Smart Meter = smart move?

[SHMD]

30 minutes ago, Jonboy said:

They only warranty the in house display for 12 months and are under no obligation to replace that part of it( I believe they class it as “gift”).

 

There is an app called Bright from a company called Hildebrand that can connect to most smart meters, or they do replacement IHD for around £50 that they send preconfigured to your meter.

 

(Alternatively some people sell their IHD on eBay and you could discard the meter and just use the cable)

 

What is the security between the meter and the wireless display?

I'm worried that the unscrupulous could tap into the data stream and work out when you are not in.

 

BTW The "Bright" App is only compatible with "GlowMarkt" products, but I don't know how much of the installed-base of meters (they keep changing) that is.

 

 

Kev.

 

[hayfield]

On 24/09/2023 at 03:28, The Johnster said:

My British Gas Electricity/Gas smart meter is of no use to me whatsoever.  The power cable is broken, not my fault it's not made strong enough to cope with more than a year or so of normal usage, and on battery power it switches itself off to save the battery just before it boots up to show me how much actual credit I have left for leccy and gas.  If I want to know this information, and I do towards pension day to check there's enough to last before spending the last of my pittance on not starving to death, I have to go outside in the rain to the front garden and check the actual meters, in cupboards at ground level on opposite sides of the double frontage.  I'm getting on a bit now, and having to get down to ground level in the wet and then struggling to haul my sorry carcass back into something resembling verticality is becoming painful and leaves me out of breath; can't believe it's doing me any good!  As I'm in a rented flat, I have no choice over where the meters are put, or how low they are positioned; the gas isn't so bad as it faces upwards, but reading the leccy is very difficult, actually better done in the dark when the rather dim backlight helps a little.  I'm dreading the poorer weather coming in the winter!

 

Contacted Britgas, who tell me they don't supply replacement power cables and I'm on my own, but were at the same time unable to give me any information as to what sort of power cable is needed.  It's their meter, not my property, how is replacing their part for their meter my responsibility!  'Stards.  I'm only a poor pensioner, you know...

 

Am I guessing that you are talking about the domestic display unit and not the smart meter itself ?

 

Whilst I accept it may be a bit annoying having a display unit not working you can buy a replacement device (with a guarantee) from many sources. As said these units were a free giveaway and nothing the suppliers support. I assume your smart meter is working and the information you require is available on your suppliers application which is available via your computer/tablet/smart phone, if you have a standard meter there is no need to crawl about looking for your meter readout. Anyway my consumer display unit has never shown the meter reading, simply what you are and have used.

 

As for prepaid meters I have no experience, but I guess they work much the same and the information can be accessed via a computer/tablet/smart phone.

[Siberian Snooper]

My meters are difficult to read, so I use the camera on the mobile phone and take a photo, it sometimes takes a couple of attempts to get the reading, but it's easier than trying to get under the stairs for the gas, and up near the ceiling for the lectric.

 

[jjb1970]

On 07/09/2023 at 05:59, Dave Hunt said:

I was told many years ago by a friend who worked for Eon that the only real reason the government and the energy companies want everyone to have a smart meter is so that they can charge by the minute, increasing the price at peak times and reducing it when demand is low.

 

Dave

 

I worked for Eon in the late 00's, though not in metering. However I knew the people overseeing their smart meter program very well and it is true that it was always a tool to assist demand management by varying price in near real time. I never had an issue with that, but the way the fist generation smart meters were rolled out was a car crash in slow motion, and the metering people didn't hide that either.

[TheQ]

Meter reader came round today, read both meters, both electricity. They are both due for changing, but a mobile signal round here is difficult especially where these are placed, so they'll probably be put into dumb mode.

[Bulleidboy100]

We are currently with Octopus and have no complaints. However they have just changed our old smart electricity meter to a new one, and the very old gas meter to a smart gas meter. The gas meter is in the garage, and the visual display module which sits in the kitchen will not pick up signals from the gas meter. anyone else had this problem?

[Hroth]

4 minutes ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

We are currently with Octopus and have no complaints. However they have just changed our old smart electricity meter to a new one, and the very old gas meter to a smart gas meter. The gas meter is in the garage, and the visual display module which sits in the kitchen will not pick up signals from the gas meter. anyone else had this problem?

 

I'm not with Octopus, but my newly installed  gas meter is sulking and not talking to the home display module either. 

I'm going to reposition the module in a different room and see if there is any difference before I start complaining. (I've already done the power cycling thing a couple of times)

 

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

 

Usually the gas meter talks directly to the electric meter not the monitor so moving the monitor may not help.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Hroth]

13 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

Usually the gas meter talks directly to the electric meter not the monitor so moving the monitor may not help.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

I know, I was just being optimistic! 🤪

 

(I did it and it hasn't helped...)

 

 

[Michael Hodgson]

Does that mean you can't have smart gas meter unless you've also got an electric one?

 

[PaulCheffus]

3 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Does that mean you can't have smart gas meter unless you've also got an electric one?

 

Hi

 

I believe so as the electric meter does all the communication with the network.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[SHMD]

..and don't forget that these display modules are a "gift" and absolves the utility company of any support what so ever.

(They are much more interested in your "data" than you actually being able to use "smart meters" in the way they claim that will reduce your energy usage and save the planet".)

 

Please keep us informed as to how you get on.

 

 

Kev.

 

[hayfield]

3 hours ago, SHMD said:

..and don't forget that these display modules are a "gift" and absolves the utility company of any support what so ever.

(They are much more interested in your "data" than you actually being able to use "smart meters" in the way they claim that will reduce your energy usage and save the planet".)

