Recurring fault on Octopus IHDs

jollyfred

We had an IHD installed with a new smart meter about a year ago and it worked well until summer this year when the display panel on the right started to say 'waiting for gas reading', only we don't have gas. It should show the cumululative electricity usage for the day which it had been doing before then (the left side panel shows electricity usage at the current point in time). Octopus eventually sent a replacement but said the issue might happen again as it arises when the manufacturer sends out firmware updates. Sure enough, only a week after the new one was activated, the same error occurred.

Just wonder if anyone else has the same issue and has a workaround for it. One not-so-helpful Octopus person told us to take readings from the smart meter instead which defeats the point of having an IHD.

The IHD looks to be a Geo Trio. Thanks!

P.S. Posted here because heating is via a pump.

dunstonh

You may wish to post or get your post moved to the energy forum.   This is the oil, wood, LPG or alternative fuels section.  You will get some answers in here but you will get more from the main section.

jollyfred

Hi there, thanks for that - how do I get the post moved, do I need to flag it to a moderator? Just reported it for moving.

jollyfred

Thanks for moving this  Still no reply from Octopus about the issue. It took three months to get the first IHD replaced, and not sure there's much point asking for a third if it's a firmware failing  

[Deleted User]

jollyfred said:

We had an IHD installed with a new smart meter about a year ago and it worked well until summer this year when the display panel on the right started to say 'waiting for gas reading', only we don't have gas. It should show the cumululative electricity usage for the day which it had been doing before then (the left side panel shows electricity usage at the current point in time). Octopus eventually sent a replacement but said the issue might happen again as it arises when the manufacturer sends out firmware updates. Sure enough, only a week after the new one was activated, the same error occurred.

Just wonder if anyone else has the same issue and has a workaround for it. One not-so-helpful Octopus person told us to take readings from the smart meter instead which defeats the point of having an IHD.

The IHD looks to be a Geo Trio. Thanks!

P.S. Posted here because heating is via a pump.

The IHD should not be used for meter readings unless you are 100% sure that only one register has been used since the meter was installed. The IHD index reading is the TOTAL of all the 4 usage registers. This is why suppliers suggest that readings are taken from the actual smart meters.

Meter and device manufacturers are responsible for building and DCC certifying all firmware updates which suppliers then deploy in tranches.

jollyfred

Thanks for the reply. The IHD isn't being watched for billing purposes; it's to get an idea of total kW consumption on a daily basis for monitoring purposes. Until the faults occurred, the IHDs were doing fine for this purpose.

If the manufacturers are responsible for firmware updates, why aren't they testing the effects of the updates before sending them out? And why isn't Octopus checking for issues and getting manufacturers to sort them? If the only workaround for this fault is to check the smart meter every day at one minute to midnight, or log in for on-line info, what's the point of the IHD?

[Deleted User]

If the manufacturers are responsible for firmware updates, why aren't they testing the effects of the updates before sending them out? And why isn't Octopus checking for issues and getting manufacturers to sort them?

There is a testing facility built into the DCC infrastructure. Nothing gets deployed that hasn’t been tested. 

That said, IHDs are nothing more than a display. All the clever stuff is done in the meters or in the communications hubs. The DCC is responsible for all communications hubs and for deploying firmware updates to these devices.

Suppliers are responsible for resolving smart meter issues but there is very little that they can do. As I said, the DCC is responsible for communications hubs and meter and device manufacturers are responsible for their products.

We would have been much better off fault resolution wise had we gone for a smart metering system similar to the French LINKY.

QrizB

jollyfred said:

If the manufacturers are responsible for firmware updates, why aren't they testing the effects of the updates before sending them out?

Smart meter firmware is tested extensively before release but still throws up occasional problems once allowed out into the wild. IHD firmware, however, isn't relevant to billing or metering and might not be as closely examined.

You could try a complaint to your IHD manufacturer? Some have pretty good reputations.

jollyfred said:

And why isn't Octopus checking for issues and getting manufacturers to sort them?

Octopus have no say in it. The route for firmware is manufacturer > DCC network > device.

jollyfred said:

 If the only workaround for this fault is to check the smart meter every day at one minute to midnight, or log in for on-line info, what's the point of the IHD?

What model of IHD do you have? Most of them have menus and sub-menus where you can find daily/weekly/monthly/annual data. It will also be available via your Octopus account, Octopus's smartphone app, or via the assorted 3rd-party smartphone apps from Hildebrand, Loop, etc.

jollyfred

It's a Geo Trio. Yes, it has menus, but there doesn't seem to be any way of closing down the 'waiting for gas reading' flag and bringing back cumulative electricity usage into that panel. The bar graphs for daily usage don't have numbers on all of them, so it's guesswork what's been used. Yes, we can get the info via the on-line account but the whole point of the IHD is that you can quickly check to see how the day is going, not keep logging on and off the on-line account, or leave it open all day. 

As suggested, we'll contact the manufacturer this week and see if they have any ideas.

[Deleted User]

jollyfred said:

It's a Geo Trio. Yes, it has menus, but there doesn't seem to be any way of closing down the 'waiting for gas reading' flag and bringing back cumulative electricity usage into that panel. The bar graphs for daily usage don't have numbers on all of them, so it's guesswork what's been used. Yes, we can get the info via the on-line account but the whole point of the IHD is that you can quickly check to see how the day is going, not keep logging on and off the on-line account, or leave it open all day. 

As suggested, we'll contact the manufacturer this week and see if they have any ideas.

By the sound of it, there is nothing wrong with your Geo Trio. ‘Waiting for gas reading’ can mean that there is a HAN connection problem between the gas proxy meter located within the comms hub and the actual gas meter.

IHDs should either be left on or chucked into a draw. 

jollyfred

Dolor said:

jollyfred said:

It's a Geo Trio. Yes, it has menus, but there doesn't seem to be any way of closing down the 'waiting for gas reading' flag and bringing back cumulative electricity usage into that panel. The bar graphs for daily usage don't have numbers on all of them, so it's guesswork what's been used. Yes, we can get the info via the on-line account but the whole point of the IHD is that you can quickly check to see how the day is going, not keep logging on and off the on-line account, or leave it open all day. 

As suggested, we'll contact the manufacturer this week and see if they have any ideas.

By the sound of it, there is nothing wrong with your Geo Trio. ‘Waiting for gas reading’ can mean that there is a HAN connection problem between the gas proxy meter located with the comms hub and the actual gas meter.

IHDs should either be left on or chucked into a draw. 

The thing is, there is no gas here and never has been. It's an all-electric house. If the IHD is waiting for a gas reading, it'll be waiting a long time