Wifi range of IoTaWatt

Hello - I’m looking for a bit of information about the wifi range of an IoTaWatt, and how it compares to something with an external aerial.

I work for an energy supplier in the UK, looking at using an IoTaWatt to simulate smart meter data as part of a trial we’re running. We’d be installing these in a handful of households, and need something fairly plug and play, capable of dealing with meter cupboards in difficult to reach places.

Does anyone have any experience they could share?

Thanks a lot,

Tom

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Hi Tom,
Don’t know how to measure something like that as it’s so subjective with walls and objects between. That said, my experience installing quite a few is that it’s about the same as my iPad. I usually configure and setup with that while standing next to the IoTaWatt. If the iPad connects, the IoTaWatt usually does as well.
The other factor is that when the connection is poor, IoTaWatt will upload the backlog whenever it does connect so there is no data loss from the disconnect.

Thanks - I know it’s difficult to compare - this kind of real world experience is valuable.

There is one way : the RSI of the network is given in dB and is normally known by the device. Not very reliable indeed, but it can be used to compare different antennas etc. However, note that usually, moving a device a few centimeters left or right (or turning it), or the presence of a human body (you) close to it all can have a non-neglectible impact. Good luck.