My smart meters don't work

[Bouleversee]

Eon-next insisted on installing smart meters in my house on Nov. 18 last year. They weren't connecting with the system and no monitoring device was left with me. An appt. was made in December for a techie to come and have another go. Didn't turn up. A techie came in January but said the system was down and he couldn't do anything. A 4th came last week, never came into the house, made some noise fiddling with the elec. meter (both meters are on the front wall of the house behind shrubs. Handed me a device which looked like a small remote control which was switched on showing a window with Tutorial on it. Said that would show me how to operate it and there was also a booklet in the box. I said (having had to be available from 8 am to 6 pm) that I couldn't read it then as I had urgent calls to make and asked how I switched it off. He said the only way was to remove the back (which he wrenched off) and take out the battery (which he didn't) which struck me as very odd. However, without any opportunity for further questions, he was off. He said he was soaking wet and and needed to get back to his hotel. At that point, my daughter happened to 'phone and I told her what had happened an she said there is usually a lead with a plug. I had mentioned that I noticed my device had said something about needing to be nearer the signal; she said theirs was plugged in near the boiler in the utility room. I have two boilers, one in the loft at the far wall of one end of my laterally extended bungalow and the other on the far wall of the garage at the other end.

I had a look under some moulded plastic in the box and there was a curled up flex (which had clearly never been unrolled as it had clips on) with a plug on the end. I don't think the techie had realised it was there. I tried to replace the back on the device but it wasn't possible so I couldn't connect the flex. By then the battery had run out so I couldn't read the Tutorial so I looked at the booklet which started by saying you should never open the device or try to service it!

Next day I rang the number given in the booklet for replacements of the device but a recorded message asked me to key in my acct. no and then told me they were Eon and I would have to ring Eon-next (who took over NPower with whom I had been for some years), which I did but they didn't know anything about replacements. I told the young chap the story and asked him if he could check whether the readings were now being transmitted to them; they aren't! He thought the height of one of the boilers might be causing the problem but would have to refer the matter to his manager. I have heard nothing since.

I find it extraordinary that no survey is done before insisting we have smart meters and removing the old meters and it seems to me that it is likely they will never work. I can see the consumption figures for the electric, though they are not being transmitted to Eon-next) but there are no figures in the window on the gas meter; however, I believe there is a way of getting them if you know how since the techies are able to get a reading when they come, though bizarrely they never pass it on. I always ask for them myself.

Are there any Lemons who know anything about smart meters who could add any useful info before I chase Eon-next again. There seems to be a disconnect between Eon per se and Eon-next; it is the parent company who organises the appointments with the technicians and sends them down from Newcastle. It must be costing them a fortune and for what? How dare they expect their customers to be available at any time between 8 am and 6pm with only a phone call l5 mins. before the actual time of arrival which is more for their benefit to make sure you are still there? My contract expires on Apr. 20 and I can hardly switch to another energy supplier till the meter situation is sorted.

Edit: I have had to chase all the appointments and they keep sending me emails asking for meter readings!

[scrumpyjack]

They can't 'insist'. You have the right to refuse a smart meter. I have always refused one and will continue to do so.
I suppose now it is in, there's not much you can do.

[didds]

TBH Id just forget it.

Send them you readings (manual) on eg 1st of every month (if there is an app maybe?0 and wait for them to get back to you about the smart meter . If they ever do.

YMMV

[didds]

They can't 'insist'. You have the right to refuse a smart meter. I have always refused one and will continue to do so.
I suppose now it is in, there's not much you can do.

agree with SJ, but I have read in these august forums that some cheaper tarriffs from some providers may not be available without taking one.

[chas49]

A couple of things to pick out from your post:

You refer to "a device which looked like a small remote control " - this is usually known as the IHD or In Home Device - it allows you to 'see' the data that your smart meter is (should be) sending to the power company. You don't have to have a working IHD for the smart meter to function. So the fact that your smart meter isn't sending data properly is not caused by the IHD not working - so you can safely put it in the drawer and forget about it if you want. If it was working, it would allow you to see how much energy you are using and how much it costs. Perhaps you will be grateful not to see that in real-time!!

