SMETS2, hubs, pairing etc

Sinbad2000

Sinbad2000

Sinbad2000

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Portsmouth
Does anyone out there know how these things work?

I have a SMETS2 electricity meter with a hub on it, and a SMETS2 gas meter sitting 2m away from it (meters not miles :D )
The gas meter is not communicating with the hub and thus is not sending any readings in to the (DCC?)?

The company that installed the meters isn't interested.
British gas (my supplier) is not interested.
The ombudsman says British Gas is under no obligation to get the gas meter working until the end of 2025.

There's no IHD provided either.

Is it possible to actually pair these things properly myself? And if I get hold of an IHD, how do I get it connected to the hub? Anyone know any detail about this please?
 
I had a problem with my gas meter not reporting to my energy supplier (Bulb) last year after we had them fitted (electric was pinging fine). Fortunately they were more interested in helping than British Gas, they looked into it and said they couldn't see any data coming from it.

They weren't sure how to fix it, so attempted to change the read frequency to 30 mins instead of hourly/daily or whatever on the system - then changed it back again the next day. It then magically started working and pinging readings to them. So it must've sent some command to it and got it working again. Worth a shot?

With regards to the IHD, if you had the meters fitted yourself they are supposed to give you one free at the point of install. If not contact them and ask for one? Tbh Bulb gave us one but I chucked it straight in the drawer. We had one at our old house and it drove me nuts just wanting to check it all the time. :cry:
 
Sometimes our hub looses connection and the last time it happened I just switched the hub off and back on again and it synced back up fine.

We just have the meters outside and the inside display unit. This inside unit sometimes loosing connection.
 
I work in the metering industry and can confirm gas meter signal drops out, looses connection and cannot re-establish the connection by its self. My employer (EDF) send engineers out to perform reboot all the time, usually involves dropping the mains fuse out for 5 mins or so until all the light stop flashing on the comms hub, fuse back in and wait for the hub to reconnect to the network, SW WAN and HAN all flashing in sync and the same speed (every 2-3 seconds). The would then perform a gas battery reboot, this involves taking the front off the gas meter and disconnecting the battery and pressing buttons until the super capacitor has drained. Plug the battery back in put the cover back on and 90mins later it will all be communicating again.

Sounds easy but unfortunately you need a specific set of qualifications to do any part of the reboot. (due to the legals of who owns what and who can work on what).

Keep badgering your supplier, the maintenance of the devices is their responsibility. Although the are under no obligation until 2025 as you have already ticked the box for them by having it installed, under Ofgem's rules the supplier has to maintain the connection between equipment, not the original installer but the current supplier.
 
BigBoy said:
I work in the metering industry and can confirm gas meter signal drops out, looses connection and cannot re-establish the connection by its self. My employer (EDF) send engineers out to perform reboot all the time, usually involves dropping the mains fuse out for 5 mins or so until all the light stop flashing on the comms hub, fuse back in and wait for the hub to reconnect to the network, SW WAN and HAN all flashing in sync and the same speed (every 2-3 seconds). The would then perform a gas battery reboot, this involves taking the front off the gas meter and disconnecting the battery and pressing buttons until the super capacitor has drained. Plug the battery back in put the cover back on and 90mins later it will all be communicating again.

Sounds easy but unfortunately you need a specific set of qualifications to do any part of the reboot. (due to the legals of who owns what and who can work on what).

Keep badgering your supplier, the maintenance of the devices is their responsibility. Although the are under no obligation until 2025 as you have already ticked the box for them by having it installed, under Ofgem's rules the supplier has to maintain the connection between equipment, not the original installer but the current supplier.
Click to expand...
Thanks, I appreciate the info.

The supplier (British Gas) has refused to help. The ombudsman says they cannot compel them to do anything about it. I am going to drop British Gas like a hot steaming turd as soon as this madness in the market tones down... Meanwhile I guess I'm doing manual readings. And probably going to have to buy some kind of energy monitoring kit to stay on top of the electricity usage because of the lack of IHD, which again British Gas have told the ombudsman they're not in a position to provide, partly because "My meter is old technology and the newer IHDs will not work with it". Installed in June last year, mind you.
 
Sinbad2000 said:
Thanks, I appreciate the info.

