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Are OVO rolling out DBCH meters in the Essex area?

  • 4 February 2023
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are OVO rolling out DBCH meters in the Colchester Essex area? Ihave been in touch with Octopus and they have no stock at moment but will have later in the year.

thanks Vin

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Best answer by Tim_OVO 6 February 2023, 14:30

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BPLightlog
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Not sure anyone can be that specific here @ROCKFACE2004 . OVO are installing dual band devices but it may depend on the install engineers stock on the van. 
You might be able to check directly with the support team 

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Tim_OVO
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Hi @ROCKFACE2004, 

 

A lovely technical question here. I’ve got some technical answer for you from our smart meter experts:

 

 

The G470-672 operates on 2.4GHz whilst the G470-682 operates on 868MHz. You do need a Dual Band Comms Hub (DBCH) to be able to utilise any device that communicates over 868MHz. However, this customer's situation doesn't necessarily mean Dual Band/868MHz devices are required, it might just be that the gas meter has not joined the home area network (HAN). Depending on the circumstances, a fix could be carried out remotely rather than sending an engineer out.

 

What this customer has said is true though, it's not just distance that can have an impact on how successfully smart meters join the HAN, the material in the walls and other obstructions can impact the penetration of the signal. Whilst we have dual band compatible devices available to us to resolve some range/penetration issues, we do have Alt-HAN on the horizon which may help fix HAN issues where even dual band/868MHz cannot. To answer the customer's question directly though, here is a list of gas meters that can do 868MHz (each would require a dual band comms hub to utilise 868MHz):

  • G470-682 (868MHz only)
  • EDMI GS-68B (double band device - 868MHz and 2.4GHz is possible, one or the other, not both in parallel)
  • Flonidan G4SDZV-2 (double band device)
  • Flonidan G4-6UDZV-2 (double band device)
  • GWI G4-MG-SE-GM-V2-DB (double band device)

I would guess that this customer's gas meter may be falling into our "non-communicating" pot, which means someone will be trying to diagnose and if possible, resolve the issue.

 

 

Carbon neutral - we need a community to get there! My green tech: Aclara SGM 1411-B smart meter, Chameleon IHD6
R
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thanks for reply.Alt-HAN could be the answer but a way off I guess.My thought is that foil insulation could be the culprit,or indeed as said above the system has not been properly signed off yet.My neighbor has the same problem and has called for an EON(the installer) engineer to investigate.Will update as more info becomes available,by the way Octopus has said that they have no dual band meters at the moment but will have later in the year.I was sounding out which companies had a stock of 868Mhz in case I have to jump ship with suppliers to get dual band.I will also have a word with the building site manager and suggest the architect should be more up to date with smart problems when designing new properties. I have a key to all other 6 electricity meter boxes and will see what the status LEDS  are reading.

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