Tuesday.
I was called from a Manchester number by the usual Asian phone jockey.
To my surprise it was a genuine call.
My Smart meter had stopped sending data (allegedly) and an engineer needed
to call to reset the meter. 15 minute job including power off/on.
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Wednesday morning.
Phone call from Manchester.
Due to unforeseen circumstances engineer can't call.
Reschedule?
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Thursday morning.
{Just guess}

I declined a third appointment.

Had I been working and taking time off I would be incandescent.
Being retired I was just severely ****ed off.

So presumably they will have to estimate my usage based on previous
records.

I suspect that they will assume that I have used loads of energy until I
prove otherwise.

Another Smart meter Brucey bonus.

When I have the energy (see what I did there?) I will look at my account
on line and see if I can submit a meter reading.

No doubt this is saving both me and the energy provider a significant
amount of money to justify the cost of installing the meter.

Grumble.


Dave R


--
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On 29/04/2021 15:22, David wrote:
Another Smart meter Brucey bonus.

When I have the energy (see what I did there?) I will look at my account
on line and see if I can submit a meter reading.

No doubt this is saving both me and the energy provider a significant
amount of money to justify the cost of installing the meter.

Mine stopped sending data on Jan 30th. I couldn't get OVO to come and
take a look and fix it, despite the fact it's on the outside front wall.

In the end it burst back into life, presumably by itself (because my
CCTV doorbell detected no one) three weeks ago,

On 29/04/2021 15:22, David wrote:
Tuesday.
I was called from a Manchester number by the usual Asian phone jockey.
To my surprise it was a genuine call.
My Smart meter had stopped sending data (allegedly) and an engineer needed
to call to reset the meter. 15 minute job including power off/on.
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Wednesday morning.
Phone call from Manchester.
Due to unforeseen circumstances engineer can't call.
Reschedule?
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Thursday morning.
{Just guess}

I declined a third appointment.

Had I been working and taking time off I would be incandescent.
Being retired I was just severely ****ed off.

I fully agree about taking time off (last time I insisted on a weekend
appointment, as I am an hourly paid contractor and time off is
expensive). As you were not losing pay though, you should have kept on
with this - you can claim £30 off them for each appointment missed or
cancelled with less than a day's notice! They already owe you £60.

"David" wrote in message
...
Tuesday.
I was called from a Manchester number by the usual Asian phone jockey.
To my surprise it was a genuine call.
My Smart meter had stopped sending data (allegedly) and an engineer needed
to call to reset the meter. 15 minute job including power off/on.
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Wednesday morning.
Phone call from Manchester.
Due to unforeseen circumstances engineer can't call.
Reschedule?
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Thursday morning.
{Just guess}

I declined a third appointment.

Had I been working and taking time off I would be incandescent.
Being retired I was just severely ****ed off.

So presumably they will have to estimate my usage based on previous
records.

I suspect that they will assume that I have used loads of energy until I
prove otherwise.

Another Smart meter Brucey bonus.

When I have the energy (see what I did there?) I will look at my account
on line and see if I can submit a meter reading.

No doubt this is saving both me and the energy provider a significant
amount of money to justify the cost of installing the meter.


can't you use your little gizmo to see if it's actually monitoring usage
correctly?

David wrote:
Tuesday.
I was called from a Manchester number by the usual Asian phone jockey.
To my surprise it was a genuine call.
My Smart meter had stopped sending data (allegedly) and an engineer needed
to call to reset the meter. 15 minute job including power off/on.
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Wednesday morning.
Phone call from Manchester.
Due to unforeseen circumstances engineer can't call.
Reschedule?
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Thursday morning.
{Just guess}

I declined a third appointment.

Had I been working and taking time off I would be incandescent.
Being retired I was just severely ****ed off.

So presumably they will have to estimate my usage based on previous
records.

I read somewhere that smart meters store 13 months worth of half hourly
data. Mine stopped uploading data back in January. Still waiting for
someone to sort it.

