Alan Scott CEng (retd) said:

check on the service head without going out in the rain

As I understand it, the meters are in cabinets on the exterior walls of the house, so if you want to see your pennies being spent, the wee display should work all right.

That does not necessarily work if the intake is in an outbuilding.

Hi Alan,

Streaming the data has become quite simple these days, and the Tx/Rx distance in phones is significantly better than what is built into your IHD if it’s one that was provided by the utility. You want to download an application called “Loop.” It’s free to use and gives you a much better idea of what your actual usage is, as well as saving you that dreaded trip when it’s pouring down and cold outside.

Go to this website, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click the image that says either android or apple, depending on your device platform: https://loop.homes/loop-smart-meter-app/

You can create an account straight from the application. As you have an IHD, skip the part where it asks you to enter payment card details (they use this simply for address verification, there’s no fee) and instead elect to enter your meter details (GUID, etc). All of this information should be readily accessible in your IHD, saving you the trip outside. If you can’t manage to locate it in there, however, the details you need are all located right on the meter itself.

Once you’ve linked up to both the gas and electric meters (you’ll have to do each one separately), you’re all set. Congrats, you now have a way to confirm your bills every month, challenge the utility, and tell them how crap their data concentrators are at bringing back your data — all without leaving the comfort of your lounge. Here’s an image of a couple of the interfaces.

Final update - 02/12/24 the supplier, EDF, finally managed to send me a bill with smart meter readings for both electricity and gas.  The gas meter was installed on 25/03/24 and not joined to the HAN until 01/11/24.

The Energy Ombudsman upheld my complaint to them and told EDF to credt me £75 as "goodwill" for the poor service, "based on similar payments in other cases".  I challenged this low amount but the EO wouldn't budge.  For comparison, the Financial Services Ombudsman asked a bank to credit me £100 for 3 wasted phone calls on a minor problem one evening, before a clearer answer emerged a few days later.  EDF have wasted a lot more of my time with chasing and emails over several months.

Thanks again to folks here for reassuring info on likely causes of faults and alternative routes.  Octopus is certainly my next port of call.  I have used them at another property with generally positive results.

The Consumers' Association's most recent report on EDF notes that "Customers didn't feel overly positive about EDF's customer service, for which it achieved a poor two-star rating. No supplier received a worse customer rating for customer service".  As Andy said here, there's a "lack of communication and co-ordination between call centres and the people who can actually fix such things".

I used to work at power stations now owned by EDF, apologies to any of their employees on the generation side of the business,

Alan Scott MIET (retd)

Splendid!. Now you can change supplier.

AFAIK, the EO will award £25 for wasted visits (to install a smart meter, etc.). I could get two lots at the moment, but I was going to be at home anyway.

Octopus supply my gas and have been no trouble at all. Prices seem to be competitive, but if everybody is working to the price cap, it makes no difference. 

The link between the two meters is a proprietary 2.4GHz link which has a limited range.  When the systems was being designed it was pointed out that many installations where the two meters were not in the same room might have problems.  And they do.  When the specs were being put together it was suggested that this could occur in up to 25% of properties.  Nobody knew how accurate that guess was, but it does seem to be a significant number.

I don't know what the answer is, other than change the meter location, which I'm sure your supplier doesn't want to do.  The "waiting around for an hour" line should be a spurious excuse.  When it's operating it sends data over every hour or half hour, but during commissioning, it should be possible to put it in a test mode.

Does this mean that you can have a smart gas meter only if you have an electricity smart meter please?

Or are there electronic devices which can relay the gas information?

Hi Chris,

It depends on what communication medium the meter uses. Some use NBIoT, some use LTE/GPRS, some use WiFi, some use Zigbee, etc. It’s all dependent upon the provider and the method they deploy on their network. If the gas is provided by a different company than the electric, then they typically won’t be linked. If they come from the same utility, then there’s a good chance they will be, as that saves the provider from needing two separate forms of infrastructure for communication.

Ultimately, conducting your own readings via one of the devices I mentioned above is your best bet, as you will know your consumption to be completely accurate come time for the bill, and can dispute any differences. Be aware, that if they are consistently billing you for less than you are using, they’re likely estimating your consumption. This could lead to a hefty bill once a year when they finally get around to doing a manual read on your property, so make sure you correct any discrepancies between your bill and your real consumption right away.

It can likely be resolved with a network extender, or a direct cable (probably BNC or RS-485 as opposed to Ethernet, though these days both are possible). That said, 2.4GHz has something like a 30-meter range, so unless they’re devided by solid concrete/stone, it should be a non-issue.

I have a smart gas meter from one supplier, but don't (yet) have a smart electricity meter.  The installer wired the comms hub straight to the incoming mains, rather than sitting it on top of an electricity meter.

A bit ugly, but it works.

Makes sense if they are using PLC in some form (probably G3). As both services were often owned by one utility in the past, there’s loads of pre-existing communications paths over power lines, even if they are a bit antiquated.