NorthQ Launches Wi-Fi Gas and Electricity Meter Reader

Danish energy management company NorthQ today launches the world’s first battery-powered Wi-Fi Power & Gas Reader.  According to NorthQ, Wi-Fi Power & Gas Reader is easily installed on existing home’s mechanical and electronic power or gas meters. It allows you to get some of the benefits of having a smart meter, such as allowing data collected to be transferred and viewed on the NorthQ Portal every 15 minutes.

The reader will make it easier for homes to collect and view their energy usage data and get estimates of their bill via the NorthQ Portal (www.homemanager.tv).  Homes can set quotas and configure the portal to send you alerts in the event of over-consumption, unusual behavior. Through their “Elderly Care” you can closely monitor the electricity or gas consumption of a love one.

NorthQ estimated that users of the reader can reduce their household energy cost by up to 23 percent.  They said it does not matter if your meter is digital or has rotating disc and that it is compatible with ~98 percent of electricity meters and ~86 percent of gas meters on the market.

The Reader supports most Ferraris type electricity meter models with rotating disc and electronic meters with flashing LED, among others. The measurement accuracy is on average 97 percent for Ferraris type meters, 99.8 percent for electronic meters and 99.5 percent for gas meters.

The solution was develop using Broadcom’s Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) Development Platform.  The WICED Development System enables Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth Smart bridging for home, health and fitness applications.

NorthQ’s Wi-Fi Power & Gas Reader was originally developed for Dong Energy, but is today widely used by many major utilities in Europe. The Power Reader can be easily installed by end-users on their existing mechanical (Ferraris type), electronic or infrared power meter. Additionally, it supports gas & water meters as well.