 

Please keep us informed as to how you get on.

 

 

Kev.

 

 

Kev

 

Most data they amass is to ensure they are more able to calculate future demand so that lights and or our heating stays on at peak times. The likes of me and you have no great value to them in the scheme of things.

 

In fact I would rather they took more notice of me to improve what's on offer. 

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

Most data they amass is to ensure they are more able to calculate future demand so that lights and or our heating stays on at peak times. The likes of me and you have no great value to them in the scheme of things.

The only way to do that meaningfully would be to aggregate the measurements from individual houses, e.g. at the local electricity substation level. And they've been able to do that for ages (probably since they were first built).

[Bulleidboy100]

Engineer came back today, but could not resolve the problem - says we need a "super booster" - gas meter as comes, is fitted with a booster, which obviously can not transmit through two brick walls and the passageway between the walls.  I am not duly concerned, but it does seem pointless have a visual display sitting in the kitchen which only gives electricity usage. The gas meter does give usage details when you push the buttons on the meter.  So I will still have to give monthly readings with regards the gas usage - not a problem. 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Bulleidboy100

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

Engineer came back today, but could not resolve the problem - says we need a "super booster" - gas meter as comes, is fitted with a booster, which obviously can not transmit through two brick walls and the passageway between the walls.  I am not duly concerned, but it does seem pointless have a visual display sitting in the kitchen which only gives electricity usage. The gas meter does give usage details when you push the buttons on the meter.  So I will still have to give monthly readings with regards the gas usage - not a problem. 

 

 

Does your supplier not have a program you can access this data, I can find out the next day from Octopus either on my computer or phone

 

[Jonboy]

20 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Does that mean you can't have smart gas meter unless you've also got an electric one?

 

There are some models of gas smart-meter out there that can communicate directly, but most go via the electric meter because the short range communication to an electric meter needs a much smaller battery (the electric meter obviously takes it running power direct from the mains supply).

 

 

I am currently in the fun position where the gas meter is happily submitting readings via the electric meter, but the electric readings are not being submitted….

[Michael Hodgson]

In the good old days meters were all indoors and the meter readers had trouble getting readings because many people were not at home during working hours.  So house builders started fitting meters in cupboards whose doors were on an outside wall.  Now that smart meters are the norm, presumably builders can go back to the old arrangement and dispense with the fibreglass cupboards on the outside wall.

 

I'm still going out in the rain to read a meter with dials some of which run anticlockwise.  I don't know long the company will keep accepting my numbers and hope that I'm not telling porkies about my usage, I can't remember the last time I saw a meter reader.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Michael Hodgson

[Hroth]

So if a gas "smart meter" data transmission system is battery powered, what is the projected battery life before the meter stops transmitting data and becomes a "dumb meter"?

 

Will the gas supplier detect a low battery signal and schedule a battery replacement visit?  If the battery dies, the meter display screen will also fail and so reading the meter and supplying the reading to the gas supplier will also become impossible...

 

Or is there a mechanical meter fallback embedded somewhere* in the meter?

 

They don't tell you about these things!

 

* Accessible to an engineer only, naturally!

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Hroth
Pressed the wrong button...

[Reorte]

15 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I'm still going out in the rain to read a meter with dials some of which run anticlockwise.  I don't know long the company will keep accepting my numbers and hope that I'm not telling porkies about my usage, I can't remember the last time I saw a meter reader.

Surprised that hasn't been changed yet regardless of any smart meter considerations.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

So if a gas "smart meter" data transmission system is battery powered, what is the projected battery life before the meter stops transmitting data and becomes a "dumb meter"?

A decade or so. It shouldn’t be your problem as the supplier should pop round with a new battery. In practice you’ll probably have to nag them.

With a dead battery the meter is just a paperweight.

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

Surprised that hasn't been changed yet regardless of any smart meter considerations.

I wondered about that.  I thought they were supposed to replace or test/recalibrate every so often.

 

I've been in the house since it was built in 1979, and I know it has been replaced once.  That was when the old one stopped working which I spotted through a quarterly bill for zero usage.  They hadn't raised any query about that, but I told the Electricity Board and came home from work one day to find the new meter and sealed fuse etc were all plastered with sticky tape saying don't tamper with it.  I got estimated bills for the period of unmeasured use.  I think that would be about 30 years ago.

[Neil]

A question if I may. Can your supplier charge you for gas that they can't meter? Our smart meter seems to have packed up a couple of months ago, there's no reading for gas on the in house device and the digital screen on the actual meter outside has been blank for a while. Despite whinging to the supplier nothing seems to have been done to address the issue and I don't want to end up paying for an estimation of what we might or might not have used.

 

Thank you.

[hayfield]

5 minutes ago, Neil said:

A question if I may. Can your supplier charge you for gas that they can't meter? Our smart meter seems to have packed up a couple of months ago, there's no reading for gas on the in house device and the digital screen on the actual meter outside has been blank for a while. Despite whinging to the supplier nothing seems to have been done to address the issue and I don't want to end up paying for an estimation of what we might or might not have used.

 

Thank you.

 

 

I think the question is yes. I had a similar issue a few months after having a new meter running. Someone said the supplier could only go back 12 months. In my case it was about 3 months, but I did not want a big bill a few months ahead so reported it early and the agreed settlement was much less than I anticipated. I think they appreciated that I had persisted in getting the issue resolved quickly than take advantage and they reciprocated with a generous estimated amount 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I had two calls from British Gas on the same day earlier this week; one in the morning and one in the afternoon, asking if we'd like a smart meter fitted. 

But we've just transferred our account to Octopus...