Just wondered if anyone is battling with a Smart Meter issue like us?
We joined Octopus Energy last Spring to use their off-peak EV Tariff. Our old meter was ‘upgraded’ to a Smart Meter in June but the installation does not work. We live in a rural location and connection with the network (which I believe is unique to the Smart Meter system) was not established by the fitter. Despite this he took away the old meter and said it may be fixable ‘from the supplier’. It wasn’t.
We have been struggling since to get any resolution. High sensitivity meters apparently exist but are in short supply. We have been promised once since September. A fitter finally came in mid December, but with the same meter device we already have installed! He checked the installation was not faulty but had nothing to add. The meter we have has no external display to take a reading. It is apparently recording our usage though.
We are stuck now. We cannot obtain a meter reading and therefore have no idea of our energy usage/billing accuracy. We cannot access the EV Tariff, or indeed move to any other provider without a functioning meter. Octopus continually dodge my requests to have an old style ‘dumb’ meter restored. They say they do not do this. We were put on standard variable rate by default until the meter was fixed, and remain on this. They have had over a month to respond to my last request for solutions.
Any suggestions? The Ombudsman is my next step I think. Do you think I have any right to be compensated for the months we have been unable to acces the EV tariff?
Try emailing your issues to agile@octopus.energy instead. This is the (small) team that looks after the experimental tariffs including Agile and the Go products.
I have found them very responsive and helpful and you may get somewhere. If you don’t I suspect it’s not possible.
There’s also a forum that you can be added to which has lots of useful information and knowledgeable people. You can gain access by emailing as above.
If you get anywhere you should know that there are some hidden beta Go Faster tariffs which offer greater flexibility and hours. I’m on 5 hours reduced tariff between 01:30 and 06:30 daily. Only 5.5 p per KWPH!
If so you may (should) be able to obtain a reading using the display.
On mine I press the settings (cog) button and can then toggle between gas and electricity readings. You may need to cycle through the settings to get the reading to display.
i had a similar issue with octopus, as my electric meter was smart but apparently gas wasn’t (both installed by N power about 6 months previous). They changed the gas meter but it took 8 momths before i could get readings on in house display so had to send manual readings every month form the display on the meter itself. Press button A and it should tell you your usage on both gas and electric.
Does the in-house-display show anything?
I’m surprised that you cannot get a reading from your meter. Any chance of a photo? You can usually press 9 for meter reading.
I recall looking up the SMETS2 meters a coupe of months ago when mine was fitted, when I read that some use 2G to update the main network, and some in the North (I think) use a better radio frequency to update the main network. My concern was that this year some companies are starting to turn off 2G, but I wasn’t able to determine whether that would effect the meters of not.
The in-house display was never fitted. It is still in the box. The original fitter advised it would not work until the meter network connection was established. I have never looked at it, I guess I could try to see if it works.
The meter has no option for displaying the reading on the device-this was confirmed when the latest meter fitter came last month. Photo to follow shortly.
I understood the meters don’t use the mobile phone network but a unique system. Not that this would help, our mobile reception is very poor anyway.
Octopus have some very innovative tariffs which only work with smart meters.
Before the energy crisis their Agile product was very interesting and economical. Each half hour slot of the day has a different price depending on anticipated demand. Prices change daily and are published the day before.
Sometimes the price and turn negative and you are paid to use energy. Conversely at peak times the price increases significantly, currently capped at 35p per KW.
Unfortunately due to the current crisis the price is at the maximum for most of the day which makes this currently not viable.
Correct, I just double checked. In the south of the UK, they use the O2 2G/3G network.
The North and Scotland use a different technology LRR (Long Range Radio)
Octopus talked me through the buttons on the meter but we agreed the display is not giving any useful information, not least as we also have an Economy 7 supply on this consumer unit and it is only showing one value not two. They could not explain this.
I had smets2 fitted by Octopus a few months back. You should see rate2 when it is current which for me is 02:30-07:30 by just pressing the green button to wake the display up and it then shows rate 1 after that. I’ve had some problems with automated bills so just give a reading manually on 1st of each month. Octopus billed twice on the 15th despite me asking it to always be on the 1st. Teething problems I guess. Octopus are by and large a good company with helpful support
Everyone thinks smart meters are free. They are not they are in your bill. I think they have spent £100 million so far, and now they are replacing them - another £100 million? What a farce.
I take my readings monthly and have the history back for last 10 years. Will the smart meter do that?
