Smart meters, less smart companies

[trog]

I just had this from EDF.................................................

We’re continuously working to improve your smart meter’s performance and ensure reliable data connectivity. As part of a recent data review, we noticed that we’re missing a piece of information that may help enhance the connection to your meter. To resolve this, we need a photograph of your electricity meter.
What We Need from You:
Please take a clear photo of your electricity meter so that we can locate the "Comms Hub GUID". This unique identifier will help us link your meter to our systems more effectively, ensuring accurate data transmission and connectivity.
Example Photo
For your reference, here’s an example of the type of photo we’re looking for, showing the correct location of the Comms Hub GUID in the red box below:



How to Send the Photo
Once you’ve taken the photo, please reply to this email with the image attached.
Thank you for your assistance.
Regards,
Smart Metering Team

................................. It seems that they are not keen on me having a fully dumb meter I replied with...................

"My meter was installed in dumb mode as that is the only way I would have accepted it so there is no need for "ensuring accurate data transmission and connectivity." thank you, also the fitter took a photo when he installed the meter that you can refer to anyway."

 

[antipodean]

................................. It seems that they are not keen on me having a fully dumb meter I replied with...................

"My meter was installed in dumb mode as that is the only way I would have accepted it so there is no need for "ensuring accurate data transmission and connectivity." thank you, also the fitter took a photo when he installed the meter that you can refer to anyway."

Perhaps they want to turn your power off for non-payment ...

 

[prpr]

Perhaps they want to turn your power off for non-payment ...

Perhaps they want to turn your power off for what they think is non-payment even when you have paid, due to their own incompetence/inefficiency/bad management. And we all know the latter never occurs in modern Britain, don't we?

 

[trog]

Perhaps they want to turn your power off for non-payment ...

I do not think I have been less than £100 in credit in the last 20 years and have never had a DD payment fail, I suspect unlike simple dumb mode installation where they can still cut the power off remotely they want to regain that ability with their B/S " improve your smart meter’s performance".

 

[EEPhil]

" improve your smart meter’s performance".

It could be that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. I've no idea whether in dumb mode the usage data is still sent to the third party that collects data. I know that when mine was fitted the data uploaded but the connection between the data collector and BG wasn't working properly. Perhaps the collector has reported something to BG, or BG are not receiving data and can't understand the request for dumb mode. It could be the case that dumb mode instigates some action to correct a perceived problem. "Improving your smart meter's performance" sounds like the BS they use to describe this.

 

[trog]

It could be that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. I've no idea whether in dumb mode the usage data is still sent to the third party that collects data. I know that when mine was fitted the data uploaded but the connection between the data collector and BG wasn't working properly. Perhaps the collector has reported something to BG, or BG are not receiving data and can't understand the request for dumb mode. It could be the case that dumb mode instigates some action to correct a perceived problem. "Improving your smart meter's performance" sounds like the BS they use to describe this.

Maybe but if so I would have thought that would occur soon after the meter was fitted nor 1 1/2 years later.

 

[EEPhil]

Maybe but if so I would have thought that would occur soon after the meter was fitted nor 1 1/2 years later.

Mine worked properly for a couple of weeks and then stopped reporting readings (but reported usage). If I hadn't moaned I don't know how long it would have been before they noticed. One quarter, 2 or more? I treated the meter as dumb, read the meter and sent them the readings (close to the usual read date) without them emailing me first - so I don't know the answer.

 

[trog]

Mine worked properly for a couple of weeks and then stopped reporting readings (but reported usage). If I hadn't moaned I don't know how long it would have been before they noticed. One quarter, 2 or more? I treated the meter as dumb, read the meter and sent them the readings (close to the usual read date) without them emailing me first - so I don't know the answer.

Mine has never reported anything according to the guy who fitted it and I get an email once a month asking for a reading.

 

[prpr]

then stopped reporting readings (but reported usage)

What is a reading if not usage?

 

[EEPhil]

What is a reading if not usage?

Try querying that with BG and see if they'll explain. I tried it and they couldn't give me an answer. It looks like the "how much you used in the last half-hour/day/week/month" is a separate item to the actual meter reading. Don't understand it? Neither do I. But that's what happened.

