Octopus Energy lost our smart meter data for 17 months – now wants to bill on estimates

Scot_39

I thought apps like bright went straight to meter.
There was one user who was getting the data into a spreadsheet via another - was it loop - which i believe closed its free access version.

Dont apps like bright do just that for import at least  - via DCC and not from Octopus and any other suppliers servers ?

And doesn't since were talking Octopus here - their own mini / cad device go direct to meter as well  ? 

I was more wondering about testing the meter's own data store limits - given the poster above talking about forensic recovery.

matt_drummer

I was under the impression that all data goes to the DCC and other third parties have access as required.

But I may be wrong, of course.

I would think that if the DCC do not have the data because something has gone wrong then nobody will.

Whether the data can be extracted directly from the meter depends upon what has gone wrong, the meter of just the communication.

If data needs extracting from the meter by an engineer in person then that comes at a cost, a cost that the rest of us are paying for just to benefit one consumer who hasn't taken responsibility for their own complex arrangements.

I see these tou tariffs as a privilege, not a right, and view it as my responsibility to ensure it is working properly if I want to continue to enjoy the benefits such tariffs offer.

Scot_39

I am not sure how bright app etc actually gets its data - Google AI talks about a third party Glowmarkt server populated by suppliers - but the app page itself says it also allows real time access.

I never ever tried as my smets1 wasnt supported by some of the aftermarket tools / IHDs etc.

matelodave

As @matt_drummer suggests, its there if you look for it and if its not there when you expect to see it or it doesn't look right then you can do summat about it before it becomes unmanageable. So its really worth checking a lot more often than when the bill comes in, especially if you are hoping to benefit from a complex ToU tariff.

Even a weeks worth of half hourly readings produces well over 300, whereas18 months worth is around 26k+ which is nigh on impossible to dissect

Swipe

Bright/Glowmarkt periodcally queries the meter directly using the GUID of the IHD via their DCC adapter application. The meter thinks it's the IHD that is connecting and allows access. This is how their CAD devices are also able to get realtime data from the meter.

matt_drummer

Swipe said:

Bright/Glowmarkt periodcally queries the meter directly using the GUID of the IHD. The meter thinks it's the IHD that is connecting and allows access. This is how their CAD devices are also able to get realtime data from the meter.

I like my IHD, it is easy to see at a glance some of what is going on when you have solar panels and battery storage.

I wonder how the OP's IHD was behaving during these seventeen months, it may have been another clue that all was not well?

Qyburn

matt_drummer said:

Qyburn said:

That's data already collected from the meter and stored at Octopus.

And?

It is what Scot asked isn't it?

Where else would I get my data from if Octopus didn't have it?

I'm so sorry, I assumed the question was about how much history the meter holds. 

MWT

matt_drummer said:

I was under the impression that all data goes to the DCC and other third parties have access as required.

But I may be wrong, of course.

I would think that if the DCC do not have the data because something has gone wrong then nobody will.

The DCC does not store or access the data from the meters, it merely processes requests from the suppliers and passes the reply from the meters back to the suppliers.

It is a conduit, not a storage facility.

Similarly to answer an earlier question, half-hour tariffs use the half-hour data not the meter register readings, there is no attempt to reconcile the two as there would always be differences due to summing rounded numbers.

Qyburn

I think we need to see the bills before forming any opinion about whether the OP should have noticed that something was up.

brianposter

matt_drummer said:
I see these tou tariffs as a privilege, not a right, and view it as my responsibility to ensure it is working properly if I want to continue to enjoy the benefits such tariffs offer.

Once you have a contract you have a right, not a privilege. And, with respect to the T&Cs, I doubt that a court would look favourably on a supplier that ignores the failure of its own equipment. 
I  suggest that the OP prepares their own estimate of the appropriate bills and offers that estimate to Octopus.