“We are never wedded to individual technical solutions, but have developed a toolkit of best-in-class approaches and methods by which to achieve our true aim - deliver the right data outputs, specific to the known and unknown needs of the client, at the first time of asking.”

Electricity Meters

UMS possess the expertise to discern between hardware options, the confidence and value awareness to specify to (and not above) requirement, and the freedom from supply arrangements to offer the best product for the job.

The right option depends on your communications preferences, accuracy and compliance requirements, future network needs, overarching scheme objectives (as well as a few considerations you may not yet know), and intended use case. We make sure analytical depth is not over-prescribed where not needed, but available and bespoke where it is; and at all times your budget respected.

The Flexibility of Radio systems meet the data reliability of Modbus - LoRaWan

Following years of critiquing developments and some false dawns across various wireless technologies, UMS are happy to endorse the LoRaWAN solution in partnership with data collection and comms infrastucture by Coherent Research, as the ideal blend of range, reliability, data quality and useability. This solution offers genuinely robust connectivity to remote locations, without losing fidelity as per other radio and pulse-derived options. We have this arrangement is in-situ across a growing portfolio of customer sites, without a single drop in data or uptime.

Talk to UMS today about truly future-proofing your fleet of heat meter assets; whether through design of a new system or retrofit of correct supporting hardware and modules.

We'd be happy to carry out a verification audit to underwrite your data and asset health, informing on best practice improvements as well as securing essentials for compliance.

Heat meters that integrate, serve for life.

Together with our speciality Heat Metering partners, we regularly come across heat metering applications that have not been procured with a systems mindset; comms as an afterthought that do not match/are not compatible with other meter types, electrical power by cable deemed too tricky or overlooked altogether in favour of cheaper battery-powered options, and knowledge gaps with regards mechanical positioning requirement of the meter, calculator, and its respective sensors.

By considering whole-system life, ease and regularity of maintenance, long-term budgeting and asset management, true value is achieved in investment in the correct modules, allowing your meter asset to serve flawless data up to the limits of its accuracy-assured life.

Transitioning systems towards efficiency and reliability

Devices that communicate by pulse, serial, RS232, optical and other older ports and protocols are a fact of life within metering, something we work with and integrate into our cloud based servers daily. This said, such systems such as pulses can be unreliable, communicated as a transient message that is easily lost to recording in the case of outage or interference, at either end of the communications chain. Furthermore, pulses can only be managed as a count by recipient devices, limiting the depth of interrogation by lacking true registers and being prone to drift, distortion and missing data over time. Connections can also be loosened easily, leading to intermittency and ultimately failure, with many wireless systems suffering from signal issues.

On your behalf, we will seek to optimise any investment opportunity away from this approach towards more robust, flexible and informative protocols, such as Modbus, MBus, and LoRaWAN, taking a holistic view that incorporates future-readiness, ease of management and confidence in data - especially where subsidy and revenues are bound to quality, and evidence of system uptime is critical. Modern 2-way communication also allows real-time interrogation of device registers, allowing for more responsive management and pinpoint accuracy when required.

We will never pursue technologies that seek to digitise pulsed outputs, instead looking to address the quality and robustness of the empirical data itself, its quantification and transmission protocol - often by replacing the meter itself with a cost-effective replacement.

Output focus from initial design - removing faults before they occur.
Allow us to frontload our expertise, before your incurred cost

We have become accustomed to identifying, navigating around and safeguarding against issues throughout the metering journey, and have learned ways in which to protect against them at the outset - in the best interests of everyone. A subset of complimenting professional services encapsulates this, and mutually upport both each other and your project aims.

So whether procuring, designing, or interfacing between multiple organisations at an early stage, or reflecting on an old existing system, allow us to test our experience and pass on the best of us to help you avoid unnecessary costs, dispute and inefficiency.

Fault-finding

Unpicking existing installation errors, solving inaccuracies and providing peace of mind

Metering and its integration within complex build projects can be much more complicated than expected, with errors often defying snagging periods and persisting for decades undetected. As meter specialists, we are well placed to apply experience methodically to appraise a system, iteratively rule out causes and triangulate in on root causes.

We will outline suggested corrective actions within our report, and correct them on the day wherever possible to optimise our time on site. The value of this in helping customers to truly understand their system, settle disputes and trust their data, frequently outweighs the cost of investment.

Verification

System-wide, multi-criteria validation of existing assets; a basis to inform investment and planning

We build in our knowledge of equipment idiosyncracies harnessed through fault-finding, to cover a broad base of test areas; from sound comms that match meter displays, electrical fidelity and scrutiny of installation, as well as correctness of commissioning, hardware integration, settings and registers. Compliance and appropriateness for use-case are also scrutinised and fed back through out comprehensive report.

Use this detailed snapshot, whether an annual check-up or one-off investment in system understanding, as a basis for improved asset management, tracking and lifecycling, as well as forecasting future works, budgeting and investments.

Commissioning

Achieving system specificity at the earliest opportunity, simplifying installation and optimising success on-site - We're right first time.

All solutions sourced and endorsed by ourselves will be conceptually proven during technical lab tests before the point of sale, often at our own cost and investment. Comms settings will be established and pre-commissioned at a UMS desk to assure hand-shaking with client networks and downstream assets. We recognise the cost and value of time on-site, so will always commission an applications online data output and assure correct flow of information to the web-enabled server, as seen by the client, in parallel with the electrical install and commissioning.