The supplier do not want to fix intermittent smart meter readings. How to convince them to fix it?

SAC2334

JSHarris said:

This comms problem with gas meters seems commonplace, seems to me that the people designing the units were pretty clueless when it came to understanding the real requirement.  It doesn't take much to block the signal, and as you say, the battery powered gas meter side just keeps trying until the battery goes flat.  I get the impression that the system designers falsely assumed that every installation would have the gas meter box right next to the electricity meter box, as is commonplace with new builds.  They failed to consider all the millions of homes where the two meters are spaced well apart. 

My in-laws had this same problem, their gas meter was on the outside wall of the house, their electricity meter was in the basement.  There was no way that the very low power gas meter comms unit was ever going to communicate with the electricity meter.  Worse still was the fact that there was no way the electricity meter was ever going to connect to DCC, as being deep in a basement there was not a sniff of a signal.

What's really irritating is that none of this is rocket science, or dealing with the unknown.  A lot of the UK housing stock is old, and until about 40 years ago electricity meters were almost always buried deep in the interior of the house (the cupboard under the stairs was a favourite location).  Expecting meters deep inside a building to be able to communicate at close to microwave frequencies was always going to be a challenge, hence the reason there are a lot of smart meters that aren't talking to DCC, despite them not having any intrinsic faults.  A better option by far would have been for there to be a cable connection option, especially for gas meters.  It would mean a bit more installation work, but would remove the battery problem and the difficulty with communicating through walls and floors.  It was interesting reading the design statement for the (relatively new) mandatory smart EV charge points.  The comms problem was recognised right from the start, so they should (and one company doesn't follow this) have the provision for either a WiFi or wired Ethernet connection.  The wired Ethernet connection, in particular, is a much more reliable way of connecting to a central server.

My neighbour works for a company in South Wales who sell refurbished smart gas meters and tells me they are doing well taking on digital smart  gas meters which have flatttened their batteries in less than 2 years trying to connect with electric smart meters.  Once they are duds , they are replaced .Its their biggest money spinner .Another big negative for the utter stupidity and huge waste of money that the UK smart meter roll out has become compared to Italy , France and Ireland 

dragonfruit

Phones4Chris said:

The answer is to raise a formal complaint and dispute the estimated readings as being inaccurate. If they are refusing to follow the engineers recommendations then tell them you want a deadlock letter so that you can go to the ombudsman. If they refuse, tell them you'll wait the 8 weeks and then go to the ombudsman.

I did complain to the Energy Ombudsman in respect to lack of communication from the supplier to my request to book an appointment with the engineer to change the comms hub and the electric meter to dual band ones as the engineer required. I still have a few days to either accept, decline or appeal the Ombudsman's decision, hence I sent my request for advice here.

Some of the excerpts from the Ombudsman's clerk decision:
"Suppliers have an obligation to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the smart meter is communicating with the supplier or DCC (Data and Communications Company) and sending meter readings."

"I note within Regulation 4 of EGR sets out the rules for suppliers attending customers property when there is a suspected faulty meter:

- Confirm whether the meter is faulty 

- Restore the faulty meter or

- Replace the faulty meter

The regulation applied when a customer notifies their supplier of matters relating to a meter, through which the customer receives a supply of gas or electricity from the supplier, that the supplier ought reasonably to expect to mean that the meter is operating outside the margins of error. It also stated within the regulation 4 (4), within 5 working days of receiving a notification the supplier must complete an initial assessment of whether the meter is operating outside the margins of error, take an appropriate action and offer to confirm, in writing the nature and outcome of that initial assessment and that appropriate action and the actions which the supplier will take to ensure that the timescale within which those actions will occur.

Each of the above three actions are an individual standard."

"They did make me aware that there are some estimated meter readings on the gas however, within the past month that more regular reads are being received and I’m satisfied that the gas smart meter is functioning correctly for you. 

I understand that following the appointment on 28 June 2023, the engineer had made you aware that the electricity meter would also need to be exchanged to a dual band width meter with a new communications hub as in the future this may affect the gas meter readings being transmitted due to distance between the meters and that it could cause detriment to the battery life on the gas meter. 

Unfortunately, this is not something I can request of OVO Energy to exchanging the electricity meter for you as the meter is functioning correctly as it is should be and the evidence shows that the OVO Energy are receiving both your gas and electricity meter readings. Your supplier can only exchange the meter if it is faulty and if they were to exchange a functioning meter there may be a charge incurred for this which would be passed to the consumer. I can see no reason to exchange the meters and neither your supplier or the Energy Ombudsman can predict what will happen with the meters in future [well, that is not true, the same circumstances will give the same outcome]. 

I agree, that changing the gas smart meter would not resolve the issue [comment: the supplier's representative in reply to the complaint sent to the Ombudsman said that they can change the gas meter (again!), but ignored the engineer's request to change the comms hub to dual band, that is why they say about (not) changing the gas smart meter here] and as the meter readings are being sent remotely, this is no longer needed. However, I would recommend that should you experience any issues in the future with the smart meters to contact your supplier directly regarding this who will look into this separately for you." 

Robin9

There are other options to changing the electric meter to get better comms- I've got two  gas meters (in a Church and Church Hall) which have their own comms unit/battery hardwired back to the meter itself.