Geo In Home Display (IHD) lost connection to my L&G smart meter - are they too far apart?

Morning @Ljb67 !

I’m Blastoise186, one of the forum volunteers.

I think we can help you figure this one out, but we’re going to need some photos of everything first so that we know what you’ve got. Could you pop them in your next reply please?

Thankyou. These

 are the usual screens I have. I've tried resetting the device. It may work for an hour or two but then I'm back to these displays.

Gotcha. Can you show me the meters as well please? There’s some diagnostic tricks we can do right here once I know what you’ve got.

Gotcha! Looks like that’s all working fine, but can you tell me what the WAN and HAN lights on the Comms Hub are doing?

Flashing green every few seconds 

Sounds good to me then.

We are definitely making progress here! I can see that the IHD has the correct time for the photo you originally uploaded, but as it’s a Geo IHD there’s another trick I can try with you. All of this stuff helps me to figure out what to recommend, so don’t worry!

Please can you go into System Status on the IHD and post a photo of what you see there. If you also then go into each entry on that screen, press the circle button on each one and then post photos of the codes you see as well, it really helps us out!

Wow, that’s a bit of a mess then, isn’t it! This is telling me that the IHD thinks there’s no connection at all, but somehow also has the right time which is only possible if it’s getting a signal from the Comms Hub.

Let me see if @kevinmcintyre09 is around. He might know more.

Thankyou!

Hi there, yes, if I stand outside next to the meters, it has full bars signal. Inside the house, there is only one bar.

It can be working fine for hours then it loses everything and may not work properly for days. It was on last week for a couple of days then went off.  No matter where i moved it or re connected it, nothing. Today, its back working again but for how long, who knows.

It's never bothered me before but with the current situation,  I would have liked to keep a monitor of my usage on the IHD. I'm trying to just rely on the app instead now.

Hey @Ljb67,

Sorry for the issues you’re having with your IHD.

It sounds like it’s an issue with the Home Area Network, the signal in the home. But very frustrating especially with what’s going on with energy prices. 

The Online Account and App are a more accurate way of keeping track of your usage as the reads from your smart meters themselves are what we bill you to.

We have a live billing system, so whenever we receive a read from your smart meter your account balance will update accordingly. We have a great guide about this topic here:

• OVO Energy Live billing platform and monthly summaries - What do I need to know? F.A.Q.

I’d advise making sure your meter reading schedule is set to half hourly, this will give you the most accurate information and allow you to get the most out of your account. Here are some similar topics you might find useful:

• Can I switch my Smart Meters to half hourly readings?

• Top tips and tricks with OVO Energy Tracker Tutorial

Hope this helps. 

My IHD has never worked very well. I would say 80% of the time it says it cannot connect to the meter regardless of where I put it and its been like this from day one.

I am currently trying to cut down on my energy usage (aren't we all right,) and this thing not working is becoming a real pain.

Do you think its worth replacing the IHD? What are the chances its the meter that's crap, and if so how would you test that?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I have the same issues but not for the same reason. If I place the meter on the top of the meter I still get connection issues. Hence why I want to know if its possible to check if its the meter or the IHD. If its the IHD I will replace it, but I don't want to waste the money.

Hiya!

Can you go into the System Status menu on the IHD, select each element and tell us the Status Codes please? :)

Could you tell me how to do that please? There are only 2 button and they just show me the current balance 

Press the Home button on the left to access the menu, then the right arrow to get to System Status, followed by the Circle.

Then use Left, Right and Circle to move around and select one of the elements. Press the return arrow on the far right to go back one screen after you get the code for that element.

I have a issue with my smart meter IHD not displaying data. This started about 3 days ago. The position of the IHD  in the house of the IHD has not changed in years, and in any case is only ~3metres from the electricity meter.

Symptoms:

IHD says: ‘Waiting for Data’ in the ‘Energy Now’ tab.

In ‘Energy Today’ tab, it shows £0.60 which i assume is the standing charge applied at midnight. The £ value does not increase during the day since this issue started.

