OT - Smart meters and EDF Energy

[David]

Tuesday. I was called from a Manchester number by the usual Asian phone jockey. To my surprise it was a genuine call. My Smart meter had stopped sending data (allegedly) and an engineer needed to call to reset the meter. 15 minute job including power off/on. Tomorrow 1-5 OK? Fine.

Wednesday morning. Phone call from Manchester. Due to unforeseen circumstances engineer can't call. Reschedule? Tomorrow 1-5 OK? Fine.

Thursday morning. {Just guess}

I declined a third appointment.

Had I been working and taking time off I would be incandescent. Being retired I was just severely pissed off.

So presumably they will have to estimate my usage based on previous records.

I suspect that they will assume that I have used loads of energy until I prove otherwise.

Another Smart meter Brucey bonus.

When I have the energy (see what I did there?) I will look at my account on line and see if I can submit a meter reading.

No doubt this is saving both me and the energy provider a significant amount of money to justify the cost of installing the meter.

Grumble.

Dave R

[Mark Carver]

Mine stopped sending data on Jan 30th. I couldn't get OVO to come and take a look and fix it, despite the fact it's on the outside front wall.

In the end it burst back into life, presumably by itself (because my CCTV doorbell detected no one) three weeks ago,

[Steve Walker]

I fully agree about taking time off (last time I insisted on a weekend appointment, as I am an hourly paid contractor and time off is expensive). As you were not losing pay though, you should have kept on with this - you can claim £30 off them for each appointment missed or cancelled with less than a day's notice! They already owe you £60.

[tim...]

can't you use your little gizmo to see if it's actually monitoring usage correctly?

[Tim+]

I read somewhere that smart meters store 13 months worth of half hourly data. Mine stopped uploading data back in January. Still waiting for someone to sort it.

Anyhow, in theory all your consumption data will still be available.

Tim

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Well, I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems dual fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal bit since otherwise there is little point from my point of view. The main issue with non sending of data applies to the gas part normally, Its powered by a single cell battery, and it has to be changed regularly, and it seems the timing of this has been cocked up for two main reasons. 1 Covid 19, and 2 many people moving energy companies and the change dates were lost. It seems to me that this is a design flaw, why not make the bloody battery user changeable? Brian

[Chris Green]

It does rather seem to make smart meters even more pointless than I thought they were if they still need visits by meter readers. Meter readers will become meter feeders.

[charles]

Since having had smart meters for both gas and electricity since June 2017, I have not had a visit from a meter reader. At least nobody has asked to come indoors to read the electricity one.

[Andy Burns]

Even if they installed a non-talking one, you can choose how frequently it reports usage to EDF, presumably you could login to their website and the web-browser read it out for you?

It's a specialised (Lithium Thionyl Chloride) D cell, about 68 watt hours and supposed to last 10 years

[The Nomad]

SSE just tried to install a 'smart' gas meter here and the 'Engineer' said I have to turn off the electric as I have to install a communications hub, and it _must_ be on the DNO's side of the system ... Oh there's no room sorry can't be done. ????

No can't take the power from the henley block - forgot to ask about 'longer wire' but it seems there is no space in the connector blocks and no space around them.

"Well you could get a smart electric meter & then there is no problem as they have one fitted already"

Seems a half baked idea to me :-(

Avpx

[Andy Burns]

My gas and elec meters were fitted together, there's no physical connection between them, but the GSM module is in the elec meter and the gas meter reports over a local radio link to the elec meter every 30 minutes.

Battery in gas meter is 9 years old and still running.

Not sure if elec meters fitted today still include the GSM bit, or if that functionality is always separated out to the comms hub?

[Theo]

It might be the stupid balkanised way the ownership works. The DNO owns your incoming electricity feed and cutout, your electricity supplier owns your meter, a gas network operator (or IGT) owns your incoming gas feed and your gas supplier owns your gas meter. Every time you switch supplier the ownership of the meters changes hands.

It would be much simpler if the DNO and gas network owned the meters and could agree to coordinate installs (eg doing whole streets at the same time). But since it's the suppliers who own them, if you're on dual fuel with one supplier they can replace both at once, but if you're on different suppliers then each wants to fit independent meters. The gas meter needs a mains supply for the radio relay, but if you don't have the same supplier for electric then they can't change that meter at the same time.

If you do want smart meters installed, it may help to switch both electric and gas to the same supplier so you can get both replaced at the same time, and then you are free to switch away later.

Theo

[Andrew]

EDF have just accepted my readings (*) for years, and I shout the gas meter reading through the window to the Morrisons? guy who still comes round to read the gas meter. They have just accepted this method for ages too. They haven't physically looked at the meter for years.

(*) online

[Theo]

They can, I think, tell if the readings sent in by customers tally with the meter on the substation. They may only be interested in sending out meter readers if the difference is sufficient to make it worth their while.

Theo

[alan_m]

If there was a meter for each household at the sub-station we wouldn't need any meters in our houses :)

BG used to send out letters stating the meter reader needed to gain access to the meter for safety check reasons !!!!

[Robin]

they were not lying

[Johnny B Good]

Indeed not! Whatever their suspicions about possible attempts to defraud the gas supplier by tampering with the meter, safety was certain to have been compromised by such interference.

No need to risk upsetting a possibly innocent customer with such suspicions alone, no matter how strong they were. The accusation of fraud could justly be made afterwards from any evidence of such nefarious activity gleaned from the safety inspection.

[alan_m]

It used to be the BG standard first letter after a meter reader, who turns up at random times that have not been arranged beforehand, finds you out - probably because you are at work. The more clued up meter readers would push a card through the door telling you to take your own reading, write it on the card and leave the card outside where he could see it.

Legally, if a meter reader was entering a house for a Safety inspection wouldn't he have to be qualified and registered with Gas Safe - and with the correct Gas Safe card and checkable registration number?

Wouldn't someone, who is not trying to defraud the utility company, but unknowingly has some dodgy gas installations fitted by cowboy and scarper get a nice fuzzy feeling of confidence that the meter reader, as a gas safety expert, has found everything OK?

The safety check argument BG used (maybe still use) was just a mechanism to get customers to arrange an appointment to have their (inside house) meter read. Unfortunately any appointments made this way were at their convenience and often required people taking time off work for this activity which took around 60 seconds. To make matters worse if you were a dual fuel customer the meter reader was only told to read one of them.

I haven't used BG for many years and anytime my meters have been read since have either been after 6pm or on the weekend with no unnecessary hassle from the supplier.

[Robin]

I'll defer to your knowledge of BG's motives. I had in mind the fact that until 2016 all suppliers had a statutory obligation to try to inspect gas and electricity meters every 2 years.

And I don't see why anyone would need to be qualified and registered with Gas Safe to look for evidence of deterioration that might affect the safety or proper functioning of the meter, or evidence of tampering or theft, and to read the meter.

[Theo]

Since they're jointed in the street, perhaps we could use the same scheme as FTTP. One house gets 50Hz, the next ones get 60Hz, 70Hz, etc. They're separate feeds each with their own meter, mixed together at the substation, and separated in each manhole using a giant prism.

Theo ;-)