Gas meter no longer communicating after move to BG

liviboy

Hi all,

Quick Q - my gas meter has stopped communicating since I switched to British Gas.

This includes to BG itself but also to Bright and Loop apps. All comms stopped on the 27th Feb when the switch took place.

I thought with Bright especially the readings were completely separate from the supplier ones.

Any ideas what might have happened?

EDIT- Gas is still displaying usage on my IHD. It’s only the ‘external’ comms that seem to not be wotking

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6657454/gas-meter-no-longer-communicating-after-move-to-bg

Presumably your electric smart meter is communicating, as you did not mention that?

In which case, it would appear your electric meter is not receiving the data from your gas meter.

Nothing much you can do about it, apart from reporting the issue to your supplier. (Hopefully you get your electricity from BG too, else you'll probably find your suppliers blaming each other as to who is responsible. I would start with BG as your gas supplier) They would then be allowed 3 months to fix it, but unfortunately Ofgem has not yet introduced automatic penalties for failing to do so.

Smart meter problems? You'll be automatically compensated

More info available here:

If you’re having problems with your smart meter - Citizens Advice

(Note in particular the section "If you switched supplier recently")

liviboy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904437#Comment_81904437

Yes, electric is fine.

Given gas is still displaying on the IHD it is still communicating.

just seems a little coincidental that it stopped at the moment of my switch to BG.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904437#Comment_81904437

In which case, it would appear your electric meter is not receiving the data from your gas meter.

Small point just for accuracy, the electricity meter never sees data from the gas meter, that goes from the gas meter over the HAN to the gas proxy in the comms hub.

The comms hub usually sits on top of the electricity meter but is only connected to it for power. even the electricity meter data goes over the HAN to the comms hub.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6657454/gas-meter-no-longer-communicating-after-move-to-bg

I thought with Bright especially the readings were completely separate from the supplier ones.

Bright do have their own separate security credentials but it isn't uncommon for everything to get trampled on during a switch, it shouldn't happen, but you may need to reach out to them to get their security certificate refreshed.

If BG still can't see the gas readings in a couple of days time then call CS and be prepared to escalate to a complaint if they don't get it sorted quickly.

gpman

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904727#Comment_81904727

Point taken. I was just trying to keep things simple to assist the OP.

The communications hub is powered by and usually sits on top of your electricity meter.

We could also say the comms hub doesn't communicate with any supplier, but rather with the Data and Communication Company's (DCC's) servers, from whom the supplier gets its readings.

I'm not sure how any of this really assists the OP though.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904761#Comment_81904761

It helps mostly in framing the correct request to CS, if the OP goes with "my electric meter is not receiving the data from my gas meter." there is a strong chance the wonderful CS staff at BG will log it as a faulty electricity meter… :)

Reporting that "my gas meter data is not being collected via the comms hub, but the gas meter data is showing on my IHD" is more likely to get CS looking in the right direction …

I do agree that getting into the way the DCC works is not relevant here, and it is confusing for some people as they believe the data is sent automatically to the DCC, which it isn't (the meter responds to a request from the supplier routed via the DCC) … or that the DCC collects and stores data for the supplier, which it does not (it acts as a conduit to deliver the response to the requests sent to the meters to the supplier in encrypted form).

GlitterMedusa

I'm wondering if there's a wider problem at the moment. I've been with BG for nearly 2 years now, and data has been flowing mostly OK from both my gas and electricity meters but the last few days I've had issues - most notably that they always take an automated reading on the 28th of the month and it's there for the electricity for February but not the gas so I've now have given a manual reading for that. Also my IHD has completely lost connection despite the lights on the comms hub showing everything should be ok (SW, HAN, WAN and GAS green flashing every 5 secs).

I know Bright has had problems the last week or so, but also now on Ivie I have no data at all from 25th onwards, whereas I have some partial days in Bright and most days in the BG app.So either something's not working at my end with the comms hub, or there's a wider issue going on. I was going to leave it for another few days, or maybe even a week to see if it sorts itself out, and if not I will get in touch with BG

squirrelpie

I believe the DCC was offline overnight on the 24th for planned work, so maybe something hasn't come back online completely correctly for some people?

Bigphil1474

OP, I'm with British Gas and they treat gas and electric as 2 separate accounts completely, so it could just be a delay in getting their ducks sorted out. Even now, our gas bill and electric bill arrive a few hours apart for some reason. February bills were as normal.