Electricity Smart Meter

[felstedrider]

One of the regular Please, Please, Please Have A Smart Meter letters this morning.
With a new angle.

From 1 October, 100% renewable electricity will only be available to customers with a smart meter

How does that work then?

That’s the suppliers choice.  There’s nothing in regulation that says that’s the case.

[felstedrider]

AIUI electricity providers buy green energy credits equivalent to the number of customers they’ve promised renewable energy. If only a fraction of customers have smart meters they only have to buy a fraction of the number of credits.

(And of course the credits are kind of a meaningless fiction anyway)

For a tariff to be green the supplier needs to source 1 REGO per MWh of consumption.  Average is 3 REGOs per domestic customer.   The type of metering has no effect on this*.

Agreed, though, that all of the my tariff is greener than yours debate is largely tosh.


* There is a potential move to half hourly auditing of renewable tariffs.  If this goes in domestic supply points will need a smart meter.

[JellyLegs]

I would just love my smart meter to work. It has been totally dumb since the day it was installed, refusing to connect up to anything.  The supplier isn’t interested in sorting it out, I guess they get their subsidy payment for putting me on a smart meter whether it works or not.

[rogerzilla]

Mine work intermittently, i.e. Eon sometimes get automated readings and sometimes say they were unable to get one.

[hellymedic]

Mine work intermittently, i.e. Eon sometimes get automated readings and sometimes say they were unable to get one.

Mine likewise; went several months without a smart reading.

[Kim]

On request I provided one of the Cephalopod's minions with a photo of our yes-it's-actually-smart gas meter last week, in the hope that they might be able to fix whatever database is claiming that it's not.

As yet, no progress.

[ian]

On request I provided one of the Cephalopod's minions with a photo of our yes-it's-actually-smart gas meter last week, in the hope that they might be able to fix whatever database is claiming that it's not.

As yet, no progress.

This was the mechanism in which I finally demonstrated that our meter was metric (or imperial, can't remember which way around they had confused matters). Complete with a copy of that day's newspaper, in a proof-of-life sort of gig.

Given they claimed what was in the database had always been that way and it wasn't a new meter, I still wonder if the people before us were paying 3x their gas bill. Or whether it was just British Gas bluster for yet another billing fuckup.

Our smart meters just work (though oddly, on a few occasions I've peeked into the cupboard to turn on the NAS at the end of the world, the little monitor has lost its connection, despite being about 30 cm away from the meters themselves). That cupboard truly is a place where radio waves don't dare to propagate. I was disappointed, if unsurprised, to find that when rates change, they still estimate, rather than take an actual reading.

[felstedrider]

On request I provided one of the Cephalopod's minions with a photo of our yes-it's-actually-smart gas meter last week, in the hope that they might be able to fix whatever database is claiming that it's not.

As yet, no progress.

Said company refused to believe the registers on the E7 meter at our rented place were set up the wrong way round.   I tried reasonably hard to convince them as I'm an honest person but eventually gave up and used daytime energy for the price of nighttime guilt-free.

Our smart meters at the current place have been pretty good so far but they are on the outside wall and the signal is clearly quite good.  The water meter has a different type of logger and the old one had died quietly with no-one noticing.   The last owners had never had a proper read and never noticed (this is not entirely a surprise).

[Ham]

We've got a Gen 1 smart meter, that hasn't worked since we changed supplier. Except that our current supplier, Outfox the Market, appear to be getting info from it. Except that they don't mark it as a smart meter reading. And they only show one reading a month. All very odd. I've asked them woss goin' on, we'll see what they say.

[Mrs Pingu]

We got ours fitted in July. Gas in the box outside the front door and electric just inside the front door. So far Octopus have not managed to talk to the electric meter.

Duff meter?  I thinking about 'registering interest' in an Octopus SM, but not taken the plunge.  Apparently they're pretty busy with installs.

They tried rebooting it remotely which didn't fix it so am waiting on an engineer coming in November.

Despite both meters being visible on the IHD this morning, tonight there is no evidence of a gas meter. When I went to check the Octopod app sure enough it's stopped getting readings from the gas meter, but it appears to have populated a whole load of electric data back as far as the 26th August. So looks like maybe they don't need an engineer out to the electric meter at all. But might do for the gas now.
Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it...

