2nd Gen Smart Meters in Ryedale, North Yorks.

whitling2k

hyte1 said:

Found this thread after a internet search - I was trying to get a gen 2 meter from OctopusEnergy however on the day the meter install was supposed to happen, it’s gets cancelled “because we live too close to Fylingdales” - were 40 miles north of the RAF base! Did you get any luck I sorting this out OP?

No - got nowhere.

[Deleted User]

Fylingdales is listed as a High Intensity Radio Transmission Area. Even overflight is not permitted within certain parameters in case of interference to aircraft systems and equipment. That said, Fylingdales has been in existence for decades and I cannot believe that there isn’t a technical solution just waiting to be rolled out. I would be sending an email to my MP.

whitling2k

Still no progress here.  I did write to my MP - and whilst it answered a few questions and confirmed what I already knew, it didn't move anything forward at all.

I know that the supplier *should* be able to provide me with the information regarding rollout, including nuances with the Fylingdales area.  But not a single "onboarding specialist" from any decent smart supplier has been able to advise.

On the other hand, we now have the EV - and crunching the numbers - we don't need the smart tariffs.  The car accounts for about 1/3 to 1/2 of our actual electricity usage.  When standing charges, the rest of our electricity usage and gas etc are all combined, the slightly higher day rate of the smart tariffs cancel out the savings of cheap overnight electricity.  It might work better when the kids are older and the washing machine & electric showers etc aren't on 24/7 - but that is not happening anytime soon!

Scudda

Hi all, we have bought an EV and are going through 'the same' being Ryedale residents.  This is what Octopus Energy have said, just in case it helps anyone else I thought I would share.

'We are not able to install smart meters yet as you live in an area known as RAF Fylingdales. As a bit of background, it is a key part of a missile defence system which helps the UK listen for inbound ballistic missile attacks - so quite important! The Communication Hubs (the box above your electric meter) we install in the north operate at a certain radio frequency (420 Hz), but for installs in and around this area we are required to install Communication Hubs that operate at a different frequency - 450 Hz. This is to prevent interference with the listening frequencies. The RAF, who train in this area, operate their signals through a 420MHz network. As such, the current 420MHz signal equipment the smart industry uses in the north has the potential to interfere with these signals. To mitigate this, a new type of signal hub is being developed on a 450MHz network. No supplier currently has these hubs available to install, so the entire industry cannot undertake second generation smart install work in this area. Here are some timelines: The Smart industry will commence with testing of the 450 communication hubs around mid-August 2021 and Octopus are involved in this. First Octopus pilot installs proposed to commence from early December 2021 With the above going well, the rollout for suppliers is expected to begin early January 2022, which is when we should be able to offer these installations.'

[Deleted User]

Scudda said:

Hi all, we have bought an EV and are going through 'the same' being Ryedale residents.  This is what Octopus Energy have said, just in case it helps anyone else I thought I would share.

'We are not able to install smart meters yet as you live in an area known as RAF Fylingdales. As a bit of background, it is a key part of a missile defence system which helps the UK listen for inbound ballistic missile attacks - so quite important! The Communication Hubs (the box above your electric meter) we install in the north operate at a certain radio frequency (420 Hz), but for installs in and around this area we are required to install Communication Hubs that operate at a different frequency - 450 Hz. This is to prevent interference with the listening frequencies. The RAF, who train in this area, operate their signals through a 420MHz network. As such, the current 420MHz signal equipment the smart industry uses in the north has the potential to interfere with these signals. To mitigate this, a new type of signal hub is being developed on a 450MHz network. No supplier currently has these hubs available to install, so the entire industry cannot undertake second generation smart install work in this area. Here are some timelines: The Smart industry will commence with testing of the 450 communication hubs around mid-August 2021 and Octopus are involved in this. First Octopus pilot installs proposed to commence from early December 2021 With the above going well, the rollout for suppliers is expected to begin early January 2022, which is when we should be able to offer these installations.'

