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Chameleon In Home Display (IHD) 3 stopped receiving Aclara S2 electricity smart meter usage info?

(Dammit, due to a mix of bad luck, confusing UI issues with the zoomed-in responsive page layout, the post-editing time window, and forgetting to select all plus copy before hitting post, I’ve just lost the content of this post now 3 times…. aaarrrgggh)

Forgive me for I have sinned… I used to be a regular on the forums here but haven’t posted in over a year, sorry.  Glad to see @Transparent is still around and that there’s others volunteering here also.  :)

 

TL;DR  Like some other posters here, I seem to have lost electric info on our IHD

 

We’ve had our gas and electric smart meters for a few yeas now, for the last year things have been working fine.

Sometime in the last few months our IHD stopped displaying electric info.  The IHD does display info about our current and historic gas usage plus gas meter info, but the gas tariff info is now missing and there’s nothing about the electric supply/usage/meter on it at all any more.

 

Equipment

  • SMETS2
  • Installed via OVO a few years ago (not inhereted from previous supplier)
  • Gas meter (can’t remember, can’t easily get to it to check right now)
  • Aclara SGM1412-B Electric Meter
  • Toshiba SKU1 Cellular Hub
  • Chameleon IHD3-PPMID in home display

 

Diagnostics

  • Website/app seem to be getting frequent usage information uploads from the meters suggesting good  meters → hub → DCC → OVO  communications
  • On the hub, all LEDs except the MESH one flash every 5 seconds -- as they’re supposed to
  • Time is always accurate on the IHD whenever I’ve looked
  • The signal strength indicator on the IHD is always solid, although not very strong; however, it’s been like that for the past year or so, whilst working fine.  Nothing new getting in the way or blocking the signal. No new devices nearby that might interfere etc. For the last couple of days I’ve relocated it nearer to get a better signal, for testing purposes.
  • I’ve turned the IHD off for a while (and have done the 10-second reboot thing.)

 

Question

I’ve already phoned it in to OVO and have received the standard response about it taking up to 45 days to be addressed by the technical crew.  Reading others’ experiences with this issue on this forum, I don’t hold out much hope of a fix any time soon. which is a real pain as we’re desperate to start adapting our behaviours to reduce our energy usage which means needing easy access to current usage info.

Is there anything more I can do to help get this fixed?

(I’m a techie with some electronics and lots of computer knowledge.  I was asked about becoming a volunteer here in the past but life got in the way unfortunately.)

 

The IHD that’s not playing ball
The electric meter and hub
The IHD model info
The meter install.  I had to post this as I caught the LEDs mid flash, what are the chances of that?  And no, I’ve no idea what’s going to happen when any of the neighours in this block of flat decide they’d like smart meters too -- which idiot thought it would be clever to squeeze all of these meters  into one small box huh?

 

32 replies

Blastoise186
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Howdy!

Sorry for the wait, responding to a thread like this one at 3am after being woken up by disco machines is not exactly a good idea…

Nice floppy disk by the way. I’ve not seen one of those 1.44MB storage devices for over 15 years!

By the looks of things, your electric meter is seeing an IHD. You’ve got the same electric meter as I do with Raichu - a SMETS2 Aclara SGM1411-B so that means your gas meter is probably a SMETS2 Flonidan UniFlo G4SZV-2 because Aclara and Flonidan are business partners, so their meters are often used alongside one another.

Unfortunately, there’s not much I can think of to speed up the fix here. It’s possible that a request has been raised to DCC and I can tell you this much. DCC takes forever to respond to support requests raised by basically anyone and this can slow the process down for OVO. The 45 days target time also allows a full analysis to take place and to try and factor in external parties if needed. It also helps to manage expectations if memory serves.

The best advice I can give would be to hang in there for now. It’ll hopefully get fixed eventually.

As for Transparent? Unfortunately, I’m afraid Transparent has decided to retire from the OVO Forum for personal reasons. All of his content will of course be retained because there’s a lot of the stuff that is highly useful, but he’s no longer active and may not respond.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Jess_OVO
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Updated on 19/07/24 by Shads_OVO

Welcome back, @jewelie!