How the smart meter(s) send data depends on where you are in the country. In the southern half it uses the 02 mobile network - so if coverage isn't good at your house, that may be the issue - though the tech should have checked this as part of the install. In the north, it's a separate long-range radio network. In both cases, coverage is stated to be over 99%.

If your meter isn't communicating properly, it's effectively a dumb meter and the old meter reading araangements still apply. If you're on a tariff which required smart meters, you can stay on that, but you wouldn't be able to switch to another supplier's "smart-only" tariff.

However, because of the energy price cap, no one is offering any tariff which is meaningfully chepaer than the cap, so there is virtually no point in switching anyway.

Moderator Message:
With my moderator hat on, this isn't really a DAK I think so I'll move it over to LBYM (chas49)

[Mike4]

Are there any Lemons who know anything about smart meters who could add any useful info before I chase Eon-next again. There seems to be a disconnect between Eon per se and Eon-next; it is the parent company who organises the appointments with the technicians and sends them down from Newcastle. It must be costing them a fortune and for what? How dare they expect their customers to be available at any time between 8 am and 6pm with only a phone call l5 mins. before the actual time of arrival which is more for their benefit to make sure you are still there? My contract expires on Apr. 20 and I can hardly switch to another energy supplier till the meter situation is sorted.

Edit: I have had to chase all the appointments and they keep sending me emails asking for meter readings!

A tangential point but most houses built since the 1980s have their meters on the outside, specifically so meter technicians don't need appointments to get inside the house. Might it be worth you (and everyone reading this!) getting your gas and leccy meters moved to outside meter boxes?

Also I think you said they still nag you for meter readings. This suggests to me they haven't logged your meter change and will still nag you get smart meters fitted too. If they do, just accept their kind offer and let the bod replace them again.

[Bouleversee]

As I said earlier, my meters are in separate cabinets on an outside wall at the front of the house. As I also said, there is a disconnect between it and tge parent company. They did insist that I had to have smart meters if I wanted to renew on what was their best tariff last April but then took till Nov. to attempt to install them without a survey.

I expect it will end up with my having to continue to read the meters but I can't do that till they tell me how I can access the gas readings. I seem to remember thst the govt. was agitating for everyone to have them but I can't understand why. Nobody I know bothers to look at the home display. I'm paying £147.98 per month which is not particularly cheap for a one person household where only half the house is heated on a regular basis. I think they want about 150% more than that to renew but that was an estimate without the gas readings.

[pje16]

I saw the head of SSE on TV being grilled a few years ago about smart meters and after the reporter fired a few zingers at him
he turned to her and said "why don't you ask me if I think they are good idea"
She did
He said "No" !!!
The energy companies (falsely) claim they save you money
sure, only if you are too dumb to switch off things you aren't using

[swill453]

I can see the consumption figures for the electric, though they are not being transmitted to Eon-next) but there are no figures in the window on the gas meter; however, I believe there is a way of getting them if you know how since the techies are able to get a reading when they come, though bizarrely they never pass it on. I always ask for them myself.

Are there any Lemons who know anything about smart meters who could add any useful info before I chase Eon-next again.

I don't know how different smart meters can be, but my smart gas meter has 2 buttons, a red one marked A and a black one marked B.

Instructions on the front say to press button A for the "Meter Index". Sure enough this seems to be the meter reading in cubic metres.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

I find it extraordinary that no survey is done before insisting we have smart meters and removing the old meters and it seems to me that it is likely they will never work. I can see the consumption figures for the electric, though they are not being transmitted to Eon-next) but there are no figures in the window on the gas meter; however, I believe there is a way of getting them if you know how since the techies are able to get a reading when they come, though bizarrely they never pass it on. I always ask for them myself.

