In-home display communicates with a fixed network meter reading system

A remote display that communicates with an automated meter reading system, the automated meter reading system comprising a collector and a plurality of utility meters that bi-directionally communicate wirelessly with the collector, each of the utility meters having a wireless communication path to the collector that is either a direct communication path to the collector or an indirect communication path through one or more other utility meters that serve as repeaters, and the collector receiving commodity consumption information from the plurality of utility meters, the remote display comprising:

• memory for storing commodity consumption data;
• firmware containing executable instructions for receiving commodity consumption data from an associated utility meter of said automated meter reading system;
• a microcontroller;
• and
• a radio adapted to retrieve commodity consumption data from the utility meter associated with the remote display in response to a message received from the collector of said automated meter reading system, wherein the message received from the collector controls the time at which commodity consumption information is retrieved from the associated utility meter by the remote display.

An automated meter reading system comprising:

• a collector;
• a plurality of utility meters that bi-directionally communicate wirelessly with the collector, each of the utility meters having a wireless communication path to the collector that is either a direct communication path to the collector or an indirect communications path through one or more other utility meters that serve as repeaters, the plurality of utility meters transmitting commodity consumption data to the collector and the collector transmitting control information to the utility meters;
• and
• at least one in-home remote display device comprising:
• memory for storing commodity consumption data;
• firmware containing executable instruction for receiving commodity consumption data from an associated utility meter of said automated meter reading system;
• a microcontroller;
• and
• a radio adapted to retrieve commodity consumption data from the utility meter associated with the remote display in response to a message received from the collector of said automated meter reading system, wherein the message received from the collector controls the time at which commodity consumption information is retrieved from the associated utility meter by the remote display.