 

Thank you firstly for raising a really great point about the layout of our ‘Post a topic’ page, @Tim_OVO has already put your feedback in action and made some adjustments to this page to the avoid the same confusion in future.

 

Looks like you may be experiencing a similar loss of usage data that we see reported here by other users, in case you hadn’t spotted it we’ve put together a bit of initial trouble-shooting which might help get things back on track:
 

 

Our smart team may also be able to suggest some remote processes which sometimes help in advance of us reporting the issue to the DCC, so we’d encourage you to follow this up with the Support Team if the tips above don’t manage to sort it.

 

Hope this helps.

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jewelie
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Welcome back, @jewelie!

 

Thank you firstly for raising a really great point about the layout of our ‘Post a topic’ page, @Tim_OVO has already put your feedback in action and made some adjustments to this page to the avoid the same confusion in future.

 

Looks like you may be experiencing a similar loss of usage data that we see reported here by other users, in case you hadn’t spotted it we’ve put together a bit of initial trouble-shooting which might help get things back on track:
 

 

Our smart team may also be able to suggest some remote processes which sometimes help in advance of us reporting the issue to the DCC, so we’d encourage you to follow this up with the Support Team if the tips above don’t manage to sort it.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Well, I've now got the electric and gas usage on their, yay!

Still no gas tariff into though.

:(

Jess_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Welcome back, @jewelie.

 

Good to hear that both fuels are now appearing on your IHD. As you mention the gas tariff information is now missing, have you checked this info is updated on the smart meter itself?

 

If you’ve had a recent price change it might take a few days for this information to update, so we’d recommend making sure the device is placed close to the electricity meter and left for a few days before re-booting if this is the case.

 

Let us know if this does the trick - if not our Support Team might have to do some account-specific investigating.

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jewelie
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Welcome back, @jewelie.

 

Good to hear that both fuels are now appearing on your IHD. As you mention the gas tariff information id now missing, have you checked this info is updated on the smart meter itself?

 

 

So…  I’ve just faced my fear of spiders, battled through the webs, and read the screen in a mirror in reverse.  The tariff is on the gas meter, yes.  And the gas meter says the HAN is connected, although the signal isn’t super strong (1 bar.)

 

If you’ve had a recent price change it might take a few days for this information to update, so we’d recommend making sure the device is placed close to the electricity meter and left for a few days before re-booting if this is the case.

 

 

No price changes for many many months...

 

Let us know if this does the trick - if not our Support Team might have to do some account-specific investigating.

 

Looks like we’ll have to do that then.  :(

 

Thanks Jess.

jewelie
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Interestingly, I think the calculations are correct (i.e. gas used today in kWh * unit rate * 1.05 = cost for today figure displayed, and similar for week usage assuming week starts on Monday and only the standing charge for full days is added on.)  If cost calculations are still right then it doesn’t really matter if it won’t tell us what tariff we’re on.

 

 

Jess_OVO
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Interesting update, @jewelie.

 

I had assumed that the tariff info you mentioned included the unit rates/standing charges. Is there a function to view the Tariff name via your IHD? (Wondering if @Blastoise186 might be able to confirm this one for us using his multiple devices!)

 

If so I can double-check this one with our smart metering team as this isn’t a feature I’m too familiar with.

 

Thanks for spotting a new IHD quirk - Hope we can find out how this ones supposed to work.

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jewelie
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To be clear, for gas, the tariff rates don't display, but the cost calculations displayed are correct.  (I don't believe there's a facility to display the  tariff names on the IHD3.)  Is that clearer?

Blastoise186
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Hiya!

I can confirm that neither of the Kecleon Brothers (2 x Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID) display the tariff name, nor does my smart meter Raichu (Aclara SGM1411-B). I’ve also asked a few of my friends to check their IHDs as well and they’ve all looked at their various Chameleon, Geo and Hildebrand IHDs of various models and variants. None of those display the tariff names either.

They all confirmed what I’ve seen. Only the tariff rates are visible and accessible on both the meter and IHD. I don’t even think there’s a SMETS Command for this, let alone a feature!

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
jewelie
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Hiya!

