Accessing Charge Anytime without a smart electricity meter

Where is this location? 

There are EV owners in the Northern Region (roughly north of Manchester) who have overcome their WANlessness by sundry Heath-Robinson techniques. One or two quite knowledgeable people have posted in this thread and others in the same forum: There is hope for anybody trying to get a smart meter in a poor signal area | Speak EV - Electric Car Forums  

​@Blastoise186 I understand the suppliers need to know how much electric was used and the timeslot, but this is the point. The smart charger or smart car that is compatible with OVO is scheduled to charge, and when it does, it communicates directly to the OVO app and the customer account and tells it how many watts were used and the length of time the car was charging for. Because it is the car or smart charger that is communicating the information there is no fraud to be had that I can see.

​@Firedog Thank you, I will have a look at the thread and into “Heath-Robinson techniques”.  We are in North Wales, we have wifi, but extremely poor mobile signal. I get 1 bar on O2 and my husband is lucky to sometimes gets 1 on EE. We have to move round the house to find a good spot.

Our house is near the bottom of a hill, surrounded by trees. The electricity companies say there is good coverage in the wider area, just not to our particular property which is the only one here.

I’m surprised DCC hasn’t yet attempted a T3 Aerial. Those monsters can in theory suck in weak signals and make them usable.

Did the other suppliers even ask for that yet?

OK, so the solutions in the Speak EV thread I referred to don’t apply. It’s a question of frequencies …

However, there’s another variously encouraging/discouraging thread in the same forum about disgruntled EV owners in the Central and Southern region like you:  DIY Antenna Solutions for for Smart Meter (Southern Region) | Speak EV - Electric Car Forums. There are stories in there about customers on Charge Anytime who have a non-communicating smart meter. It’s not entirely clear from what you’ve written whether you have a smart meter or not, but your remarks about engineers failing to fix the one you have suggests that this is the case. In any event, getting on to a tariff like Charge Anytime would soon recoup whatever expense you may have to incur to get a smart meter communicating at home. 

What’s the make and model of your EV? And of the charger? You might be lucky ...

How far is your meter from the outside of the house’s exterior wall? This is a figure DCC use - among others - to decide whether to provide an external antenna.  

​@Blastoise186 Octopus did say they might need to fit an ariel, but eventually said it wouldn’t help, however, they didn’t actually try one.

​@Blastoise186 ...sorry “aerial”

​@Firedog We do have a smart meter, yes. And if we could get the smart meter working we would do it, that would be our preferred option. I will look at the link you have provided for DIY options, thank you. Our EV is an E-Berlingo so not compatible with OVO ,and the charger is a QUBEV, so not compatible either. This was the reason for my original post; we don’t want to change to a compatible charger at c.£1000 unless we know we can actually use the smart charger to communicate with OVO and hence be able to have the EV tariff . We read this is possible, but don’t want to waste our money if the information is not accurate. 

Our electricity bill is over £200 a month and it is so infuriating to know there are tariffs available that we can’t access. When we bought the car we had only just moved to the house and had no idea the smart meter would not work because of where we live; I thought smart meters worked everywhere! The meter is attached to the outside wall of the house, which is thick stone. I have wondered if maybe the meter needs to be moved, but Octopus asked me for photos of where it is situated, which I sent, but they didn’t suggest moving it.

Here's a different approach taking one of the themes I saw earlier. Have a look at this thread on SpeakEV which I use as I have an EV and find it very useful for a wide range of EV related issues.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/smart-meter-issues-no-wan-signal.180614/?post_id=3509417&nested_view=1&sortby=oldest#post-3509417

Also, search SpeakEV for ‘smart meter signal’ to give other results. Some EV owners (like Jeremy Harris) use an E7 tariff where a smart meter doesn't work but you need to look around to see who will give you the best price for your area. E7 works out quite well for the Southern area but will vary elsewhere. I hope you find a satisfactory solution to your issue.

Peter

PS Merry Christmas to you as well

Thanks. I’m just wondering whether the meter is on the outside or inside surface of this thick wall 🤔. Your meter being on the outside of the outside wall would be in your favour. Next question: where is the O2 mast in relation to the house? One bar on a 3G or 4G O2 connection is almost certainly enough for a smart meter, but only if the house isn’t in the way of the signal. If this is the problem, then a T3 aerial might do the job. In your situation, I’d be pestering the supplier (Octopus?) to at least try the mandated steps to establish communications.