Smart meters fun?

Irratus_Rusticus

I know I must be patient but I'm not. Having downloaded full half-hour gas/elec data from Octopus after only one day of new meters, felt pretty chuffed. Even when WAN light went off for a few hours yesterday, no worries, all would be well. Today found no data on Octopus, so mildly queried n3rgy.  No elec data for yesterday - fair enough - patience needed - but then found my gas data showed that for two hours yesterday I used 187,297 kWhs of gas in each of four half hour slots (when the WAN busted). On my fix rates that's £54,672 for two hours. 

So okay, Octopus shows nothing yet. If they do I'll really sweat. Just mildly wondering how/why by all that's holy would a smart (SMART!!!) meter send such numbers? Shouldn't it default to a silent sigh and not make things up? First impressions not favourable.

Krakkkers

You will need to cut back a bit, trying turning the thermostat down 1 degree.

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

If the smart meter / comms hub sends no data for a 30mins slot it will sometimes show as something crazy high, this is just a bug, this is not used in billing. Also FYI Octopus never uses the 30mins data for the gas for billing like it does on some elec tariffs, all the gas billing is based on normal meter readings

[Deleted User]

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername said:

If the smart meter / comms hub sends no data for a 30mins slot it will sometimes show as something crazy high, this is just a bug, this is not used in billing. Also FYI Octopus never uses the 30mins data for the gas for billing like it does on some elec tariffs, all the gas billing is based on normal meter readings

I was told by a mathematician that is hexadecimal code for zero. As you say, gas is not billed on 30 minute usage but who knows when that might change.

Irratus_Rusticus

Ahah.. Octopus just updated my data. Half-hour gas use yesterday simply omits the four abhorrent time slots altogether. Presumably somebody noticed? Or Octopus has a grand clever computer there. Thanks also for above common sense. I don't really need half hour data it is true, but when somebody offers shiny new toys, hard not to play until something breaks.

Spoonie_Turtle

Dolor said:

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername said:

If the smart meter / comms hub sends no data for a 30mins slot it will sometimes show as something crazy high, this is just a bug, this is not used in billing. Also FYI Octopus never uses the 30mins data for the gas for billing like it does on some elec tariffs, all the gas billing is based on normal meter readings

I was told by a mathematician that is hexadecimal code for zero. As you say, gas is not billed on 30 minute usage but who knows when that might change.

AIUI gas prices change daily, so no point having more frequent billing than that unless the prices were ever to change more frequently.  [Whereas wholesale electricity prices do change every half hour.]

double_dutchy

Dolor said:

I was told by a mathematician that is hexadecimal code for zero. As you say, gas is not billed on 30 minute usage but who knows when that might change.

Apparently when the consumption data is an error (for whatever reason) a SMETS2 smart meter can give an error code which is the hex value 0xFFFFFF which is equal to the decimal value 16777215 - this then appears on the consumption data as 16777.215. As this is the cubic metres value a conversion to kwh will give you 187,297.

I've only ever seen these values in the n3rgy data back in 2021, I don't seem to get them now

See this link from 2020 which notes the same

Erroneous consumption value 16777.215 (gas) · Issue #1 · n3rgy/data · GitHub

....or this smart meter technical documentation gives a slightly different explanation [see bottom of page 9]

Smart meter consumption data: Technical documentation (ukdataservice.ac.uk)

TrainDriver

Krakkkers said:

You will need to cut back a bit, trying turning the thermostat down 1 degree.

He should get some tips from the guy that’s putting a tent up in his bedroom 

Irratus_Rusticus

double_dutchy said:

Dolor said:

I was told by a mathematician that is hexadecimal code for zero. As you say, gas is not billed on 30 minute usage but who knows when that might change.

Apparently when the consumption data is an error (for whatever reason) a SMETS2 smart meter can give an error code which is the hex value 0xFFFFFF which is equal to the decimal value 16777215 - this then appears on the consumption data as 16777.215. As this is the cubic metres value a conversion to kwh will give you 187,297.

I've only ever seen these values in the n3rgy data back in 2021, I don't seem to get them now

Scholar, sir. 16777.215 was indeed the m3 shown for each of the four time slots. On reflection, probably sensible the process identifies an error rather than 0 usage. In this case I'd used no gas for the 4 slots. Pondering what would happen if it was winterage time, or electricity, and there had been usage in those time slots, but that's for another day as the meter readings weren't affected. Main thing. Interesting Octopus merely skipped the four errant time slots 16:30 to 18:00 in the csv download and on the nice graph of consumption. Only noticeable by scrolling slowly across the graph times. 



Learning new stuff every day. Must be patient and maybe stay off n3rgy.