MSE News: Smart meter problems? You could be automatically compensated under new rules

QrizB

Probably because a smart meter without a working ihd is like a chocolate teapot?

You mean it's a tasty treat that most people would love to have? Or are you somehow thinking that the IHD is the biggest benefit you get from a smart meter?

My smart time-of-use tariff would disagree.

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896483#Comment_81896483

I have never had a working IHD, simply because the only location that gets a good enough signal from the meter, would be a pretty useless location for a display.

The smart meter itself however gives me every one of the promised benefits - a smart TOU tariff that means our import averages out around 11p/kWh, and access to an export tariff that earned around £850 during 2025. Prior to getting solar our smart meter saved around 30% compared to SVT or any conventional fix.

EssexHebridean

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896483#Comment_81896483

except it isn’t, because even without the IHD, a working smart meter is still doing all the things it needs to do. The IHD can make some things easier, sure, but most of those things can still be done by the consumer perfectly well from the meter itself. The main benefit of a smart meter is giving the consumer access to money saving tariffs IMO, and that’s got nothing to do with the IHD (indeed, my IHD has no idea how much I’m actually paying for my energy use as it still thinks I’m on the SVR!)

tfhnota

My IHD failed after a few months due to poor connection between power supply and where the lead plugs into the IHD, it will work on batteries. Now the communications hub has failed after about five years. Not very inspiring with regards to quality. The actual meter bit reads slightly lower than the old one so not all bad news, I guess. Not on TOU tariff, though I have been on Agile in the past. I don't mind inputting meter readings once a month but overall quite disappointing but in line with a whole swathe of modern technology that promises a lot but in reality does not live up to expectations and seems to be have designed with no regard to longevity.

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81896981#Comment_81896981

Have you reported the failed comms hub, what does your supplier say? Comms hub replacement is quite a quick job, they didn't even need to cut the power when they did ours. After replacement the supplier back filled the missing data.

tetsuobodyhammer

Hello everyone

This may or may not be of use to forum users here, but I am going to post the highlights of my issue when dealing with octopus energy around this exact problem below, in the hopes that at least some users who do find this post and read these comments might choose to take similar action and not simply go for the money, which i do not believe is going to get the vast number of these meters working as expected over the long run unless suppliers eventually decide that they would rather fix their broken deployment infrastructure than be dragged in front of the ombudsman or pay this £40 compensation - the first of which i have already done and have also had confirmed has happened in large numbers.

I do understand that there is a line of thinking that states 'if enough people hit them in the wallet they might fix the problem'. We have simply tried to make the supplier aware that we know there is a technical solution that may be more effective than what they claim to have attempted in the past, and that we know that they have not made us aware of this fact.

The Initial Problem: The Signal Gap

The issue began because your electricity meter (ground floor) and gas meter (2nd floor) are too far apart for standard smart technology to "talk" to each other. Because of this distance, the gas meter remained "dumb," forcing you to provide manual readings and preventing you from accessing cheaper, smart gas tariffs.

The Supplier’s Stance: Nothing we can do about it

Initially, the supplier suggested there was no solution and that manual readings were the only option. They treated the distance as a permanent technical barrier that neither a standard hub nor a signal booster could overcome.

Technical resolution: AltHAN

Based on your property type, we identified a specialized industry solution called AltHAN (Alternative Home Area Network). Unlike standard boosters, AltHAN uses the building’s existing electrical wiring to carry the data signal between floors. It was created by a consortium of suppliers (including Octopus) specifically for apartment blocks like yours.

Regulatory Shift: Ofgem’s 2026 Standards

We leveraged new rules from Ofgem that came into effect in February 2026. These rules require suppliers to provide a formal "Resolution Plan" within 5 working days when a smart meter fault is reported. This forced the supplier to stop giving generic "distance" excuses and start a technical assessment.

