I spent one day out of the recent holidays taking measurements of our electric power usage at near-hourly intervals. This involved going outside and walking around to the meter to read whatever number was flashing at the time. While I got good data, obviously it isn’t convenient to step outside all the time. (And before you say it, yes I’m a hopeless geek. Deal with it!)

I know the meter can be queried via from the street, so I did some research on how this works. Apparently the meter (an Itron Centron) transmits as a Part 15 (i.e., unlicensed) device on the 900MHz band. It uses spread-spectrum frequency hopping over 50 channels, a fact that makes it somewhat difficult (but not impossible) to zero in on the data stream. However, the channels are published and span 909.6 Mhz through 921.8 MHz, well within the range of my scanner.

Thus, my idea of Do It Yourself Meter Reading (also described here)may be possible, after all. I haven’t found any description of the data stream, nor if its encrypted, so I do not know what information is available nor how to decode it. One step at a time, though.

Interestingly enough, the frequencies the electric meters use are right in the middle of the amateur radio 33cm band. Being licensed operators, hams thus have priority on these frequencies. I wonder how long it will be before reports surface about interference on this band?