I can confirm that neither of the Kecleon Brothers (2 x Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID) display the tariff name, nor does my smart meter Raichu (Aclara SGM1411-B). I’ve also asked a few of my friends to check their IHDs as well and they’ve all looked at their various Chameleon, Geo and Hildebrand IHDs of various models and variants. None of those display the tariff names either.

They all confirmed what I’ve seen. Only the tariff rates are visible and accessible on both the meter and IHD. I don’t even think there’s a SMETS Command for this, let alone a feature!

 

Thanks!  It's the gas tariff rates that are not visible on my Chameleon IHD3 currently, even though it gets the calculated figures right. Support said they can't send updates to that IHD3 remotely so are sending a new IHD instead.

Blastoise186
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No worries. :)

Once the new IHD arrives, please follow the instructions in the box to get it paired up and activated. Once that’s done, it should start working within five minutes or so.

As for your current IHD3, you’ve got two options and you’re welcome to choose either one and change your mind later. Would you like to either:

  • Keep it and use it alongside the new IHD (could be a useful spare!) since you can usually have up to four IHDs paired and connected to the meters at the same time
  • Return it to OVO and have it recycled - if you’d like to go down this route, I can provide you the details for OVO’s IHD returns partner and also advise on how to unpair it.

You don’t have to make that choice right now of course. :)

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
jewelie
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No worries. :)

Once the new IHD arrives, please follow the instructions in the box to get it paired up and activated. Once that’s done, it should start working within five minutes or so.

As for your current IHD3, you’ve got two options and you’re welcome to choose either one and change your mind later. Would you like to either:

  • Keep it and use it alongside the new IHD (could be a useful spare!) since you can usually have up to four IHDs paired and connected to the meters at the same time
  • Return it to OVO and have it recycled - if you’d like to go down this route, I can provide you the details for OVO’s IHD returns partner and also advise on how to unpair it.

You don’t have to make that choice right now of course. :)

 

Thank you.  Yes, if you'd let me know the unpairing and recycling info that would be good (although I'll wait to actually do it until I'm sure the new one is working right.)

In fairness, the display on the IHD3 had also become horridly dim even on full brightness, very very hard to see during the day (any idea what tech the IHD3 screens use, looks a bit like OLED but I wouldn't place a high bet on it?)

Blastoise186
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No worries, in that case here’s what you’ll need to do.

When you’re ready, please ask the Support Team to unpair your IHD3 and give them the GUID so they know which IHD to decommission. They’ll probably give you some instructions to follow in order to wipe the device clean as well - a simple reset from the normal menus won’t do that.

Once that’s all done, box up the device and post it off to the following address:

OVO IHD Return

Dragon RS

Unit 2 Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate
Tredegar

NP22 3AA

You’ll have to pay for postage, but there’s no rush so second class is fine. Once Dragon RS receive it, they’ll take care of the rest. OVO will cover the costs of that service so you won’t have to pay anything yourself.

I think the IHD3 uses LED of some kind but I’m not completely sure. I’m not sure it’s OLED though, as they’re usually completely black in areas where there’s meant to be no colour shown at all.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
jewelie
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No worries, in that case here’s what you’ll need to do.

When you’re ready, please ask the Support Team to unpair your IHD3 and give them the GUID so they know which IHD to decommission. They’ll probably give you some instructions to follow in order to wipe the device clean as well - a simple reset from the normal menus won’t do that.

Once that’s all done, box up the device and post it off to the following address:

OVO IHD Return

Dragon RS

Unit 2 Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate
Tredegar

NP22 3AA

You’ll have to pay for postage, but there’s no rush so second class is fine. Once Dragon RS receive it, they’ll take care of the rest. OVO will cover the costs of that service so you won’t have to pay anything yourself.

I think the IHD3 uses LED of some kind but I’m not completely sure. I’m not sure it’s OLED though, as they’re usually completely black in areas where there’s meant to be no colour shown at all.

 

Now have an IHD7 paired by OVO as of Monday. 

Any idea how long I should wait to start getting data before reaching out again?  Currently seeing only partial gas data, nothing about electricity.  Ironically the old IHD3 gets both electric and gas (albeit lacking the gas tariff details.)