Anyhow, in theory all your consumption data will still be available.

Tim


--
Please don't feed the trolls

Well, I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems dual
fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal bit since
otherwise there is little point from my point of view. The main issue with
non sending of data applies to the gas part normally, Its powered by a
single cell battery, and it has to be changed regularly, and it seems the
timing of this has been cocked up for two main reasons. 1 Covid 19, and 2
many people moving energy companies and the change dates were lost.
It seems to me that this is a design flaw, why not make the bloody battery
user changeable?
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"David" wrote in message
...
Tuesday.
I was called from a Manchester number by the usual Asian phone jockey.
To my surprise it was a genuine call.
My Smart meter had stopped sending data (allegedly) and an engineer needed
to call to reset the meter. 15 minute job including power off/on.
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Wednesday morning.
Phone call from Manchester.
Due to unforeseen circumstances engineer can't call.
Reschedule?
Tomorrow 1-5 OK?
Fine.

Thursday morning.
{Just guess}

I declined a third appointment.

Had I been working and taking time off I would be incandescent.
Being retired I was just severely ****ed off.

So presumably they will have to estimate my usage based on previous
records.

I suspect that they will assume that I have used loads of energy until I
prove otherwise.

Another Smart meter Brucey bonus.

When I have the energy (see what I did there?) I will look at my account
on line and see if I can submit a meter reading.

No doubt this is saving both me and the energy provider a significant
amount of money to justify the cost of installing the meter.

Grumble.


Dave R


--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

"Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)" wrote:
Well, I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems dual
fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal bit since
otherwise there is little point from my point of view. The main issue with
non sending of data applies to the gas part normally, Its powered by a
single cell battery, and it has to be changed regularly, and it seems the
timing of this has been cocked up for two main reasons. 1 Covid 19, and 2
many people moving energy companies and the change dates were lost.
It seems to me that this is a design flaw, why not make the bloody battery
user changeable?

It does rather seem to make smart meters even more pointless than I
thought they were if they still need visits by meter readers. Meter
readers will become meter feeders.

--
Chris Green
·

In article , Chris Green
wrote:
"Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)" wrote:
Well, I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems
dual fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal
bit since otherwise there is little point from my point of view. The
main issue with non sending of data applies to the gas part normally,
Its powered by a single cell battery, and it has to be changed
regularly, and it seems the timing of this has been cocked up for two
main reasons. 1 Covid 19, and 2 many people moving energy companies and
the change dates were lost. It seems to me that this is a design flaw,
why not make the bloody battery user changeable?

It does rather seem to make smart meters even more pointless than I
thought they were if they still need visits by meter readers. Meter
readers will become meter feeders.


Since having had smart meters for both gas and electricity since June 2017,
I have not had a visit from a meter reader. At least nobody has asked to
come indoors to read the electricity one.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

Brian Gaff wrote:

I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems dual
fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal bit

Even if they installed a non-talking one, you can choose how frequently
it reports usage to EDF, presumably you could login to their website and
the web-browser read it out for you?

The main issue with non sending of data applies to the gas part
normally, Its powered by a single cell battery

It's a specialised (Lithium Thionyl Chloride) D cell, about 68 watt
hours and supposed to last 10 years

On Sat, 01 May 2021 08:08:46 +0100, Andy Burns
wrote:

Brian Gaff wrote:

I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems dual
fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal bit

Even if they installed a non-talking one, you can choose how frequently
it reports usage to EDF, presumably you could login to their website and
the web-browser read it out for you?

The main issue with non sending of data applies to the gas part
normally, Its powered by a single cell battery

It's a specialised (Lithium Thionyl Chloride) D cell, about 68 watt
hours and supposed to last 10 years

SSE just tried to install a 'smart' gas meter here and the 'Engineer' said
I have to turn off the electric as I have to install a communications hub,
and it _must_ be on the DNO's side of the system ... Oh there's no room
sorry can't be done. ????

