Smart Meters

Chrysalis

Dolor said:

It was a decision to pass the risk on to suppliers. Life would have been a lot more simple and faster had we gone for the French Linky system. One design of meter built by selected manufacturers. Data transmission via power lines and hubs rather than by mobile and UHF.  We are British, and we know better.

https://www.smart-energy.com/features-analysis/smart-meters-101-frances-linky-electricity-meters/

Indeed seems their approach is better.

Chrysalis

fimacdoodle said:

I understand we are now paying for the national smart meter roll out as of this year. They were not free!
A perfect storm.
Again, I change energy companies and the new company cannot or will not read them. 

pointless. imho.......

Guessing a first gen meter of which they seemed really short sighted to not cater for supplier changes?

Solution I suppose is dont keep hopping suppliers.  I think I have only ever changed supplier twice in 16 years, one was enforced on me when Octopus brought COOP energy.

MWT

Chrysalis said:

fimacdoodle said:

I understand we are now paying for the national smart meter roll out as of this year. They were not free!
A perfect storm.
Again, I change energy companies and the new company cannot or will not read them. 

pointless. imho.......

Guessing a first gen meter of which they seemed really short sighted to not cater for supplier changes?

Solution I suppose is dont keep hopping suppliers.  I think I have only ever changed supplier twice in 16 years, one was enforced on me when Octopus brought COOP energy.

SMETS1 still allowed for supplier changes, but it needed each supplier to be authorised for access to the system for that brand of meter, so for example the 'Secure' brank meters were used by several different suppliers and those suppliers were able to take on and read the meters, but it did require them to know what they were doing.

The aim was always that those meters would be adopted into the DCC and all suppliers would then only have to authenticate with and work through the DCC.

bodsj

gabbie said:

Some years ago, we had a smart meter with an in-home display. We subsequently changed energy suppliers and this wasn't compatible so no longer worked. Since then we've had a succession of different suppliers, none of which offered us a new smart meter.  We're now with Sainsbury's Energy and I recently asked them for one. Apparently we already have a smart gas meter but not a smart electricity meter. Because of this, they can't give us another in-home display.

I find this all very puzzling! The electricity meter must have been smart at some time. I feel that, with fuel charges going up so much, the least they should be doing is offering everyone the technology to enable us to monitor our usage. 

Does anyone understand these meters and how they all work? If so, please enlighten me!!

Do you still have your "in house display(s) for gas /  electric? If so take a look at the app below (borrowed from another forumite)

Smart Meter App to Reduce Energy Cost | Energy Saving App | Hugo (hugoenergyapp.co.uk)

You should be able to monitor useage on your phone/tablet for one or both of your meters but I believe you need the "MAC" adress off the In house display unit to set it up - might be worth a try.

revdfscott

So after requesting my smart meter be changed to an economy 7 one my supplier tells me it can’t be done because of ‘low WAN’ relating to a radio signal.

I’m guessing this means they can’t read the meter properly due to an issue of poor  communication between the meter and the server. Which would be understandable if it were just a few remote farmhouses etc. But they say, “the main area that is affected is the whole of region 23, which is mainly the north of England”.

Surely

THEY

CANNOT

BE

SERIOUS!!

[Deleted User]

revdfscott said:

So after requesting my smart meter be changed to an economy 7 one my supplier tells me it can’t be done because of ‘low WAN’ relating to a radio signal.

I’m guessing this means they can’t read the meter properly due to an issue of poor  communication between the meter and the server. Which would be understandable if it were just a few remote farmhouses etc. But they say, “the main area that is affected is the whole of region 23, which is mainly the north of England”.

Surely

THEY

CANNOT

BE

SERIOUS!!

Smart meter connectivity in the North utilises a UHF network provided by Arqiva. One of the problems that  they have had in the past is getting planning permission for relay stations. I have no idea if this applies to you: you could have a look at your local planning portal.

This is typical of some of the planning challenges that Arqiva has faced:

https://portal.peakdistrict.gov.uk/06180476

pocketslint

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scots-couple-charged-13000-ovo-28417575