Getting a Smart Meter
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I've put off getting
a smart meter for many years, but recently I've discoved one
can get cheaper electricity, even free electricity at certain
times of the day. Our phone signal here is pretty unreliable..
but more of that later.
I contacted our provider of
gas and electricity (Octopus) but I was told I wasn't able to
have a smart meter because of our bad phone signal. I was determined
to proceed anyway because there may be an option or two to get
around a poor phone signal, and anyway why should we suffer twofold..
firstly because we can't make or receive calls, and secondly
because we're missing out on free electricity.. so I made a formal
complaint. This is the only option in many circumstances to sort
out a problem.. and at the same time often get a cash reward
for our trouble.
The complaint worked and with
the meter ban quashed, an appointment was made some time ahead..
October 28th 2025.
Jack duly turned up and got
started
First the old electricity meter
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In no time at all,
after the gas boiler had been extinguished, mains power turned
off, and the main fuse removed the new smart electricity meter
was installed with nice new brown and blue cables fitted in place
of the 1983 red and black. Why were the leads replaced? An utter
waste of time and money as the originals were working perfectly
well. |
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Here's the old meter..
did that reading get noted? |
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Now for the gas meter,
home for a total of 14 snails. Was the reading noted? |
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Gas tap turned off and
old meter removed, complete with its pipe carrying the pressure
regulator. |
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Here's the new smart gas
meter with its new pipe and regulator being tested for leaks.
I'm informed it runs from a battery with a ten year life.. that's
quite a surprise, but I read the leaflet (reproduced later down
this page) and the battery isn't that clever.. it's just three
bog standard AAA alkaline cells.
That black thing with a rubber
tube is temporary for a leak test.
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After a quick test to
see if (a) comms was OK between the two meters and (b) adequate
phone signal was present the meter boxes were closed, house power
restored and the gas boiler relit. |
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Now.. what about our poor
phone signal?
Well, just before Jack arrived
I checked the phone signal next to our greenhouse which is midway
between our house and our neghbour's house. The signal was weak
but OK for 4G and speech. I checked just by the electicity meter
and the "4G" was greyed out with no usable phone signal.
Once the mains power had been
turned off the greyed out "4G" was no longer greyed
out and a weak but adequate phone signal was present at the electricity
meter.
These tests had identical results
to those carried out during our last power cut and the subsequent
return of mains power.
Whether data transfers to Octopus
will work or not I can't yet say. The display opposite shows
(a) there's a good signal from the electricity meter to the in-house
display and (b) the system is awaiting Octopus to integrate our
meters into its system.
What does that red triangle ! indicate?
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Below is a copy I made
of a document that came in one of Jack's boxes (not sure which
and it wasn't left behind). It presumably refers to the "Zigbee"
communications between the two meters. |
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I now have to wait "up
to 14 days" before the display is working properly. |
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Well, after an email which
seemed to speed up a slow process, our display suddenly popped
ino life with a typical reading as shown here. Maybe our coffee
maker is drawing power, but it just turned off and the display
now reads 18p so I turned off the triple lamp here in the office
and it went down to 14p.
I was told that Octopus had
read our meters so that means a halt to the incessant calls for
me to read them... and a nice bonus... because of the delay to
get everything started Octopus gave me £50 !!
When the central heating is
going full blast it's costing us 77p per hour.
I notice our 3KW kettle costs
us 75p which makes our 10-radiator gas central heating turned
to maximum the equivalent of a single 3KW fan heater.
Something's not quite right
with UK energy pricing...
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