No can't take the power from the henley block - forgot to ask about
'longer wire' but it seems there is no space in the connector blocks and
no space around them.

"Well you could get a smart electric meter & then there is no problem as
they have one fitted already"

Seems a half baked idea to me :-(

Avpx



--
Good old Dame Fortune. You can _depend_ on her.
(The Truth)
Sat 10105 Sep 08:15:01 BST 1993
08:15:01 up 2 days, 18:06, 10 users, load average: 3.80, 3.96, 4.35

The Nomad wrote:

SSE just tried to install a 'smart' gas meter here and the 'Engineer' said
I have to turn off the electric as I have to install a communications hub,
and it _must_ be on the DNO's side of the system ... Oh there's no room
sorry can't be done. ????

No can't take the power from the henley block - forgot to ask about
'longer wire' but it seems there is no space in the connector blocks and
no space around them.

"Well you could get a smart electric meter & then there is no problem as
they have one fitted already"

My gas and elec meters were fitted together, there's no physical
connection between them, but the GSM module is in the elec meter and the
gas meter reports over a local radio link to the elec meter every 30
minutes.

Battery in gas meter is 9 years old and still running.

Not sure if elec meters fitted today still include the GSM bit, or if
that functionality is always separated out to the comms hub?

The Nomad wrote:
SSE just tried to install a 'smart' gas meter here and the 'Engineer' said
I have to turn off the electric as I have to install a communications hub,
and it _must_ be on the DNO's side of the system ... Oh there's no room
sorry can't be done. ????

No can't take the power from the henley block - forgot to ask about
'longer wire' but it seems there is no space in the connector blocks and
no space around them.

"Well you could get a smart electric meter & then there is no problem as
they have one fitted already"

Seems a half baked idea to me :-(

It might be the stupid balkanised way the ownership works. The DNO owns
your incoming electricity feed and cutout, your electricity supplier owns
your meter, a gas network operator (or IGT) owns your incoming gas feed and
your gas supplier owns your gas meter. Every time you switch supplier the
ownership of the meters changes hands.

It would be much simpler if the DNO and gas network owned the meters and
could agree to coordinate installs (eg doing whole streets at the same
time). But since it's the suppliers who own them, if you're on dual fuel
with one supplier they can replace both at once, but if you're on different
suppliers then each wants to fit independent meters. The gas meter needs a
mains supply for the radio relay, but if you don't have the same supplier
for electric then they can't change that meter at the same time.

If you do want smart meters installed, it may help to switch both electric
and gas to the same supplier so you can get both replaced at the same time,
and then you are free to switch away later.

Theo

On 30/04/2021 10:02, charles wrote:
In article , Chris Green
wrote:
"Brian Gaff \(Sofa\)" wrote:
Well, I actually want EDF to put one in and am still waiting. It seems
dual fuel installations have priority. I also need the talking terminal
bit since otherwise there is little point from my point of view. The
main issue with non sending of data applies to the gas part normally,
Its powered by a single cell battery, and it has to be changed
regularly, and it seems the timing of this has been cocked up for two
main reasons. 1 Covid 19, and 2 many people moving energy companies and
the change dates were lost. It seems to me that this is a design flaw,
why not make the bloody battery user changeable?

It does rather seem to make smart meters even more pointless than I
thought they were if they still need visits by meter readers. Meter
readers will become meter feeders.


Since having had smart meters for both gas and electricity since June 2017,
I have not had a visit from a meter reader. At least nobody has asked to
come indoors to read the electricity one.


EDF have just accepted my readings (*) for years, and I shout the
gas meter reading through the window to the Morrisons? guy who
still comes round to read the gas meter. They have just accepted
this method for ages too. They haven't physically looked at the
meter for years.

(*) online

Andrew wrote:
EDF have just accepted my readings (*) for years, and I shout the
gas meter reading through the window to the Morrisons? guy who
still comes round to read the gas meter. They have just accepted
this method for ages too. They haven't physically looked at the
meter for years.

