Your meter displays the total accumulated amount of energy (in kilowatt-hours) from the time the meter was installed. If you are interested in knowing how much power you are actually using now, you can access real time energy information by pushing the Alt 1 button¹. The LCD screen will display voltage, current (ampere), frequency and your real time power use measured in watt hours

If you have connected an approved SOLAR or generation type system into our electricity distribution grid, your meter will be reconfigured to allow it to record all of the excess generated energy produced by your system, and imported into our distribution grid. This is referred to as a “NET” metering arrangement as it allows you to use all of your generated energy in your dwelling first, before importing any excess energy generated back into the energy grid. If you want to see how much excess energy you have generated into the energy grid, push the “reading your meter” button on the meter until register number 13 is displayed. This will display the excess energy in kilowatt-hours since the generation system was installed, and the meter re-configured to suit.

If you rely on electric hot water, you can activate additional re-heating time if additional hot water is required. By pushing the “boost” button on your meter for 3 seconds, you will see a countdown time resulting in a “boost activated” command being displayed on the LCD. The “LC” (load control indicator on the LCD display will change to “LC1”when the contactor is switched on. When the load control for hot water is opened, the LCD display reverts back to its normal default position and “LC” will remain displayed on the screen.

The boost function allows for your hot water system to be re-heated for a 4 hour period. The timer will default back to its normal overnight re-heating cycle after 4 hours. You can choose to manually turn off the “boost” cycle by pressing the boost button again for 3 seconds.

You will see a red LED light flash on your meter. This is normal operation. Generally, the LED will flash for each watthour of energy that the meter is recording. We are unable to disable the red LED as it is a required function of the meter.

All of the AusNet smart meters are configured to display as a minimum, date, time and total accumulated energy. We remotely collect meter reads at least once a day, which includes energy, used in each 30 minute interval period each day. If you would like access to this data, please register your interest via the My Home Energy portal by visiting www.ausnetservices.com.au

If you have SOLAR, and additional set of energy registers are displayed to make it easy for you to see how much energy, you have generated back into the energy grid

All of our meters comply with strict security, accuracy, health and safety, and radio frequency emissions regulations. Contrary to opinion, our meters do not constantly communicate and stream information to our back office. Generally, remote reading of your meter only occurs four times per day and will only be communicating for less than 30 seconds at each time to retrieve and send data remotely. At all other times, the communications system is in sleep mode.

Customer concerns have emerged about RF emissions in smart grid deployments, and they typically stem from broader market concerns regarding RF emissions from a variety of sources in our daily lives including mobile phones, microwave ovens, televisions, and wireless modems.*

AusNet Services uses 900 megahertz (MHz)) radios in its metering solution – the same approved frequencies have been used for many years in devices such as baby monitors, portable phones, remote controlled toys and medical monitors.  

This technology uses this low-power radio frequency (RF) to hop from radio to radio in a neighbourhood “mesh” to reach a smaller number of pole-mounted radios located on our distribution power pole.. Those pole-mounted radios then send the meter information to data centres, typically through standard mobile telephone networks….in our case Telstra 3G and 4G.

A few other points about RF emissions:

• RF emissions levels are low for smart grid devices and become dramatically weaker as you move away from the device. Unless you are standing immediately next to a device (e.g., touching the device) for extended periods, the RF emissions levels are extremely weak.
• Most devices are not “always on.” Rather than sending continuous output, our meters are idle most of the time, waking up only periodically to send a brief transmission before going back to sleep.  An individual meter on a home is idle much more than 99% of the time.  
• Power output matters. Many devices in our everyday environment produce RF fields, including cell telephones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, portable phones, and wireless Internet services. In comparison, our devices generally produce far weaker RF emissions. The emissions of all devices, including our pole-installed Access Points, comply with the levels required by strict federal regulations and permitted by various international recommendations. 
  
  

* reference Silverspring Networks RF Emissions and the Smart Grid

More information in respect of Standards and guidelines relating to RF signal and radiation exposure can be located at the following authorities.

ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency) and its report “Measurement of Extremely Low Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields Associated with Electricity Supply and Distribution Infrastructure”.

Reference can also be made to the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, (2002) “Radiation Protection Standard for Maximum Exposure Levels to Radiofrequency Fields - 3 kHz to 300 GHz”, Radiation Protection Series, No. 3. 

ARPANSA Preliminary Measurements of Radiofrequency Transmissions from a Mesh Radio Smart Meter ARPANSA Technical Report No. 163