Smart meter issues?

I have a "smart meter" that is hard coded economy7. So yes, providing these are the norm -- you just won't get the smart tariffs.
As we're not on the smart tariff now, that sounds like nothing will change :confused:

All just seems like forcing people to upgrade to smart meters for no reason
 
As we're not on the smart tariff now, that sounds like nothing will change :confused:

All just seems like forcing people to upgrade to smart meters for no reason
Meters should be replaced every X years anyway. The point is all that is "in stock" now is smart meters. If the smart works or not it doesn't matter. It is simpler than managing two SKUs.
 
Yeah, I haven't looked into it much since I don't use dual rate, but I have had plenty of issues with my smart meter (though now resolved).

As much as it's a pain in the neck, I think it might be worth you taking some time to look into it - you wouldn't want to get caught out having to do all your hot water on day rate.
I have looked into it. Smart meters dont work in our apartment block. The management company only have access too the meters anyway so I cant access them (or provide energy privider access too them)
 
Yeah fair enough, only trying to help
Sorry, just that I had 5-10 emails from Octopus last week saying the same thing again "This meter needs to be changed, you need to look into it. You electric will turn off in July if you dont have a smart meter blablabla" not sure how clearer I could get by the last email they they're not my property :D
 
Sorry, just that I had 5-10 emails from Octopus last week saying the same thing again "This meter needs to be changed, you need to look into it. You electric will turn off in July if you dont have a smart meter blablabla" not sure how clearer I could get by the last email they they're not my property :D

Seeing as your with Octopus you may as well get the news straight from the boss himself

 
Shut the front door --- you are telling me all these gammons whinging about smart meters being able to remotely kill your internet, has been a thing since the 1980s?

That device turns on/off water heaters remotely?!

Most do, they are in effect a massive radio signal controlled switch that for many is simply a different circuit, the eco 7 circuit.
So storage heaters and hot water were generally wired to that circuit, although there are variations so it does depend on the specific install.
 
Shut the front door --- you are telling me all these gammons whinging about smart meters being able to remotely kill your internet, has been a thing since the 1980s?

That device turns on/off water heaters remotely?!
Guess he's going to come around to deal with the majority of people in apartments blocks and high rises where smart meters dont work then?

e.g. I've been told where some of the meters are located and need replacing, its below 4 meters of concrete and there are 20 meters in a row. Smart meters simply dont work in these situations.
High rises I imagine will be hell as there might be hundreds of meters lined up.
 
I have looked into it. Smart meters dont work in our apartment block. The management company only have access too the meters anyway so I cant access them (or provide energy privider access too them)

I'm guessing based on that you've never been able to provide a meter reading? Do you have to rely on the supplier to come round and take manual readings?

I'm surprised more people haven't actually complained to the management company as it's your right to access your meter. When we rented in a block of flats each floor had a room with everyone's meters in, so you could just grab a reading whenever it suited.
 
Guess he's going to come around to deal with the majority of people in apartments blocks and high rises where smart meters dont work then?

e.g. I've been told where some of the meters are located and need replacing, its below 4 meters of concrete and there are 20 meters in a row. Smart meters simply dont work in these situations.
High rises I imagine will be hell as there might be hundreds of meters lined up.
Maybe the 2% of people with these just need to get onto an ECO7 tariff. Perhaps a special one with even further reduced night rate give the importance to their quality of life.

I'm guessing based on that you've never been able to provide a meter reading? Do you have to rely on the supplier to come round and take manual readings?

I'm surprised more people haven't actually complained to the management company as it's your right to access your meter. When we rented in a block of flats each floor had a room with everyone's meters in, so you could just grab a reading whenever it suited.
They have a meter that only 2% of population have so I imagine it may be in a "special" situation whichever way you look at it.
 
I think we (you) need to know if the meter is actually spinning round and counting up like the readings are suggesting. I'd be cheking it hourly and turning everything in the house off to see what happened on the meter.

You'd only need 1 day to show you meter doing up by 15 units against the reported (hopefully) incorrect numbers.
Did this ever get sorted?

It sounds like an extremley obvious fault, or that they've somehow linked your account to an industrial unit or something (not unheard of, if someone enters the wrong serial number or account number when setting something up or changing a meter).
I did also contact OVO rather than expecting it to be sorted out here but none taken.

What happened or have you just been paying £600+ a month?
 
I'm guessing based on that you've never been able to provide a meter reading? Do you have to rely on the supplier to come round and take manual readings?