For accuracy, the RAF does not train in the Fylingdales area. Fylingdales is one of a number of High Intensity Radio Transmission Areas (HIRTAs). HIRTAs have to be avoided by aircraft both laterally and vertically for aircraft safety reasons.

Gerry1

Scudda said:

Hi all, we have bought an EV and are going through 'the same' being Ryedale residents.  This is what Octopus Energy have said, just in case it helps anyone else I thought I would share.

<snip> The Communication Hubs (the box above your electric meter) we install in the north operate at a certain radio frequency (420 Hz), but for installs in and around this area we are required to install Communication Hubs that operate at a different frequency - 450 Hz. <snip>

Somehow I rather doubt that any Communications Hubs operate at 420Hz or 450Hz.

MWT

Gerry1 said:

Scudda said:

Hi all, we have bought an EV and are going through 'the same' being Ryedale residents.  This is what Octopus Energy have said, just in case it helps anyone else I thought I would share.

<snip> The Communication Hubs (the box above your electric meter) we install in the north operate at a certain radio frequency (420 Hz), but for installs in and around this area we are required to install Communication Hubs that operate at a different frequency - 450 Hz. <snip>

Somehow I rather doubt that any Communications Hubs operate at 420Hz or 450Hz.

Agreed, that would be MHz, not Hz

Scudda

MWT said:

Gerry1 said:

Scudda said:

Hi all, we have bought an EV and are going through 'the same' being Ryedale residents.  This is what Octopus Energy have said, just in case it helps anyone else I thought I would share.

<snip> The Communication Hubs (the box above your electric meter) we install in the north operate at a certain radio frequency (420 Hz), but for installs in and around this area we are required to install Communication Hubs that operate at a different frequency - 450 Hz. <snip>

Somehow I rather doubt that any Communications Hubs operate at 420Hz or 450Hz.

Agreed, that would be MHz, not Hz

Hi All, I just copied and pasted Octopus Energy's email to me, they may well have had a typo', it certainly looks that way when re-reading.  As for the RAF training, perhaps Octopus weren't very accurate with the detail here either - we definitely see training aircraft and the occasion typhoon duel over Malton/Norton.  

In other EV news - We have just upgraded the main house fuse from 60amp to 80amp (our supply couldn't accommodate an upgrade to 100amp), I need to add some EV owners haven't upgraded at all.  This was £150 from Northern Power Grid (our DNO), but I know some suppliers do these types of upgrade for free.

andyinyork

Hi All,  thought I would join this thread as I am in the same situation with Octopus and Fylingdales living north of York.  We moved house in March and knew nothing about this 'exclusion' zone until a week before the smart meter installs were due to go ahead a couple of months ago.

I did get Octopus to honour the SMETS2 installation by getting them to install the meters (I have 2) without the communications hub (which is a simple plug in add-on to the main meter), so the meters operate in 'dumb' mode for now.

It really is annoying as I am running a 5kw PV array and have a tesla battery.  I could pretty much exist on the off peak electricity rate of 5p but until the smart meters get their brains I'm stuffed.

Anyway,  if anyone on here gets any updates please post.  I keep emailing my octopus account handler every few weeks asking for an update.  I'm hoping they roll these out before next spring!  I'd be happy to be a test dummy, just want it sorting.

In the meantime dont tell the russians they can knock out our east coast defence with a bunch of electricity meters lol.

whitling2k

At least it's not just us.  We were enjoying cheap (ish) energy with Igloo until the end of Oct.  Thankfully in a moment of "oh god, this isn't looking good ", I switched to a 1 year fixed which is about 20% lower than the cap to buy some time - just before Igloo went bust and all cheap fixed deals disappeared.  

I have found that energy companies are just unwilling, unable and don't even have the time to talk about such 'nice-to-haves' as cheap EV tariffs at the moment.  They are just focusing on their more straightforward userbase.  

To be honest, even with the new rates, the EV is still significantly cheaper than ICE - for now.  I have noticed that some home electricity tariffs are currently more expensive than DC rapid charge costs!