Aclara meter clock and readings

Auroraatkinson

Hi all

Hopefully someone can help me - how do I check if my smart meter have the correct time. I have Aclara meter but there are A and B buttons none showing the time . Is it always correct time because the meter is smart? Reason for asking is because I moved flats but In the same building so all appliances are the same . I set up my boiler same as the one in my old flat. I noticed I barely used any night tariff for 7 days although I set up my boiler to heat up at night for 3 hours each night. So for 7 days I only have 9kwh and my usual night usage is around 30 to 40 kwh per week . I know the boiler is the same so can it be that the time on the meter is somehow incorrect vs the time showing on my display next to the boiler. My old meter wasn't a smart one and I could see it was 3 hours behind. 

Auroraatkinson

See below photo of that meter 

QrizB

Auroraatkinson said:
Hopefully someone can help me - how do I check if my smart meter have the correct time. I have Aclara meter but there are A and B buttons none showing the time . Is it always correct time because the meter is smart?

If the meter is connected to the wide-area network, and is "smart", then the clock in the meter is pretty much guaranteed to be right.

Auroraatkinson said:

Reason for asking is because I moved flats but In the same building so all appliances are the same . I set up my boiler same as the one in my old flat. I noticed I barely used any night tariff for 7 days although I set up my boiler to heat up at night for 3 hours each night.

You're on a Economy 7 tariff? Or do you have something more complicated like E10, or Octopus Snug, or OVO Smart Economy 9? What is your taiff called and what are the rates? Which supplier are you with?

The smart meter for your new flat does not have to have the same offpeak timings as the one in your previous flat. So simply copying the timings from your old flat might not work.

What make and model is your boiler? Do you also have storage heaters?

matelodave

Dunno about Aclara but my ELSTER smart meter doesn't provide date or time info on the meter itself but the IHD (in home device) reports the correct date and time as well as info on the tariff, cost, consumption and historical data which I guess it's all derived from the smart meter. As both the meter and IHD are well over eight years old I doubt that either of them has got their own real-time clock so must get the clock data over the air.

Have you checked your IHD to see what info it provides

Auroraatkinson

QrizB said:

Auroraatkinson said:
Hopefully someone can help me - how do I check if my smart meter have the correct time. I have Aclara meter but there are A and B buttons none showing the time . Is it always correct time because the meter is smart?

If the meter is connected to the wide-area network, and is "smart", then the clock in the meter is pretty much guaranteed to be right.

Auroraatkinson said:

Reason for asking is because I moved flats but In the same building so all appliances are the same . I set up my boiler same as the one in my old flat. I noticed I barely used any night tariff for 7 days although I set up my boiler to heat up at night for 3 hours each night.

You're on a Economy 7 tariff? Or do you have something more complicated like E10, or Octopus Snug, or OVO Smart Economy 9? What is your taiff called and what are the rates? Which supplier are you with?

The smart meter for your new flat does not have to have the same offpeak timings as the one in your previous flat. So simply copying the timings from your old flat might not work.

What make and model is your boiler? Do you also have storage heaters?

My old tariff was octopus flexible.  My new place had Ovo Economy 7 so I swapped with Octopus flexible as before. Boiler is from the photo. I believe the off peak tariff for both are from midnight to morning and I set it up to heat between 3 and 6 . It's impossible to use only 9kwh for 7 nights i double checked my previous bills and usage is much higher usually for thr nights and also noticed day usage is much much higher now compared to before like hours are somehow way off

Auroraatkinson

matelodave said:

Dunno about Aclara but my ELSTER smart meter doesn't provide date or time info on the meter itself but the IHD (in home device) reports the correct date and time as well as info on the tariff, cost, consumption and historical data which I guess it's all derived from the smart meter. As both the meter and IHD are well over eight years old I doubt that either of them has got their own real-time clock so must get the clock data over the air.

Have you checked your IHD to see what info it provides

How do I get that device?

Ildhund

The meter is set to the right time on installation. Thereafter it keeps time by the frequency of the electrical supply, which the electricity distributor will take great care to keep very close to 50 Hz (cycles per second). In the event of a power cut, there is a battery-powered quartz clock inside the meter that takes over to maintain the time until power returns. The time may drift for a few seconds; if you think it's way out, you can ask the supplier to update it remotely. There may be a check occasionally, and it's likely that there will be one next Sunday when everybody's clocks have to be reset - except those in meters, which stick to UTC (GMT) all year round.

You can usually see the time on an Aclara meter by going through all the menu options on the 'B' button. It's up to the supplier to configure those menus, but most will probably make the date and time available.

