Octopus Energy - has anyone here managed to make a smart meter appointment?

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Not expecting an easy outcome I phoned them just now and, after a few minutes wait, I got an answer and an appointment. Apparently the web site fails because their actual appointment hours don't match the hours the web site offers, hence it always says "An error occurred".

I had one fitted in Feb. Very smooth.

I had resisted for years but finally gave in due to the Economy 7 time clock issue - only for the date to change!

That said, I’ve found it quite interesting to see our usage. I haven’t turned into a mad meter watcher but it is interesting just how much we use even when we are away and it is just things like freezers etc running.

A tip.

Ask of the in house display.

After a while, request a mini online. That way you get both.

Get the mini initially and you only get one.

When away from home I was averaging 2kWh a day. Fridge, Freezer, PVR, router, 3 cameras, central heating controller (zero gas usage) and two dusk to dawn lights of around 4W each.

In message snipped-for-privacy@q957.zbmc.eu>, at 16:36:17 on Tue, 29 Oct

No! And I've been trying for almost a year now.

I don't really want either, just the cheaper electricity! :-)

It's quite likely they won't work anyway, the electricity meter is a long way from the house.

We are much higher 😞, probably due to running several fridges / freezers.

Mine is only a few feet away, and they say they can't get it to work.

Earlier this year, made the appointment, they turned up, did the job, and left.

My meter fitting arranged via Octopus was fairly painless with a bit of a hic-up. I booked on-line on the Octopus web site, chose a day and time (am or pm) pressed OK and got the message that at the present time meters were not being fitted in my area and to come back in a couple of weeks time. Almost immediately I received an email confirming my appointment! I rang customer service and got a human on the end of the line after a short period of time. It was confirmed that my email date/time was correct.

I requested an isolation switch to be fitted at the same time as the smart meter but it wasn't on the meter uninstaller's work sheet but "as he had one in the van" he fitted one anyway and also increased the size of the meter tails.

Can the isolation switch go before the meter? Currently waiting for someone to power cycle my smart meter (in the vain hope of restoring my comms unit’s ability to do its job). Would be very handy if I could do this myself and save waiting weeks for a power cycle followed by weeks more waiting for a new meter/comms unit.

Tim

Not to mention computers, enough lights to get to the loo at 3 a.m. and the house sewage works.

I leave a lot of stuff on, because it all helps heat the house anyway.

No, it goes after it. The meter needs to stay powered as otherwise it's an easy way to steal electricity (depower, unhook tails from isolation switch, bypass meter) - of course you can still do that without an isolator if you're willing to work live, but it's more risky to the thief.

If the meter senses it's been depowered too many times it phones home, and I think the DNO can cross check that with power cuts in your area to detect if there's been any funny business.

Theo

My isolating switch is fitted after the incoming fuse and before the meter. It would remove power to the meter.

My mistake, after reading Theos post I actually checked - the switch is after the meter.

I'm not sure with someone steeling electricity that they actually need a switch or care about they do it :)

That makes sense. Just wish they’d fitted a fecking “reset comms” button to the units though. Having to wait weeks for someone to legally pull the mains fuse to power cycle the unit is really tedious.

Tim

Where I live the aptly named UK lack-of Power Networks cycles my mains power (and everyone else in the street) on average every eight weeks anyway.

I'd expect the meter to have some sort of watchdog to reset the meter if the processor has hung, and I'd expect the firmware to keep trying to phone home if it knows it isn't online ... having a bod in a van turn up and pull the fuse might not help.