AltHan is a powerline extender, which would presumably be plugged in to a socket near the gas meter.

I already use powerline extenders for Ethernet - do you know if AltHan would interfere with that, or viced versa?

Probably not. Having two different powerline networking solutions running on the same circuit is asking for trouble. The HomePlug Standards your existing setup relies on died several years ago and are officially abandoned, so there’ll never be a fix on that side - and it’d take a fix on both sides to fully resolve such issues.

It’s complicated network stuff that requires deep knowledge of networking to understand, so I won’t give you the full details, but the long story short version is that it’d be like having two cars driving into the same side of the same tunnel from opposite sides and driving on the same lane at the same time - they are basically guaranteed to crash into each other.

Your best bet is to rip out those existing HomePlugs and switch to a Mesh Wi-Fi setup like that offered by Ubiquiti AmpliFi or Ubiquiti UniFi, or some other Mesh Wi-Fi solution - do NOT use the one offered by BT or any ISP as they are all terrible.

Sad, as the powerline distribution of my Ethernet is flawless - never had so much as a glitch.

Thanks for the advice.

Hi Tim_OVO,

I had on online chat with OVO on 5 Sept. Initially they were going to email me the smart meter checklist, and I agreed. But he then had a look at notes on my account, where the original installation engineer had logged the issue, and said they would send an engineer on 11 Sept.

The engineer duly arrived today - he was from MDS and had been given NO information about the problem. He asked me what the problem was, then had a look at the meters and left, saying he would add some notes on my account. He said I would need an engineer from OVO.

Not very helpful. Whoever was chatting with me knew what the problem is, so why didn’t they send an OVO engineer.

I’ve now filled in the online version of the checklist​​​. Sounds like I may have to wait 45 days.

I’ve posted previously about this problem. My Smart Meter installation was on 1 Aug 2023.

The HAN failed to communicate with the new smart gas meter, and the engineer couldn’t fix it.

Everything else works and OVO have been receiving readings from the electricity meter.

I had on online chat with OVO on 5 Sept. Initially they were going to email me the smart meter checklist, and I agreed. But he then had a look at notes on my account, where I assume the original installation engineer had logged the problem, and said they would send an engineer on 11 Sept.

The engineer duly arrived today - he was from MDS and had been given NO information about the problem. He asked me what the problem was, then had a look at the meters and left, saying he would add some notes on my account. He said I would need an engineer from OVO.

Not very helpful.

Whoever was on the online chat knew what the problem is, so why didn’t they send an OVO engineer?

Hey @GrandpaG,

Really sorry to hear this,

I wonder if the MDS person who came to your property was meant to fill in a smart meter health check on your behalf? In which case you’d have to wait 45 days regardless. 

But this does seem odd, unless there’s a vulnerability in the property, typically we’d ask a customer to do it themselves as you’ve now done. 

Hi,

As I said, the MDS person had to ask me what the problem was as he’d been given no information by OVO.

There is no vulnerability in the property, as I told the person on the online chat with OVO when the appointment was arranged.

Hey @GrandpaG,

How frustrating for you, did you delay filling in a smart meter health check under the premise that MDS were going to resolve your issue?

If you contact the Support Team there will be a record of the agent who took your call, notes about the booking and they can get to the bottom of why MDS came in the first place. 

If it was booked incorrectly, this can be fed back internally to the agent. 

Thanks Emmanuelle_OVO,

I had tried the health check before my new meter numbers were recognised and I didn’t seem to get anywhere, so I then decided to try the online chat.

I have a copy of the chat, and after looking at “previous notes” your agent seemed to decide that I didn’t need to complete a health check and started the process of booking an appointment. I therefore assumed that the “previous notes” had all the information you needed. Maybe that’s not correct.

I didn’t know that an MDS engineer would be sent until I got the email confirming the appointment.

I submitted the health check after the MDS visit.

Now the health check has been completed, this will have gone straight to the smart support team. They’ll look into this issue for you @GrandpaG.

I hope it get’s resolved as quickly as possible. 

Hi Emmanuelle_OVO,

It’s now almost 2 months since the health check was completed.

Is there anything else I can do to chase this up?

Hi @GrandpaG 

Are you eligible and  if so signed up to the Priority Service Register 

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/priority-services-register

https://www.ovoenergy.com/register-for-priority-services

It is worth doing if you are eligible as it should help prioritise support.

I see you have had a few engineer visits where they didn't come with equipment to fix the issue.

Under the Ofgem rules and law you are entitled to £30 every time this happens and another £30 if not paid within 10 working days. @Emmanuelle_OVO will be able to provide more information on this.

Hi @Jeffus ,

Thanks for that, I’ll have a look at the links.

I think the previous messages have confused you, as I’ve only had one visit which was when the smart meters were installed.

The installer was unable to make the hub talk to the gas meter, and said he would report the problem. Since then, I’ve heard nothing.

Hi  Emmanuelle_OVO,

I’m still waiting for OVO to contact me about my problem.

My Smart Meter installation was in Edinburgh on 1 August 2023. The installer could not get the hub (EDMI Standard 420 DB) to communicate with the gas meter (Flonidan Uniflo G4SDZV-2). He tried rebooting the hub and it still failed to connect.

