Smart meter still on old prices (before 1st April)

sebtomato

MWT said: The method for updating them is not under their direct control, they have to format and send the messages for each meter via the DCC, and then track if the message was successfully received or not and potentially resend the messages, all of which incurs a cost for each message.,

This is not just something they change on their systems and job done.

Doesn't sound like it should take weeks or months either, after a tariff change.

Alternatively, we should be given the capability to enter the unit cost on the IHD (manual override), if the system was not robust enough/poorly designed.

MWT

sebtomato said:

Alternatively, we should be given the capability to enter the unit cost on the IHD (manual override), if the system was not robust enough/poorly designed.

I don't disagree, this aspect of the IHD was poorly thought out and implemented.

They really should have just stopped at showing the kW and kWh figures.

Ultrasonic

sebtomato said:

MWT said:

sebtomato said:

Also, what's the point of smart meters if cost information is massively underestimated. How people are supposed to control their spend if information displayed is not correct?

I'd rather see people take enough interest in their own consumption to know their kWh cost and use the IHD to monitor use, not cost, but I do understand why people feel the need to just look at the cost, even though it is not really the best idea.

At the end of the day, what matters to people is cost.

If they are given a device to monitor/control their spending (that's the primary intent of smart meters), then those devices might as well show the proper cost (or close enough). Otherwise, the primary intent is not met.

Many people are not going to do calculations converting KWh to cost on a spreadsheet, particularly when the rates are also changing during the day (e.g. economy 7).

I see zero technical reasons for an electricity company not to update its smart meters with the correct tariffs in a timely manner. Currently, using a pre-1st April tariff may underestimate cost massively.

I think you've rather just made up your own 'primary intent' of smart meters there. For starters the smart meters are the big things connected to the incoming gas and electricity supplies, not the small in-home display that most will look at. Beyond that the biggest benefits have nothing to do with showing data to customers.

That said, I see no reason for suppliers not to update tariff data rapidly, and actually my personal experience has been for this to always happen within a few days, with four different suppliers. What is a bit annoying is that Scottish Power have sent out costs excluding the 5% VAT.

I agree with the point above about monitoring kWh data being more informative than looking at cost in £, since the former allows you to directly see how your use is varying whereas the cost reflects a combination of energy usage and the tariff prices.

poundsNpence

It's very easy to make a list showing cost for 1,2,3 and so on kWh's, add-on the DSC and keep it near your IHD, which should be able to be set to display kWh's rather than £'s.

brewerdave

MWT said:

sebtomato said:

Alternatively, we should be given the capability to enter the unit cost on the IHD (manual override), if the system was not robust enough/poorly designed.

I don't disagree, this aspect of the IHD was poorly thought out and implemented.

They really should have just stopped at showing the kW and kWh figures.

Then all that money that has been spent on TV adverts could have been saved as they were all based around showing monetary values !!

MWT

brewerdave said:

MWT said:

sebtomato said:

Alternatively, we should be given the capability to enter the unit cost on the IHD (manual override), if the system was not robust enough/poorly designed.

I don't disagree, this aspect of the IHD was poorly thought out and implemented.

They really should have just stopped at showing the kW and kWh figures.

Then all that money that has been spent on TV adverts could have been saved as they were all based around showing monetary values !!

Agreed

sebtomato

Ultrasonic said:

I think you've rather just made up your own 'primary intent' of smart meters there. For starters the smart meters are the big things connected to the incoming gas and electricity supplies, not the small in-home display that most will look at. Beyond that the biggest benefits have nothing to do with showing data to customers.

I don't think so. All the communication I see about smart meters (for individual households) is about helping controlling cost, even with plans to change the cost during the day to deter people during peak hours.

Many people don't know what's a Kwh and can't convert that to a cost.

I think it's a typical example of an implementation losing focus of the original intents along the way.

Surely, if my meter is capable of sending usage data every 30 minutes, then it should be capable of fetching new tariff data within a day.

sebtomato

Another issue I have noticed with my "smart" meter is that the off peak hours don't seem to match those displayed on the bills.

I have economy 7, so supposed to have 7 hours of "off peak" rate per day. However, the meter seems to think that the off peak tariff applies between 23:30 and 08:30 each day.

Of course, people might say it doesn't matter because EDF will get the readings per 30 minute slots, and can therefore apply the right rates for the right periods when calculating the bill.

However, my meter is a "five pole" model, and is activating some appliance when it thinks off peak hours should be used... So it's not just a backend billing calculation issue, but possibly some off peak appliances triggered during peak tariff.

MWT

sebtomato said:

Of course, people might say it doesn't matter because EDF will get the readings per 30 minute slots, and can therefore apply the right rates when calculating the bill.

However, my meter is a "five pole" model, and is activating some appliance when it thinks off peak hours should be used... So it's not just a backend billing calculation issue.

Generally E7 tariffs are not managed using half-hour data, there are set up to use R01 &R02 registers.

With a 5 pole meter the control of switching the circuit is managed by the ALCS settings in the meter, if those are wrong then it will switch at the wrong time of day, and they can be wrong in a way that is separate from the logic that switches which register is accumulating the consumption.

You should have enough information from the half-hour data to figure out if EDf are billing you according to the ALCS schedule or not, and if not then call support and tell them your ALCS settings are wrong.

It may take some persistence to get through to anyone in support that knows what that means though...

sebtomato

poundsNpence said:

It's very easy to make a list showing cost for 1,2,3 and so on kWh's, add-on the DSC and keep it near your IHD, which should be able to be set to display kWh's rather than £'s.

Is it? How does that work for people with Economy 7? Just multiply the KWhs by?

What's the point of technology if we have to keep piece of paper next to an electronic display and perform multiplications ourselves?

What's next? Take pictures of the display on the smart meter itself, print them and send them by post to EDF?