Smart Meter fitted but we have no mobile signal or mesh signal. What do we do?

mrbobbob

MWT said:

Evan3020 said:

Cant these meters connect to your wifi and broadband?

No, that is not considered to be a secure data path...

They do sometimes use a Mesh mode to daisy-chain comms hubs to allow hubs that have no signal to connect hubs that do have a signal.

Yeah this has a cellular and a mesh light that blink every so often.  There's no-one out there though

[Deleted User]

I believe that suppliers can fit external aerials to some communications hubs. Don’t try it yourself:

Quote:  I’m afraid you can’t get hold of any aerials yourself, nor install one on your own. All Comms Hubs and Aerials for Smart Meters have to be supplied via approved channels - which are managed by the DCC - and can only be installed by authorised engineers. Attempting to install anything on your meter/comms hub would trigger the anti-tamper. This might also result in your supply disconnecting as a result. This is known as a locally triggered disconnection and is intended to help curb energy theft. You really don’t want to have to deal with that - especially having to get someone out to restore your supply. Unquote

QrizB

mrbobbob said:

QrizB said:

mrbobbob said:

EDF came out to fit a smart meter.  The engineer said it wouldnt work though as there is no phone signal where we live (Wales) but he fitted it anyway on the off chance it picked something up.  Its been a few weeks pretty sure it wont.

The meter fitter should not have fitted a smart meter if ther is no signal. They need a signal in order to commission the meter, and an uncommissioned meter is useless.

You won't be able to have Octopus Go, and you won't even be able to have a conventional time of use tariff like Economy 7 since your supplier won't be able to send the tariff timings to the meter.

Maybe we should have just kept the one that went backwards
Is there likely anything EDF can do to get it working or are we out of options?

I think that what is meant to happen in cases like this is for the installer to fit a new, digital, dumb meter that won't run backwards in response to domestic generation.

With a dumb meter you could have E7, which isn't anything like as advantageous as Octopus Go but which would give you a cheaper off-peak period for EV charging. You could also have it set to measure export so you'd get SEG payments.

I think you'll need to go back to EDF and explain all this. Depending how switched-on the customer service rep is, you might have a bit of a struggle. Be prepared to raise a formal complaint if necessary.

[Deleted User]

EDF has fitted a perfectly serviceable meter which to all intents acts in a similar way to the analogue meter that it replaced. I don't see any benefit in the supplier fitting another analogue meter. A dumb smart meter can be used for SEG payments. The meter has an export register that will work even though the comms hub cannot connect to the DCC Network. The OP just has to read it. Any mention of Octopus and Go is unlikely to garner much sympathy. The OP would be better off saying that he would like to move to EDF's EV Tariff (if it is still open to new entrants).

mrbobbob

[Deleted User] said:

EDF has fitted a perfectly serviceable meter which to all intents acts in a similar way to the analogue meter that it replaced. I don't see any benefit in the supplier fitting another analogue meter. A dumb smart meter can be used for SEG payments. The meter has an export register that will work even though the comms hub cannot connect to the DCC Network. The OP just has to read it. Any mention of Octopus and Go is unlikely to garner much sympathy. The OP would be better off saying that he would like to move to EDF's EV Tariff (if it is still open to new entrants).

I just looked at the EDF EV tariff and even that is flat rate all day/night without a smart meter.

Its the being excluded from the better tariffs is what prompted me to make the original post. 

I was wondering would a signal box from O2 work if I can still buy one.  As far as I remember those things put out a 3g signal so maybe the meter can use that to phone home.  Seems too simple to work so I suppose Im missing something.  Also not even sure they use O2 just thats what the engineer who fitted said he thought it was "well that or vodaphone".  Has anyone tried this?

QrizB

mrbobbob said:

Also not even sure they use O2 just thats what the engineer who fitted said he thought it was "well that or vodaphone".

If you're in part of the UK that uses the cellular network, it's Telephonica (O2). Never Vodafone.