The supplier (British Gas) has refused to help. The ombudsman says they cannot compel them to do anything about it. I am going to drop British Gas like a hot steaming turd as soon as this madness in the market tones down... Meanwhile I guess I'm doing manual readings. And probably going to have to buy some kind of energy monitoring kit to stay on top of the electricity usage because of the lack of IHD, which again British Gas have told the ombudsman they're not in a position to provide, partly because "My meter is old technology and the newer IHDs will not work with it". Installed in June last year, mind you.
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Who installed the meter? If you want you can trust/message me the meter serial number and preferably a picture of the meter and I can tell you if it's old hat or current tech. To be honest it sounds like BG are talking rubbish, since 2018 everyone (suppliers) have had to install meters of the same generation (SMETS2) and all sub devices (IHD's) are compatible with them.
 
BigBoy said:
Who installed the meter? If you want you can trust/message me the meter serial number and preferably a picture of the meter and I can tell you if it's old hat or current tech. To be honest it sounds like BG are talking rubbish, since 2018 everyone (suppliers) have had to install meters of the same generation (SMETS2) and all sub devices (IHD's) are compatible with them.
Click to expand...
Meter says "Property of GTC" on it, they have confirmed they installed it .
"Firstly I can confirm that GTC own and operate the gas network that supplies your property. Your gas meter was installed on 22/06/2021.
As mentioned in my previous email, your Supplier is responsible for ensuring that the meters are ‘paired’. This is so that they can ensure that their technology is able to correctly communicate your energy consumption back to them.
I hope that this information is helpful, however please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance."
It's definitely SMETS2, says it all over the place, and everything is as been described in terms of lights, hubs etc.
 
Yep definitely SMETS2. So the only thing you can do then is to keep pressuring BG,. As for the old tech statement they are blatantly telling you lies to stop you bothering them.
 
BigBoy said:
Yep definitely SMETS2. So the only thing you can do then is to keep pressuring BG,. As for the old tech statement they are blatantly telling you lies to stop you bothering them.
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Thing is they're not telling me that. They're telling the ombudsman:
 
Oh wow, has the smart meter ever worked? Please PM me the serial number and a pic so I can confirm what I suspect.

It's sounding more like the meter is on the old SMETS1 type that has been converted to SMETS2. They are staying it has not been commissioned i.e never worked as a smart meter, is this the case? Gas meters do drop off the network and appear that way but under guidelines they should be rectifying that (as we do).
 
Hi, Sorry to revive an old thread, but I have the same issue.
Shell installed SMETS2 meters, I'm now with BG, but meters have never worked.
IHD display worked for 1st few months but meters have never sent readings.
Can I PM you meter details if you are able to check ?

DJ
 
DJ1UK said:
Hi, Sorry to revive an old thread, but I have the same issue.
Shell installed SMETS2 meters, I'm now with BG, but meters have never worked.
IHD display worked for 1st few months but meters have never sent readings.
Can I PM you meter details if you are able to check ?

DJ
Click to expand...
Sorry I work for EDF not BG
 
Several months since I spoke with you last @BigBoy and still my IHD doesn't see my gas meter any more, although both my gas and electric meters continue to send readings to EDF. Quite simply, me and EDF are at a stalemate - they claim to have done everything they can and I keep badgering them every so often about the issue, in hope that I get somebody who can actually help me.
 
Small update on my situation... The IHD never worked properly for gas, often had flaky readings if at all. BG never got it right, although they were able to actually commission the meters properly after the ombudsman basically told them to do it.

I switched to Octopus in November - and miraculously since the switch my IHD works perfectly.
 
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darael said:
Several months since I spoke with you last @BigBoy and still my IHD doesn't see my gas meter any more, although both my gas and electric meters continue to send readings to EDF. Quite simply, me and EDF are at a stalemate - they claim to have done everything they can and I keep badgering them every so often about the issue, in hope that I get somebody who can actually help me.
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Gas meter needs a reboot, only way to do that is get an engineer out..
Sinbad2000 said:
Small update on my situation... The IHD never worked properly for gas, often had flaky readings if at all. BG never got it right.
I switched to Octopus in November - and miraculously since the switch my IHD works perfectly.
Click to expand...
EDF are in the process of switching to the back end system that Octopus designed called Kraken (my current job) it's meter health and reporting is a massive improvement on anything else across the industry.
 
BigBoy said:
Gas meter needs a reboot, only way to do that is get an engineer out..

EDF are in the process of switching to the back end system that Octopus designed called Kraken (my current job) it's meter health and reporting is a massive improvement on anything else across the industry.
Click to expand...
woohoo - unleash the Kraken!
 
BigBoy said:
Gas meter needs a reboot, only way to do that is get an engineer out..

EDF are in the process of switching to the back end system that Octopus designed called Kraken (my current job) it's meter health and reporting is a massive improvement on anything else across the industry.
Click to expand...
Any idea how I can get EDF to send one out?
 
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