I understand that a Smart Meter works by radio, so would it work on my installation?
I understand that a Smart Meter works by radio, so would it work on my installation?
Hi
I've not seen and specified limits in relation to distances for a smart meter installation and from what I have seen It really does depend on your individual property and the location of the meter, whether there are obstructions or not so on and so forth. The only way to actually find out would be to schedule your installation of your smart meters for both gas and electric and the engineer will assess whether you would be able to have a smart meter for your electric.
As you've posted in the PAY MONTHLY area of the forum i assume you're a pay monthly customer, in this case you may find this forum conversation on smart meters helpful, feel free to check it out here: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/pay-monthly-21/smart-meter-availability-for-pay-monthly-230/index1.html
You can see if there is any engineer availability to install your smart meters and to book a slot here: smart.ovoenergy.com/credit
Hope this helps
Updated on 05/06/24 by Abby_OVO ​​​​​​
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Great question to ask for those considering a Smart meter installation.
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As your gas meter needs to be able connect via a Home-Area Network (HAN) to the smart meter communications (comms) hub, which is attached to your electricity meter, we’d only advise getting a gas smart meter installed if it’s within 18 metres of your electricity meter. If you’ve got an appointment booked and your meters are further apart, you may find that the engineer’s only able to replace your electricity meter.
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If you already have dual smart meters installed and are having gas meter communication issues, we may be able to upgrade your comms hub to a dual band comms hub which has a slightly larger range than the standard comms hub. In order to check whether this is a option for you we’d recommend carrying out a smart meter health check for your meter type below and contacting our Support Team with the results.
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OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? -Â Book today!
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Interested but not yet an OVO member? -Â Check out our plans!
In regards to the smart meter bookings, you'll see the availability in your area during the sign up process. It does vary by area so I cannot give you the current timescale unless we know where you are based.
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Darran
There's a forum discussion underway in relation to OVO smart meters and the maximum distance allowed to have the meters you can check it out here: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/pay-monthly-21/whats-the-maximum-distance-between-meters-to-go-smart-339/index1.html
In short - with OVO there is appropriately 16meters allowed so you would get smart meters of within this range (see above link for exact details )
Hope this helps
Spot on
So if any OVO customers out there are up for a smart meter, you can have a go at getting this booked in via the customer facing booking platforms here:
If you're a Pay as you go customer: smart.ovoenergy.com/paygplus
If you're a Pay monthly customer: smart.ovoenergy.com/credit
Tim
Thanks for forwarding your postcode to us via PM. As I mentioned in my reply, we've plenty of availability in your area right now and for the next few months, so you should be able to get a smart meter installed pretty soon after you've switched. :)
Any other questions, just post below and we will all try and help.
Thanks
Darran
I was previously with British Gas, who had told me the technology wasn't sufficiently developed yet to have a Smart Meter as my gas and electricity meters were too far apart (they are actually less than 10m apart).
Can Ovo please advise if this is a limitation of their technology as there's no point requesting a smart meter if they are not "smart" enough yet.....
Can someone from Ovo please respond!
Thank you.
I was previously with British Gas, who had told me the technology wasn't sufficiently developed yet to have a Smart Meter as my gas and electricity meters were too far apart (they are actually less than 10m apart).
Can Ovo please advise if this is a limitation of their technology as there's no point requesting a smart meter if they are not "smart" enough yet.....
Check out the 'best answer' of this topic
Here's the bit that's relevant:
Your meters are a bit too far apart to communicate with each other. Typically the maximum distance is about 60 feet (18.3 meters) and lots of walls inbetween will shorten this distance even greater. But no fear - if you have a personal power socket somewhere inbetween the meters, we can use a signal 'relay' to fix this. More info on this device here: https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-answers/topics/smart-technology/smart-meters/what-is-a-smart-relay.html.
Tim
I recon you're all good then,
Tim
Hey
I've moved your query over to an existing smart meter topic - so it's easier for others to find.
At OVO we’ve already installed smart meters for thousands of our customers, but we’ve been unable to fit them in some properties - including flats.
Luckily, technology is improving and developing all the time, so we hope to have solutions for this soon. If everything continues to move at the same pace, you should be able to have a smart meter within the next few years.
Thanks,
Emily
The connection between Smart Meters is not implemented using the GSM (Mobile) network. Only the data to/fro OVO (via the DCC) uses GSM.
Within premises the data communication is via a Zigbee Mesh Network using the same 2.4GHz frequency you'd have for a wireless doorbell or WiFi.
The Zigbee standard isn't fast (only 250kbits/sec) and is low-powered. It is therefore suitable for battery devices such as an in-home-display (IHD). It operates at distances up to 100m, but the signal can be significantly quenched by materials it passes through.
It is possible that there is steel reinforcement mesh in the concrete floors between your flats. This acts as a "Faraday Cage", effectively blocking out radio waves. Aluminium-faced insulation boards (Celotex and Kingspan) are also absorbers of radio-waves, which is why those homes with insulated lofts tend to use external TV aerials.
Theoretically it should be possible to mount a battery-powered relay midway between the meter positions. As Zigbee is a Mesh-network, data signals can be bounced from one device to another. I use just such a technique to forward my door-bell signal to a portable sounder which I take with me when I'm working at the far end of my garden. Another sounder on my patio retransmits the signal to me!
What I don't know is whether Secure, who supply OVO with Smart Meters, have actually developed such a Zigbee relay-box. But since this is a public Forum, perhaps someone else can tell us.
HTH
See here
However, this is a mains-powered device. So you'll need to find a way to plug it in to a mains socket in a flat midway between your two meters.
If you have WiFi in your flat running at 2.4GHz, I guess you could get a fair idea by using a mobile phone to try and connect to to the router whilst you're beside the utility cupboard.
You can download an App like WiFi Analyzer from PlayStore which can show you the signal strength from your router.
I should point out, however, that's not a completely fair test because although it's using the relevant frequency, there could still be a disparity in the transmitted signal strength between a Smart Meter using Zigbee and a WiFi router.
If the problem transpires to be signal quenching, then even a free Zigbee Relay from OVO may not resolve it of course.
The reason
Turning back to your situation, the number of floors isn't necessarily relevant. What matters is the radio-frequency absorbency of the material they are made of. That's why I suggested testing them by using the 2.4GHz band using your WiFi.
However, now you mention that you've never had a site evaluation of your present home, I'm also puzzled as to why OVO have rejected your Smart Meter request.
Perhaps one of the Moderators could tell us if there is a policy issue being implemented here rather than a technical constraint as I had first supposed?
Thanks,
Emily
Since
In the link provided by
This makes sense because the gas meter uses an internal battery, whereas the electricity Smart Meter obviously has access to mains power. Thus the electricity meter is better suited to send the higher power signals to/fro the wider GSM network.
If
Or have I misunderstood those Guidance Notes?
but the gas wasn't, only the gas meter would lose it's smart functionality and need to be read manually. ^Emily
A smart meter was installed on 18th June 2019. The installer said that the distance between the new meter and the gas meter was too far for the gas to be read but I would be contacted when an intermediate relay would be installed. I have not heard anything since then and although I have been submitting gas readings every month I have only been charged for electricity.
Could someone please tell me what’s happening.
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