Based on replies to my post here, I expected OVO to be in touch long before now.

Despite saying they would send an OVO engineer, they sent someone from MDS on 11 Sept 2023 who had been given NO information about the problem. He asked me what the problem was, then had a look at the meters and left, saying he would add some notes on my account. He said I would need an engineer from OVO.

I had filled out the checklist, and it was suggested here I might have to wait 45 days, which would be around the end of October. Two more months after that, and nothing.

What can I do to get OVO’s attention?

Sorry to hear this @GrandpaG.

If it’s been over 45 working days since you submitted the smart meter health check and the meters still  not communicating then the support team should be able to book in an engineers appointment.

Please contact the support team to get this booked. 

Thanks Emmanuelle_OVO,

I’ve sent an email.

Hi Emmanuelle_OVO,

OVO just phoned me after I sent the email explaining the problem.

e.g. I said “The installer could not get the hub (EDMI Standard 420 DB) to communicate with the gas meter (Flonidan Uniflo G4SDZV-2).”

I now have an appointment for 26 Jan, and they are sending an SMSL engineer which I assume is good?

However, their email confirmation says -

I already have a SMETS2 electricity meter. So on the face of it, that sounds like they are going to swap my existing SMETS2 electricity meter for another one - which is hardly relevant when the problem is comms with the gas meter.

Despite that, do you think an engineer from SMSL will investigate my problem, or do they just follow orders?

Really glad to hear they got back to you and have booked something in!

We don’t have access to your account on the Forum @GrandpaG, my advice would be to double check with the Support Team if you have any concerns about the appointment. 

Hi Emmanuelle_OVO,

I asked them to confirm that the engineer would investigate the problem rather than just swap a meter, and got this reply -

“I have taken a look over the account and I am able to see your gas meter has lost communication with us meaning we currently have no live data resulting in your IHD not displaying any usage.

In order to resolve this we would need to complete a meter exchange which is what has been scheduled.”

The gas meter has never communicated, and it should be clear from the notes on my account that the problem is almost certainly due to the gas meter being outside the house. Ironically, the meter was moved from inside to outside the house to make it easier/quicker for their meter readers. Now it’s a chore for me!

I wonder if they’d contemplate moving it back indoors?

Ho hum, I guess I’ll just have to hope for the best.

Hi Emmanuelle_OVO,

SMS visited today. The instructions were to replace both meters although the electricity meter has been sending readings to OVO since it was installed in August 2023.

Despite the instructions, SMS spent a significant amount of time investigating the problem. He found that the signal at the gas meter was showing 2 bars out of 3, which he said should be sufficient for communication with the hub. However, despite doing a ‘reboot’, the comms problem between the hub and the gas meter was not resolved.

They were then instructed to replace both meters by whoever they were talking to at OVO or SMS. I asked about replacing just the gas meter, and was told they were not allowed to do that, which seems daft.

The SMS engineer told me that OVO had done something that stopped the electricity meter sending readings, so now I’m in a worse position with both meters having to be read manually.

For various reasons, including the time elapsed since they arrived, I said I didn’t want him to replace the meters and they departed. I have no complaints about the SMS engineer, who seemed very knowledgeable and helpful.

That may not have been your wisest move. There are three devices involved in this: two meters and the communications hub (usually on top of the electricity meter). It’s the comms hub that gets data from the meters and pushes them out to both the IHD and the DCC. There are specific protocols the engineer has to follow when installing new meters to get this four-way communication to work; there are steps to be taken to investigate any problems and ways of solving them. 

New equipment means the engineer starts from a clean slate, so to speak - you wrote earlier that “OVO had done something that stopped the electricity meter sending readings.” Whatever this was, it wouldn’t affect a new meter. I’m afraid you’ve delayed any solution to your original problem by not having the kit that’s not working replaced.

I’m not sure what your next step should be.

Hi Firedog,

Yes, I understand most of that - including your point about wisdom.

However, it was clear that the SMS engineer wanted to follow a more logical protocol.

Having observed the signal level at the gas meter was good, his preferred approach was nevertheless to replace the gas meter first, and then potentially the hub. But this was disallowed by instruction from OVO while he was here.

Sorry if my wisecrack came across as offensive 

It’s not easy to follow events at a distance and after the fact, but even so, I still don’t quite understand why you let the engineer go without doing anything to remedy the situation. Engineer visits are like gold, and it will probably be weeks until you can persuade OVO to send another one with exactly the same instructions. 

No offence taken Firedog.

Hey @GrandpaG,

I’m sorry you didn’t have the most successful appointment, 

I would advise getting in contact with the support team who’ll re-arrange the meter exchanges. As the SMS engineer did a thorough investigation, and will pass on the job report to OVO, hopefully the appointment will be quicker and smoother next time. 

If there are any vulnerabilities in the home, or any of the occupants are over the age of 65, you can be added to the Priority Services Register and request regular meter reading appointments. These will be free of charge and ensure your bills are accurate until your meter issues are resolved.