WARNING -Long, blathering, unfocused, comment and question follows:
The local Duke Energy power company installed a new smart meter at our house in mid November. We know the Duke Eschelon PLC meters caused headaches to X10 users in Ohio when they were installed there. I wonder if I might have a problem with the iTron "Open Way" meter. This "problem" however is diametrically opposite the Eschelon problem. The iTron uses WiFi to transmit data to a local node which then sends the data via cell phone network to their local HQ. So the meter does not affect X10 in the house, but I wonder if X10 affects the smart meter.
The November bill showed the daily kWh average was 43kWh on the old meter but jumped to 48kWh for the last half of the month under the new meter. Since the weather was cooling I did not think much of it. However my December bill was unexplainably high IMO. It was 1000kWh higher than the December 2015 bill. December 2015 had a monthly temp average that was only a few degrees warmer than 2016. So where did the increase come from(?). No new appliances, no family or friends staying with us, and I ruled out weather. So I wondered if X10 could be influencing the smart meter. I know it seems absurd. But here is my feeble minded reasoning.
The Open Way samples current being drawn by the house, and samples the incoming voltage. Although the reference manual does not explicitly state it, I get the impression these two measurements are treated separately until fed to the processor for wattage calculation. The sample rate is 1920 samples per second, or 32 samples per cycle. So I wonder if the three X10 pulses (for three phase use) imposed on each positive and negative half cycles, if falling into the voltage sample window of the Open Way A-D converters could cause the meter to "see" a slightly higher voltage than that actually being supplied.
During an X10 command this would affect almost 50 of the 60 cycles each second. Also since I have a "flame thrower" XTBIIR repeater, would the inflated voltage fool the meter in to thinking a higher wattage is being consumed by the home, or is it so small and insignificant to not affect the meter calculations.
Dressed in as much intimidating clothing as I could find in the closet (a "Motorola" ball cap, a "Bechtel - URS VX Neutralization Project" jacket) I took this query to the local Duke office and talked to one of the field engineers who knew vaguely what X10 was from the Ohio Eschelon problems. Apparently I piqued his interest because he said he would try and contact iTron about it. Later that day I got a call from another Duke engineer in Ohio to discuss my queries. (I get the impression that "X10" is still a sensitive spot for Duke). It was really difficult to get them to understand the problem, or at least my question, as they kept twisting the question until it became a question of how much wattage the X10 devices themselves consume.
Reminds me of the old days with similar discussions between a Motorola field tech and the Bell Telephone tech he was talking to, while trying to set remote radio repeater control tones over a dedicated phone line. "The problem is at the your end" clamed each of the technicians . The second Duke engineer is to call again tomorrow.
To be continued...
I welcome any technical musing about this subject.