An IHD will have been provided when the meter was installed, but people all too often take it with them when they move out, even though it won't be any use anywhere else. Are you sure there isn't a thing like this in a kitchen drawer somewhere? 
  

QrizB

Auroraatkinson said:

QrizB said:

Auroraatkinson said:
Hopefully someone can help me - how do I check if my smart meter have the correct time. I have Aclara meter but there are A and B buttons none showing the time . Is it always correct time because the meter is smart?

If the meter is connected to the wide-area network, and is "smart", then the clock in the meter is pretty much guaranteed to be right.

Auroraatkinson said:

Reason for asking is because I moved flats but In the same building so all appliances are the same . I set up my boiler same as the one in my old flat. I noticed I barely used any night tariff for 7 days although I set up my boiler to heat up at night for 3 hours each night.

You're on a Economy 7 tariff? Or do you have something more complicated like E10, or Octopus Snug, or OVO Smart Economy 9? What is your taiff called and what are the rates? Which supplier are you with?

The smart meter for your new flat does not have to have the same offpeak timings as the one in your previous flat. So simply copying the timings from your old flat might not work.

What make and model is your boiler? Do you also have storage heaters?

My old tariff was octopus flexible.  My new place had Ovo Economy 7 so I swapped with Octopus flexible as before.

OK, so it's regular Economy 7 rather than anything complicated.

The Aclara SGM-1411B is the most basic model of that meter, and doesn't do load switching this will be why you need to set separate timers on your boiler (I think strictly it's a thermal store) rather than letting the meter take care of everything automatically.

Auroraatkinson said:

I believe the off peak tariff for both are from midnight to morning ...

I think you're going to have to check that, befoe you can be sure.

If you press the blue "A" buttin on your meter, it should ycle round to tell you the Active Tariff Price That's one way of knowing whether, at that particular time, you're on the daytime rate or the night rate. You might need to stay awake and check the meter every 15 minutes or so from 11pm until you see it change over.

There's also no guarantee that your chap rate period is one continuous block; some meters are set with a gap in the middle of the night when the daytime rate returns. If for example your meter switches to night rate at 1145pm, you'll then need to get up in time to check the active rate again seven hours later (at 0645am); if the night rate lasts much beyond that time, it would suggest that you have a gap somewhere.

Auroraatkinson said:

matelodave said:

Dunno about Aclara but my ELSTER smart meter doesn't provide date or time info on the meter itself but the IHD (in home device) reports the correct date and time as well as info on the tariff, cost, consumption and historical data which I guess it's all derived from the smart meter. As both the meter and IHD are well over eight years old I doubt that either of them has got their own real-time clock so must get the clock data over the air.

Have you checked your IHD to see what info it provides

How do I get that device?

One will have been supplied to your flat when the smart meter was installed. It should have been left for you by the previous occupier. If it wasn't, the simplest option might be to order an Octopus Home Mini from Octopus (this will require that you install a smartphone app, so is useless if you don't have a smartphone).

https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/
You can also check the Octopus app or your online web account for a chart like this that shows your energy use and the tariffs that have been applied:

That paticular chart is from Rosie1001's thread here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81671739/#Comment_81671739

MWT

QrizB said:

If the meter is connected to the wide-area network, and is "smart", then the clock in the meter is pretty much guaranteed to be right.

Unfortunately that isn't true.

The time is not synchronised over the WAN automatically, but it can be reset by the supplier if you report that it has drifted.

Mine is currently around 5 seconds slow, but previously I've had smart meters up to about 5 mins out.

As mentioned above, clock inaccuracies come from grid frequency problems.

Ultimately though, it is not going to be far enough out to cause the issue the OP is reporting... 

Pressing the 'A' button repeatedly should eventually get you to a screen showing the time.

QrizB

MWT said:

Pressing the 'A' button repeatedly should eventually get you to a screen showing the time.

It doesn't on my Aclara SGM1412B, but I'll take your word for it working on the 1411.

On my meter I can aso press the yellow "B" button and it will cycle through to a screen where it tells me which ToU rate (which register) is active. That's an alternative to checking the active tariff.

MWT

QrizB said:

MWT said:

Pressing the 'A' button repeatedly should eventually get you to a screen showing the time.

It doesn't on my Aclara SGM1412B, but I'll take your word for it working on the 1411.

On my meter I can aso press the yellow "B" button and it will cycle through to a screen where it tells me which ToU rate (which register) is active. That's an alternative to checking the active tariff.

It may take an extra step even for the 1411, which may or may not work on your 1412, and may perhaps only work in PAYG mode:...

It should be possible to get to the clock though even in credit mode.