Smart meter incompatibility and chaos

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hello picks and following on from my post yesterday. I've had clarification from the senior manager in our Smart Centre.

Gas meter readings in the top right hand corner of your In House Display are given in cubic metres (cm3). Similarly with the meter. These, too, measure the amount of gas used in cubic metres.

Our website and internal systems accept gas readings in cubic metres or cubic feet only. For billing, we convert the cubic metres/cubic feet into kWh using a set formula as explained on our bills and website. You don't have to do this. We'll do it at the point we raise a bill.

You can enter the gas readings shown either on your meter or display through our website as with the electric. To see the gas reading on your display, on the bottom bar, please choose the second symbol from the left. It looks like a cog coming out of a meter. For readings, move between the electric (plug) and gas (flame) and the relevant reading will show in the top right hand corner.

Gas is recorded in volume as either cubic metres or cubit feet but billed in kWh as above. The calculation is industry agreed and all suppliers follow the same process. I agree with our advisor, entering gas readings directly in kWh isn't something I can see happening anytime soon.

Hope this saves you the hassle of reading the meter under such hazardous circumstances. Part of the reason behind smart meters is that they send us readings remotely so customers don't have to risk injury doing this. I do appreciate, though, a lot of people like to keep an eye on what's happening with their usage and give readings more frequently. We usually take readings from smart meters monthly but, if needed, we can request ad hoc readings from these meters at any time.

Sorry you've been given conflicting information picks and hope this makes things a bit clearer. Let me know if still unsure as happy to help.

Malc

barmonkey

I'm with Eon and keep being told I must call them about having a smart meter fitted, but I cant have one because I'm too far from the meter.

System

barmonkey wrote: »

I'm with Eon and keep being told I must call them about having a smart meter fitted, but I cant have one because I'm too far from the meter.

I don t think it matters too much how far the meter is from your property and I have seen meters ( as a meter reader ) a quarter a mile away from the property. The meter itself will link with normal wifi towers as any mobile does but the In House Display will not work as that maybe will be too far from the meter in your house.. Its no big deal about the giveaway free gift gizmo IHD, its useless anyway after a week or so looking at it .Nearly every normal non geek dumps it anyway, but some people such as the Daily Mail and Telegraph think that the toy is a smart meter itself.

fredandwilma

House_Martin wrote: »

Its no big deal about the giveaway free gift gizmo IHD, its useless anyway after a week or so looking at it .Nearly every normal non geek dumps it anyway.

In what way is it useless?

I still use mine everyday, several years down the line.

I should have thought the IHD would be placed inside the house?

Clearly, I am not normal? :rotfl:

brewerdave

barmonkey wrote: »

I'm with Eon and keep being told I must call them about having a smart meter fitted, but I cant have one because I'm too far from the meter.

I got a letter from EON (again!!) last week, telling me that my meters were "obsolete" and needed replacing -please phone to make appointment - only problem is that I left EON nearly 1 month ago!!:rotfl:

mac.d

fredandwilma wrote: »

In what way is it useless?

I still use mine everyday, several years down the line.

I should have thought the IHD would be placed inside the house?

Clearly, I am not normal? :rotfl:

It appears lots of people use them at first then put them away and don't bother with them. If people aren't that bothered about monitoring their costs/usage, they are useful if your meter is in an awkward location as you can take a reading from the In House Display unit, but that's about it.

There was talk of using software/apps instead of an IHD, so people could use an app on their phone, or a customer portal online. Not sure if that's under serious consideration or not, like everything else about smart meters, it seems they've rushed into it without thinking about the best solution first.

SpotlandRules

mac.d wrote: »

It appears lots of people use them at first then put them away and don't bother with them. If people aren't that bothered about monitoring their costs/usage, they are useful if your meter is in an awkward location as you can take a reading from the In House Display unit, but that's about it.

There was talk of using software/apps instead of an IHD, so people could use an app on their phone, or a customer portal online. Not sure if that's under serious consideration or not, like everything else about smart meters, it seems they've rushed into it without thinking about the best solution first.

Not all IHD's show the meter readings. The ones provided by OVO do not, but Scottish Power's do.

Terry98

mac.d wrote: »

There was talk of using software/apps instead of an IHD, so people could use an app on their phone, or a customer portal online. Not sure if that's under serious consideration or not, like everything else about smart meters, it seems they've rushed into it without thinking about the best solution first.

I have not looked at my IHD for ages now because OVO now show me everything I want to look at on my online account.

I would be interested to know if other suppliers show online daily usage and cost figures updated daily.Two years figures are now showing in Yearly,Monthly and Daily graphs.

Because I can now get a saving of £100 I am thinking of leaving OVO but it will be hard to go back to manual readings and estimated bills.

[Deleted User]

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hello picks and following on from my post yesterday. I've had clarification from the senior manager in our Smart Centre.

Hi Malc, I'm being told something different when I speak to E.ON over the phone. I've just been on the phone for some 45 minutes and E.ON tell me that I cannot use the meter reading from my in-house display to provide E.ON a gas meter reading because it is in kWh. Indeed the display meter reading says xxxxx kWh. In order to provide the company with a gas meter reading I have to supply the reading in cubic metres which they say is shown only on the physical meter and not the display. Just to emphasise that, about a week ago my display showed a reading of 00569 (kWh) whereas E.ONs in-house remote reading on the same day was actually 00050 (cubic metres). As I have difficulty physically reading the meter, E.ON again tell me I can't use the display to provide them a gas meter reading. In particular, it seems that, in the event of my switching supplier in the future, my in-house display will be totally useless for gas meter readings to the new supplier.

Since I'm getting different stories E.ON suggest maybe you have a chat with the Smart metering team to clarify which story is correct.

System

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hi Malc, I'm being told something different when I speak to E.ON over the phone. I've just been on the phone for some 45 minutes and E.ON tell me that I cannot use the meter reading from my in-house display to provide E.ON a gas meter reading because it is in kWh. Indeed the display meter reading says xxxxx kWh. In order to provide the company with a gas meter reading I have to supply the reading in cubic metres which they say is shown only on the physical meter and not the display. Just to emphasise that, about a week ago my display showed a reading of 00569 (kWh) whereas E.ONs in-house remote reading on the same day was actually 00050 (cubic metres). As I have difficulty physically reading the meter, E.ON again tell me I can't use the display to provide them a gas meter reading. In particular, it seems that, in the event of my switching supplier in the future, my in-house display will be totally useless for gas meter readings to the new supplier.

Since I'm getting different stories E.ON suggest maybe you have a chat with the Smart metering team to clarify which story is correct.

As a meter reader , I have to agree with you to say that the Secure Liberty gas meter i saw last month only displayed the gas in kwhrs only, not cubic meters. It is the only one I ve seen which does that, all the other Secure Liberty meters displayed firstly in cubic meters after pressing button 9 on the second screen, so maybe it was a faulty display, or maybe the meter was set to prepayment meter mode.
You could I suppose just divide the kwhrs by 11.2 to get back to cubic meters. That is as close as you need for an accurate reading.