and very likely still have meters and boards inside.  My 1965 flat in Lower Hutt does - and it was necessary to give the meter reader a key as I was at work whenever they came.  But all that was finally sorted when they put in a smart meter.  Our Palmerston North 1955 house had the meter on the back porch, sort of outside, but it was moved to the other side of the house fully outside in the rebuild after our 1974 fire.  Our previous house in Whanganui had it all inside in the hallway.  I think that was a 1930s house.

Having it inside is good - with the PN house, a couple of years ago a Wells guy came along to replace the meter with one that would work after 3G went away, and they never told us they were coming and he just turned off the power in the middle of the day!  It took me a couple of hours to repair and restart all the PCs.  I was very angry and would have sent him away again, except he had already removed the old meter by the time I worked out what had happened.  That could not have occurred if it was all inside.  And you hear every so often about kids going around turning houses off for a laugh.

>And you hear every so often about kids going around turning houses off for a laugh.

Yeah - all the reasons for having the meter outside are 20th C ones - and the reasons for having it inside are 21st C ones ;-)

Kiwisurfer asked about my meter's antenna.
I'm weak on the details - but Meter #1 must have had an antenna, as it sent readings through the ether- albeit only 80% of the time.
It was not an antenna that was obvious from outside the glass window in the switchboard.

When I negotiated with Meridian to improve the reliability of transmitting the data - I suggested a better antenna.
I believe I had read that a better antenna could be plugged in (on a short cable) and then wall mounted above the switchboard, but still inside the garage.

I pointed out that we only had to improve the signal marginally - as it already worked 4 times out of 5.

When the guy showed up to make the change, he said his worksheet only allowed him to change the meter completely - to a new model that used a different cell frequency... It obviously did, as it failed 100% - both under his testing, and since then.

Are we in NZ unique in what we are trying to do to meter electricity ?
If so, why ?

pdh:

 

Are we in NZ unique in what we are trying to do to meter electricity ?

No. It's all standardised.

pdh:

 

When I negotiated with Meridian to improve the reliability of transmitting the data - I suggested a better antenna.
I believe I had read that a better antenna could be plugged in (on a short cable) and then wall mounted above the switchboard, but still inside the garage.

 

Werid when we had our new build done we requested a install via Mecury/Vector and the meter installer installed an antenna on a short cable. I live in suburban Auckland with excellent service to all 3 carriers and they still put an external antenna in!

Very strange that you in a marginal area they don't put in an external antenna.

Seems to me it shoudl've been the other way around!

>Very strange that you in a marginal area they don't put in an external antenna.

Yes - I quite agree !

That's why I asked if what NZ does is unusual - why did Meridian/Vector get it wrong (twice) on my house.
And now, a year after the swap to meter #2, why are they content to leave it broken & needing a manual read ?

The attached garage (where the meter sits) is timber framed & cedar clad - so nothing unusual there.
The front wall of the garage is twin large Alu segment doors - but steel would be worse.
My house position is not great for voice reception (on either One/Spark) - but there is some in the garage, and texts get through OK.
But Meridian/Vector seem fine with complete failure.

Who actually runs the data collection - Vector or Meridian ?

Meter owner is responsible for the data collection and then passes to retailer. 

lxsw20: You're talking about a what once in 15 year inconvenience of them swapping the meter?

gzt:

lxsw20: You're talking about a what once in 15 year inconvenience of them swapping the meter?

Maybe that's an average. In cases where a power company or lines company is using additional features they tend to install a later meter or at least want to inspect. Mine is approx five years old and they want to replace it. I don't recall the reason. Probably they didn't tell me. It might be just because. I gather it's not an unusual experience.

At the moment, meter swaps are most likely to be because the old (even relatively new) meter uses 3G, and 3G will be all gone very soon with all three cellphone services.  2Degrees has already turned off all its 3G and One is in the process of doing so.  Spark are doing it at the end of March.

Of all the houses I’ve lived in, I think only one didn’t have external meters with an isolation switch nearby. Our current place has an internal switch board and an external meter box, both with an isolation switch. Same as our last home,  built 1939

In regards to solar, passive or actively cooled inverters make a noise and need cooling. No way I’d have one inside. 

pdh:

 

Who actually runs the data collection - Vector or Meridian ?

 

Vector used to run a metering business, but they only own half of it now: 

https://bluecurrent.co.nz/about-us/our-history

Electricity supply in NZ has separate functions for retail, metering, distribution and generation, but the end user only gets to choose the retail part. The retailer could choose to swap out your meter for a different one owned by the metering company of their choice, but that would be an expensive exercise. In practice this means that your metering provider was probably determined when the retailer decided to upgrade you to a smart meter. The metering company is listed here, and it would be quite typical for different houses on the same street to have different metering providers (due to smart meter upgrades being controlled by the retailer):

https://www.ea.govt.nz/your-power/your-meter/icp/?icp=0000044411DEB15&load_more=True

>In practice this means that your metering provider was probably determined when the retailer decided to upgrade you to a smart meter.

It was always going to be a 'smart' meter.
Mine was a greenfield site - with power to the boundary.

The builder's pole+box went in 6 years ago (when we broke ground).

Meter #1 went in 15 months later (Covid) & builder's pole went away.
I got billed 150$ for it (by Meridian).

From day one, readings were sporadic.
Meridian sent me many messages about 'suddenly' not getting a 'smart' reading.
Then it would work - and they'd go quiet for a few months.

I suggested a 'better' antenna  - pointed out that we just needed a bit more signal...
Meridian responded:
    'I have raised a job now to send a technician to your property to fix the meter.'

So, Meter #2 went in 15 months ago (2024-11-19). 

The guy installing it was old-school kiwi.
Said he had 2 types of meter on the van - and the one he was being told to install, wouldn't work.
He was correct in that.

He tested it and confirmed that it had zero connectivity - and went away.
He wanted me to sign off on his work - and my sign-off was quite clear about the 'not-working'.

So, for the last 15 months it's been estimates, corrections & manual reads.

I believe I remember the van guy saying that his other meter type used a form of mesh comms.
That seemed obviously more likely to work, as I've got 8 other houses 20-60m away.

Maybe I should just set up a publicly accessible webcam - pointed at the meter - and send Meridian the link ;-)

So after you closed the job, have you had any more dialogue with meridian?

I reckon you should log another request for them to look at installing an antenna.

circumstances might be different now that they would have pretty much moved to 4g or higher (older meters have all been getting replaced over the past few years) and your neighbourhood might have better mobile coverage since…

as for meter boxes inside…. I reckon that’s a cop out by the group home developers….makes it cheaper and easier for them.