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

Pedromot wrote:

My gas meter is just outside my home but the electricity meter is in a communal building about 20 metres away.
I understand that a Smart Meter works by radio, so would it work on my installation?

Hi @Pedromot welcome to the forum and thanks for your post, sorry for the delay in responding to your post.

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

@PalsyP the switching process usually takes around 21 days from the date you sign up.

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.

As @Mattj3135 suggested, ping me over a PM with your postcode and we will check what the current timings are on fitting smart meters in your area :)

Darran

Mattj3135 wrote:

Hi @PalsyP welcome to the forum and thanks for your post.

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 @Mattj3135 - I've made this the topic's 'best answer' so other users can benefit from seeing your reply at the top.

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

Hi @PalsyP

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 live in a first floor Maisonette. My electricity meter is in a cupboard just inside my front door. My gas meter is on the ground floor outside the building on the same outside wall as my electricity meter.

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.....

Does anyone from Ovo monitor these forums?

Can someone from Ovo please respond!

Thank you.

Markee wrote:

I live in a first floor Maisonette. My electricity meter is in a cupboard just inside my front door. My gas meter is on the ground floor outside the building on the same outside wall as my electricity meter.

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 @Markee - it's all about the maximum distance possible.

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 would suggest the meters are nowhere near 18.3 metres apart, more like 10-12 absolute tops.

Markee wrote:

I would suggest the meters are nowhere near 18.3 metres apart, more like 10-12 absolute tops.

I recon you're all good then, @Markee - get your appointment booked in here: smart.ovoenergy.com/credit

Tim

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

stevep7 wrote:

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?

There isn't a policy in place when it comes to fitting smart meters in flats @Transparent

@stevep7 if you wanted to have smart meters installed, we would certainly look into arranging an appointment for you. However, we do want to make you aware that there's a strong possibility that the smart meters won't be able to communicate with us. If this happens the meters would lose their smart functionality, and revert back to operating as traditional meters.

Thanks,
Emily

That sounds good, @Emily_OVO.
Since @stevep7's electricity meter is the one in the upstairs flat, if the gas meter below it is unable to communicate via the HAN (Zigbee 2.4GHz), surely it will only be that gas meter which reverts to non-Smart operation, won't it?

In the link provided by @Tim_OVO at the top of this page, your Guidance Notes imply that it is the electricity meter which operates as the Master unit, sending data to OVO via the DCC. The gas meter simply sends it's data to the Smart Electricity Meter to be relayed on.

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 @stevep7's electricity meter can communicate with his nearest mobile phone mast, then won't it still operate in Smart Mode even if it can't listen to the gas meter below it?

Or have I misunderstood those Guidance Notes?

That's right @Transparent it's the electricity meter that sends the readings to OVO. So if @stevep7 's electricity smart meter was able to communicate with us -
but the gas wasn't, only the gas meter would lose it's smart functionality and need to be read manually. ^Emily

Hi..i am a new user here. As per my knowledge 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.