They can, I think, tell if the readings sent in by customers tally with the
meter on the substation. They may only be interested in sending out meter
readers if the difference is sufficient to make it worth their while.

Theo

On 02/05/2021 15:26, Theo wrote:
Andrew wrote:
EDF have just accepted my readings (*) for years, and I shout the
gas meter reading through the window to the Morrisons? guy who
still comes round to read the gas meter. They have just accepted
this method for ages too. They haven't physically looked at the
meter for years.

They can, I think, tell if the readings sent in by customers tally with the
meter on the substation.

If there was a meter for each household at the sub-station we wouldn't
need any meters in our houses

BG used to send out letters stating the meter reader needed to gain
access to the meter for safety check reasons !!!!


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 02/05/2021 16:37, alan_m wrote:
On 02/05/2021 15:26, Theo wrote:
Andrew wrote:
EDF have just accepted my readings (*) for years, and I shout the
gas meter reading through the window to the Morrisons? guy who
still comes round to read the gas meter. They have just accepted
this method for ages too. They haven't physically looked at the
meter for years.

They can, I think, tell if the readings sent in by customers tally
with the
meter on the substation.

If there was a meter for each household at the sub-station we wouldn't
need any meters in our houses

BG used to send out letters stating the meter reader needed to gain
access to the meter for safety check reasons !!!!


they were not lying


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On Sun, 02 May 2021 16:49:45 +0100, Robin wrote:

On 02/05/2021 16:37, alan_m wrote:
On 02/05/2021 15:26, Theo wrote:
Andrew wrote:
EDF have just accepted my readings (*) for years, and I shout the gas
meter reading through the window to the Morrisons? guy who still
comes round to read the gas meter. They have just accepted this
method for ages too. They haven't physically looked at the meter for
years.

They can, I think, tell if the readings sent in by customers tally
with the meter on the substation.

If there was a meter for each household at the sub-station we wouldn't
need any meters in our houses

BG used to send out letters stating the meter reader needed to gain
access to the meter for safety check reasons !!!!


they were not lying

Indeed not! Whatever their suspicions about possible attempts to defraud
the gas supplier by tampering with the meter, safety was certain to have
been compromised by such interference.

No need to risk upsetting a possibly innocent customer with such
suspicions alone, no matter how strong they were. The accusation of fraud
could justly be made afterwards from any evidence of such nefarious
activity gleaned from the safety inspection.


--
Johnny B Good

On 02/05/2021 23:07, Johnny B Good wrote:

Indeed not! Whatever their suspicions about possible attempts to defraud
the gas supplier by tampering with the meter, safety was certain to have
been compromised by such interference.

It used to be the BG standard first letter after a meter reader, who
turns up at random times that have not been arranged beforehand, finds
you out - probably because you are at work. The more clued up meter
readers would push a card through the door telling you to take your own
reading, write it on the card and leave the card outside where he could
see it.


No need to risk upsetting a possibly innocent customer with such
suspicions alone, no matter how strong they were. The accusation of fraud
could justly be made afterwards from any evidence of such nefarious
activity gleaned from the safety inspection.

Legally, if a meter reader was entering a house for a Safety inspection
wouldn't he have to be qualified and registered with Gas Safe - and with
the correct Gas Safe card and checkable registration number?

Wouldn't someone, who is not trying to defraud the utility company, but
unknowingly has some dodgy gas installations fitted by cowboy and
scarper get a nice fuzzy feeling of confidence that the meter reader, as
a gas safety expert, has found everything OK?

The safety check argument BG used (maybe still use) was just a mechanism
to get customers to arrange an appointment to have their (inside house)
meter read. Unfortunately any appointments made this way were at their
convenience and often required people taking time off work for this
activity which took around 60 seconds. To make matters worse if you were
a dual fuel customer the meter reader was only told to read one of them.

