Lattice : smart metering innovation
Smart gas metering; for all users, for ever.
Lattice is a gas metering technology that provides a durable and reliable solution to gas smart metering providing a platform for 2 way communications, valves and consumer displays, among other innovations.
The need for smart metering.
Smart gas metering is rising up the utility agenda, based on the twin benefits of potential OPEX reductions and driving down consumers' carbon emissions. Lattice meters meet the increasing market demand for intelligence and durability in domestic fiscal metering, allowing easy integration of 2 way communications, a valve and displays.
A Lattice gas meter provides the ideal platform for a wide variety of communication options and management functionality, meaning meters can be part of a wider system that provides detailed information about usage and network status.
A completely new technique for measuring gas, Lattice has a number of key advantages as a smart gas meter:
- Accurate and direct measurement at a wide range of flow rates: all gas passing into a household is measured
- Great flexibility in capturing and retrieving consumption data
- Inherently robust; no moving parts to wear, giving superior performance over the whole lifecycle
- Low power requirements – 15 year life on a single cell
Scope for all smart meter functionality:
- Remote credit/prepayment switchover
- Remote disconnect
- Safety cutoff
- Tamper and status alerts
A simple design, based on components widely available in long life time consumer products, means Lattice is a natural choice for mass deployments that require long life, trouble free metering technologies.
The core technology for Lattice is available through license for a number of territories.
Robust, long life, intelligent
Lattice uses components widely used in common consumer products to "mark" a band of gas and then measures the period of time for it to travel between two points, from which it can calculate the volume of gas that is passing through the flow tube. It requires only simple signal processing to meet metrology standards such as the European MID and draws very little power, meaning there is potential to design meters with a long lifetime between battery changes.
The technology is indifferent to gas composition, temperature, flow regime and installation orientation, which provides a superbly durable and effective meter for all installations. Its small mechanical footprint, means it can be adapted for meter designs suitable for markets all over the world and it scales very effectively, making it an ideal platform solution for families of smart gas meters.
The simplicity of the design means it can easily be integrated with a wide range of communications and management functions with very little additional cost, meaning it can be competitive even for basic metering applications.
The manufacturing opportunity
For manufacturers, Lattice provides an excellent opportunity to build profitable new businesses:
- All parts are standard, available from multiple sources (low supply chain risk).
- Simple manufacturing allows flexible manufacturing strategy
- Low design risk and short time to market, for a complete family of products
- Easy calibration and excellent meter to meter repeatability
Operating principle
Gas is ionised and the ion density is modulated to create a timing reference. This timing reference moves with the gas flow and is sensed by 2 detectors at known distances downstream of the modulator. The instantaneous gas velocity is calculated from the time of flight of the timing reference marker over the known distances. The volume flow rate is calculated from the velocity and the (known) flow tube cross section.
Status and Commercial proposition
The core sensor development is complete and meters using Lattice have been shown to meet MID requirements, as well as exhibiting good performance under real world conditions, such as dust and glycol tests.To assist in design integration we have:-
- detailed electronic schematic and signal processing strategy
- reference mechanical design for the sensor
- signal processing and basic metrology firmware
The technology is protected by patents across the world, so manufacturers can either acquire a license to use the technology in their meter, or buy complete sensors from Sentec. Please contact Sentec for specific details of the rights and territories that are still available.
Product Develoment
Sentec's highly experienced world-class product development team can work with licensees or sensor customers on all aspects of the product development, including mechanical design, firmware, electronics, integration with existing systems, design for manufacture/test, tooling, contract manufacture support, manufacturing systems and databases, compliance, calibration and testing
Further information
For more information or a demonstration of Lattice technology please contact Sentec. Alternatively please use the links below to make a product enquiry or register for future updates on developments.
