Smart meter impasse

Sarahspangles

matt_drummer said:

Sarahspangles said:

Thank you for the actually useful suggestion! Was starting to wonder what the advice would be if I said I’d bought an electric bike and it wasn’t working - ‘just pedal?’ Lol

You haven't bought any smart meters though, the meters belong to your energy supplier.

The only way to solve your issue is to talk to your supplier or try another one, but they still might not work.

How far is your gas meter from your electricity meter?

We may not own the meters, but I expect we’re paying for them!

The meters are less than 50cm apart with no obstructions and the electricity meter does communicate. I suppose it’s conceivable that the receiver unit on the electricity meter is actually the issue, rather than the sender unit on two gas meters.

We’re at an impasse now with the supplier. I expect we’ll move house before there’s either a technical solution or they’re willing to try something else.

matt_drummer

Is your electricity meter sending readings to your supplier?

Why do you have two gas meters?

Sarahspangles

matt_drummer said:

Is your electricity meter sending readings to your supplier?

Why do you have two gas meters?

Yes the electricity meter has always communicated with the HAN (?) and the IHD.

We only have one meter - at a time. Neither of the smart ones that have been installed has communicated.

matt_drummer

OK.

But do So Energy get your electricity readings?

It sounds like the gas meter and the electricity meter are communicating and you can see data from both on the IHD?

Is it that the communications hub on the electricity meter is unable to send data?

Maybe it's the location of the electricity meter that is the issue?

Sarahspangles

QrizB said:

Sarahspangles said:

Well now I’m even more peed off. I originally declined the smart meter installation because the meters are under the stairs on an internal load-bearing wall, and I said I was sceptical they would communicate.

Wait, are the gas meter and the electricity meter both together in the same space? We've all been assuming their several metres apart and/or separated by fully-dense walls.

If they're co-located, they should be communicating easily.

Yes the electricity meter is on a load bearing internal wall in a half-height understairs cupboard about 4m in from the front door. The gas meter is about 50cm away and freestanding as the pipes come up through the floorboards.

The cupboard is kept practically empty on account of having to get to the meters so blinking often and also because the gas meter is a bit vulnerable as it is placed. I know this because on the day we were moving in the meter reader came, opened the cupboard, smelled gas and we had to evacuate. The previous owners had yanked the meter with something as they emptied the cupboard and fractured a pipe or joint. We got our first new meter that same day - not a smart one though. 

Sarahspangles

matt_drummer said:

OK.

But do So Energy get your electricity readings?

It sounds like the gas meter and the electricity meter are communicating and you can see data from both on the IHD?

Is it that the communications hub on the electricity meter is unable to send data?

Maybe it's the location of the electricity meter that is the issue?

The electricity meter sends readings to So Energy, plus we can see the electricity usage on the IHD.

Neither of the gas meters has ever communicated with So - or with the IHD. In fact the last couple of engineers have looked at/reset the IHD to see if that suggests the gas meter is now communicating.

matt_drummer

It sounds like your problem isn't really the smart meters.

The fundamental issue is the location of the meters and the security of their installation.

I guess you were hoping that smart meters would mean that you never had to go near them again and this is the source of your frustration and anger.

Ideally you would want the meters located somewhere less inconvenient.

Sarahspangles

matt_drummer said:

It sounds like your problem isn't really the smart meters.

The fundamental issue is the location of the meters and the security of their installation.

I guess you were hoping that smart meters would mean that you never had to go near them again and this is the source of your frustration and anger.

Ideally you would want the meters located somewhere less inconvenient.

I don’t mind reading the meters. I always have read my meters, at least quarterly, as I’m analytical by nature and like to see how our usage is changing. I also thought it was unlikely they would move them - unless we paid - although you can’t blame me for asking and at least one of the engineers thought the installation was unsafe

What I find frustrating is being lied to about the capability of the new meters, and then ending up doing more manually than we ever needed to in the analogue era.

matt_drummer

Sarahspangles said:

matt_drummer said:

It sounds like your problem isn't really the smart meters.

The fundamental issue is the location of the meters and the security of their installation.

I guess you were hoping that smart meters would mean that you never had to go near them again and this is the source of your frustration and anger.

Ideally you would want the meters located somewhere less inconvenient.

I don’t mind reading the meters. I always have read my meters, at least quarterly, as I’m analytical by nature and like to see how our usage is changing. I also thought it was unlikely they would move them - unless we paid - although you can’t blame me for asking and at least one of the engineers thought the installation was unsafe

What I find frustrating is being lied to about the capability of the new meters, and then ending up doing more manually than we ever needed to in the analogue era.

I doubt that they intentionally lied to you, they have nothing to gain by doing so.

It sounds like there is no real reason why it shouldn't all work, but for some reason it doesn't

From what you have described it should have worked, they haven't lied, they just haven't been able to make it work.

Whether that is incompetence or a technical limitation, I don't think we will ever know.

However, you are not worse off than you were before, and in actual fact you are better off because your electricity meter is working properly which means you can take advantage of different tariffs that were not available to you before if you want to.

Surely you are doing less now than with your old meters, you only have to read your gas meter now rather than both?

Sarahspangles

If it isn’t lies, it’s certainly spin.

Our routine now is to read on the 1st or 2nd, submit online and the bill is generated on 5th. It’s 50/50 whether they use our customer reading - even if it’s submitted in good time - and we ask them to correct their estimate when it’s out. Not because we’re strapped for cash, but because they consistently overestimate usage and if we allow it to stand that sets the run rate they use for the next estimate.

We couldn’t submit readings for the new meter for two months as their website asked for an opening reading, but can’t cope if what you then enter is lower than the number the old meter had reached. So the current estimated bill we have is 215% of actual usage this year, and 200% compared to the same period next year. Plus several times they’ve asked us to photograph the meter display and email it to them! Oh, and we still get yearly meter inspections.

It’s more work.