My old heritage electricity meter has stopped working, and needs replacing, but I’m in an area with very poor (sometimes zero) mobile coverage. Would OVO still replace this with a Smart Meter but ask me to continue to provide manual readings if it can’t communicate automatically? Is this a viable scenario for OVO? (I’ve read various posts in the forum but can’t find a definitive answer to this). Thanks
Best answer by MGreenwood
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Our smart meter expert is away at the moment, there are ways of fitting an aerial I believe.
Although this thread is about SEG there’s lots of info about being in a poor signal area which might help:
Not all Smart Meters will have working communications, so suppliers will accept customer’s meter readings.
Even if your communications are working, there could be a period (between 2 weeks and 3 months) after the installation where your supplier sets up the Smart Meter and waits for automatic meter readings - during this period you will have to provide manual readings.
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Hey
Sooo… I am that expert
There’s quite a few different tricks that might help but ultimately, if nothing works you can still get the upgrade anyway and submit manually if needs be.
OK thanks for your comments. That is reassuring. I guess I just wanted to make sure that the smart meter will still function and accurately record my electricity usage even if it can’t automatically communicate these readings over a network.
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Yup, it should be fine. There’s even GIANT T3 Aerials in development which can suck up the mobile phone signal in some of the most remote parts of the country even when your mobile phone crashes out. :)
I recently got changed over from a smet1 to smet2 meter because it wasn’t sending readings in. The documents seem to imply that these smet2 meters work on a “local area network” which I think is a bit like WiFi but covering a considerably larger area than your house and therefore no longer rely on whether you can get a good mobile phone signal. I think they are run by an independant organisation. Can anyone else confirm if this is correct?
Either way, even with a smart meter you can still put your own readings in if they are failing to report, I check my online account once per month and if it needs it I put a meter reading in.
Hope this helps
PhilipJ
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There’s the HAN or Home Area Network that lets your meters and IHD talk to each other, and the WAN or Wide Area Network that lets your Comms Hub talk to the supplier via the independent operator DCC (Data Communications Company).
They do still rely on a phone signal unless you’re in Scotland or Northern England which use Long-Range Radio instead.
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