Smart meters not working (not smart)

Alnat1

You could always move the gas to Octopus too.

Plasticman

My gas meter is being "smart" but although the IHD is showing both gas and electricity usage, electricity it isn't reporting back to Shell and never has (over 2 weeks since they were installed). I've reported it and I'm waiting for a resolution. Meanwhile they're now asking for a meter reading. My account though is set up for Economy 7 (so must have 2 readings) but the IHD is only showing one reading so I can't submit it. Presumably I could manually read the meter but I've no idea which button to push at the moment!

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

Woodies3 said:

I have read all these complaints and mine have been similar. Scottish Power tell me that my meter is 'not communicating with them, and that this is a government department responsibilty, and they can't (and in my opinion don't want to) do anything about it. They say that this lack of communication is wide spread across the country. If this is true how is it that National Grid are offering £100 of your bills only to customers with smart meters?
I have a complaint to be sent to the Ombudsman which has produced some reaction from ScotP but no agreement.

The responsible Government Department is BEIS. The smart meter network is managed by The Data Communications Company - a private company run by Capita.

The Northern region appears to be giving the DCC the biggest communications headache.

Re the savings - from the Octopus blog - ‘You’ll need a working electric smart meter so we can verify how much energy you’ve managed to save.’

Now those are words to send shivers down the spine.

edcldn

Thanks everyone - really interesting thread.

For anyone interested, Shell have been much more helpful since I got through to the right team. My electricity meter works pretty well, and I can see the data on Bright. 

The remaining issue seems to be intermittency of data transfer from the gas meter to the electricity meter for ongoing transmission to the network. It’s odd because the two meters are not that far apart in my house - maybe 2-3m.

Does anyone know if there is anything I can do/buy to help the gas meter signal reach the electricity meter? 

[Deleted User]

Does anyone know if there is anything I can do/buy to help the gas meter signal reach the electricity meter? 

There is nothing that you can do. The Home Area Network that provides the link between the gas meter and the communications hub is a secure Zigbee network. Any fiddling with the communications hub could generate a tamper alert.

The DCC is aware of this problem and it has approved a dual-band communications hub. However, my guess is that the deployment of these hubs will be linked to the deployed of 4G hubs to all existing smart meter installations. Timescale: I haven’t a clue.

Phones4Chris

@edcldn
I've come across some strange interference situations before now. IIRC the GSME uses the 2.4GHz band to talk to the Comms Hub. Home WiFi might cause some interference, try changing your home Wifi channel and see if that helps. I've also stumbled across instances of SkyQ causing a similar problem. Bluetooth also uses the 2.4GHz band. Try making sure any portable devices that use the band are as far away as practical from the Gas Meter/Com.