(Dammit, due to a mix of bad luck, confusing UI issues with the zoomed-in responsive page layout, the post-editing time window, and forgetting to select all plus copy before hitting post, I’ve just lost the content of this post now 3 times…. aaarrrgggh)Forgive me for I have sinned… I used to be a regular on the forums here but haven’t posted in over a year, sorry. Glad to see @Transparent is still around and that there’s others volunteering here also. :) TL;DR Like some other posters here, I seem to have lost electric info on our IHD We’ve had our gas and electric smart meters for a few yeas now, for the last year things have been working fine.Sometime in the last few months our IHD stopped displaying electric info. The IHD does display info about our current and historic gas usage plus gas meter info, but the gas tariff info is now missing and there’s nothing about the electric supply/usage/meter on it at all any more. EquipmentSMETS2 Installed via OVO a few years ago (not inhereted from previous supplier) Gas meter (can’t remember, can’t easily get to it to check right now) Aclara SGM1412-B Electric Meter Toshiba SKU1 Cellular Hub Chameleon IHD3-PPMID in home display DiagnosticsWebsite/app seem to be getting frequent usage information uploads from the meters suggesting good meters → hub → DCC → OVO communications On the hub, all LEDs except the MESH one flash every 5 seconds -- as they’re supposed to Time is always accurate on the IHD whenever I’ve looked The signal strength indicator on the IHD is always solid, although not very strong; however, it’s been like that for the past year or so, whilst working fine. Nothing new getting in the way or blocking the signal. No new devices nearby that might interfere etc. For the last couple of days I’ve relocated it nearer to get a better signal, for testing purposes. I’ve turned the IHD off for a while (and have done the 10-second reboot thing.) QuestionI’ve already phoned it in to OVO and have received the standard response about it taking up to 45 days to be addressed by the technical crew. Reading others’ experiences with this issue on this forum, I don’t hold out much hope of a fix any time soon. which is a real pain as we’re desperate to start adapting our behaviours to reduce our energy usage which means needing easy access to current usage info.Is there anything more I can do to help get this fixed?(I’m a techie with some electronics and lots of computer knowledge. I was asked about becoming a volunteer here in the past but life got in the way unfortunately.) The IHD that’s not playing ballThe electric meter and hubThe IHD model infoThe meter install. I had to post this as I caught the LEDs mid flash, what are the chances of that? And no, I’ve no idea what’s going to happen when any of the neighours in this block of flat decide they’d like smart meters too -- which idiot thought it would be clever to squeeze all of these meters into one small box huh?

Rank 4

Solved

Chameleon In Home Display (IHD) 3 stopped receiving Aclara S2 electricity smart meter usage info?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
March 14, 2022
38 replies
1804 views

(Dammit, due to a mix of bad luck, confusing UI issues with the zoomed-in responsive page layout, the post-editing time window, and forgetting to select all plus copy before hitting post, I’ve just lost the content of this post now 3 times…. aaarrrgggh)

Forgive me for I have sinned… I used to be a regular on the forums here but haven’t posted in over a year, sorry. Glad to see @Transparent is still around and that there’s others volunteering here also. :)

TL;DR Like some other posters here, I seem to have lost electric info on our IHD

We’ve had our gas and electric smart meters for a few yeas now, for the last year things have been working fine.

Sometime in the last few months our IHD stopped displaying electric info. The IHD does display info about our current and historic gas usage plus gas meter info, but the gas tariff info is now missing and there’s nothing about the electric supply/usage/meter on it at all any more.

Equipment

SMETS2
Installed via OVO a few years ago (not inhereted from previous supplier)
Gas meter (can’t remember, can’t easily get to it to check right now)
Aclara SGM1412-B Electric Meter
Toshiba SKU1 Cellular Hub
Chameleon IHD3-PPMID in home display

Diagnostics

Website/app seem to be getting frequent usage information uploads from the meters suggesting good meters → hub → DCC → OVO communications
On the hub, all LEDs except the MESH one flash every 5 seconds -- as they’re supposed to
Time is always accurate on the IHD whenever I’ve looked
The signal strength indicator on the IHD is always solid, although not very strong; however, it’s been like that for the past year or so, whilst working fine. Nothing new getting in the way or blocking the signal. No new devices nearby that might interfere etc. For the last couple of days I’ve relocated it nearer to get a better signal, for testing purposes.
I’ve turned the IHD off for a while (and have done the 10-second reboot thing.)

