Smart meter manual reading different to smart reading

Hey @vegas22,

You’ve advised the WAN light is now flashing, but if the meter wasn’t commissioned properly there may still be communication issues. Are you able to see any readings on the Online Account?  

I am unable to find out if a T2 aerial is waterproof, or if one can be provided, @Lukepeniket_OVO are you able to offer any advice here? 

To get the In Home Display working I'd advise contacting our Support Team. 

Hello @Emmanuelle_OVO , with the aerial hung across my room towards the window the WAN light flashes at the same time as the mesh and the other light to the left.

There are no readings on my account after July 14th (when it was removed) and the meter serial number on the account is the same as the old meter.

Regarding the in home display, is there anything specific I need to ask the support team to get it working?

Howdy! I’m afraid I’m not Luke but I think I know this one.

Juuuuuuuuuuuuust in case though, I have to do this disclaimer thing. To keep OVO’s lawyers happy because that’s a thing now, I disclose that I am only a forum volunteer and I’m not employed by OVO. I’m afraid my answer can’t be taken as official word from OVO itself, but it’s usually pretty close.

Also… To keep DCC happy I have been digging through their publicly available documents like this one to help build this answer. Credit is due to SmartMe as well for helping me to dig into this one. And yeah… Credit to good old Luke as well for teaching me a thing or two! :)

I do recall seeing forum threads in the past where a T1 or T2 Aerial appeared to be outside and seemed to handle it just fine. However, the official stance I’ve found is that they are for Internal use only and should never be placed outdoors.

However, a T3 Aerial can be used outdoors and are weatherproof (but try to avoid absolutely drenching them with a garden hose if you can!) but for obvious reasons, it’s for external use only. If you try to use the T3 Aerials indoors, there’s a small risk you’ll be microwaved by it and no-one wants that to happen. These have to be specially ordered and DCC only gives them out if they agree that it’s appropriate. You won’t normally get one on the day of the meter install.

These aerials can’t be purchased by anyone other than DCC and only authorised engineers can install them.

However, you can usually ask OVO to see about getting one installed if needed. Have a chat with the Support Team and they should be able to help.

Luke might still stop by if he’s around.

Hey @vegas22,

Got an update on your query from one of our Smart Meter experts:

‘Sounds like this customer has a WAN issue so we've gone out and fitted a T2 aerial... the T2 aerials (there are 2 types) are IP54 rated. Meaning it can withstand 'some' water but not much... so not designed to be fitted externally. We do not 'supply' them. The DCC provides them to us and we fit them. The same applies to all other companies, they obtain the aerials from the DCC.

Based on the response it looks like we've initiated the ‘Install & Leave’ process but, if the WAN light is on, that means we have initiated the commissioning but the WAN is not strong enough..  an Incident should have been raised to the DCC to see what the options are.

As for the IHD, sounds like it may not be paired and joined correctly, wait 7 days but, if the meters aren't commissioned, it's likely the HAN (Home Area Network) might not be set up to enable the IHD to read correctly but it depends..’

When you contact the Support Team about the IHD you’ll need to ask for it to be ‘paired’.

Hope this helps. 

Thank you for this @Emmanuelle_OVO  And @Blastoise186 

I spoke to someone today at ovo who is going to call me back tomorrow after looking into it. They couldn't find anything on there systems regarding a T3 aerial or how to request an install of one. Any ideas what to ask for other than a t3 (regarding an outdoor aerial)?

They are listed on the smartme site https://www.smartme.co.uk/smets-2.html

Similar cases have been discussed before regarding these external aerial. So it might be worth a search of the forum to see if anyone has actually actually reporting getting one installed and if so how they navigated the ovo processes. This is from 2 years ago

Hey @vegas22,

Got an update from the team about T3 Aerials: 

They are (waterproof) but we cannot request one. If the aerial we’ve installed and meter isn’t work but the DCC is saying there is WAN there then we raise a No WAN incident. The DCC investigate what's the problem on site and will propose potential resolutions, one of which may be to try install a T3, that then requires a specific job to be booked to meet the DCC on site, following a rather drawn out desktop analysis, before using a stand alone booking portal to get 2 engineers on site to try a T3. Which may or may not resolve the WAN issue,  so yes a T3 aerial is an option but we don't have a BAU process to fit them.

Hello @Emmanuelle_OVO , Thank you for your help with this.

so I guess my next question is what do I do now? I'm still waiting for ovo to call me today but as the T2 Aerial is currently screwed to my ceiling to get reception, should I put it back in the cupboard?

I could try and create a waterproof box for the t2 aerial and drill throught to outside but since the meter is clipped I would need to cut the tie security wire to get access aerial port which I'm assuming will probably break some form of T&C or law etc

Blimey, I think that is an interesting example of bureaucracy from the DCC. This isn't directed at OVO. 

All these things add to the cost of the smart meter rollout and maintenance, adding costs to our bills.

On the face of it to me, it feels like another failure of regulation.