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27/5/2026
The advantages of M-Bus for submetering include its standardized protocol, self-describing values, low power consumption, and simple configuration and installation.
M-Bus stands for “Meter-Bus” and is a standardized communication protocol for remote reading and management of meters and sensors. The protocol is primarily used in energy and water metering systems, enabling efficient and reliable communication between different types of meters and data collection devices.
M-Bus is a communication technology used for metering and remote reading of electricity, water, heating, and temperature, among other applications.
The M-Bus protocol is stable, structured, and provides highly detailed information. However, compared to some other technologies, M-Bus can be perceived as relatively slow. For this reason, M-Bus is best suited for meter values that can be transmitted at lower intervals, such as every 15 minutes, hourly, or daily. For billing purposes, such as water or electricity consumption, this is often more than sufficient.
M-Bus is an open standardized protocol developed in 1991 for collecting meter data in urban environments, but today it is primarily used for submetering in buildings. Despite its age and strong competition from newer technologies, M-Bus remains one of the most widely used methods for reading meters.
M-Bus is available in two versions: wired and wireless. Wireless M-Bus shares many of the advantages of wired M-Bus, with the added benefit of avoiding costly cable installations. In our article series about M-Bus, we will take a deeper look at Wireless M-Bus in a future post.
A wired M-Bus installation is powered and controlled by an M-Bus master. Since the M-Bus master supplies power to the meters (or “loads,” as they are called in M-Bus terminology), the number of devices on a loop is limited by the available power supply.
M-Bus masters are available in different sizes, and typically up to 256 meters (loads) can be connected. However, the system can be expanded using extenders to support additional meters.
M-Bus combines communication and power supply over two wires. Since installations can vary and it can be difficult to pull pre-mounted connectors through electrical conduits, no standard connector is specified. The wires are also “polarity independent,” meaning the installer does not need to consider positive or negative connections — in other words, it does not matter how the two wires are connected.
The cabling topology is also flexible and can be designed in either a star network or a bus structure. Typically, one cabling system can support up to 256 meters.
A common challenge in network communication is how to address individual meters. M-Bus supports two addressing methods: primary and secondary addressing.
With primary addressing, a number between 1–250 is used. This address must be unique within the loop, meaning each meter’s primary address must be manually configured during installation.
With secondary addressing, the system instead uses a pre-programmed 8-digit number printed on the meter, which is often identical to the meter serial number. This method requires no manual configuration and therefore reduces the risk of installation errors.
In most installations, a secondary address is unique. However, there is still a small risk that two meters from different manufacturers could be delivered with the same secondary address. To solve this, M-Bus also uses an internationally unique identification.
This unique identification consists of the manufacturer code (three letters), meter type, meter generation, and the secondary address.
An example of a unique identification for an electricity meter from ABB could look like this:
ABB-12345678-ElectricityMeter-Generation:1
One major advantage of M-Bus compared to other protocols is that the values transmitted through M-Bus are self-describing. For every value sent from the meter, the meter itself specifies the type of measurement and the unit.
The advantage of this is that no new driver is required for each new meter integrated into the system. However, this becomes somewhat more complex when dealing with advanced meters and more sophisticated data values, which we will cover later in our article series.
M-Bus is a standardized protocol used for communication between meters and data loggers. This allows meters and data loggers from different manufacturers to communicate with each other, simplifying system integration.
Values transmitted via M-Bus are self-describing, meaning the meter itself indicates the type of measurement and unit for each transmitted value. This simplifies the interpretation of metering data.
M-Bus is designed for low power consumption, making it an ideal solution for wireless reading of submeters. This allows battery-powered meters to operate for many years.
The installation of M-Bus-based meters is relatively simple and typically does not require specialized tools or expert knowledge.