Question

I’ve already phoned it in to OVO and have received the standard response about it taking up to 45 days to be addressed by the technical crew. Reading others’ experiences with this issue on this forum, I don’t hold out much hope of a fix any time soon. which is a real pain as we’re desperate to start adapting our behaviours to reduce our energy usage which means needing easy access to current usage info.

Is there anything more I can do to help get this fixed?

(I’m a techie with some electronics and lots of computer knowledge. I was asked about becoming a volunteer here in the past but life got in the way unfortunately.)

The meter install. I had to post this as I caught the LEDs mid flash, what are the chances of that? And no, I’ve no idea what’s going to happen when any of the neighours in this block of flat decide they’d like smart meters too -- which idiot thought it would be clever to squeeze all of these meters into one small box huh?

Best answer by Jess_OVO

Updated on 19/07/24 by Shads_OVO

Welcome back, @jewelie!

Thank you firstly for raising a really great point about the layout of our ‘Post a topic’ page, @Tim_OVO has already put your feedback in action and made some adjustments to this page to the avoid the same confusion in future.

Looks like you may be experiencing a similar loss of usage data that we see reported here by other users, in case you hadn’t spotted it we’ve put together a bit of initial trouble-shooting which might help get things back on track:

Our smart team may also be able to suggest some remote processes which sometimes help in advance of us reporting the issue to the DCC, so we’d encourage you to follow this up with the Support Team if the tips above don’t manage to sort it.

Hope this helps.

Blastoise186

Super User

Howdy!

Sorry for the wait, responding to a thread like this one at 3am after being woken up by disco machines is not exactly a good idea…

Nice floppy disk by the way. I’ve not seen one of those 1.44MB storage devices for over 15 years!

By the looks of things, your electric meter is seeing an IHD. You’ve got the same electric meter as I do with Raichu - a SMETS2 Aclara SGM1411-B so that means your gas meter is probably a SMETS2 Flonidan UniFlo G4SZV-2 because Aclara and Flonidan are business partners, so their meters are often used alongside one another.

Unfortunately, there’s not much I can think of to speed up the fix here. It’s possible that a request has been raised to DCC and I can tell you this much. DCC takes forever to respond to support requests raised by basically anyone and this can slow the process down for OVO. The 45 days target time also allows a full analysis to take place and to try and factor in external parties if needed. It also helps to manage expectations if memory serves.

The best advice I can give would be to hang in there for now. It’ll hopefully get fixed eventually.

As for Transparent? Unfortunately, I’m afraid Transparent has decided to retire from the OVO Forum for personal reasons. All of his content will of course be retained because there’s a lot of the stuff that is highly useful, but he’s no longer active and may not respond.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!

Jess_OVOSolved

OVO Staff

Updated on 19/07/24 by Shads_OVO

Welcome back, @jewelie!

Thank you firstly for raising a really great point about the layout of our ‘Post a topic’ page, @Tim_OVO has already put your feedback in action and made some adjustments to this page to the avoid the same confusion in future.

Looks like you may be experiencing a similar loss of usage data that we see reported here by other users, in case you hadn’t spotted it we’ve put together a bit of initial trouble-shooting which might help get things back on track:

Our smart team may also be able to suggest some remote processes which sometimes help in advance of us reporting the issue to the DCC, so we’d encourage you to follow this up with the Support Team if the tips above don’t manage to sort it.

Hope this helps.

Powered by Re-knowable Energy!

jewelieAuthor

Rank 4

Welcome back, @jewelie!

Thank you firstly for raising a really great point about the layout of our ‘Post a topic’ page, @Tim_OVO has already put your feedback in action and made some adjustments to this page to the avoid the same confusion in future.