I'm surprised more people haven't actually complained to the management company as it's your right to access your meter. When we rented in a block of flats each floor had a room with everyone's meters in, so you could just grab a reading whenever it suited.
No, we just ask the concierge to get reading. We can get readings from him whenever we want.
 
Great idea smart meters till the battery goes flat on the gas meter. You would think the meter would beep or something to alert you that it's flat.
11 years on and we just had ours replaced with a dumb one again, what a load of useless!
 
Great idea smart meters till the battery goes flat on the gas meter. You would think the meter would beep or something to alert you that it's flat.
11 years on and we just had ours replaced with a dumb one again, what a load of useless!
afaik they do beep and from what ive read iirc they send a warning back to supplier and 11 years on a battery doesn't sound so bad.
It can't be that loud because we didn't hear it. So why did the supplier also ignore the low battery warning if that was the case.
We are now stuck with the energy supplier sending stupidly high conflated forcasts and demanding a high DD based upon said forcast which they say they can do nothing about,
would you like another smart meter installing, that might help................... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :mad:
 
We are now stuck with the energy supplier sending stupidly high conflated forcasts and demanding a high DD based upon said forcast which they say they can do nothing about,
would you like another smart meter installing, that might help................... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :mad:
It could be that we're just coming out of winter and now in spring, therefor your usage is naturally high. So the meter readings you're submitting might be making the computers over estimate your annual usage. All I can say is keep submitting monthly meter readings to your energy supplier and record them in a spreadsheet too. You will be able to calculate a similar to figure to what your provider is, helping you understand why they want you to have a high direct debit. But as you meet and exceed 12 months of readings, the direct debit levels should come to a more reasonable level.

Dig through your bills and find the latest actual reading. If you have any that are almost a year apart from the meter readings you take this year, this can help you work out your direct debit and annual usage. If you have the energy, you could also reason with your energy provider about your direct debit and ask them to adjust it.
 
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I'm away from home with work. The email came as I was travelling so no manual readings. My wife has managed to get some sense from OVO and apparently it's been an error with our account and the readings have now dropped to more normal levels.

Lost all faith in the smart meter system tbh

Yet another ill thought out government disaster. Any time they get involved in such things, it turns out to be a complete mess.
 
I have looked into it. Smart meters dont work in our apartment block. The management company only have access too the meters anyway so I cant access them (or provide energy privider access too them)
You have a legal right to free access to your energy meters as does your provider/Supplier the buildings operator cannot withhold that right from either of you, the DNO can demand access at a moments notice and have the legal right to force entry to do so if required. Just Smart wont work in your block does not mean you cannot have a SM installed, my Employer does this constantly.

Smart metering is not just about the "upgrade to a smarter network" its also about understanding what's installed and where.

Historically electric meter information has been very poor, to the point my employer has 50k meter points with meter assets that are in an unknown state, i.e. no knowledge of the state of decay the meter is in. What this means is the meter is most commonly out of certification (on our books our oldest uncertified known meter is from 1942) by a significant margin. The Government in 2006 brought in a system called MID info here Measuring Instruments Directive, this stipulates that all meters (Elec and Gas) for domestic properties have to meet a set level of standards, This is a good thing for providers and consumers alike. it means that if every property in the UK has a MID meter everyone is billed in the same way (in Kwh and m3) rather than the4 different versions of measurements that exist today.

Nothing was really done in 2006 about getting MID meters into homes, as the governing bodies then knew smart was on the horizon for domestic customers, my employer trialled the first electric smart meters in 2005. in 2016 with the official Smart implementation was launched at the G20 summit to bring the UK in line with the promises to reduce our carbon footprint, the onus was put on suppliers to change meters (as the meter is owned by your Supplier). A lot happened in the following few years and then the SMETS2 DCC Smart Meter organisation was born out of the ashes of a failed smart launch (why? because smart is expensive for retail/domestic customers and suppliers didnt want to foot the bill for running the infrastructure when a customer could move to a different supplier when contract ends)

All hail the DCC and Smart Metering! well actually suppliers are still footing the bill but now its a bill paid to a government entity that screws up more than if fixes!

Essentially People keep holding on to OLD metering systems because they just work (well 99% of the time they do). Should you replace an old meter 100% YES our compliance team test every meter that gets replaced and every single one is over or under reporting usage, just because the dial keeps spinning does not mean its spinning correctly!
 
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