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

I recently switched to OVO and wanted, apart from great price deals and excellent customer service to switch to smart meters. Having applied ive been turned down straight away and told that as the meters are not in the same location you cannot yet complete the upgrade. The electric meter is in the flat and the gas meter is in a downstairs utlity cupboard. Can you advise when this will be fixed so that i can upgrade to smart meters

I recently switched to OVO and wanted, apart from great price deals and excellent customer service to switch to smart meters. Having applied ive been turned down straight away and told that as the meters are not in the same location you cannot yet complete the upgrade. The electric meter is in the flat and the gas meter is in a downstairs utlity cupboard. Can you advise when this will be fixed so that i can upgrade to smart meters

Hey @stevep7

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

Thanks Emily but yhis still does not make sense to me as i have another flat wbere OVO supply the electticity. The meter is 2 floors below the flat and its both peak and off peak power and you were able to fit a Smart meter. The flat in question here has an electtic meter in the flat and a gas meter in a dowstairs utility cupboard. As both are in range of a mobile signal to connect the smart meters i do t understand why you cannot fit them. Please provide a more specfic response based on the technology a waiting a few years is not acceptable. Thanks

@Transparent might have a good response for you, @stevep7 :8

Hi @stevep7,
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

I've just realised that @Tim_OVO has already answered the relay question earlier in this thread.
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.

Our flat is already on the ground floor so i still belive it will work as the utility cupboard is almost directly below.

Well, @stevep7, it will still depend on how much of the signal is quenched by the floor(s) through which the signal must pass.

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.

I undetstand your point but that still does not explain why you were able to install a smart meter at another flat i own where the flat is on the top floor (2nd floor) and the meter is 2 floors below in a utility cupboard. This insta was never questioned and works fine. The block in question here has 5 floors so i think your response may only be relevant for the higher floors. Is it not possible for one of your engineers to do a test?

Firstly, @stevep7, can I point out that I don't work for OVO. I'm a customer like you. Moreover I don't even have a Smart Meter yet!

The reason @Tim_OVO suggested I respond to this thread was because he knows I'm researching the topic of Smart Metering and the future of the UK Energy Market as we change to Demand-side Response.

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?