How far apart can my meters be to allow a smart meter upgrade?

Ok, I’m back!

This should be possible if you chat with the Support Team. Options like a Dual-Band Comms Hub and/or AltHAN can be retrofitted if needs be - and they can massively boost the range by an absolutely crazy amount if they’re done right.

Hi @PalsyP,

I’m sorry to hear this.

It is possible that since your electricity meter was installed, the technology has advanced. What year was your meter fitted? I’d advise contacting our Support team who’d be able to look into this further for you.

These threads may also help: 

Hi Emmanuelle_OVO,

I’ve had emails from OVO saying they would look at switching the electricity comms back on, and would let me know if AltHAN is available in my area. Nothing further since then, so I emailed again on Friday 18 Oct asking if they could update me on those issues and arrange another visit.

OVO then phoned me today  and MDS will visit on 5 Nov. Fast response but, for whatever reason, they will not answer my question about AltHAN availability.

I’m pretty sure the visit will confirm the Hub can’t talk to the gas meter, so the question is - will MDS have the necessary AltHAN devices when they visit?

I’ve read that AltHAN does not work with dual band hubs - is that correct?

Howdy @GrandpaG ,

AltHAN is currently suspended while a critical fix is being developed. It will return soon once the new AltHAN Bridges are ready.

Also, you can’t use both AltHAN and Dual-Band Comms Hubs in the same install, but you shouldn’t need to anyway - it’s all designed so that you only need one or the other.

Hi Blastoise 186,

Yes, I just found your post about the Bridge problem. I’d have thought OVO could have told me that when they phoned.

For test purposes, MDS could try the old Bridges and put me on a waiting list for when the new Bridges are available, but I guess that won’t happen.

As the Dual-Band Comms Hub doesn’t seem to work for my gas meter, it sounds like the MDS visit may be a waste of time.

The old Bridges have been banned from further installs, they can’t be used at this time.

So, as I mentioned, I had an appointment booked for MDS to come on 5 November - but nobody came! I had no notification, so I phoned OVO today.

The OVO system knows nobody came, but has no information on why that happened. I will get the £30 penalty for them not turning up.

The main issue is comms between the gas meter and the hub, but the hub is not sending electricity data to OVO because that was turned off on a previous visit.
OVO know all this, so you'd have thought arranging a replacement appointment would be simple - not so!

A new appointment was arranged for the 26 November, and then cancelled because the OVO system said I need 2 appointments - one per meter.
This happened about halfway through the call.
I now have 2 appointments on 27 November (same engineer, same time), because they couldn't offer them at the same time on the 26th!

As you might expect, I queried why all this was necessary, and was told there's a new appointment system - if that's the case, it's a weird system

In the course of arranging the "gas appointment", I was asked whether it was a low, medium or high pressure meter, and instructed to look for a sticker and report back what colour it is.
The meter is outside my house, so I'm glad it's not raining today. I've never been asked that before. Perhaps this new appointment system has forgotten what meters were installed.

The call lasted 70 minutes, not including the time for it to be answered (which was quick).

There are ways of improving communication between meters, for example dual-band communications providing signals able to penetrate through more obstacles and over longer distances. An aerial on the electricity meter could also help. These are special arrangements which have to be approved by the DCC who provide the necessary communications hub. The installation engineer may need extra training.    

I haven’t trawled back through the thread, so perhaps you could remind us why and how sending data to OVO was turned off.
 

I have a dual band hub. The problem appears to be comms from the gas meter which is outside our stone walled house, although the previous SMS engineer seemed to think he saw evidence that comms had occurred at some point.

On the previous visit (Jan 2023), after the engineer had been investigating for a while (hours, I think), he told me it had been turned off and they didn’t know why.

I’ve had an email conversation with OVO where they told me it would be turned back on but nothing changed.

Given that the new appointments are called “S2 Smart Meter Health Check”. I seriously doubt whether the engineer will have had the training you mentioned. The excuse I was given for the question about the gas meter pressure was that it was to ensure the engineer had the correct skills.

I should have added that comms was turned off remotely while the SMS engineers were here.