Smart meters, less smart companies

MartinLiddle said:
On the 20 year old estate estate that I live on, there are water meters of the type you describe in the access road and they were used initially to supply readings. Subsequently Severn Trent installed a device called an EverBlu Cyble that attaches to the water meter under the sink just before the stopcock.
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Under the sink before my stopcock is impossible, there is only an inch of blue supply side water pipe showing before it goes into the stopcock. And there's no way I'm having the entire of the under sink pipework redone, it's all very tight under there with a pressure reducing valve and supply to a water softener I installed in a different cupboard, outside tap feed with isolator valve, drinking water filter with isolator valve, washing machine supply with valve, there's simply no space to put more stuff under the sink.

If Cambridge Water insist then I'll offer to read the existing meter twice a year. Just tell me when you want a reading and I'll take it, costs me all of two minutes to do.

Also 2 of the boxes in the drive (there are 4 in a row) have the plastic things they can touch a remote reader to take a reading. If they can fit that for 2 of the boxes in the drive they can do it for mine.
 
My energy smart meters are playing silly bu99ers. They normally record the readings on the BG app/website on the 25/28 of the month.* This month the electricity meter took readings on the 11th and 12th as well. Also the last three readings have been recorded twice - once as Anytime and duplicated as Reading 2. That's how it was with the previous (Economy 7) analogue meter, and the very first smart reading. Fortunately the bill was prepared not long after the reading and it didn't charge me twice. Phew!

(* I took and recorded manual readings on whatever day it was the tariff changed for everyone - wasn't one of the levies removed? If I hadn't the dumb so-called smart meter wouldn't have.)
 
prpr said:
Not that I've had any meaningful readings off them, just a rather odd 27 hour period for the electricity from the day of installation.
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That has now expired from the online view (it seems to last a week).
They reckon it takes up to two weeks. Let's see.
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As expected, nothing else. What a crock of $h!t3.
I wonder what would happen if I now booked the meter change from the email...
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It said I'm not eligible at this time. Why did they sent it in the first place then?
 
My parents had gas and electricity smart meters installed 18 months ago. They submit readings to the energy supplier fine, but the in home display has never shown data (always says it is waiting) and 3 attempts to get them to fix it have been basically ignored. They won't register a non functioning in home display as a fault, if the meters are submitting readings to the provider that counts as working.
 
Might be worth checking Citizens Advice , although some of the advice appears contradictory. Not clear whether "Get help if your IHD isn’t working as it should" would apply after 18 months.
 
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My IHD works fine (subject to its crappy range limitations).
The problem is the stuff to the supplier, that started and then stopped in the case of E, and has never started for G. They're still listing my old E meter on their system, but not the old G meter (which disappeared the day after installation), along with both of the new ones which both have 0 values as their only (manual) reading.
 
prpr said:
The problem is the stuff to the supplier, that started and then stopped in the case of E, and has never started for G. They're still listing my old E meter on their system, but not the old G meter (which disappeared the day after installation), along with both of the new ones which both have 0 values as their only (manual) reading.
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Mine had teething troubles. It can take a while, don't ask me why, for the data collection company to communicate with the energy supplier(s) (I get both from BG). I resorted to supplying manual readings to BG every so often until it was sorted. (I hate crawling about under the upstairs flat's stairs to read the gas meter.) I did complain that the meters didn't appear to be working properly and an "engineer" was sent out and found nothing wrong my end. He contacted someone and got the connection reset and, fingers crossed, things have remained working ever since.
 
prpr said:
My IHD works fine (subject to its crappy range limitations).
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The range is indeed awful. My parents wanted the in home display in the kitchen, but the only place near enough to the meters is on the garage window ledge about 3m from the meters and through the wall. Getting mains power there is not easy.
 
Owen Smith said:
The range is indeed awful. My parents wanted the in home display in the kitchen,
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That's where I wanted mine. One free socket was too far away from the meters, the other had nowhere convenient to put the IHD. It ended up in the living room also about 3m from the electric meter with the signal passing through two walls, possibly the concrete stairs and the :poop: my neighbour has between the two walls. If I move the IHD a few centimetres from the current location I lose signal.
 
It would make sense for these things to communicate over home WiFi, so the user could take responsibility to ensure there was coverage, with a fall-back mode for non-networked users so the meter or the display operated as an autonomous hot-spot.
 
Octopus have a Mini that can act as zigbee repeater and connect to wifi for their App. Can help with Gas/Electric meters too far apart as well. Warning: Change supplier it stops working.

Hildebrand / Glow do displays/Consumer Access Devices (CADs) that use wifi as well as zigbee.
shop.glowmarkt.com

Glow Display and CAD

"Best smart home purchase I have made - it's the only bit of kit I have bought that has just worked from the start" JA The combined Glow In Home Display (IHD) and consumer access device (CAD) enables you to monitor your energy consumption in real-time with access to your data via our Bright app...
shop.glowmarkt.com shop.glowmarkt.com

Chameleon and Glo Energy also do similar that are provided by supplier but the same caveat as Octopus (using Chameleon devices) may well apply.

Smartme website is, I find, quite useful and mainly unbiassed... https://www.smartme.co.uk/in-home-display
 
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