What makes a smart meter go offline?

squirrelpie

Sorry for the long post ...

I'm with Co-op (powered by Octopus) and back in July of last year I got Octopus to install a smart meter. I was pleased that the meter has worked well since, but I've had a problem with the IHD, which works some of the time and doesn't for the rest of the time. It shows a very low signal, and sometimes a signal error, which doesn't surprise me because my meter is a long way from my house. So I've been asking for an Alt-HAN device. Octopus went from "we'll send one with the meter" to "we don't supply them".

So on 1 Jan I raised the issue with them again and their "Energy Specialist" suggested a new IHD. When it arrived I plugged it in near the meter as requested. After a while everything stopped working. In a later phone call the Energy Specialist told me that she attempted to connect the IHD to the meter and also tried to connect a Glow CAD that I have to Octopus' account in the meter. Since that time last Wednesday, neither IHD nor the CAD has worked and most importantly the meter seems to have stopped sending data via the DCC! There's no new data shown on my Octopus dashboard or in the Bright app.

I'd like to understand what can cause the meter to stop its communications with the DCC and what needs to be done to fix it? Can I do anything? Do Octopus need to send someone to site? Or can they fix it remotely?

Netexporter

The comms to IHDs can be a bit flaky. Move the IHD as close to the meter as convenient may help. Otherwise there is a device called the Home Mini, which changes the Zigbee signal, that the IHD uses, to wi-fi, so you can monitor on other devices such as PCs and phones. They used to give out Home Minis free but I don't know what the situation is now, or whether they are available on the Co-op branding.

QrizB

The HAN and the WAN are different technologies and it's not entirely clear to me where your problem lies.

The HAN is ZigBee which uses the same 2.4GHz radio band as older WiFi. The HAN connects your meter(s) and your IHD(s) to the communications hub (yes, the electricity meter uses the HAN even though it's physically and electrically connected to the Comms hub).

The WAN uses a mobile phone style data connection in the southern half of GB and a UHF radio connection in the northern half.

As everything failed at once, it seems possible that whatever the Octopus "Energy Specialist" did while trying to connect your IHD has actually messed up the HAN settings to such an extent that even the meter can't connect.

Alternatively, both the HAN and the WAN are susceptible to the same sorts of radio interference that messes up your WiFi or mobile phone reception. Electrical noise from faulty appliances, competing transmissions from other devices, people putting large metal objects in the way, that sort of thing.

squirrelpie

Netexporter said:

The comms to IHDs can be a bit flaky. Move the IHD as close to the meter as convenient may help. Otherwise there is a device called the Home Mini, which changes the Zigbee signal, that the IHD uses, to wi-fi, so you can monitor on other devices such as PCs and phones. They used to give out Home Minis free but I don't know what the situation is now, or whether they are available on the Co-op branding.

Thanks, yes I know the distance is a problem. That's why I asked for an Alt-HAN device. I don't want a Home Mini because that ties me to Octopus' cloud and app. The minimum I want is the smart meter to be smart again, and the Bright app to work again.

squirrelpie

QrizB said:

The HAN and the WAN are different technologies and it's not entirely clear to me where your problem lies.

The HAN is ZigBee which uses the same 2.4GHz radio band as older WiFi. The HAN connects your meter(s) and your IHD(s) to the communications hub (yes, the electricity meter uses the HAN even though it's physically and electrically connected to the Comms hub).

The WAN uses a mobile phone style data connection in the southern half of GB and a UHF radio connection in the northern half.

Thanks. Yes I think I understand the basics of the networking arrangements. I'm in the east of England but I don't know whether my WAN is the original type or the newer one that uses 4G. Anyway, it was working fine.

As everything failed at once, it seems possible that whatever the Octopus "Energy Specialist" did while trying to connect your IHD has actually messed up the HAN settings to such an extent that even the meter can't connect.

Ah, I hadn't thought of that. That does make sense to me. If they get somebody who knows what they're doing, can they reset everything remotely, do you know? Or will somebody need to visit my site?

Alternatively, both the HAN and the WAN are susceptible to the same sorts of radio interference that messes up your WiFi or mobile phone reception. Electrical noise from faulty appliances, competing transmissions from other devices, people putting large metal objects in the way, that sort of thing.

Mobiles here use 4G which can be flaky but as afar as I know nothing has changed. All my other devices that use whatever kind of wireless are still working. So I don't think it's an interference problem. Anglian water used to have a problem with a flaky connection to Arquiva but they seem to have sorted that out in the middle of last month, looking at my account today and they said that was a problem at the mast.

Reed_Richards

I think you are in serious trouble.  If the Comms Hub attached to the smart meter cannot communicate over the WAN then there is no way that it can be fixed remotely and your only option is to get Octopus to send out an engineer to replace it.  This might be an opportunity to get a Comms Hub with a better HAN capability, if such things exist.  Hopefully you are not on a Time of Use tariff, as even though the data is stored in the meter it may not be recoverable if the Comms Hub is replaced.   

Netexporter

My IHD disconnects, randomly, but it is about 13 metres fron the outside meter, at the far end of the house, with two concrete block walls, both incorporating foil-backed insulation, in between. It's a miracle it works at all!

The Home Mini is pretty reliable. It is much nearer but still has the foil and concrete to contend with.

MWT

Netexporter said:

Otherwise there is a device called the Home Mini, which changes the Zigbee signal, that the IHD uses, to wi-fi, so you can monitor on other devices such as PCs and phones.

Just to be clear, the Home Mini does not 'change' the Zigbee signal, it connects to the same Zigbee network as the IHD, but it also connects to your Wi-Fi so it can return the data from the meters to Octopus and they can then make that data available to you from their servers.

So it would not necessarily help if the problem is the signal strength from the comms hub.  

WiserMiser

Could it be that your comms hub relied on 3G but O2 recently switched it off, and your backup O2 2G signal is too weak?

I took up the MSE/RWG freebie offer of 100 mins, 100 texts and 750MB per month.  RWG issued a NOW SIM that uses the O2 network.  That worked well until the O2 3G signal was switched off.  Unfortunately the 2G only works in a few sweet spots upstairs.

It's still handy when out and about or away from home, but I can no longer rely on receiving incoming calls downstairs.

squirrelpie

WiserMiser said:

Could it be that your comms hub relied on 3G but O2 recently switched it off, and your backup O2 2G signal is too weak?

It could be I suppose but I think 3G was switched off a month or two ago and it seems a remarkable coincidence that this problem started at near enough the same time as they messed with something in the HAN settings.

squirrelpie

Reed_Richards said:

I think you are in serious trouble.  If the Comms Hub attached to the smart meter cannot communicate over the WAN then there is no way that it can be fixed remotely and your only option is to get Octopus to send out an engineer to replace it.  This might be an opportunity to get a Comms Hub with a better HAN capability, if such things exist.  Hopefully you are not on a Time of Use tariff, as even though the data is stored in the meter it may not be recoverable if the Comms Hub is replaced.   

That's what I'm afraid of. And the smart meter is much more difficult to get a reading from than the dumb one that was there before.

I was hoping that somebody who understand the details of such systems might be here and know about things like better comms hubs, or hidden reset buttons or whatever. I think the long term solution is Alt HAN, but my immediate priority is getting the meter back to being a smart meter!

I'm on an E7 tariff which I think counts as a TOU tariff. Fortunately I've got ten years of daily data (day vs night) if they need to make estimates.