 

Blastoise186
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Hmm…

If you’re still not getting data through from the electric meter, that suggests an electric meter problem, not an IHD problem.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
jewelie
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Hmm…

If you’re still not getting data through from the electric meter, that suggests an electric meter problem, not an IHD problem.

The old IHD3 is getting the electric data just fine now though, only the new IHD7 is lacking data!

 

Jess_OVO
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Userlevel 7

 

The old IHD3 is getting the electric data just fine now though, only the new IHD7 is lacking data!

 

That’s annoying, @jewelie.

 

Just to clarify, we’d usually expect an IHD to start showing your data within 48 hours. So if the new device has been placed close to the electricity meter and still isn’t showing your useful usage data, this might be one to report back to the Support Team.

 

Keep us updated here, hoping it’s a quick fix.

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jewelie
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The old IHD3 is getting the electric data just fine now though, only the new IHD7 is lacking data!

 

That’s annoying, @jewelie.

 

Just to clarify, we’d usually expect an IHD to start showing your data within 48 hours. So if the new device has been placed close to the electricity meter and still isn’t showing your useful usage data, this might be one to report back to the Support Team.

 

Keep us updated here, hoping it’s a quick fix.

Oh Jess, I wish!  🤣

They’ve done a health check and confirmed it’s all paired with good signal etc, so they’re having to refer it on again… for another up-to-45-day wait time.   😪

So, exactly the same symptoms with this replacement, IHD7, as happened spontaneously with the IHD3, detailed in the first post!   So, no doubt the same pattern will repeat?   This looks awfully like either an account-related problem, which hasn’t been fixed, or a process-related problem, which also hasn’t been fixed?

So, I’m guessing that after another month or so having reported this, the electricity data will start, but the gas tariff details will never display (even though the calculations for gas will be correct, and the gas meter itself does display the correct tarrif info.)  To be honest, if that happens, then fair enough, that’s all the info I really need!

….unless it repeats a 3rd time, come September, when our tariff changes to the capped tarrif.  Loosing ready access to current/now usage data then will be a royal pain in the bottom, and if that happens again, I’ll likely be pretty fed up unwilling to wait for another 45 days on a 3rd occasion, as mine and my wife’s patience is really starting to run thin already as it is. 😩 If that repeats, it’ll be time to escalate as a formal complaint I think; however, maybe that’s maybe me stressed and pessimistic at the moment and we should see what happens first! 🙄

 

jewelie
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Userlevel 2

No worries, in that case here’s what you’ll need to do.

When you’re ready, please ask the Support Team to unpair your IHD3 and give them the GUID so they know which IHD to decommission. They’ll probably give you some instructions to follow in order to wipe the device clean as well - a simple reset from the normal menus won’t do that.

Once that’s all done, box up the device and post it off to the following address:

OVO IHD Return

Dragon RS

Unit 2 Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate
Tredegar

NP22 3AA

You’ll have to pay for postage, but there’s no rush so second class is fine. Once Dragon RS receive it, they’ll take care of the rest. OVO will cover the costs of that service so you won’t have to pay anything yourself.

I think the IHD3 uses LED of some kind but I’m not completely sure. I’m not sure it’s OLED though, as they’re usually completely black in areas where there’s meant to be no colour shown at all.

 

So, I’m back from an impromtu emergency trip away from home.

 

The good:

  1. New IHD7 has both gas and electric on it, and seems to be displaying the correct readings and monetary calculations I think, yay!

The bad:

  1. The new IHD7 still doesn’t have the gas tarrif on it, just like the IHD3 didn’t, even though the smart gas meter itself does have the correct tarrif details on it and the meter readings are correct and the calculations the IHD3 and IHD7 are displaying seem to be correct.  I give in, it sounds broken, but that’ll do.
  2. OVO sent us an extra IHD7.  No idea why.
  3. I’ve called OVO quite a few times now about getting the old device unpaired ready for disposal.  I can’t say it’s gone well, unfortunately.  I’ve been told various incorrect things, including: “The old one unpairs when the new one pairs”, “You can just return it to us.  Which address?  Oh the main one you get if you Google us”.  Sorry, I’m not calling any more, nor am I going to be paying postage for returning it.

