Well, you could start by going out to your meter and looking for a manufacturer’s name, model #, etc on the meter face.
There are many digital meters that aren’t “smart” meters. There are ‘dumb’ digital meters, which just have digits on the face and perhaps some diagnostic logic in them, then there are “remote sensing” meters, aka “turtles” in the power industry, which are “dumb” but can be read remotely by the power company sending a low-frequency signal down the line and your meter sends back a signal which they can read as to your usage, and then there are the “smart” meters, which increasingly use a wireless IP connection to communicate with the power company infrastructure.
Start with the basics: maker, model #, etc. Look those up first, then work from there.
Power-line communication isn't used much anymore, and never was in residential electric, except in a few "demo" areas. Never caught on because of all the problems getting the signal past the transformers. That requires large capacitors, which cost a lot of money.
Drive-by radio and fixed-network (also called mesh) wireless are the two methods that have been used for about the last 30 years.
Yes, it's been that long. I have 1-way gas meters still in the field transmitting that are over 20 years old.
I’ve been trying to find out if the model I have is a smart meter. I haven’t been able to find anything definite only that the company makes smart meters.
It’s an Centron Itron Watthour meter USA 12/11
(CL200 240V 3W TYPE C1S 30TA 1.0kh)
CA 0.5 FM2S 60Hz
Other thing is, searches come up with C1SR, mine is only C1S. I haven’t been able to find out what the difference is.
Can anyone help?
Help!