Looks like you may be experiencing a similar loss of usage data that we see reported here by other users, in case you hadn’t spotted it we’ve put together a bit of initial trouble-shooting which might help get things back on track:

Our smart team may also be able to suggest some remote processes which sometimes help in advance of us reporting the issue to the DCC, so we’d encourage you to follow this up with the Support Team if the tips above don’t manage to sort it.

Hope this helps.

Well, I've now got the electric and gas usage on their, yay!

Still no gas tariff into though.

:(

Jess_OVO

OVO Staff

Welcome back, @jewelie.

Good to hear that both fuels are now appearing on your IHD. As you mention the gas tariff information is now missing, have you checked this info is updated on the smart meter itself?

If you’ve had a recent price change it might take a few days for this information to update, so we’d recommend making sure the device is placed close to the electricity meter and left for a few days before re-booting if this is the case.

Let us know if this does the trick - if not our Support Team might have to do some account-specific investigating.

Powered by Re-knowable Energy!

jewelieAuthor

Rank 4

Welcome back, @jewelie.

Good to hear that both fuels are now appearing on your IHD. As you mention the gas tariff information id now missing, have you checked this info is updated on the smart meter itself?

So… I’ve just faced my fear of spiders, battled through the webs, and read the screen in a mirror in reverse. The tariff is on the gas meter, yes. And the gas meter says the HAN is connected, although the signal isn’t super strong (1 bar.)

If you’ve had a recent price change it might take a few days for this information to update, so we’d recommend making sure the device is placed close to the electricity meter and left for a few days before re-booting if this is the case.

No price changes for many many months...

Let us know if this does the trick - if not our Support Team might have to do some account-specific investigating.

Looks like we’ll have to do that then. :(

Thanks Jess.

jewelieAuthor

Rank 4

Interestingly, I think the calculations are correct (i.e. gas used today in kWh * unit rate * 1.05 = cost for today figure displayed, and similar for week usage assuming week starts on Monday and only the standing charge for full days is added on.) If cost calculations are still right then it doesn’t really matter if it won’t tell us what tariff we’re on.

Jess_OVO

OVO Staff

Interesting update, @jewelie.

I had assumed that the tariff info you mentioned included the unit rates/standing charges. Is there a function to view the Tariff name via your IHD? (Wondering if @Blastoise186 might be able to confirm this one for us using his multiple devices!)

If so I can double-check this one with our smart metering team as this isn’t a feature I’m too familiar with.

Thanks for spotting a new IHD quirk - Hope we can find out how this ones supposed to work.

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jewelieAuthor

Rank 4

To be clear, for gas, the tariff rates don't display, but the cost calculations displayed are correct. (I don't believe there's a facility to display the tariff names on the IHD3.) Is that clearer?

Blastoise186

Super User

Hiya!

I can confirm that neither of the Kecleon Brothers (2 x Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID) display the tariff name, nor does my smart meter Raichu (Aclara SGM1411-B). I’ve also asked a few of my friends to check their IHDs as well and they’ve all looked at their various Chameleon, Geo and Hildebrand IHDs of various models and variants. None of those display the tariff names either.

They all confirmed what I’ve seen. Only the tariff rates are visible and accessible on both the meter and IHD. I don’t even think there’s a SMETS Command for this, let alone a feature!

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!

jewelieAuthor

Rank 4

Hiya!

I can confirm that neither of the Kecleon Brothers (2 x Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID) display the tariff name, nor does my smart meter Raichu (Aclara SGM1411-B). I’ve also asked a few of my friends to check their IHDs as well and they’ve all looked at their various Chameleon, Geo and Hildebrand IHDs of various models and variants. None of those display the tariff names either.

They all confirmed what I’ve seen. Only the tariff rates are visible and accessible on both the meter and IHD. I don’t even think there’s a SMETS Command for this, let alone a feature!

Thanks! It's the gas tariff rates that are not visible on my Chameleon IHD3 currently, even though it gets the calculated figures right. Support said they can't send updates to that IHD3 remotely so are sending a new IHD instead.

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Chameleon In Home Display (IHD) 3 stopped receiving Aclara S2 electricity smart meter usage info?

38 replies

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