The 'funny' thing is, in fixing the SMETS1 (ver 1 were not swappable between billing companies) they broke some SMETS2 (ver 2).
The electricity meter is in two parts: the WAN 'mobile phone' bit at the top and electricity meter proper at the bottom.
All these devices can talk to each other by ZigBee HAN: WAN bit top, electric meter bottom, gas meter and IHD.
Only the WAN bit top talks to SP through DCC's mobile phone network (or through MESH to another meter's WAN bit with a better signal)
On my meters: gas talks to IHD and WAN, electricity does not talk to either IHD or WAN.
Something appears to have gone wrong with the electric meter HAN, which probably means it cannot be updated remotely from the WAN bit, and someone will have to visit to press buttons.
will someone tell me how to read the new digital meters which have buttons to press. I do have a smart meter supplied in the past by EON. Does this not still supply Scottish power with my readings?
@buttons9 There are many different types of meter, it is not possible to say which buttons will give you a reading. But, if you have a number keypad press 9 for the reading.
@buttons9If the display is off, that is no LCD numbers, text or symbols - the display is blank, then press any button.
Normally the electricity stays non-blank and scrolls through tha available info, but the light comes on when you press a button and the scrolling may stop.
Normally the gas meter is blank to save its battery, pressing a button wakes it up, then the buttons do things, but usually the gas usage is displayed and you do not need to press another button.
@KJR1991 Smart meters are constantly being remotely updated and often this stops the IHD working correctly. Usually after a week or so the IHD starts to work again. There is nothing users can do to stop this happening. My own IHD works well for 6 weeks or so, and then suddenly loses contact and is out of use for one or two weeks. We just have to get used to this. By the way the IHD is only a monitor of your smart meters, the IHD does not send out any readings, and if you unplug the IHD your smart meters will still send in their readings correctly.
@Bobby4 Thanks for the advice about damp walls. If we get offers of cheaper electricity on windy days the meters will still record the right tariff regardless of whether the IHD is working. I doubt IHDs are up to frequent tariff changes, we will have to remember when the cheap tariffs apply.
I think IHDs have been over promoted and they underperform, they don't tell much that is useful and I usually leave mine off until I want to take a meter reading. It's a pity that smart meters were promoted on the benefits of IHDs when they are the least reliable part of the smart meter setup. The benefit of smart meters to government is accurate billing and the possibility of having variable tariffs.