Are there any Lemons who know anything about smart meters who could add any useful info before I chase Eon-next again. There seems to be a disconnect between Eon per se and Eon-next; it is the parent company who organises the appointments with the technicians and sends them down from Newcastle. It must be costing them a fortune and for what?

They are all little better than cretins. If our experience with Bulb was anything to go by, the staff have a mental age of ten and they daren't go off-script during their conversations with you. Which means that they have little hope of understanding when you try to explain your problems to them.

In our tenant's case, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, the ultimate cause of the problem was that the people who installed his smart meter were not actually from Bulb but from an outside contractor. In this case, that meant Siemens the meter manufacturers! That sounds like a good thing, but in fact the communications between the two were desperately poor. To cut a long story short, the Siemens guys installed the meter and reported the changes to Bulb, but Bulb forgot to tell its own computers about it. So the next day, our tenant found that his electricity had been summarily disconnected, because Bulb's computer didn't recognise their own meter and assumed that our tenant was trying to blag an electricity supply that didn't belong to him.

Bulb had no idea why they couldn't seem to get their power out to their new meter, and nobody on their technical staff could hazard even a guess as to what they'd done. Eventually, after a whole day of standing in our tenant's freezing hallway, I figured out the likely cause on my my mobile phone , and then all I had to do was phone Bulb and tell them what their cock-up had been. At which point they threw a switch and said Let There Be Light, and you could see for bloody miles. (As the saying goes.)

Eejits.

I can see the consumption figures for the electric, though they are not being transmitted to Eon-next) but there are no figures in the window on the gas meter;

Depending on whereabouts in the house your appliances are, it's possible that your gas and electricity smart meters aren't communicating between themselves because there are too many damn walls in the way for the wireless signal to pass between them. Our neighbour has a dual fuel with smart meters, but the gas meter can't talk to the electricity meter. So she gets her leccy readings transmitted to the company, but a man has to drive out to her house to read the gas meter. Which rather spoils the point of the exercise.

There is a workaround for this problem, which is that they use your ring main to transmit their data around your house via Power Plug wifi extenders. But it's not my problem, it's theirs. I'm damned if I'm going to let them start messing with my house wiring, when all I have to do is email them my meter readings from time to time. Sometimes, simplest is best.

BJ

[Gersemi]

Oh dear. My smart meter install is tomorrow, this doesn't instill me with any confidence. I'll let you know how I get on.

[Dod101]

I had a smart meter installed by SSE some years ago and whilst the monitor to tell me how much electricity I am using never works, the smart meter does connect to SSE and I do nothing. They can read the meter themselves and always (so far anyway) bill me to the correct usage. I appreciate that there can be a communication problem but I otherwise have never understood why people do not like them.

SSE retail is now Ovo I think but the change was seemless.

Dod

[richlist]

We are with the supplier Octopus who were offering a particular tariff that required us to have a smart meter. I had no objections and the meters were fitted in October last year. Octopus receive the readings automatically for gas but there is a problem as they don't receive anything from the electric smart meter.

House was built 1990, both meters in the garage. Does it matter that they aren't both working ? No absolutely not......I've got better things to concern myself with.

[Bouleversee]

Best of luck, Gersemini

bungee jumper - Many thanks for your contribution, which illustrates, as you suggest, that it it is all run by incompetent idiots. I shall also refuse any alteration to my wiring.

There are a couple of buttons on the gas meter but no wording to indicate which to press for an up to date reading. Why does it not come up automatically as does the elec.?

I haven't had any response from Eon Next as yet. I am an 85 yr old widow, supposedly registered with them as vulnerable, and this is how one is left LO L

i don't know wh. To be reassured or even more depressed to know that this happens all the time. Surely it must have been cheaper to send someone round to read the meters once a year than send incompetents from Newscastle several times, putting them up in hotels, who don't know how to solve the problem.