[Kim]

Despite both meters being visible on the IHD this morning, tonight there is no evidence of a gas meter. When I went to check the Octopod app sure enough it's stopped getting readings from the gas meter, but it appears to have populated a whole load of electric data back as far as the 26th August. So looks like maybe they don't need an engineer out to the electric meter at all. But might do for the gas now.
Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it...

*laughs in oh no, not you as well*

Although probably not the same problem, if your IHD isn't working.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gas meter appears to be reporting to the IHD and Octopus again and it seems like some electric data has made it's way to Octopus over the last month, so maybe I won't need that engineer visit after all. I shall wait until meter reading day and check what's on the meter is the same as on the Octopus appbefore I cancel the engineer though.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gas meter appears to be reporting to the IHD and Octopus again and it seems like some electric data has made it's way to Octopus over the last month, so maybe I won't need that engineer visit after all. I shall wait until meter reading day and check what's on the meter is the same as on the Octopus appbefore I cancel the engineer though.

And now neither of the meters are talking to Octopus 

[Kim]

Meter saga continues apace, with an appointment booked for an engineer to install the meter we've already got on the 28th, followed by an email telling me to ignore it.

Seriously, it's like trying to make printers work in Windows.

[Mrs Pingu]

Gas meter has populated all the missing data with Octopus again, electric still not talking.

[numbnuts]

I had my smart meter fitted on August 31st  and have just found out the gas side is OK and the reading are being sent, but the electric side has never worked from day one !!!

[Ham]

We've got a Gen 1 smart meter, that hasn't worked since we changed supplier. Except that our current supplier, Outfox the Market, appear to be getting info from it. Except that they don't mark it as a smart meter reading. And they only show one reading a month. All very odd. I've asked them woss goin' on, we'll see what they say.

Well, what they said was, yes we've got smartmeter feeds from you, no we didn't tell you but you don't need to send readings, and no we can't give you any more info.

To be fair they also pointed me to the third party apps that do smart meter data, so I have tried Loop, and blow me down but it works (after a shaky start) and I now have > 1 year of data accessible by half hour. Shame I can't download the data, wonder if any of the apps do.

[giropaul]

Around here, the electric supplier/s would appear to trust the much vaunted smart meters so much that Meter readers’ cars are a regular sight as I cycle around.

[Mrs Pingu]

We've got a Gen 1 smart meter, that hasn't worked since we changed supplier. Except that our current supplier, Outfox the Market, appear to be getting info from it. Except that they don't mark it as a smart meter reading. And they only show one reading a month. All very odd. I've asked them woss goin' on, we'll see what they say.

Well, what they said was, yes we've got smartmeter feeds from you, no we didn't tell you but you don't need to send readings, and no we can't give you any more info.

To be fair they also pointed me to the third party apps that do smart meter data, so I have tried Loop, and blow me down but it works (after a shaky start) and I now have > 1 year of data accessible by half hour. Shame I can't download the data, wonder if any of the apps do.

How do the 3rd party apps get your data then? I had a quick look at Loop and saw it wanted credit card details?

[Ham]

Yes, to validate your address, I can see that is needed. It validates a zero debit on the account, all you need is the mpan number and the address, so some form of security is good. Loop works quite well, but I would like to find one that lets me download data (>1 year data comes off the meter). (It did take a few days for it to synch, but send fine now)

[Kim]

If you're with Octopus, you can download your consumption as a CSV file from the website.  Or access it via the API if you want to do something more automated.

[Ham]

Not so much with outfucks the market

[Mrs Pingu]

If you're with Octopus, you can download your consumption as a CSV file from the website.  Or access it via the API if you want to do something more automated.

That only works if octopus can see the consumption though, I assume.

[Kim]

If you're with Octopus, you can download your consumption as a CSV file from the website.  Or access it via the API if you want to do something more automated.

That only works if octopus can see the consumption though, I assume.

Yes.   

[Adam]

Octopus are having a glitch with my account.  I'd noticed the actual bills don't charge for any electricity used after 29th April.  The very last one dated 13th September for some reason only relates to electricity used on 28th January.  All of the data is however fully visible on their website.

Although they haven't yet emailed me to notify me, the website states they've reduced my payment from £80 pm to £13pm, as I'm building up a massive credit.