Smart meter functionality

EssexHebridean

This is trying to establish whether in fact the oft repeated "40% of smart meters don't work" statistic is in any way true, or whether in fact it arises from misunderstandings. Please read ALL the options and the information below before making your choice!

IMPORTANT: For avoidance of doubt - the "Smart meter" is the box fixed to the wall at the point where your incoming electric / gas supplies are. The In House Display is the little digital display that people often have sitting out so they can see their use at a glance. 

If you were never given an IHD, select the option for it not working for your particular circumstance. 

Gerry1

Given that the official publicity has always concentrated on dubious claims that smart meters can save money, it's quite reasonable to include a failure of the IHD in the total stats.

Dozy Ofgem has belatedly told suppliers not to limit support of IHDs to only 12 months, so perhaps the message is finally starting to get through the fog at Ofgem Towers.

MattMattMattUK

I have had a smart meter since I moved into my new build, the smart meter has always worked, the IHD worked for two weeks then stopped working. I left British Gas and moved to EDF, never had any problems with the smart meter but the IHD never worked despite them sending me five, however the issue was their systems, it was impossible to register an IDH via their systems as it refused to recognise my account number (I know four other people who had the same problem). I moved to Octopus, my smart meter continues to work, no functional IHD but I am not that bothered. I have applied for an Octopus Home Mini so I will wait until they are available again and get one of those. 

EssexHebridean said:

This is trying to establish whether in fact the oft repeated "40% of smart meters don't work" statistic is in any way true, or whether in fact it arises from misunderstandings.

I would expect it is almost always the latter. It was very disappointing to see Which report things so inaccurately in their various articles on the matter. The lack of accuracy almost makes me think that they should be stripped of their ability to raise super complaints. 

mr_stripey

My meters work fine and send readings to the supplier. I lost the IHD (god knows where - maybe it will turn up one day) but I didn't really pay too much attention to it anyhow.

Supplier still contacts me for readings, even though they are getting them which I guess could confuse some people.

EssexHebridean

Gerry1 said:

Given that the official publicity has always concentrated on dubious claims that smart meters can save money, it's quite reasonable to include a failure of the IHD in the total stats.

Dozy Ofgem has belatedly told suppliers not to limit support of IHDs to only 12 months, so perhaps the message is finally starting to get through the fog at Ofgem Towers.

It should be done transparently though Gerry - otherwise the statistics aren't accurate. Part of the issue is that people aren't clear on the difference between "The Smart Meter" and "The IHD" - which is an educational issue as we all know. Ultimately, while a non functioning IHD may well be annoying for a lot of people, it is not the same as the "smart meter not working". 

MWT

We might perhaps expect a higher proportion of those with faults to be posting on this group, as people with no problems don't tend to go looking for this forum, but it will be an interesting poll regardless...

The_Green_Hornet

For reference, I replaced the supplier's basic IHD with a combined IHD/CAD.

dunstonh

My IHD never worked from the off.  However, I bought a third party model that was much better (than if the EDF supplied one had worked).     It gives me current use, day-to-date, week-to-date, month-, to date and 24 hours, showing red/amber/green bars in 30-minute slices all on the same screen.    It doesn't waste the screen real estate like most of the supplier versions.

We use about 50-60kWh per day. So, having a decent IHD is important.  If we were using 6-8kWh per day, then the value of having an IHD is pretty low.

Alnat1

My IHD only works for electricity, the gas never connected. I answered that it works well as I'm only interested in the electricity really.

TheElectricCow

After a short initial setup period my smart meter has always worked perfectly and has even successfully been remote switched from single rate to E7, and then later onto smart ToU tariffs without issue. The IHD too has always worked perfectly well even if it’s functionality is a little basic.

The only “problem” I can say I’ve had is on one occasion where the tariff information hadn’t updated on a tariff change, but this was no fault of the meter and was simply an oversight from Octopus when a human made a manual change to my account (which they promptly corrected with a further remote update).

Sterlingtimes

Octopus does not want to suffer the cost of smart meter maintenance and repair: Octopus has told me this. Mine worked across all suppliers from 15/06/2015 to 14/07/2023.

The IHD work perfectly. Gas works perfectly. Electricity will not work for half-hourly readings.

Octopus will replace the meter for £400, but otherwise states that the meter is insufficiently broken to warrant an engineering visit.

I was a great supporter of smart metering. I wonder how many broken smart meters there are in the field.