New smart meter -IHD not connecting

Staffordian11

I had a smart electricity meter installed yesterday, and the IHD is a Geo Trio 11.

As of 12.15 today, the display is still not connecting to the meter. The display simply shows "Connecting to smart meter..."

The system status says connected to meter network, but there is a red cross top left of the screen.  Data is showing in the Bright app and the EDF website* so the connection 'home' is apparently ok.  On the meter, the HAN light flashes, so I assume this is ok. Putting the display by the meter (on battery power) for ten minutes didn't let it connect.

Is it likely to be faulty or can it take a day or two to start working?

Thanks for any advice.

* Edited to add a correction. EDF website shows smart meter serial number and has asked me to provide some basic profile details such as how I heat house, number of people etc for their energy hub but actually says 'No data available at the moment. Please check again later'

[Deleted User]

Staffordian11 said:

I had a smart electricity meter installed yesterday, and the IHD is a Geo Trio 11.

As of 12.15 today, the display is still not connecting to the meter. The display simply shows "Connecting to smart meter..."

The system status says connected to meter network, but there is a red cross top left of the screen.  Data is showing in the Bright app and the EDF website* so the connection 'home' is apparently ok.  On the meter, the HAN light flashes, so I assume this is ok. Putting the display by the meter (on battery power) for ten minutes didn't let it connect.

Is it likely to be faulty or can it take a day or two to start working?

Thanks for any advice.

* Edited to add a correction. EDF website shows smart meter serial number and has asked me to provide some basic profile details such as how I heat house, number of people etc for their energy hub but actually says 'No data available at the moment. Please check again later'

When the supplier has completed the smart meter onboarding process it will send you messages via the IHD - ‘ESME commissioning complete’ and ‘GSME commissioning complete’. Gas commissioning can take a few weeks.

Smart meters are not in constant contact with any supplier. The comms hub acts like a mobile phone waiting for a call. If you are on a 30 minute data profile, the supplier will pull the previous day’s data from the meters in the early hours of each morning.

Staffordian11

Thank you. Sounds like I just need a bit more patience:)

Staffordian11

Sorry to resurrect this, but my IHD still shows "Connecting to smart meter" four days after the smart meter was installed. I contacted EDF and wondered if the following makes sense. I have essentially been told by EDF that they are receiving my electricity readings so there can be no problem with the IHD or the HAN. This is what they said:

"Good afternoon ***, thanks for confirming your details. Checking your account and meter I can see we have been receiving the reads up to 11.03.2023. If the IHD is showing Lost Network this would be down to signalling in your area, the IHD would try and connect  once the signalling improves. Thanks, ***

I replied:

Hi ***, many thanks for replying. Can you please explain what you mean? I understood the IHD uses the HAN, (home area network) which is different to the WAN used by DCC and EDF, so you getting reads isn't relevant to my IHD issue. I actually placed the IHD in the meter cupboard running on batteries for some time and it still did not connect, so surely either the HAN is faulty or the IHD is. How can the signal improve? Thanks, ***

I then got this answer, which doesn't seem right to me, but then I only know what I've picked up online.

"The actual Smart Meters use HAN to communicate with each other, the In Home Display connect remotely to the meters. If there was an issue with the HAN then reads would not be recorded, the connection for the In Home Display can drop depending on the signalling in your area. As we do not have control over the signalling this would need to improve to prevent the issue from occurring continuously. Thanks, ***"

If relevant, we did not have a smart gas meter installed as the installer could not trace the pipes from the meter and said he was not allowed to fit one in this scenario in case a hidden pipe joint was disturbed and started to leak. 

Swipe

The EDF representative doesn't know what they are talking about. Signalling in the area affecting the IHD when the OP has put it in the meter cupboard next to the meter? Sounds like the IHD hasn't been paired properly.

Scot_39

Might it be worth the OP repeating the cabinet test - but actually switching the IHD off and on - if he hasn't already.

That certainly seems to force mine to do some sort of handshake on power up - that I have never seen it do - otherwise.

It freezes the display ----- on occassions - but then just recovers - without that sequence.

There was no delay in my IHD working - as soon as the engineer set it up on day 1 - the meter itself not sure about - as didn't get my next bill for few weeks - and didn't have an on-line account.  But the fitter seemed happy it was communicating at install time - so believed him(*).

But then that might be something to do with it being an older Smets1 model.

(*) He was the same guy - after 2 unsuccesful trips by others - who managed to actually fit my original E10 digital in place of my old twin heatwise (one radio switched) meters.  The first 2 just didn't seem to like what they saw (heatwise had things like a boost button input and seperate hot water only output).

Staffordian11

Thanks for the replies.  Good to know it's not me being totally stupid.  I will try restarting the IHD in the meter cabinet tomorrow but fully believe it is a case of not being set up properly. I have replied to EDF along those lines and will see how they respond.

[Deleted User]

Staffordian11 said:

Thanks for the replies.  Good to know it's not me being totally stupid.  I will try restarting the IHD in the meter cabinet tomorrow but fully believe it is a case of not being set up properly. I have replied to EDF along those lines and will see how they respond.

Refer the supplier to the Smart Meter Installation Code of Practice:

Staffordian11

[Deleted User] said:

Staffordian11 said:

Thanks for the replies.  Good to know it's not me being totally stupid.  I will try restarting the IHD in the meter cabinet tomorrow but fully believe it is a case of not being set up properly. I have replied to EDF along those lines and will see how they respond.

Refer the supplier to the Smart Meter Installation Code of Practice:

Thats useful, many thanks.

Staffordian11

Well, just rung EDF, and the advisor is adamant I must wait fourteen fays for the IHD to start working.

Can't help feeling I've spoken to someone else who though adamant, is clueless but I don't know what else I can do but wait.

I'll be amazed if I'm not ringing them again after the fourteen days but the advisor claims all will be well by then and the engineer who installed it was wrong to say it would work within 24 hours.

Scot_39

I could believe it would take 14d for it to be registered with the DCC and then for DCC to actually regularly poll it and send the readings to your energy supplier.

Or possibly even to register gas onto electric and then to dcc etc.


My smets1 was couple of years ago, my sister had new smets2 in Dec - just for electric - it again displayed the usage - from day 1.


Good luck.