EDF refuses to get my smart meter display working

[Clive Page]

Summary of longish saga: in early May we gave in to EDF claiming that our old meters ere past their use-by date, which may well have been true, and got smart gas and electricity meters installed. They provided a Geo Trio II in-home display which worked fine. It gave electricity readings at 30 sec intervals, gas updated every 30 mins, which I gather is normal.

After about 4 weeks it stopped working, but the meter was still giving readings to EDF. Of course their online "energy hub" gives information about 1.5 days in arrears, which is not much use to the consumer try to save money, e.g. to take advantage of these schemes to get paid for turning off expensive appliances at times of maximum demand. I complained and EDF eventually sent a technician. He found the comms module in the meter was faulty, replaced it, and the in-home display worked again. Result.

About a month later it stopped working again. We have had two more visits by technicians who fiddled around and provided 2 more in-home displays, as if that was the fault, which it obviously was not. Today on the phone the EDF customer assistant tried to get the fourth one working (Chameleon TYPE 2). But this also failed to connect properly: for electricity it shows "Supply disconnected" which is obviously stupid, for gas there is no information at all. It is obvious that the comms module in the electricity meter has failed again. She refused to get anyone else to fix it or to refer it to higher authority within EDF and said EDF will send us a letter saying this dispute is unresolved. This seems pretty stupid to me.

We could, I suppose, just change suppliers to a more competent company as tariffs are all much the same these days, but suspect that another company would not agree to fix a defective installation that has been simply abandoned by EDF.

Our best option appears to be to get the Energy Ombudsman involved, as their website says that suppliers are required to provide a working in-home display and if it fails in the first year to repair or replace it. This seems pretty clear cut - but does anyone else have experience of getting the Energy Ombudsman involved in such matters.

[NY]

We had a similar problem with Octopus. They fitted smart meters in June which worked perfectly until one day in August when the gas meter stopped reporting readings every 30 minutes to the in-home device (IHD) console and to the central database which the Octopus app and web site use. Typically the meter reading would be updated one every couple of days, at best.

Each time I phoned, they did something remotely which restored normal behaviour for a few days, after which it would fail. Finally a meter engineer came yesterday and changed our gas meter from one which used single-band comms to one which used double-band. The electricity meter (or at least the hub that both meters talk to) was already dual-band. I wonder whether there is a similar range problem as there is for 5 GHz wifi as opposed to 2.4 GHz.

It's early days. If it still works flawlessly after a few weeks, I might say that they've fixed it.

How long do people find it takes for a supplier's app or web site to record a day's usage figures? I find that the app typically records usage for 00:00 and 00:30 for day X by about 09:00 on day X+1, but it can then take several more hours - or even a couple of days - for the full 00:00-23:39 usage to be reported. The IHD records sensible usage patterns and daily totals. Sometimes several days' usage all appears at the same time, so you go from "We are waiting for the results" to sensible kWhr figures for yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before that. That delay seems to apply equally for elec and gas, so is probably different from gas results not being reported even locally to the IHD.

How do meters send their data from the hub or the IHD back to the central database? Is it via the house internet or do they use their own mobile-phone internet connection?

[Tim+]

If you’re with Octopus ask for an “Octopus mini”. This device captured data transmitted for the IHD and uploads it via your internet. This gives you more or less real time data for electricity. Gas as you know is only updated every 30 minutes but you can see the data as soon as it’s transmitted from your gas meter.

I never found the IHD particularly useful, particularly as the pricing system couldn’t cope with a variable tariff. Certainly it’s more or less redundant if you have a Mini.

Tim

[David Wade]

If you have a smartphone you might want to try the Loop or Bright apps:-

https://loop.homes/loop-smart-meter-app/ they pull the data from the DCC so about 30 mins delay....

Dave

[Jethro_uk]

Slightly OT (but I am bracing for a smart meter soon) but I was intrigued to see Octopus supply me with a URL that I can cURL to pull my meter readings with.

Currently it just pulls the last one I submitted. But when I get a smart meter is it supposed to be "real time".

curl -u "sk_live_xxxxxxxx:" "https://api.octopus.energy/v1/electricity-meter-points/xxxx/meters/xxxx/consumption/"

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

Energy suppliers are incentivised by the government to install as many smart meters as possible, however there is no requirement to ensure they actually remain operative, good luck with the Energy Ombudsman.

You may be better off e-mailing your MP and/or OFGEM

[Robin]

Often works. Free to you. And doesn't close of your other options. But I'm puzzled why EDF won't replace the comms module again if that'd fix it given a reference to the Ombudsman costs them (from memory) £340 whatever the outcome. Maybe their letter will explain.

[Guppy]

I had a brief stint at DCC last year on the service desk in Nottingham. A wonderful working environment, nice bean to cup coffee machine, lots of natural light, pleasant view out the windows.