 

[RobH1]

We had both smart meters (BG) fail and it only came to light when the quarterly bill came in. The readings showed we had used about two month's worth of gas and electricity going by the date the meters failed to send signals.
BG took about two weeks to arrange and install new meters. We were pleasantly surprised they wrote off at least one month's usage plus the two weeks and began again from scratch.
The meters were less than three years old.

 

[prpr]

It looks like the "how much you used in the last half-hour/day/week/month" is a separate item to the actual meter reading.

But surely one's just an integration of the other. Which leads on to: what's the resolution of these half-hour readings, and what happens if they don't get 48 readings a day for whatever reason?
I guess that's why they need the cumulative reading, but how do they charge you if data is missing, and what happens to all the rounding errors that inevitably build up?
God, it seems like a minefield now I think more about it. I think that's just about made my mind up about the new electricity one staying dumb when they force it on me (not that I've heard anything since they didn't turn up) and then there's no reason to change the gas meter either.

 

[BMAX]

I would assume that the electricity meter would store the data from both meters and only send cumulative readings to the billing system periodically or when polled..

 

[EEPhil]

But surely one's just an integration of the other. Which leads on to: what's the resolution of these half-hour readings, and what happens if they don't get 48 readings a day for whatever reason?

I would have thought so. In the BG app or through the website I could view the half-hourly usage most of the time. If that didn't show I could use a different app to get the usage data from the collection company (DCC*). Although I could see the usage BG didn't record meter readings. After complaint BG sent out an engineer who did nothing but fill in an online form that told him there was a fault which required the re-registration of the meters (not sure whether this was with the data collector or BG). Since then two meter reading are taken per month on the 25th and 28th. (Why so close?)

* DCC claim to just pass the data directly to BG and don't keep it. Strange how the data displayed by a third party app can be different to BGs then.

 

[trog]

I would have thought so. In the BG app or through the website I could view the half-hourly usage most of the time. If that didn't show I could use a different app to get the usage data from the collection company (DCC*). Although I could see the usage BG didn't record meter readings. After complaint BG sent out an engineer who did nothing but fill in an online form that told him there was a fault which required the re-registration of the meters (not sure whether this was with the data collector or BG). Since then two meter reading are taken per month on the 25th and 28th. (Why so close?)

* DCC claim to just pass the data directly to BG and don't keep it. Strange how the data displayed by a third party app can be different to BGs then.

That all seems far from smart. I just go to the EDF meter readings page once a month and just under each of the 2 boxes for entering your readings you can click to see all the previous months readings that you have given, that is all the smartness I need to determine if the meter is suddenly giving incorrect readings or I am being a little less or more frugal in the last month than usual and can adjust my usage in the future if I feel the need to.

 

[EEPhil]

I can do the same with BG. Should I want to know how much I use by the half-hour then that data is in a separate part of the BG app or website.
The only reason I bother at all is it saves a few pence (and it is only a few pence) if there's a half-price electricity hour or two. I gave up changing my usage to fit those hours as BG couldn't make up their mind whether it was BST or GMT or whether the usage data was conveniently lost during those hours and they guessed the usage (lower than actual, of course).

 

[trog]

I can do the same with BG. Should I want to know how much I use by the half-hour then that data is in a separate part of the BG app or website.
The only reason I bother at all is it saves a few pence (and it is only a few pence) if there's a half-price electricity hour or two. I gave up changing my usage to fit those hours as BG couldn't make up their mind whether it was BST or GMT or whether the usage data was conveniently lost during those hours and they guessed the usage (lower than actual, of course).

I have not looked into one of those tariffs but how does the peak rate compare to other same any time tariffs ? Is it like the old economy 7 tariff? that used to be cheap for 7 hours at night but the rest of the time you paid a higher rate than a standard tariff and could end up saving nothing and costing more and only really good if you had those old electric storage heaters.

 

[EEPhil]

What I'm talking about isn't a tariff. With BG it's called Peak Save and, supposedly, applies when electricity usage is low. Often 11am-4pm on a Sunday. I would have thought that'd be high usage. Don't people have Sunday lunch any more? Perhaps not many people have electric ovens.

I think you can still get Economy 7 type tariffs. My old meters were capable of that and had a Radio Teleswitch - which wouldn't work when R4LW switched off. Although it switched (loud clunk around 7am) I had the same tariff applied all the time and I had to send them two electricity readings.