O/T: "Smart" Gas Meter not so Smart

[michaeljclark]

This is well off topic, but I know there are a few British Gas engineers about these parts

 

About 4 months ago the LED display on Gas Meter gave up the ghost an BG arranged for a new "Smart" one to be fitted.

 

At first I thought I'd broken it as one day we had no Gas and when I looked at the meter is was asking me to press various buttons to get gas - the previous day I'd had to wake it up to get a meter reading, so thought I'd upset it with my button pressing to get the meter reading.

 

About a fortnight ago we woke up in a cold house and again the same thing, today it happened again.

 

Having looked on line, it seems I have some "Pay as You Go" meter that needs a card, which is odd as I'm not on pay as you go and have no card.

 

On hold with BG at the moment, with an estimated 40 min hold time.

 

Anyone else had similar? Any BG engineers know if I need to do something to fix it? - I had a 3 month wait to have it replaced last time and don't want similar this time

 

Thanks

 

Mike

[Myles]

Not really - but we had a smart meter fitted recently and the wireless monitor seems to average the flow leading to periods when it appears to show you burning gas when, in fact, nothing is being used.

 

Not quite sure why it does this as the electricity smart meter - installed at th same time - gives 'live' updates (I.e. You can see it react within a couple of seconds of turning something on/off). Also, if you go out an push the button on the meter itself to get a new reading, it does seem to update correctly (or stay static if everything is off), so I can't see why the monitor should use a wildly-different refresh/averaging model for the two fuels.

[michaeljclark]

This meter isn't even that Smart, I think it's function when switched on (according to the installer), is to do an ET and phone home via a build in GSM modem at tell them what the meter reading is

 

I've spoken to someone at BG who says my meter isn't setup properly, but since then I've been cut off twice from the correct "Smart Meter" dept

[michaeljclark]

So, it turns out that if you have a "smart" gas meter (of the type that was we've had installed) you need it's opposite number in the electrical department installed too. Which we don't have.

 

Because the gas meter can't see the smart electrical meter, it keeps resetting.

 

BG own the electrical meter, but not the gas one as it's owned by another firm who are nothing to do with BG, thus they need the other lot to swap the gas one back to a std one, as the wait time for a smart 'leccy meter is measured in months.

 

This is also the 4th issue of the wrong meter being installed by the other firm that's been reported this week.

 

Ho hum

[Martin J]

I am not involved with metering Mike so afraid I can't offer any advice, other than keep it simple...I wouldn't have one in my house!

On the subject of complex gas heating controls....we have been asked to promote these to new remote heating & hot water controls that you can control via your smart phone.

I was recalled to a recent installation we had done in Sevenoaks the other day & the heating has been unreliable since we installed it.

After checking the system & asking some tactful questions it turned out the husband at work in his warm office in London was monitoring the house temperature & turning it down with his i phone & his wife then went cold.

[Graham Perry]

Martin, I can imagine the 'icy' atmosphere after you left 😬

 

michaeljclark, How complicated do we make life ? I have made a mental note to avoid smart meters until the technology is more established.