Smart Meter Issue - Should I submit a manual meter reading

oldagetraveller1

MWT said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

I don't mind submitting monthly readings, done it for years, but I thought the idea of these things was to stop the need for that?

... and for millions of customers that is exactly how it works

On here, as you would expect, we are more likely to hear from those with problems than the vastly larger number of those without problems...

And I'm really pleased they work for them.

But in my case and many others, so far, it's been a complete waste of money and rescources having them installed to replace two perfectly good meters, no doubt chucked on a landfill, for which it was simply a matter of submitting readings. Can't remember when they were last read by someone appointed by the supplier.

The i.h.d., again another waste of time and materials. Quite simple to do a quick calculation each month, if inclined. Total kWh for each divided by 28/29/30/31 for a daily figure.

[Deleted User]

oldagetraveller1 said:

The i.h.d., again another waste of time and materials. Quite simple to do a quick calculation each month, if inclined. Total kWh for each divided by 28/29/30/31 for a daily figure.

For some maybe, but I find the daily kWh figures I get from the IHD are informative.  I enter the the IHD's kWh usage for the previous day and enter both utilities usage in on my spreadsheet.  In my previous house (non-smart meters) I did exactly what you suggest just entering meter readings on spreadsheet once a month.

The only time I check the actual meters is on the day before the readings are uploaded/manually input just to check that the IHD and meters are singing from the same songsheet.  My IHD meter information has always matched the reading from the actual meter itself.  The IHD also gives me something else that the meters cannot do - the 'Usage Now' function letting me see the electrical draw of the currently running appliances which I find quite informative.  When I get the bill for the period I can then see the CV used in the gas kWh calculation so I alter the CV used in my spreadsheet, if required, and things reconcile very well.     

MWT

oldagetraveller1 said:

The i.h.d., again another waste of time and materials. Quite simple to do a quick calculation each month, if inclined. Total kWh for each divided by 28/29/30/31 for a daily figure.

We are all different, if I didn't have an IHD I'd buy one, and the one thing I never use it for is looking at daily/monthly use or cost

Mstty

I use the bright app more than the IHD now, following our energy reduction exercise we no longer need up to the minute usage the bright app max 18 hours behind is good enough.

rjmachin

I called Octopus this morning which lead to the smart meter team emailing me afterwards.

They attempted a comms hub reboot, which produced an error, so I now have an engineer booked for next Monday for a power cycle to be run on the meters.

The guy who called me to book the power cycle engineer visit said they would replace the meters if that does not work, however, I really hope it does work otherwise I will lose the energy usage on my Go tariff, which includes a lot of overnight car charging, so will probably end up paying more.

Fingers crossed the power cycle works

[Deleted User]

rjmachin said:

I called Octopus this morning which lead to the smart meter team emailing me afterwards.

They attempted a comms hub reboot, which produced an error, so I now have an engineer booked for next Monday for a power cycle to be run on the meters.

The guy who called me to book the power cycle engineer visit said they would replace the meters if that does not work, however, I really hope it does work otherwise I will lose the energy usage on my Go tariff, which includes a lot of overnight car charging, so will probably end up paying more.

Fingers crossed the power cycle works

Removing the main fuse and replacing it should re-boot the communications hub. They should not need to replace your meters UNLESS someone in the smart meter team has decided it is easier to replace everything: communications hubs are a DCC not a supplier responsibility. I would be interested to see how the installer will power cycle a gas meter given that it has its own integral battery! 

rjmachin

Hi,

I just wanted to give a, probably, final update to this thread.

Octopus arranged for someone to come and perform a hard power cycle of my smart meter because their remote attempt failed.

They came on the 1st August and was here for about 2 hours because he tried to set up a new IHD for me as well (which has not worked, my old IHD still works however).

He pulled the main fuse and left it for 5 minutes before putting it back in, he then spent quite a bit of time sending messages to someone on his phone asking them to check that the communication was working.

He ended up pulling the main fuse a few times trying to get the IHD to work.

Up until today, the Octopus Energy dashboard was showing data from the 31st July onwards, and i was getting worried that the data from the 9th May to the 30th July as going to be lost.  However, I have just taken a look and they now have the full data all the way back to May, so I am super happy and hopefully this will be the last time it happens.

If I were to give any advice, should anything like this happen, I would give them a call rather than using email.  I emailed them and they said it would take 8 weeks for the smart team to get back to me.  After 8 or 9 weeks, I called them and everything moved a lot more swiftly.

P.S. they did not need to do anything to the gas meter.  I suppose that makes sense however, as the communications hub is built into the electricity meter.

BROKEN

9 weeks you have had to wait and still not sorted, Unusual for Which's Energy Company of the Year. If in doubt SUBMIT your readings that way you control your spending, Don't leave it to OCTOPUS to sort out.  

rjmachin

It is sorted now, after I called them it got sorted pretty quickly