I haven't used BG for many years and anytime my meters have been read
since have either been after 6pm or on the weekend with no unnecessary
hassle from the supplier.


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 03/05/2021 09:20, alan_m wrote:
On 02/05/2021 23:07, Johnny B Good wrote:

Â* Indeed not! Whatever their suspicions about possible attempts to
defraud
the gas supplier by tampering with the meter, safety was certain to have
been compromised by such interference.

It used to be the BG standard first letter after a meter reader, who
turns up at random times that have not been arranged beforehand, finds
you out - probably because you are at work. The more clued up meter
readers would push a card through the door telling you to take your own
reading, write it on the card and leave the card outside where he could
see it.


Â* No need to risk upsetting a possibly innocent customer with such
suspicions alone, no matter how strong they were. The accusation of fraud
could justly be made afterwards from any evidence of such nefarious
activity gleaned from the safety inspection.

Legally, if a meter reader was entering a house for a Safety inspection
wouldn't he have to be qualified and registered with Gas Safe - and with
the correct Gas Safe card and checkable registration number?

Wouldn't someone, who is not trying to defraud the utility company, but
unknowingly has some dodgy gas installations fitted by cowboy and
scarper get a nice fuzzy feeling of confidence that the meter reader, as
a gas safety expert, has found everything OK?

The safety check argument BG used (maybe still use) was just a mechanism
to get customers to arrange an appointment to have their (inside house)
meter read.Â* Unfortunately any appointments made this way were at their
convenience and often required people taking time off work for this
activity which took around 60 seconds. To make matters worse if you were
a dual fuel customer the meter reader was only told to read one of them.

I haven't used BG for many years and anytime my meters have been read
since have either been after 6pm or on the weekend with no unnecessary
hassle from the supplier.



I'll defer to your knowledge of BG's motives. I had in mind the fact
that until 2016 all suppliers had a statutory obligation to try to
inspect gas and electricity meters every 2 years.

And I don't see why anyone would need to be qualified and registered
with Gas Safe to look for evidence of deterioration that might affect
the safety or proper functioning of the meter, or evidence of tampering
or theft, and to read the meter.

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

alan_m wrote:
On 02/05/2021 15:26, Theo wrote:
They can, I think, tell if the readings sent in by customers tally with
the meter on the substation.

If there was a meter for each household at the sub-station we wouldn't
need any meters in our houses

Since they're jointed in the street, perhaps we could use the same scheme as
FTTP. One house gets 50Hz, the next ones get 60Hz, 70Hz, etc. They're
separate feeds each with their own meter, mixed together at the substation,
and separated in each manhole using a giant prism.

Theo ;-)

On 01/05/2021 11:53, Theo wrote:

It would be much simpler if the DNO and gas network owned the meters and
could agree to coordinate installs (eg doing whole streets at the same
time). But since it's the suppliers who own them,

Yes ! I had a full house rebuild done recently. Overhead supply. The
existing DNO termination point/meter was on a wall that was vanishing.
I asked the DNO to remove the existing stuff, and provide a new
underground supply to another part of the house.
I wanted all this done the same day. However the DNO said they couldn't
move the meter, that belonged to OvO, I had to contact them
separately, and ask them to turn up in the afternoon to move the meter,

I contacted OvO, and thought it would be a good idea if they took away
the old meter, and installed a Smart meter at the new position.
Bad idea to suggest, it totally blew the CS droids' mind. 'Our Smart
Meter team don't do moves, they only do swap outs'. Yes, but....'
In the end I managed to fight my way through to someone technical, who
understood perfectly what I wanted to achieve.

So, the DNO arrived in the morning, and finished their bit 20 mins
before the OvO meter bloke turned up. I thought I was on track
for the new supply to be up and running by evening, but the builder's
sparky who was booked to follow the OvO man and install the new CU
had to drop me to rush off to something else.Â* So we carried on for a
couple of days on an extension lead plugged into the neighbour's house
for the builder's tools and kettle !