But... it's a shambles. EDF have to go through DCC to get anything done. You then have myriad different companies that DCC will ping your ticket to after some basic troubleshooting. An online tool will test your equipment &

90% of the problems come back with an E21 error (communication fault).

A side note on the recruitment process which left me speechless. A video interview with a lovely lady in South Africa, with scripted questions an an instant decision on the call afterwards. Judging by some of the people I saw come through I think the only critera for success was speaking legible English.

Anyway this will get pinged off to O2 (or Arqiva if you're north of Sheffield), who'll come back & say 'nowt to do with us' it may then get pinged of to CGI, who look after the data side of things. Eventually it will end up as "comms hub needs disconnecting for 30 minutes, then try it."

Problem is, they didn't think to put a reset switch on the Comms hub, so a metering contractor needs to come and do it, and there are nowhere near enough, so it's a long wait for a visit.

They'll come, look at it, know it's f***ed, but still have to sit in the van for 30 minutes to confirm fuckedness.

They'll then swap the meters which will take weeks to fully connect with DCC.

Then you may get lucky or not.

Whilst I was there I handled hundreds of tickets from the Energy companies and one stood out amongst all of them for getting tickets raised and accounted for around 75% of all of them.

Octopus.

If you want to get your Smart Meter sorted, just switch to them. I was with E.On Next (nPower) after a previous supplier folded, meter stopped working. They just fobbed me off asking for updates. Working there I was able to search my MPN for a ticket, they'd never raised one.

I lasted 2 months.

Now, that lovely office, what's that name on the sign? That will indicate why it's such a shitshow.

[Tim+]

Interesting reading. It really does seem astonishing that the only way to reset the comms unit is to pull the main fuse. Very bad planning! Mind you, does a reset *ever* fix a comms issue? Didn’t for my meter.

Anyhow, my company (Octopus)did get me sorted in the end.

Tim

[Andy Burns]

[Andy Burns]

Indeed.

I can see why they don't wish to allow the customer to turn off the meter though ...

[Guppy]

I have some sentimentan attachment, as that was the HQ of Capita's main IT Supplier ComputerLand where I worked. Capita had a policy of "We like them, let's buy them." So that's what they did with CL.

This trolley dash approach ultimately led to where they are now.

[Guppy]

It's not the meter though, even though the term is "Smart Meter", the actual meters are still very dumb, all the smarts are done by the Comms Hub, which is a separate unit atop the electric meter. This is where the reset button should be. This is a pretty much standard one. I even remember that the O2 (South) ones have a GUID starting with 88. Arqiva use their own network ooop North.

Ringway Manchester has just done a video on the Arqiva Masts that I think are freaking out 5G nutjobs.

From memory the lights mean: SW - Software running - booted OK? WAN - Connected to O2/Arqiva MESH - Used when signal is poor, a MESH Network is a connection between neighbours to piggyback off a better signal. HAN - Home area network, I think it means it's talking to your IHD, but there is other stuff that I never learned. GAS - Known as GPF - Gas Proxy Function, the Gas Meter is talking to the Hub. Separate suppliers? Good luck with that.

Like I said before, go with Octopus for a fighting chance of fully working smarts. Seeing as all Suppliers are pretty much on price cap, I can't see a reason not to.

Referal codes too for £50 quid each credit. <hint>

[Brian Gaff]

No, but I have had the talking display for several years and though the meter itself died in less than a year, they promptly fitted a new one. The usual problem with the in home displays, apparently is that its range is low. I don't know if its using Bluetooth or some proprietary system so it occurred to me that interference from other devices on the same band may shorten its range as sometimes happens with Wifi from a next door property. Have you tried the display right up against the meter to see if it comes alive then? Brian

[Andy Burns]

Yeah, I'm still used to my SMETS1 meter where the comms bit *is* inside the elec meter, as expected it went dumb when I left e.on

EDF claimed that they (presumably DCC in practice) would be able to upgrade the firmware to make it talk again, but so far no news is bad news ...

[Chris Green]

Brian Gaff [e-mail] wrote: [snip]

So we don't have a hope of anything useful working with a smart meter then! Our meter is in a detached garage which is 50 meters or so from our house and the signal would have to go through several brick walls to reach anywhere useful.

[Robin]

You /might/ get something - e.g. a power-line solution - from the alternative HANs from

which were due to start this year. But I don't know how far (sic) they've reached in the wild.

[Guppy]

There is an option of an external antenna but even this sometimes fails to connect.

[Guppy]

They had perfected a solution for CoS on SMETS1 when I was there. There is another layer of completely different service providers for SMETS1. IIRC they contain a bog standard mobile phone sim card that can fail. Good luck.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It's the same with windmills , solar panels electric cars, heat pumps..

You may be better off pissing upwind.