Recurring fault on Octopus IHDs

[Deleted User]

jollyfred said:

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 

This has been reported before. Only your supplier can resolve this issue with the DCC. By the sound of it, your IHD has a connection with the gas proxy meter in the comms hub. This may require a comms hub firmware upgrade that is a DCC responsibility. The DCC is not a consumer-facing organisation hence the need to let your supplier deal with it. 

jollyfred

[Deleted User] said:

jollyfred said:

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 

This has been reported before. Only your supplier can resolve this issue with the DCC. By the sound of it, your IHD has a connection with the gas proxy meter in the comms hub. This may require a comms hub firmware upgrade that is a DCC responsibility. The DCC is not a consumer-facing organisation hence the need to let your supplier deal with it. 

And therein lies the issue. Octopus won't deal with it. Their response is either (a) there is no fault with the IHD as long as it shows something or (b) no response. It's been going on for four months now.

[Deleted User]

jollyfred said:

Dolor said:

jollyfred said:

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 

This has been reported before. Only your supplier can resolve this issue with the DCC. By the sound of it, your IHD has a connection with the gas proxy meter in the comms hub. This may require a comms hub firmware upgrade that is a DCC responsibility. The DCC is not a consumer-facing organisation hence the need to let your supplier deal with it. 

And therein lies the issue. Octopus won't deal with it. Their response is either (a) there is no fault with the IHD as long as it shows something or (b) no response. It's been going on for four months now.

Can you see smart meter data on third-party apps such as BRIGHT and in your Octopus account? How old is your IHD?

EDIT: this problem is being widely reported on the Ovo support forum. Ovo’s response is as follows:

I’ve shared this with our smart experts and they have advised that they don’t think there’s anything the OVO Support teams can do at the moment, as the issue relates to the smart meter’s communications hub firmware and we're currently investigating this with DCC and GEO.

As I suggested above, there is nothing any supplier can do about this other than report the problem to the DCC for resolution.

jollyfred

Yes, we can see the usage in the on-line account, but don't do apps. The first IHD was installed about a year ago. The second one arrived a few weeks ago. They look pretty much the same.

Thanks for the clip from the Ovo forum. Looks like it's a recognised issue. The question is whether Octopus is also investigating it with the DCC and manufacturer but just not saying, or maybe customer services simply doesn't know.

[Deleted User]

jollyfred said:

Yes, we can see the usage in the on-line account, but don't do apps. The first IHD was installed about a year ago. The second one arrived a few weeks ago. They look pretty much the same.

Thanks for the clip from the Ovo forum. Looks like it's a recognised issue. The question is whether Octopus is also investigating it with the DCC and manufacturer but just not saying, or maybe customer services simply doesn't know.

I would say that Octopus has one of the strongest smart meter teams in the sector. 

Try BRIGHT and Octopus Watch. We could well see IHDs being phased out in favour of smart apps. The information in Octopus Watch comes directly from your Octopus account. 

jollyfred

I suppose this drives people to smart phones and watches, which not everyone wants or can afford. 

Maybe the issue with Octopus, like many companies, is not the back-room/technicals, but the front-end customer services that doesn't really know what's going on and tries to blag their way out of it.

QrizB

jollyfred said:

It's a Geo Trio. ...
As suggested, we'll contact the manufacturer this week and see if they have any ideas.

I've contcted Geo before. They were prompt, polite and gave helpful information.

It would be good to hear how you get on with this.

jollyfred said:

I suppose this drives people to smart phones and watches, which not everyone wants or can afford.

If you didn't already have an IHD, a basic smartphone or tablet to run the Octopus app could cost you less than buying an IHD from Geo or Hildebrand would.

Chrysalis

[Deleted User] said:

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.

Do you have thoughts on why we didnt go down the LINKY route?

Scot_39

Smart meters and so their ihds take a very simple view of the world- perhaps pandering to the majority of the 85% hones in uk with mains gas and single rate electric.

I in theory then have to read meter to get my peak and off peak usage registers - but the thing has a whole set of display modes stats for my likewise  non existent gas.

But in reality I now just a new spreadsheet to get from totals usage and cost and peak off peak prices - a simple bit of gcse level maths - to get the split - at any period below monthly statements.

QrizB

Chrysalis said:

[Deleted User] said:

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

Do you have thoughts on why we didnt go down the LINKY route?

I suspect it's a misguided faith in the efficiencies of the free market, not wanting to mandate a reference design of meter.