Smart meter farce

Rilot

Rilot

Rilot

Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
23,598
Location
Wargrave, UK
Oh boy. I’ve just found myself in an utterly farcical situation.

My energy monitor has failed completely so I rang British Gas to see about getting a replacement. After 20 minutes on the phone we established the following:

Smart meters and energy monitors are completely separate entities
My smart meter was fitted by EON
My smart meter still works
British Gas will not replace my energy monitor because it was fitted by EON
A British Gas monitor wouldn’t work with my EOS smart meter anyway
British Gas won’t replace my smart meter and energy monitor because the smart meter part still works
British Gas won’t book me in as a new smart meter installation because I already have a smart meter.
I cannot pay British Gas to fit a new smart meter even if I wanted to

So, I call EON.

Who flat refuse to talk to me because I’m not an EON customer.

So, what was the point of all this smart meter, check your usage in real-time to save the planet stuff that has cost billions?
 
Yeah smart meters are a meme, but it's funny you post about this now because I heard an advert for a solution to this problem the other day which uses a phone app instead, see if this works for you: https://hugoenergyapp.co.uk/meet-hugo/

Edit: prolly worth telling your MP about this too, obvs not an acceptable situation, clearly the problem affects enough people for it to be worth running ads for an app to work around it.
 
if its the seperate display tablet thingy from eon there was a couple on the bay last week one was colour and one was black and white.
 
Lucky that GB can actually get the readings from a e.ON smart meter, presume it's a SMETS 2 meter?
 
I actually managed to fix the display. It has a little 3.7v 1S LiPo in it which was reading 0.02v. I swapped it with a spare I had from a little quadcopter and we're back in business.

This doesn't get around the fact that this is an utterly ridiculous situation. I mean, what is someone like my dad to do if his display packs in?

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I have that display (with EDF) it has never given a gas readout on it, apparently a common issue (according to the live chat when I kicked off about it, they didn't care)
I've actually unplugged the bloody thing now and just carry on as normal. As above I only agreed to it so I don't have to grub about sending them readings.
 
Ours was installed a few years back when we signed up to First Utility. When we switched supplier we had to get manual readings.

Only recently did we dig out the monitor and plug it in to find it works, but the monitor resets the counters if we unplug it :confused::confused::confused:

I probably need to look into it a bit more but my opinion is that smart meters are a good idea but have been executed poorly.
 
I used to work for a MOP and worked together with other entities trying to get the rollout before 2010. It dragged on forever you wouldn't believe how much red tape was being spun.
 
Rilot said:
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Firstly well done on getting it working again.

Its annoying but as BG mentioned they wont be able to supply you with a IHD as they werent the supplier and EON wont provide you with one as the meter asset isnt theres as its under BG's ownership at this point. The guidelines for all suppliers are if the IHD breaks or fails they have to provide you with a replacement within 1 year of install, if they are the installing supplier and if they are the current provider.

The IHD doesnt effect the smart meters at all and is only a reference tool and has no part to play in the function of the smart meter which is why if the above criteria for a new display doesnt apply, no-one will rip smart meters our to install new smart meters if they are still communicating and providing readings.

As someone suggested getting someones elses IHD off ebay is a pure waste of money too as it wont connect to your smart meters. Part of the process of registering everything when its installed is the engineer commissions the meters and links the IHD ot the meters. buying someone elses IHD from ebay means it isnt paired with your meters and will never be paired with them so it would be a waste of time. The IHD device ID would be registered to someone elses meter.

As far as im aware its not too common for them to just die, most of the times when people have issues with IHD's its due to it being a SMETS1 meter or there is a known issue where the DCC ****** a update to a load of IHD's and they are "stuck waiting data" which there is no fix until the DCC sorts itself out
 
I binned my display for this reason.

The irony is I’ve changed suppliers so many times but I’m back with the one that fitted the smart meter (Ovo), so it’d work and I don’t have it :D

Seeing what I’m spending didn’t appeal.. I just wanted the automated meter reading functionality.
 
I am actually quite keen on seeing the usage. It enabled me to see which appliances I have that cost the most to run.
All of the publicity around smart meters is all about having access to point-in-time usage stats. Without that, I don't see the point in them at all.

If all it is about is allowing the energy companies to get a better idea of your usage and not have to reply on estimated readings then why not advertise it as that? Why all the eco bull?
 
Top unethical tip, your "smart" meter uses mobile data to send in meter readings, cover the "smart" part with tin foil and wait for your supplier to contact you about a faulty meter, which they would then be seeking to replace ;)
 
When we moved in here 6 months ago the provider was EDF. Similar situation; we have an existing "smart" meter but it doesn't send the readings to BG (who we swapped to). I had a similar phonecall as in the OP, but then starting talking to someone at BG about moving the meter because it takes up the whole floor of our understair cupboard. I had already pushed her on getting the smart meter installed and she basically put me through to someone else in that team. Had an odd conversation where they were asking me what was in the display, does it have a WLAN logo on it (no), ok we'll book you in for a new one. Meh. That's happening next week.
 
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