Smart gas and electricity meters with different energy suppliers - Am I heading for trouble? (Yes!)

Sterlingtimes

brewerdave said:

Sterlingtimes said:

ToomanyPies said:

I don't think that's going to work without replacing both meters. Why not switch your gas to Octopus and they should be able to read the gas data from the Secure Liberty meter

Thank you. My hunch is that EDF will turn up Friday morning and leave again without doing anything. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see whether they upgrade the gas meter only or both meters. And then, what happens to IHDs?

Won't touch the leccy meter as it's with another supplier. If he is a competent installer he may make the effort to get the gas meter communicating but much more likely that he will walk away consigning it to the "too difficult" pile !!!

Thank you. I think that I now know what to expect. I tried to have an intelligent conversation with EDF's smart metering about this but just got reassured that they know what they are doing and that it will all be sorted.

gsmh

Sterlingtimes said:

Thank you. Did the technician try out the communications prior to fitting the meter, i.e. can the communications be worked upon prior to physically exchanging the meters?

Yes he did, so at least he left me with the original easy-to-read gas meter.

gsmh

Sterlingtimes said:

Thank you. I think that I now know what to expect. I tried to have an intelligent conversation with EDF's smart metering about this but just got reassured that they know what they are doing and that it will all be sorted.

I've had such bad experiences with EDF and smart meter installation. Tried it some years ago and the third party company didn't turn up twice, and when they did the engineer said it couldn't be done. When I had my British Gas smart electricity meter fitted a BG engineer called, did the job and it has been fine ever since. Unfortunately as a Zog customer I had no choice but to go with EDF. There is no way I would choose them voluntarily!

Sterlingtimes

gsmh 

I've had such bad experiences with EDF and smart meter installation. Tried it some years ago and the third party company didn't turn up twice, and when they did the engineer said it couldn't be done. When I had my British Gas smart electricity meter fitted a BG engineer called, did the job and it has been fine ever since. Unfortunately as a Zog customer I had no choice but to go with EDF. There is no way I would choose them voluntarily!

I too was a Zog customer. Ovo, Economy and Octopus could read the meter remotely. In fact, for about 12 months, Octopus collected the gas data and displayed it on its webpage while I was using Zog. I have saved a lot of money through managed movement but EDF is probably not a good place to be. I will post tomorrow with the results of the EDF work.

I think that my Liberty meters have probably not been DCC adopted.

gsmh

Sterlingtimes said:

I too was a Zog customer. Ovo, Economy and Octopus could read the meter remotely. In fact, for about 12 months, Octopus collected the gas data and displayed it on its webpage while I was using Zog. I have saved a lot of money through managed movement but EDF is probably not a good place to be. I will post tomorrow with the results of the EDF work.

I think that my Liberty meters have probably not been DCC adopted.

Yes, Utility Warehouse had no problem taking over and reading my British Gas smart meter. The problem arises when you wish to have a smart gas meter at a later date, from a different company. The information has to be communicated through the smart electricity meter and it appears difficult to get the new gas meter communicating with the existing smart electricity meter where two companies are involved. Given that EDF uses a third party company to install smart meters, probably the same one as other companies (apart from BG) use, the problem lies right there.

QrizB

Sterlingtimes said:

I think that my Liberty meters have probably not been DCC adopted.

Secure-branded Liberty meters are slowly being adopted to the DCC. Many already have and there's work ongoing to adopt the rest.

Sterlingtimes

EDF's nominated smart meter technician turned up today. As anticipated, he cannot change the gas meter. He said that the usual approach would be to fit a hot-shoe to the electric meter. He showed me a hot-shoe. However, he said that he cannot fit the hot-shoe because the electric meter is wired with a "series 7 cutout" and there is no space to fit a hot shoe without major mechanical reconfiguration. I did have confidence that the technician was speaking with good knowledge of the problem.

Now, I wonder whether the message will get back to EDF.

QrizB

Sterlingtimes said:

EDF's nominated smart meter technician turned up today. As anticipated, he cannot change the gas meter. He said that the usual approach would be to fit a hot-shoe to the electric meter. He showed me a hot-shoe. However, he said that he cannot fit the hot-shoe because the electric meter is wired with a "series 7 cutout" and there is no space to fit a hot shoe without major mechanical reconfiguration.

Very interesting!

For anyone else who's interested, see para 1.3 here for a description of a hot shoe (which lets you fit a comms hub without attaching it to a smart electric meter):

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/995871/smart-metering-guidance-new-builds.pdf

So long as the eBay auction lasts, you'll find a couple of photos of one here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304307464742

Sterlingtimes

Thank you, QuizB. The meter installer was insistent that the hot shoe must be attached to the meter tails below the electricity meter. This is not possible in my instant because the wiring configuration does not permit the hot shoe to be fitted without major wiring alterations. He mention a "series 7 cutout" as being part of the problem.

ToomanyPies

After the experience of others I'm kind of glad the meter installer didn't turn up. EDF gave me £30 compensation and I've already started the switch to Octopus for gas. Hopefully then the meter installation will be simpler by having both utilities with the same supplier.