I love the online support reps, and really appreciate the help of volunteers such as yourself @Blastoise186, but the telephone support teams don’t seem to know what they’re doing, nor do they seem to know after asking around for advice, nor do they offer to forward the query on to anyone who does know what they’re doing.

So...

I’ve been pretty tolerant until now, but my temper has now “burst”, and I’ve had enough. 

Consider this a complaint, which I would be grateful if you escalated and recorded as such as appropriate, @Jess_OVO 

I do not have either the time or energy or motivation to persist with this all; I’ve the affairs of multiple poorly people to be looking after, including myself.

No more repeated telephone calls to people unable to address the issues, no more being messed around, and I’m not now going to be travelling to the post office to dispose of the IHD3 (which I assume now was probably actually working fine anyway except for the faded display) or the additional, unrequested IHD7 -- no local post office, no car, and I’ve a mobility problem, so I’d have to pay to get a cab to take it to a post office, or pay extra to have Royal Mail collect it.

Unless the online reps can sort these issues out once and for all (either on here or by calling us by telephone) then my current intention is to make the original IHD3 and the unsolicited/unrequested IHD7 available to OVO for collection from the registered account address, otherwise I’ll intend to physically destroy and dispose of the original IHD3 and spare, unrequested IHD7 in 30 days from today.  (Tiny flat, no space.)  

I’m very sad to say, as much as I love the OVO tech and green initiatives (the AI analysis of the electricity usage is quite genius), and as much as I loved the chats about technical issues in these forums, I don’t imagine we’ll stay with OVO now unless there’s a huge improvement in the skillset of the telephone customer service reps or unless the online customer service reps are fully empowered do deal with issues themselves (which I’m sure they once used to be!) 

 

Julie & Anita Brandon

 

Jess_OVO
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Userlevel 7

Hi @jewelie,

 

Firstly I’m so sorry to hear of the mix-up with the replacement IHD and the difficulty you’ve had trying to resolve this with our Support Team.

 

As a public forum we can’t usually discuss account-specific issues here, however I appreciate the time you’ve now spent trying to return this faulty device as well as the duplicated replacement. I’ve arranged for us to collect some account details via a Private Message here so we investigate this further for you.

 

I hope this helps.

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G
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Hi,

        I had a smart meter fitted on Friday 3/02/23 for gas and electricity. I have an IHD3 energy monitor as of this afternoon has stopped communicating with the Smart meter, so I have no information with regard to usage etc, which was the idea of having a Smart Meter!!.

I have logged onto my online account and have noticed that there is no indication that I have a Smart meter fitted and the webpage is asking for readings for my Old meters. 

The lights on the smart meter flash green periodically apart from MESH.

Any ideas, I am starting to regret getting a new meter installed.

 

Mark 

 

BPLightlog
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The communication between the smart meters, IHD and main data hub takes a while to settle down. You could try to move the IHD closer to the electricity meter to see if it can pick up a signal again. 
The main thing will be to make sure you get your meter ID swapped on your account .. presumably you have the last readings from the old meters

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
G
Rank

Hi,

     Thanks for your reply. Yes I did make note of the last meter readings from the old meters.

The engineer that installed the meters said he had sent the last readings to OVO, so i assumed that a the new meter ID would be changed automatically!!

 

Thanks

 

Mark 

BPLightlog
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…

The engineer that installed the meters said he had sent the last readings to OVO, so i assumed that a the new meter ID would be changed automatically!!

 

It should be but best to keep track. Of course they don’t work weekends so it might still be in progress 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
J
Rank

Hi 

We have just moved home and the new house has previously been supplied by EON as their services provider. The house contains a SMART meter as supplied by EON.

We have taken out a two year deal with OVO which I believe includes a free SMART meter and installation along with instruction and or demonstration for useage.  I have  been told by an OVO consultant that all SMART meters are compatable and that we will be expected to use the EON version (not what is advertised by yourselves) I find this strange that OVO would be happy for me to be advertising EON rather than themselves, however should that be the case and more importantly the main point is that no demonstration or instruction would be offered other than to access this forum? We are new to the SMART meter and would be very keen to learn more. Having looked at the example of one shown on this portal it does not appear to be the same in layout to the one we have inherited?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

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