EDF and smart meters

[Andy Burns]

Well, it does give daily (also weekly/monthly) graph of energy rather than power, which amounts to the same thing ...

[Robin]

My apologies for the implication you would not have known and made the adjustment if you could.

The one with our SMETS2 meters adjusts the levels in the light of usage. It currently changes from green at c.600W :(

[AnthonyL]

Well yes, but it is the energy supplier who has complete control.

[Roland Perry]

Strictly speaking, smart meters do none of this. It's the readout device, and some of them are very definitely not as smart as they ought to be.

Mine has currently broken the supplier refuses to replace it (even for money) and all the third party replacements I've investigated say my smart meter is incompatible - too old perhaps.

Why oh why can't the supplier make the numbers (reported every 30 minutes they claim) available as a feed to either an analysis app on their website, or on a third party website of my choice?

[For the avoidance of doubt, I wouldn't want a smartphone app]

[Robin]

You can download the half-hourly usage data sent to DCC from various sites - e.g.

[Dave Plowman (News]

The hub on mine is part of the electric meter. Do they supply a separate one, plugged into the mains, for gas only?

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail], at

14:20:59 >> >>>

Thanks, I'll give that a try at the weekend, and report back. (When I did a similar validation to see if I could use a 3rd party readout device, it gave the "sorry, we can't" I mentioned earlier, but that would be for local interrogation of the meter, not of the central database)

[Dave Plowman (News]

Quite. With an old type gas meter it is quite tricky to calculate say weekly costs. To the point where most wouldn't bother. It then comes as a bad surprise when they get their quarterly bill.

[Dave Plowman (News]

I had an early electronic digital gas meter fitted as a routine replacment. They changed it just a couple of years later to a digital readout non electronic type. Due to the batteries not making their claimed life. And this new one mounted side on in the cellar making it far more difficult to read. That was the main reason I wanted a smart one.

[Dave Plowman (News]

My first IHD read gas only. After loads of phoned calls and emails they sent a new one of a different design. That read both, but wouldn't go online to update to the current tarrif, so gave nonsense costs.

But Loop on my phone worked perfectly.

I gave in and bought an IHD from Ebay. If that didn't work I'd simply get my money back. But although looking near identical to the original, it does work just fine. Most of the time. Needs a reset (switch off and on) every few days as it loses the gas display data. But can live with that.

The service from the meter installer, SMS, pretty well as bad as I've known. And my energy supplier Shell says it's nowt to do with them. I'd guess SMS is a big donator to the Tory party and got the contract via the old boy's network.

[David Wade]

You can download 30 minute consumption figures for the last 90 days as a CSV.

There are a number of apps and web sites, Bright, Loop, Wiser that let you see daily/weekly/monthly figures.

Dave

[Andy Burns]

Not in my case, the meter went dumb after I left e.on, and is not new enough that it can be upgraded/adopted by DCS

It accepts my MPRN, but then insists on either knowing the MAC addr of my IHD when mine has none, or offers to give me a CIN but my IHD has nowhere I could enter it ...

[Clive Page]

A few weeks ago I got a phone call from a pleasant lady claiming to be calling from EDF saying that our gas and electricity meters were old and needed to be replaced - this may well be true. I asked several questions about the replacement process, and found that (a) it didn't have to be a smart meter, they would be willing to install a dumb one, and that (b) it would involve our gas and electricity supplies being disconnected for at least an hour or two. Since it was then in the middle of a very cold spell I pointed out that this would be a serious inconvenience. She agreed to call us back in a few months when the weather was warmer. This surprised me a lot - I'm still not sure whether the call was genuinely from EDF or not. Has anyone else had anything like this?

Otherwise, like other EDF customers, I find the exhortations to get a smart meter which used to come once a month are now at least once a week.

[alan_m]

Possibly they will be fined by the regulator if they don't meet targets for smart meter installation.

Possibly with the recent adverse publicity there is a shortfall in the work load for those installing the meters.

[Roland Perry]

In message [e-mail]>, at 15:29:14 on Thu, 23 Mar

2023, "Dave Plowman (News)" [e-mail]> remarked:

Yes, if you don't have a smart electric meter, I think they could if they wanted to install a smart gas meter and a gas-only hub. It's very likely that hub would be installed next to your electricity meter.

[Robin]

JOOI what make/model of IHD?

[Andy Burns]

Ampy EcoMeter model 5262

basically same as

[Robin]

We had one of those in 2012. Never thought to open it up before it went for recycling but suspect you're stuffed until they replace your meter.

[Andy Burns]

I did open mine up and managed to tap into the comms between the main PCB and the RF daughterboard, unfortunately it got back-burnered and stayed that way ...

[Robin]

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