SMETS2 smart meter IHD showing gas usage 3.66 x less than actual

mobilejo

Since around 1 October, the usage for gas shown on my IHD is almost exactly 3.66 x less than my actual usage shown on Hugo and Loop. i.e. If I take my IHD kwh and multiply it by 3.66, the result will be almost exactly what is shown on Hugo.

Here's the last 5 days of data:

IHD    - Hugo
28.60 - 104.92     - x3.669
22.02 - 80.75       - x3.667
15.99 - 58.59       - x3.664
26.51 - 97.27       - x3.669
26.65 - 97.74       - x3.668

I know based on my usage that the IHD numbers are much less than I would normally use, and the Hugo numbers are what I would expect. Last year in October my usage was 2745 kwh and November was 3965 kwh, which averages ~90 kwh day and ~132 kwh respectively. So the IHD is definitely under reading.

Other relevant points:

- I have SMETS2 smart meters which have always worked fine since we moved in 2019.

- For over a year my electric has been with Octopus, gas with BG. The Chameleon IHD I have has always shown the correct usage for both.

- I've been on a fixed gas tariff with BG since last September which didn't change on 1 October as it is already under the new cap.

- I turned off the IHD for around 6 hours and then turned it back on, that seems to be the only way to reset it.

Anyone got any ideas what causes this and how to fix it?

[Deleted User]

Well it's not the usual imperial to metric conversion problems, because that would be 2.83

[Deleted User]

Your communications hub contains a gas proxy meter which takes usage data from your gas meter every 30 minutes. It converts the gas volume to kWh using a fixed calorific value. 1 cubic metre of gas will show as 11.22kWh on your IHD. Your supplier pulls usage data from your meter once every 24hrs and it will use this for billing. The information on the IHD is advisory and nothing more.

Turning your IHD off/on will do nothing. You cannot reset the communications hub remotely - only the DCC can do this at the request of a supplier. All you are doing by turning off the IHD is disconnecting it from the Home Area Network. The IHD is just a display. Your actions are a bit like turning off a TV to re-set a remote Sky TV box: it won’t work.

Third parties such as BRIGHT pull actual data from your meters using their own secure Adapter firmware. If the IHD data is different then it might be a gas proxy meter issue.

The way forward. Apprise your supplier of the problem, and ask it to issue a request to the DCC for a remote communications hub reset. This effectively powers down the communications hub for 15 minutes. This may not work. Trust me, your supplier will be reluctant to change your communications hub if it is getting smart meter data for billing given the advisory nature of the IHD. My IHD has never shown daily standing charges even though these are set correctly in the 2 meters.

PS Are you genuinely using 105kWh of gas for heating on a mild October day? Our heating has yet to go on as it is currently 17C outside at the moment.

MWT

mobilejo said:

Since around 1 October, the usage for gas shown on my IHD is almost exactly 3.66 x less than my actual usage shown on Hugo and Loop. i.e. If I take my IHD kwh and multiply it by 3.66, the result will be almost exactly what is shown on Hugo.

Here's the last 5 days of data:

IHD    - Hugo
28.60 - 104.92     - x3.669
22.02 - 80.75       - x3.667
15.99 - 58.59       - x3.664
26.51 - 97.27       - x3.669
26.65 - 97.74       - x3.668

I know based on my usage that the IHD numbers are much less than I would normally use, and the Hugo numbers are what I would expect. Last year in October my usage was 2745 kwh and November was 3965 kwh, which averages ~90 kwh day and ~132 kwh respectively. So the IHD is definitely under reading.

Your usage does look very high for this time of year.

Ignore the IHD and 'Hugo' and just read the meter for the next couple of days then tell us what the reading are so we can see exactly what the meter is reporting...

The meter reading will be in cubic metres (m3), so the rough conversion is to multiply by 11.2 to get kWh, but just give us the meter readings and we can do the rest...

mobilejo

[Deleted User] said:

Your communications hub contains a gas proxy meter which takes usage data from your gas meter every 30 minutes. It converts the gas volume to kWh using a fixed calorific value. 1 cubic metre of gas will show as 11.22kWh on your IHD. Your supplier pulls usage data from your meter once every 24hrs and it will use this for billing. The information on the IHD is advisory and nothing more.

Turning your IHD off/on will do nothing. You cannot reset the communications hub remotely - only the DCC can do this at the request of a supplier. All you are doing by turning off the IHD is disconnecting it from the Home Area Network. The IHD is just a display. Your actions are a bit like turning off a TV to re-set a remote Sky TV box: it won’t work.

Third parties such as BRIGHT pull actual data from your meters using their own secure Adapter firmware. If the IHD data is different then it might be a gas proxy meter issue.

The way forward. Apprise your supplier of the problem, and ask it to issue a request to the DCC for a remote communications hub reset. This effectively powers down the communications hub for 15 minutes. This may not work. Trust me, your supplier will be reluctant to change your communications hub if it is getting smart meter data for billing given the advisory nature of the IHD. My IHD has never shown daily standing charges even though these are set correctly in the 2 meters.

PS Are you genuinely using 105kWh of gas for heating on a mild October day? Our heating has yet to go on as it is currently 17C outside at the moment.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

Yes, we do use a lot. I would blame the house because its large and draughty, but I also accept that we just like it warmer than average too.