This European Standard specifies the general requirements and applies to heat meters. Heat meters are instruments intended for measuring the energy which in a heat-exchange circuit is absorbed (cooling) or given up (heating) by a liquid called the heat-conveying liquid. The meter indicates heat in legal units. Part 3 specifies the data exchange between a meter and a readout device (POINT / POINT communication). For these applications using the optical readout head, the EN 62056-21 protocol is recommended. For direct or remote local readout of a single or a few meters via a battery driven readout device, the physical layer of EN 13757-6 (local bus) is recommended. For bigger networks with up to 250 meters, a master unit with AC mains supply according to EN 13757-2 is necessary to control the M-Bus. For these applications the physical and link layer of EN 13757-2 and the application layer of EN 13757-3 is required. For wireless meter communications, EN 13757-4 describes several alternatives of walk/drive-by readout via a mobile station or by using stationary receivers or a network. Both unidirectionally and bidirectionally transmitting meters are supported by this standard.