Possible issues: Lease Review

We checked our 2026–2027 Lease Renewal to ensure our landlord wouldn't block the fix and that the supplier would not or could not use this as an excuse. i confirmed that because AltHAN is a non-invasive plug-in utility upgrade, it does not count as a structural alteration. This silenced any prospective excuse the supplier might have used regarding landlord permission.

Result: Apparently, a 'Forced Technical Assessment'

By providing the supplier with exact measurements (for example, the six meter vertical distance) and confirming the presence of power sockets, we have hopefully removed much of the supplier's room to manoeuvre around a problem that they contributed to and which they clearly do not want to engage in addressing any further.

The official response has now been shifted from 'it can't be done' to something like 'well, you can join this waiting list of other people who know about this and have asked for it'.

Apparently, this means an official start to a technical survey for AltHAN installation. However, i can find no confirmation of this anywhere online in search, and as such at this point will take this with a grain of salt.

It is also entirely possible that the supplier will just sit on this, as they have done with their malfunctioning smart meter installation, for another two years - if not indefinitely.

My thinking here is that if enough people were to take the time to confront their supplier with this proposed solution - AltHAN connectivity - that may possibly move the needle somewhat more than if no-one complains.

We would be happy to provide the exact text we sent to the supplier leading to their admission of this waiting list around assessment for AltHAN feasibility if this would save time in encouraging anyone to take similar action.

Bramble96

The exclusion of "dumb meters" is really annoying. What's the point of Ofgem ? I'm submitting monthly readings to my supplier but trying to get a bill out of them is a long, tedious process.

They've sent people out to try to fix the meter but without success. I'm done with waiting in all day for another engineer's visit.

ruth56_2

We have been waiting for ofgem to get British gas to send an actual engineer to look at our meter which has not sent readings since may 2025. They "resolved" the case ( in November!) but actually didn't and now, according to the case handler, are not responding to an escalation of the complaint. In the meantime the complaint is marked as resolved and I have to crawl on my hand and knees monthly to get a reading. An AltHAN would seem to sort the problem, but BG have not even sent an engineer out once to look at the meter. Ofgem seem powerless or disinclined to help.

tfhnota

I alerted Octopus on 11th Jan that my smart meter had gone dumb, via an exchange of emails it was referred to the smart meter team on the 22nd. Took two phones calls, the first the guy just confirmed that it had been sent to the meter team, the second today I seemed to get the right guy who confirmed they could not get it going remotely but would send an engineer on Friday (hopefully with a new CU unit rather than a screwdriver).

An interesting secondary problem, because smart meters have an id (MPAN) number starting with 00, which used to be only for business, when they go dumb the system gets confused and either classes it as business or unknown - only found out when I tried to get an Octopus heat pump quote and when inputting my address online it said unavailable because classed as a business address. Made no difference when renewing my tariff with Octopus or getting quotes with others but might mess up the transfer. It should revert to domestic once the CU gets going again and can be changed back to domestic by Octopus remotely if the meter CU can't get going again.

ronnie71

BG installed my new smart meter years ago and it's never worked. I live in the North and in a remote area. It was never going to work as we don't have a radio signal at all in the area. They tried to commission it twice unsuccessfully (not surprisingly) and I've had to submit meter readings ever since. In May last year the rules were changed so that residents in the north could be supplied with a 4G meter. I'm now with Octopus energy so I contacted them back in Sept 2025 to ask whether they could swap out the meter. I've been engaged with ever since trying to get them to understand that there's no point just trying to commission it. I even had a call with them whereby they talked me through the process and I sent them back a picture of the failure message.

I've now exchanged over 30 emails with them trying to arrange for engineers etc and even raised an incident with the energy Ombudsman as I feel like I'm getting nowhere.

As I first contacted them back in Sept, I don't know whether I'd be due compensation or not and whether this would be classed as a dumb meter because it is but then it's never worked! I'd be interested to know people's thoughts or whether anyone else has had a similar situation.