In Status menu on IHD:

• Under Electricity: ‘Electricity Meter not connected. Status 28-1 Connected to the meter network, but not receiving all electricity meter data. Please wait for service to be restored’
• Under Meter Network : ‘Connected to Meter’
• Under Wifi : ‘Connected to Wifi’
• Under Cloud : ‘Problem with Cloud. Status: 41 Waiting for Cloud service connection, please wait’

Other observations:

On the the meter itself, all looks OK. On the Communications Hub, the SW, WAN and HAN lights flash in sync every 5 seconds. ‘MESH’ and ‘GAS’ do not illuminate (I don’t have Gas).

Data is still being sent to OVO as it updates daily on the app/website in the usual 30 minute interval readings.

Meter was installed by British Gas in 2022 and switched to OVO in April 2023 and everything, including the switch,  has always worked absolutely fine until a few days ago.

Any advice please?

Hi @nmt79 , the feed to your supplier doesn’t require the IHD so you indeed may still get readings in your account but do check as sometimes without data, these are estimated. 
What is the type of IHD?

There are several guides available 

• OVO SMETS2 smart meter In Home Displays (IHD) - Guide Tutorial

There’s also a post here where someone’s also asking about the 28-1 code

Hi @BPLightlog thanks for the reply. It's a British Gas IHD , not sure of model, but have attached a photo. Has always worked fine up until a few days ago 

Readings are going to OVO fine and accurately (OVO account says last received today, and usage displayed online is in line with my expected usage, eg higher when cooking or charging the EV), so it's not estimated readings. 

Thanks for the heads-up on the other 28-1 code post. I see they needed it re-paired or a new one. 

Think I'll have to give OVO a call in the week to see if they can see or do anything from their end 

Customer support will be a good place to start. I did find a user guide for that unit online. It does appear to be a trio device so similar to the one which was being asked about earlier

That’s a rebadged SMETS1 Geo Trio from the old days of when Geo used to do whitelabel versions of their stuff. Other than the branding, it’s considered a Geo device - Geo has since stopped doing totally whitelabel editions. The most you’d get now is a far more subtle take like what SSE had.

I just wanted to update this here (it looks like my comments has been merged with an older similar thread above) with how my issue was resolved. After contacting OVO via online chat message and explained the problem, the agent said she’d send me an email requesting further information to send to the support team. For reference, the questions asked were…

Sorry to hear your In Home Display (IHD) has stopped working. Please can you complete a few quick tests for us to determine if it is the IHD or the charger that is no longer working correctly.

1) Is the device showing the time and date?

2) Is the time and date shown correct?

3) Is the WiFi symbol solid/flashing/not there?

4) Could you confirm the GUID? (Long ID number on the bottom of device)

5) How far away from your electricity meter do you store your IHD? Are there any walls in between that could be blocking the signal?

6) On your electricity meter, what is the light labelled HAN doing? How regularly is it flashing? Every 5 seconds? 3 seconds? Or 1 second?

7) In your own words, please describe the issue.

Once you have answered these questions we can send that information over to our Smart team to diagnose the issue. In the meantime please use your My OVO usage graph and statements to monitor your usage.

I responded to this and the next day support tried to ring me, but unfortunately i was on another call for work, but he immediately emailed me to say that he had logged on remotely and belives he solved the issue by re-syncing.

Unfortunately the IHD was in exactly the same state (It still had Status 28-1 in Electricity , and Status 41 in Cloud, in the status menu.) I also tried rebooting etc , to no avail. I repsonded by email to let them know this.

The next day another support agent rang and said that they would send an new IHD which would already be paired to my meter and it should arrive in a few working days.

Sure enough it arrived quickly, i plugged the new IHD in, and worked within about 30 minutes of powering up ! The model of the new IHD is a Geo Trio Touchbutton, and is better as it displays usage now and usage today next to each other on one screen, whereas my old British Gas badged Geo Trio II i had to flick between two screens to see current usage and today’s usage, and it also displayed Gas which i dont have in my property.  

Thanks OVO!

Hi @nmt79,

Thank you for coming back with an update on this. I’m glad to hear that this has been resolved for you.