I’m confused as to how we are supposed to have faith that smart energy meters are accurate – there’s very little information out there about how they work.
I searched the sub and previous threads about smart meters don’t have any scientific explanations, mostly just the social/practical issues of phasing out old meters and retrofitting new ones.
Filing under Technology but this could be physics or engineering I suppose
In: 13
>being confused at how something seemingly really “physical” like gas moving through a pipe can be turned into digital data.
ok, let’s do it in steps for water/gas:
1- you build a pipe with a helix inside,[similar to this mill](https://images.freeimages.com/images/large-previews/ad9/water-mill-1441178.jpg) but smaller and all enclosed in the pipe, now if water (or air/gas) pass through it the thing rotate proportional to how much water/gas patt through.
fine, we converted “something physical like gas” into a rotation.
2-we can install some[gears like the one you find in a clock](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/25520dc1-58ff-47a0-bf1b-c0ab1217b76b_1.6a3ee74bcbde6c4854290c3b3f610e9a.jpeg) and you converted rotation into a number
good, now we built the analog version of the meter.
what about the digital one?
simple, we change the normal gear with an [“electronic one”, see here](https://www.analogictips.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Analog_rotary-encoder_Pt1-opener.jpg) that gear is full of holes, there is one led on one side and a light sensor on the other side, as the thing rotate the receiver will notice that there is light/no light/light no light…. and for each change it can count +1
there are also more [complex one like this](https://www.electricalandcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Absolute-encoder.png) with multiple holes and receivers, that one can undersand also the direction of rotation given the unique sequence.
after you connect the receiver to a microcontroller you have digital data and you can send it over the internet or whatever
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