Smart meter issues - Octopus

lukey01234

Afternoon all, 

I have an EV, on Intelligent Octopus Go tariff and have lived in my property for just under 2 years, in that time I've had hell with my smart meter. I'm in the north so it's on the radio transmissions (YO7 postcode)

When I first moved in I noticed that my meter wasn't communicating, Octopus came out several times and eventually got my smart meter working. This then worked for about 12 months. 

Fast forward about 12 months and my smart meter lost connection again, someone came out and did a manual reset which didn't solve the problem (although they said it did) so they had to send someone out for a second time. The second person did a meter exchange, putting in a new meter but also told me that this new meter was capable of doing two rates on the actual meter rather than through a smart tariff just in case something happened again and I could at least get cheap electricity overnight.

The meter appears to have stopped communicating again on Tuesday this week and I have only just realised due to the EV failing a couple of charges. There are a few things I find odd though and wonder if anyone has had a similar experience?

The reason I noted the meter had stopped communicating was because I was going to change the device linked to the octopus account to the car rather than the charger as that had previously been more reliable with the charges being set up and actually working overnight. When I did this, I went to set up the car and I got the message 'We haven't found a smart meter connected to your property'. Now is this because the comms hub has stopped sending them readings so that's what the app is set up to say or is something going wrong on Octopus' / DSCC end which is what's causing Octopus to think that the smart meter isn't sending them readings but it actually is?

The other interesting thing is that the comms hub is flashing every 5 seconds on both the WAN and HAN lights as if it is functioning normally, this was the same as before when they changed the meter, the engineer said it was flashing as if it should have been sending readings normally which makes me think there is more going on than just the meter disconnecting regularly...

Thirdly, has anyone had any joy with getting Octopus to fix this for good? They've been pretty rubbish so far and it's resulted in two complaints to the ombudsman being upheld, it's also frustrating that I cant really switch to another provider with what's going on and the history with the meter.

Any advice/experiences would be appreciated

Qyburn

lukey01234 said:

There are a few things I find odd though and wonder if anyone has had a similar experience?

Similarly annoying if not exactly the same.

Our meter worked perfectly for 18 months before going flakey. The faults weren't one that, on the face of it, sound like communications signal problems. For example a period when Octopus could read index but no h/h data, and gaps in the data stored on the meter. It took over four months and three appointments for them to replace the meter with one that doesn't work at all.

Now nearly another two months on, they're shaping up to washing their hands of it claiming it just poor signal and will never work. Not that they've actually measured the signal and found it insufficient, quite the opposite as the installer said it was working fine and just need Octopus to complete the commissioning.

lukey01234

Qyburn said:

lukey01234 said:

There are a few things I find odd though and wonder if anyone has had a similar experience?

Similarly annoying if not exactly the same.

Our meter worked perfectly for 18 months before going flakey. The faults weren't one that, on the face of it, sound like communications signal problems. For example a period when Octopus could read index but no h/h data, and gaps in the data stored on the meter. It took over four months and three appointments for them to replace the meter with one that doesn't work at all.

Now nearly another two months on, they're shaping up to washing their hands of it claiming it just poor signal and will never work. Not that they've actually measured the signal and found it insufficient, quite the opposite as the installer said it was working fine and just need Octopus to complete the commissioning.

Do you know if they spoke to the DCC etc?

Qyburn

I think not, although it's difficult to tell given the layers of people involved.

I think it's Octopus' smart meter team that's the hold up, first vetoing a site visit until a "low/no WAN" case was raised with DCC, then saying they can't raise "low/no WAN" case until they've carried out a site visit to test comms hub in different locations. 

anonymous100

I had a non-communicating ('Northern') smart meter from Octopus. It was a 3 year saga, but in the end Octopus got it working - I wrote it up on a blog

MSE will not let me post a link, so you will have to cut and paste these two parts:

    https://

    homeeneryefficiencyukreallife.blogspot.com/2024/09/smart-meter-3-my-smart-meter-journey.html

The key step was the engineer who had the bright idea of asking neighbours if their smart meters worked - we found one the Octopus had set up 2 years before and copied this set up.

I hope that this helps.

Qyburn

anonymous100 said:

I had a non-communicating ('Northern') smart meter from Octopus. It was a 3 year saga, but in the end Octopus got it working - I wrote it up on a blog

Thanks. Same model comms hub and meter as I have. One difference is that there as no suggestion of a poor WAN signal until just recently.

MarzipanCrumble

I too had an intermittantly working SMETS2 in S Wales.  Octopus really worked hard at trying to get it to send a signal, even changing both meters.  No go.  Then suddenly 3 months later all the lights were flashing every 5 seconds!  Quick phone call to Octopus who talked me through connecting the gas meter and so far so stable.

(IMO O2 signal is really weak where I live and I think it is picking up via WAN.  Possibly my recently moved in neighbour got their meter working/changed.  )