S2 smart meters in the Northern Territory using the Arqiva network - why isn't the meter able to connect to the WAN?

Well I’ve learnt something new today - LoRa and Helium are networks I’ve not come across before.

Just gonna tag our network expert, @Blastoise186 as I’m sure he’s more clued up on the potential use of these for the smart network. What do you think, Blaster? - An improvement to the current Arqiva network perhaps?

Yes, it definitely sounds very plausible at the absolute minimum! If it were my decision, I’d certainly be willing to allow trials of these networks to be performed.

Unfortunately however, I get the feeling this might have to wait until a future SMETS3 specification comes out. I can’t see how you can tack on this kind of change into S1 or S2…

Personally, I also feel that the lack of Mesh capability in the Northern Territory is a missed opportunity. That could have proven to be extremely useful in certain scenarios. Oh well.

Every week that passes, I’m greeted by @Jess_OVO telling us she’s just learned something new on the Forum. Perhaps we should become associated with a university and offer distance-learning for Members who wish to up-skill themselves and gain points towards a(nother) degree

I do at least understand the issue with ‘old’ gas meters that have unorthodox mounting.

Such meters as were mounted on shelves did not comply with the rule for there to be a support bracket position, and for some, the connection pipework itself was deemed to be structurally supportive.   The proposed Smart Meter could not be similarly supported and so the Installer rejects the job at the inspection stage.

In this case I’m assuming that there is no meter mounting bracket or easy way to attach one. You can see the required metal bracket in these photos:

I can’t imagine that the rejection it’s related to the material being wood (combustible) because the plastic enclosures we use today would quickly melt and vapourise if the meter caught fire!

There are some ‘super-installers’ within OVO’s workforce who are sent out to deal with problematic sites. They are particularly experienced and receive additional training. You could email Customer Support with a photo and ask if your site falls within their remit.

There will obviously be a charge for structural alterations, but you will at least then have a fully compliant meter location. It’s clearly cheaper to go down this route than to first employ a separate Gas Safe tradesman to install a steel bracket and then ask OVO to send back their installer with your Smart Meter.

Happy to say that every day’s a learning opportunity here on the OVO online community, @Transparent!

From new-fangled networks to phases and inverters, there’s no limit to the concepts to get our heads around on our path to Plan Zero.

So as ever it’s a big thanks from me (and all our other forum visitors) for all the knowledge-sharing and peer-peer support that you’re a vital part of. 

Yes, understand that this would be quite a change from the current model and might be considered something of a rival network so might not be commercially comfortable. It would certainly be better for the rest of us though.

If you look at the Helium map, you will see that there is still quite a long way to go in order to get anywhere near complete coverage. However, some commercial radio antenae mounted high-up would have a very long reach and could easily fix that. There is a Swiss guy on YouTube who built himself a LoRa transciever that was able to talk to a test micro satellite that has been put up into orbit.

In this case I’m assuming that there is no meter mounting bracket or easy way to attach one. You can see the required metal bracket in these photos:

No, it is in a basement rather than outside the house - and is, I think, mostly supported just by the shelf. No idea which lazy workman bodged it in. It was here long before we moved in 20 years ago.

There are some ‘super-installers’ within OVO’s workforce who are sent out to deal with problematic sites. They are particularly experienced and receive additional training. You could email Customer Support with a photo and ask if your site falls within their remit.

We I was originally told that someone would get in touch. They never did of course so I left it. That was in the v1 meter age anyway I think so I wasn’t that bothered or interested having seen some of the issues at the time.

The problem now is different though. I work from home full-time, my daughter is doing A-Levels and my wife often works at home.

So just when are we going to want the power to go off for the electric part? Well NEVER really!

Some very high commercial radio masts eh…?

What would you say if I told you that Arqiva has a whole bunch of those all over the UK? XD

In fact, three of them alone - the Droitwich, Burghead and Westerglen Transmitting Stations alone have more than enough horsepower to blast the Radio 4 LW signal and the RTS Service across pretty much the entire country at once. Think they’d be good for Helium or LoRa by any chance?

I imagine that they would be rather overkill for LoRa 

Helium seems to be designed as a distributed network and is a very interesting blockchain concept so I can’t necessarily see them wanting to put too much into the hands of a single commercial entity but who knows.

Just in case anyone stumbles onto this thread and wonders what has happened to my smart meter. It’s still not connected. Nobody has any power to force Arquiva to fix these problems, so of course they are not going to do anything, well until I suppose someone pays them to do it. Not really Ovo’s fault I suppose, more the halfwits who drew up the contract.

I've tried to skim through the many long posts on this thread, so might have missed something. However - a suggestion : is it not possible to provide a passive signal booster, with a yagi antenna mounted higher up that can talk to the nearest base station, linked by coax to a patch antenna stuck on the Aquiva Comms unit on the smart meter?

Ps I'm a radio amateur and retired spacecraft engineer. 

Tony 

Yes, it is, and several unhappy LRR victims have reported success with this sort of arrangement. I’ve also posted the idea in these forums several times (although I’ve tried to avoid terms like yagi so as not to deter the unfamiliar.) 

The most vocal proponents are EV users unable to profit from cheap charging rates because their smart meters aren’t connecting to the WAN. This is a long thread, but some of the posts are encouraging. This idea is a cheap solution, needing only a few pounds’-worth of gear and perhaps a willing son-in-law to help with the construction and installation. 

One of the potential pitfalls is identifying the wrong TV mast (your “base station”) to point the antenna at; many TVs will be fed from a more local Freeview Light mast, while it seems that Arqiva only mount their SMWAN antennae on the big ones, which are often a long way away in Scotland. This map may be helpful: Full service Freeview transmitters . Arqiva have apparently met their target (99.5% of households, I think), so they’re not likely to be mounting more aerials to increase coverage.

Trials are in progress with a new sort of dual-mode communications hub which includes a provider-agnostic 4G SIM as an alternative to LRR. This will eventually (in a few years’ time, maybe) be helpful for some customers, but not the many who have neither LRR nor 4G coverage. Heath Robinson may be their best bet 🙂