The problem I think is that they need to be battery powered as they are outside, next to a meter of explosive gas.

They are probably required to be intrinsically safe.

Good point.

I was going to say "how are the electric ones powered then" but yea.

Add to that smart water meters....

I know Metrix that provide a large number of smart electricity meters have been looking at gas. As scary as it sounds they do exist in the UK (https://www.flonidan.com/products-and-solutions/smart-gas-meters/uniflo-smart-gas-meter)

Can they be solar powered?

This is something that is being watched closely by the gas industry, unfortunately there aren't any products available yet that do smart gas metering for the home.

Electricity meters have the definite advantage of having electricity readily available.

Electricity smart meters are expected to provide useage over time data, and have the ability to communicate with devices to optimise their power use. (i.e. stop the freezer from running it's defrost cycle if the grid is stressed.) This is the "smart" bit. Shaving the peaks of demand means less cost to make and distribute power (electricity is very hard to store).

Todays power meters are actually pritty dumb. Their big advantage is being able to be remotely read, hence saving the cost of meter readers. Also 1/2 hour data means companies, and more frequent reporting makes companies like flick feasible, and makes power tracking websites easy for utility companies to set up.

Water, and gas a relatively easy to store, so there isn't much point bothering with peak shaving. (gas especially as its springiness means that a substantial portion is stored in the pipes as line pack.

That said, if we want to become richer as a country, we need to become more productive, and replacing 100 meter readers with one guy behind a desk is a way to do it.

As Yoban has pointed out, remotely read gas meters exit. (they are ATEX rated to deal with potentially flammable atmosphere).

I would imagine in another decade or two, all water and gas meters will be remotely read.

Genesis Energy has (finally) started reporting usage stats via their portal, but it's pretty inaccurate for predicting usage etc, because of the difference between estimates and actual reads. It does improve with about 3 years of data though. They are also developing an estimator based on bottle weight.

I have also seen products that approximate the level of gas in a tank, but volume is affected by air temp, so getting a solid lead on how much you have left is a little tricky. 

If its more to gauge usage and see how much you are using though, their estimator is ok. We are $4.50/day apparently.

They could incentivise manual readings weekly (minus a $, would be cheaper than a meter reader and vehicle. Or if the meter is within some distance of an electrical meter (and on the same provider) that has phone home capability, use a different signaling technique to repeat the reading via a very low power solar powered gas meter. 

Yoban:

 

Add to that smart water meters....

 

I know Metrix that provide a large number of smart electricity meters have been looking at gas. As scary as it sounds they do exist in the UK (https://www.flonidan.com/products-and-solutions/smart-gas-meters/uniflo-smart-gas-meter)

 

Metris Gas Meters with AMR radio encoder-receiver-transceiver units are used here for a city of 1.2 million customers.
Readings are taken from a helicopter which buzzes along a grid once a month at 4,500ft in the early hours.

JonnyCam:

The problem I think is that they need to be battery powered as they are outside, next to a meter of explosive gas.

To follow up from Scott3's comment about "Smart Electricity  Meters" the biggest disappointment I had was discovering that they are not really smart, they simply remove the meter reader from the equation and allow the utility companies to read the meters remotely regularly.  You have to ask how we (the Electricity Authority/Government) allowed this sort of dumb tech to be installed when so much more could have been implemented at he same time. Real time readings for the householder allowing them to actively manage their power usage plus proactive management.  One more missed opportunity.

prevaljo:

To follow up from Scott3's comment about "Smart Electricity  Meters" the biggest disappointment I had was discovering that they are not really smart, they simply remove the meter reader from the equation and allow the utility companies to read the meters remotely regularly.  You have to ask how we (the Electricity Authority/Government) allowed this sort of dumb tech to be installed when so much more could have been implemented at he same time. Real time readings for the householder allowing them to actively manage their power usage plus proactive management.  One more missed opportunity.