I have a SMETS1 Landis+Gyr smart meter and Trilliant comms hub from British Gas - Can I get an OVO Aclara SMETS 2 smart meter fitted?

Hi @Tedbarn

Can I ask if there’s an update with your meter set up? Are we able to replace them with OVO’s S2 smart meters? 

I’m seeing lots of traffic to Trilliant topics here so I think there’s a lot of people in your position…..

I’ve just had a bit of a genius idea.

Since I’ve had absolutely no luck at all trying to dig up info about these Trilliant hubs the normal way, I’m going to try a few magic tricks.

Leave it with me.

Oh yeah! That’s MUCH nicer @Tedbarn ! And it’s an Aclara SGM1411-B (aka Raichu!) as well I see. Aclara happens to be my preferred meter brand and I think it’s also the one that pretty much all the volunteers and moderators here prefer. So much easier to read!

It also auto-scrolls as well, so you don’t even need to touch it to get a reading unless you want to fire up the backlight. 

Sure, I do indeed.

As you’ve now got a shiny new SMETS2 meter, it’ll take roughly six to eight weeks for the commissioning process to go through. In the meantime, your IHD will NOT show accurate data yet, so please check the meter itself if you need to grab a reading. Once the meter is fully commissioned, the IHD will start working as well as the app and online account. You won’t need to do anything else, it’s all done in the background from here.

If the engineer didn’t give you a new Chameleon IHD6, feel free to have a chat with the Support Team and they’ll pop one in the post. I’m afraid the existing one that you used with the SMETS1 L+G meters won’t work with a SMETS2 setup.

And yep, hopefully the gas meter can be upgraded soon too. The engineer will get that paired up to your HAN once it’s upgraded. :)

Enjoy!

Gotcha! Sounds good then @Tedbarn . Hopefully that will be arranged soon then. Given your electricity meter is now SMETS2, the gas meter will also have to be SMETS2 as well. There’s no option to have one as S2 and the other S1.

As for the IHD, would you like the good news? I just so happen to have an IHD6 myself, which I currently use mainly for forum purposes here and we’ve got a whole bunch of guides that can help you learn the ropes with it. I’d also recommend connecting it to your Wi-Fi as well if you can - preferably via the password method - as that will allow it to grab any firmware updates from Chameleon Technology when they get released. And I’m pretty confident that Chameleon are going to release some soon. :)

However, if you do need a hand, feel free to give us a shout here, we’ll happily talk you through it. The engineer probably couldn’t give you the full demo due to COVID-19 rules, but they would normally give you a full tour if it wasn’t for all these lockdowns.

Your wish is my command O Master of the Lamp @Tedbarn . Waves a magic wand.

Check out this guide here which is for the Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID.

There’s also a more general user guide that Chameleon Technology provides too. I might consider writing my own version at some point. I might as well make use of Kecleon since I have it anyway! I want to beat the one that OVO does for quality!

The way that SMETS1 and SMETS2 meters/IHDs work means that they’re actually not compatible with each other. I’ve tried to get Kecleon to work with Pikachu (my SMETS1 Aclara SGM1311) and they didn’t like each other very much… And kinda refused to talk at all. It’s partially because they use slightly different comms which don’t play well with the other type.

SMETS1 hardware only works with SMETS1 hardware, and SMETS2 hardware only works with SMETS2 hardware.

There’s also some good reasons why I’m excited for the upcoming firmware updates, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you what they are. I just have a good feeling.

No worries @Tedbarn . And yes, it does.  My sense of humour knows no bounds, but unlike most genies, at least I don’t summon magic carpets that randomly crash into the floor if you use them too much...

For now, yes you will need to submit manual readings for both gas and electricity. Once your new electricity meter goes live and starts to submit smart readings, you’ll only need to carry on doing manual gas readings. That is unless the gas meter gets replaced before then of course, which may cause both to go live at once. However, I suspect it’ll be six weeks before the gas meter can be upgraded, since there’ll be no comms at all before then.

Once the gas meter is switched out and the new one goes live, you should get back to fully automated everything again. :)

And don’t worry, you can’t break the IHD6 that easily. Unless you happen to be me that is! I’ve really managed to stress test Kecleon very nicely and gotten a few bugs out of it, but it’s still in perfect shape so can be used as if it’s never been touched. Which is good because I’m getting Pikachu swapped out with Raichu soon as I’m also upgrading to full SMETS2 hardware.

Hehehe, I really need to invent magic carpet seatbelts and airbags one of these days… Maybe I should patent them too…

But yeah. The settings on an IHD6 are actually fairly simple as there’s not many of them. Aside from setting budgets to get alerts about spending, the main settings relate to Wi-Fi (which is self-explanatory), Night Mode (which I definitely recommend turning on as it dims the display overnight), the language (English is default, but you can also do Welsh if you prefer), Brightness (Level 3 is usually fine), Alerts & Tones (to control whether it makes audible tones for alerts) and Home Screen (which lets you pick how you want the graphs to be displayed). And the option to get it paired up to your meters of course.

There’s not much else really. They’re pretty simple to use!

Don't forget the magic carpet dash cam 😉

Sounds simple enough - thanks again

Thanks @Jess_OVO (I will actually respond to either!!)

I'm sure the next six weeks will fly by.

I used the online chat to communicate with the support team and must admit the advice was not at all helpful and I should not have been advice about the possibility of a smaller SSE smart gas meter and there is no time frame.

Stuck in a meeting at the moment but will take a photo when I can.

It does not surprise me space is an issue as the gas pipe runs under the meter. The Ovo meter installer did get the Ovo meter out of his van to see if it would fit and it sadly did not.

I was essentially advised by the support team that the engineer can only fit the meter he had available and there are not other options for Ovo and if the meter is too large I may have to pay someone to move it somewhere else before another installation attempt may be made.

I did wonder the same especially as the engineer installing the meter was the one who advised smaller meters are on the way.

Thanks so much again for your help and you have no need to apologise for anything!!