Octopus Energy

So do I, installed over a month ago, but it not only fails to talk to the Mother Ship, it won't even give me a meter reading. Mind you, if it means I'm getting free energy, I'll take it!

https://octopus.energy/blog/smart-meter-installation/#getconnected "it can take up to 14 days for us to connect to your meter and in-home display (it’s usually much sooner but we’re reliant on industry processes, and these can slow things down)." <=== always blame the middle-man

"While you're waiting for your meter to connect, you might receive an email asking for a meter reading - you don't need to do anything. Our engineer will have taken a final meter reading from your old meter and added it to our system."

They even know they are annoying you.

The claim on that page, is the output of their "App" shows whether readings are coming in or not.

Paul

But..but... if the new meter isn't reading anything, the old meter's readings matter not, it's the new one that seems to be effectively lifeless. I have a ticket asking them what to do about it, they have yet to respond. More free energy for me? And I don't do 'apps', so that last sentence is no help at all. The one thing that the display does tell me is that there is nothing happening inside the meter, nor outside it. It's not very smart at the moment. I was enthusiastic about Octopus to start with, but they are not living up to my expectations.

They appear dead to conserve energy. Have you pressed any buttons on it?

You should be able to see it on the web site as well

https://octopus.energy/dashboard/new/accounts and select "My Energy"....

... the problem is that this is really out of octopus's control. The Meter does not talk directly to Octopus, the meters upload data to the DCC.

... really the DCC should have been made responsible for meters, not the suppliers.....

Dave

Just to clarify, what do you mean by “meter”? Are you talking about the in-house display or the actual meter wired into your house?

Have you checked your account online to see if your usage data is reaching Octopus?

Tim

The actual meter. No IHD as yet, there wasn't enough signal strength to reach from under the stairs to the 1st. floor. Watch this space....................................................... Not looked online yet, been much too busy, and mainly because the actual meter says it's not doing anything. But I will, it will be interesting to see what, if anything, it says.

I find it hard to believe that the meter installer left a “dead” meter. Even if it’s not connecting to the DCC it wouldn’t have been installed and left functionless.

Have a look at this site and see if it’s just a case of waking up the display.

https://octopus.energy/blog/how-to-read-your-meter/ Next, go on line and check your account. You can’t really moan that things aren’t working if you’ve not tried to look.

Tim

Just received from Octopus, after I sent them a photo of the meter:

"Thank you for providing the image.

The screen which says the "Load Limit Status: INACTIVE" just means that there is no limit to the load of electric which can pass through the meter. There is no issue with the meter itself and we are still receiving your readings.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Kind Regards Octopus."

This puzzles me, in that there is not one single LED on the meter that is illuminated, and the message displayed does not change. The online manual for the meter says that it automatically scrolls though four displays, but mine does not.

- Davey.

You're saying there is no count of kWh displayed on the meter, and no button you can press that makes it appear?

If so, thanks for putting me off replacing my SMETS1 meter with a SMETS2 meter.

Which meter do you have? Displays are normally LCD, not LED.

Tim

I've had an indoor smart meter on my electricity (OVO) for about two years, together with an in-house display. All works OK.

A few days ago British Gas added/converted my outside gas meter to a 'smart' meter. My understanding is that the gas meter 'talks' to the electricity meter (only a few metres away), which in turn sends both readings to whatever the clearing house is called, which then passes them to the respective suppliers, gas and/or electric.

As yet, my BG gas account still registers 0 cu.m. even though the meter itself reads about 5 cu.m. (as it's a new meter, it always starts from zero, and the engineer makes a note of the reading on the old meter, presumably for billing etc purposes). ATM I use gas just for DHW, but DHW and CH in winter.

Nor does the IHD show anything for gas ATM, not even a blue flame symbol and zero reading, just the lightning flash symbol and kWh used, as before.

I assume that once it all settles down and gas readings appear on my BG account, the IHD will also start to display both gas and electricity, but I may be wrong. Time will tell, and I'm just being patient at the moment.

OOI, what make of smart meter have you got? Aclara are fairly common. If that's what you've got, try pressing the blue button on the RHS a few times, button A, which may bring yours to life. If everything is working OK on mine, four red LED's flash at the top of the meter every five seconds, and a single red LED, lower left, flashes every 0.1 kWh.

This is from OVO, but I guess the basics are common to most meters

The meter is a Toshiba, the display is LCD, there are several LEDs on the surrounding faceplate. None of them are illuminated. I am not at the location of the meter at the moment, so I cannot try anything. But at least Octopus say it's sending data. I wish they had told me that when it started working. I have asked them how to get it to display the current reading. This sounds exactly like a problem I often encountered when I worked in industry: The manufacturer of a device would know it intimately. The purchaser/user of the device would not know it at all, but the operating manual was written by the manufacturer, who would leave out details that were essential for its operation, but because the writer was familiar with the device, he assumed that everybody else would know them. Wrong.

I looked at Octopus' help pages, and they gave instructions for several different meters, but not a Toshiba. I found a manual online, but the meter does not operate as described, at least as far as the display is concerned. Maybe Octopus have made an operational change.

Are you sure that the *meter* is a Toshiba. Toshiba make comms units that sit on top of the smart meter. The meter with its display is usually a different brand (like Kaifa, Aclara etc).

Well maybe Toshiba have brought out a model variant with different instructions but it would be exceedingly odd to make a meter that couldn’t be manually read.

I don’t think Octopus have any power to make changes to meters. They get their information from the DCC.

Tim

Yes, the Toshiba bit is probably just the coms unit (sku1 cellular hub). My meter fitted on behalf of Octopus has an anonymous sku1 hub sitting on top of a Landis+Gyr E470, type 5424 electric meter. Possibly not anonymous as there is a safety label stuck to the LH top corner of the sku1 hub.

My installation looks like

There is a red led on the electric meter that flashes occasionally

I have both a IHD and and an Octopus mini communicating with the hub.

On my electric meter pressing button B illuminates the display and pressing button A twice gives the reading (Rate 1, imported = xxx kWh) By holding down buttons the meter can also display a second reading and/or an exported kWh reading.

You must be able to manually read a meter, in case the comms fails. Most show power used, power exported and can show power factor and current load.

Dave

On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 22:02:48 +0100, alan_m snipped-for-privacy@admac.myzen.co.uk> wrote: <snip>

Here on my 'Secure Liberty 101' it is 6 for the readings

Avpx

They are not Octopus meters, Octopus do not install them, the meter installers install/ DNO. Octopus encourage you to install them, so you can get a better service/ they can meet their targets.

The consumption data doesn't go direct to Octopus, it goes to an intermediary first, then relaid to Octopus, which involves delays. Octopus supply a free 'Mini', which speeds this process up, by sending them the data direct, via wifi/your broadband.

The installer drove an Octopus van, pink paintwork and all.

My main beef with Octopus at the moment is their lack of communication about what was and is happening.

Are you tried using “X”? They’re very responsive.

Have you checked which METER you have (as opposed to the comms unit on top)? If you could share a photo of the meter and its display it would be a big help.

Tim