Are smart meters still not cross compatible?

Are smart meters still not cross compatible?

Author
Discussion

V8 Stang

Original Poster:

4,402 posts

190 months

Tuesday 12th November
quotequote all
So moved into a brand new house a week ago, the existing meter’s are with British gas, and only installed within the last month.

I have changed over to Eon Drive, so get 7 hours cheap rate.

However having changed over, they cannot connect to my meter’s. So need to send an engineer out to replace the meter’s! Which they have no availability until the end of the month!

Slight annoyance at having to then take an afternoon off work, and no cheap rate until then.


So have they still not managed to make these meters cross compatible between suppliers?

kambites

68,437 posts

228 months

Tuesday 12th November
quotequote all
SMETS2 meters are cross-compatible; SMETS1 meters are not and (as far as I understand it) never will be. So it's it's an early meter it will need replacing.

The smart meters out there at the moment are roughly 50/50.

ScoobyChris

1,809 posts

209 months

Tuesday 12th November
quotequote all
My understanding is that the SMETS-2 meters (which have been around for a while now) are cross-compatible amongst suppliers and mine were installed a few years ago and have survived moves to 3 new supplliers without issue.

Chris

clockworks

6,134 posts

152 months

Tuesday 12th November
quotequote all
I had a similar problem switching from EDF to Octopus. Octopus couldn't get readings, so the switch didn't get completed, and I couldn't change to an EV tariff.

After several phone calls to both suppliers, it turned out that EDF were at fault, not the meter - explained to me by Octopus, who are generally very helpful. I had to get a bit stroppy with EDF.
IIRC, the meter details and billing authority have to be passed to the new supplier from the old supplier, via the central body that oversees the meter network.

It then took over 5 weeks for EDF to refund the credit from my account, but they did pay me some compo for that.


The other possibility is that the meter isn't sending data reliably, and has never actually worked. Are BG able to "see" the meter and get the data?

ashenfie

840 posts

53 months

Tuesday 12th November
quotequote all
I have had a smart meter for 4’year, but it only worked for half that time. I am on my 3rd smart meter and fingers crossed it working. There is only one smart meter in the installation as the gas meter simply sends data to the electric meter. Seam a very poor design and was rushed in before they were ready.

Road2Ruin

5,478 posts

223 months

Wednesday 13th November
quotequote all
V8 Stang said:
So moved into a brand new house a week ago, the existing meter’s are with British gas, and only installed within the last month.

I have changed over to Eon Drive, so get 7 hours cheap rate.

However having changed over, they cannot connect to my meter’s. So need to send an engineer out to replace the meter’s! Which they have no availability until the end of the month!

Slight annoyance at having to then take an afternoon off work, and no cheap rate until then.


So have they still not managed to make these meters cross compatible between suppliers?
They are now compatible, but British Gas will have to relinquish control so another supplier can take over. I don't even think the readings go direct to the supplier, bit via a third party.

diver944

1,844 posts

283 months

Wednesday 13th November
quotequote all
V8 Stang said:
However having changed over, they cannot connect to my meter’s. So need to send an engineer out to replace the meter’s! Which they have no availability until the end of the month!
Are you oooop north as this is a common problem.

I'm north of Manchester and having moved into a newish property Octopus couldn't connect to the existing EON Smart meter. They sent out an engineer who installed one of theirs but they still can't connect to it. Turns out all smart meters in Scotland and the north of England run on a very weak radio signal and millions of them can't connect. From Manchester and further south they run through the mobile phone network and the conections are much more robust. There was an article on BBC news last week.

My landlord then informed me this is the 4th smart meter that different power companies have fitted and none of them can connect. It's a similar story when I speak to folk that I know all over the town. Seems like money for old rope for the meter installation companies

ashenfie

840 posts

53 months

Thursday 14th November
quotequote all
Yes a complete mess. E.ON fixed mine. The engineer tried a reset. Which is basically pulling the main fuse. Then install a recycled meter.