[Bouleversee]

We are with the supplier Octopus who were offering a particular tariff that required us to have a smart meter. I had no objections and the meters were fitted in October last year. Octopus receive the readings automatically for gas but there is a problem as they don't receive anything from the electric smart meter.

House was built 1990, both meters in the garage. Does it matter that they aren't both working ? No absolutely not......I've got better things to concern myself with.

We've all got better things to do. So what happens as regards up to date readings for the elec. bill? Perhaps you are able to read and submit them?

[Bouleversee]

A couple of things to pick out from your post:

You refer to "a device which looked like a small remote control " - this is usually known as the IHD or In Home Device - it allows you to 'see' the data that your smart meter is (should be) sending to the power company. You don't have to have a working IHD for the smart meter to function. So the fact that your smart meter isn't sending data properly is not caused by the IHD not working - so you can safely put it in the drawer and forget about it if you want. If it was working, it would allow you to see how much energy you are using and how much it costs. Perhaps you will be grateful not to see that in real-time!!

How the smart meter(s) send data depends on where you are in the country. In the southern half it uses the 02 mobile network - so if coverage isn't good at your house, that may be the issue - though the tech should have checked this as part of the install. In the north, it's a separate long-range radio network. In both cases, coverage is stated to be over 99%.

If your meter isn't communicating properly, it's effectively a dumb meter and the old meter reading araangements still apply. If you're on a tariff which required smart meters, you can stay on that, but you wouldn't be able to switch to another supplier's "smart-only" tariff.

However, because of the energy price cap, no one is offering any tariff which is meaningfully chepaer than the cap, so there is virtually no point in switching anyway.

mod]With my moderator hat on, this isn't really a DAK I think so I'll move it over to LBYM (chas49)[/mod]

Actually, Chas. I don't see what my post had to do with LBYM. It was to do with the technicalities. of smart meters which few of us will know much about but some of us might like to.

[richlist]

We are with the supplier Octopus who were offering a particular tariff that required us to have a smart meter. I had no objections and the meters were fitted in October last year. Octopus receive the readings automatically for gas but there is a problem as they don't receive anything from the electric smart meter.

House was built 1990, both meters in the garage. Does it matter that they aren't both working ? No absolutely not......I've got better things to concern myself with.

We've all got better things to do. So what happens as regards up to date readings for the elec. bill? Perhaps you are able to read and submit them?

Yes that's exactly what I do. I wait until they send me a reminder, then I take the reading, add it to the web page and send. The whole thing takes me less than 5 minutes......about the same length of time it used to take me before I had the 'smart' meter installed.

I understand it can be frustrating for some & particularly difficult if you are elderly or physically challenged. In fact I do all that for my next door neighbour......there is no chance of her agreeing to have a s/meter.

Octopus have said they will send someone around to get mine working but......it's been 5 months without that someone visiting and I really lost interest now.

[Bouleversee]

I'm perfectly capable of submitting a reading if they tell me which button to press to get it; I did it with the old meters and have been doing it with the new electric one.. However, I'm also keen to do something to resolve the problems and hopefully prevent them recurring. There must be some criteria whuch must be fulfilled and which need to be assured by survey before the switch is initiated.

[richlist]

I had the same problem with my gas meter.......how to get the readings/ which button etc. I'm with Octopus, so it was a quick phone call to ask how. Fortunately Octopus are easy to contact and it was resolved very quickly.

Now, if you are unlucky enough to be with some of the other energy suppliers which are difficult to call, keep you holding for ages and generally have zero customer service it's going to be a long difficult phone call.

[didds]

So she gets her leccy readings transmitted to the company, but a man has to drive out to her house to read the gas meter. Which rather spoils the point of the exercise.
BJ

which not only is daft as BJ points out, but surely is unneccessary? Ive been providing my own readings online/via an app for years. This is a rhet6oprical question of course, but surely it cannot be beyond the wit of man for her providers to give her a similar solution (even its via a friend else if she doesn't have internet connections etc to do so)

I cant recall the last time anybody came to our house to read a meter - twenty years maybe ?