[Paula]

I'd like to submit my meter readings through my Dashboard as explained in the website, but there's no option or button for it. I've tried with different browsers with no luck. Anyone facing the same issue?

[Beki]

@Paula Hey there Beki here 👋


You should have an area on your online dashboard that looks like this?

[DaveS]

@Paula Yes I have the same problem. I sent in my meter reading by email to their customer support and complained. I suggest that they are trying to force the smart meter issue. If you can't send a reading then they estimate much higher than actual use and you have to claim the money back. All hassle, better with a smart meter which I would like to have but after 3 months, ombudsman involvement, long telephone calls etc. etc. and defeated by the Communications Company Ltd they reverted to a standard meter and now trying to stop me putting in readings. Not good!

[Poppy_EONNext]

I'm sorry to hear you're having such a frustrating experience @DaveS. It sounds like you've been through a lot trying to get a smart meter installed, only to end up with a standard meter and now difficulties submitting readings.

What's preventing the smart meter installation?

[DaveS]

I requested a smart meter in the Spring last year. After a short delay I had a visit from an installer who told me that the radio communications circuit was strong and went ahead with the installation but I lost my storage heating system in the process. It only worked for regular supply not Off Peak. I reported it and after another 3 days the meter was replaced by another. Did not work and I reported it. No more senior engineer came to analyse the fault. After a longer delay it was replaced again. This time I got 1 hour of storage heating each night from 11 pm till 12 pm. Again I reported it. By this time the ombudsman was involved and my bill was being adjusted to make the proportion that would have been off peak charge similar to previous bills. Finally the meter was replaced again, this time by a standard meter back to square one. Along the way I spoke to the installers and was told that the trouble appeared to be caused by the Data Communications Company (DCC) who were not passing all information to and from EON Next. E.ON have no control over the DCC which resulted in giving up. All this is recorded in E.ON records where it can be checked if you so wish. I am a Chartered Electrical Engineer and offered to help and had two very long phone calls in the early hours but the receptionist could not get an engineer to talk to me so I made two detailed reports about the fault by e-Mail. I got very little assistance from E.ON.

[geoffers]

@DaveS :blimey, that really sounds like a real bad news story

It’s a shame you didn’t join the community last year since there are a lot of customers who understand how Smart Meters with E7 tariffs work, which doesn’t seem to be the case with Eon’s (and other suppliers’) Customer Service staff

It certainly sounds like you’ve been receiving mis-information and half-truths in your dialogue with EOn, so although it’s a bit late in the day maybe this information will help clear things with your your understanding of the system (apologies if you already know this)

There is an ongoing thread (currently 16 pages and growing) on big issues with Eon and E7 switching, so I’ll refer to some relevant pages from this to save you from wading through a lot of drivel

Firstly, your advice about “the DCC not passing information to and from Eon” is not semantically correct. The DCC are actually just the coordinating portal between suppliers, third-parties and your Smart meter.

The supplier actually sends (SMETS) commands to your meter to configure various settings, read your usage etc – this goes via the DCC who verify the command is valid; comes from an authorised supplier etc and essentially forwards the command to your meter. (Although I guess they could directly send commands to the meter that’s not their role – they just forward the command from the supplier)

This posting shows the relationship diagrammatically

https://community.eonnext.com/thread...ll=1#post60594

Regarding E7 switching and billing: there are 2 timer settings in your meter

1) The Auxiliary Load Control Switch(ALCS) calendar which physically controls switching of your Storage Heater circuits – this calendar varies depending on regional locations

• The meters normally have a 5^th terminal which connects the off-peak circuits, but 4-port meters can be used with external relays for the switched circuits

2)The tariff-time settings which controls the recording of usage to the Day/Night registers which are read remotely to produce your bill

Clearly in the ideal world these must be be set to the same times so you are correctly billed for the time your radiators are on. However some customers inevitably have had their meters incorrectly configured, which is where EOn & other suppliers seem not to understand how the system should be configured

This is described in this posting https://community.eonnext.com/thread...ll=1#post60634

So it sounds like when you were actually getting 1 hour of heating you were 99% of the way there – EOn would have initially set this calendar on your meter (via the DCC), and it should have been easy for them to update the correct ALCS timings on your meter using an “Electricity Configure Auxiliary Load (ECAULS)” command to the meter. Everything was physically working, so no need to replace the meter!!!!

This posting describes the above https://community.eonnext.com/thread...ll=1#post60681

<edit> Looking at the <smart meter off-peak control failure> thread, there is a suggestion that there is a known problem with the KAIFA MA120B model of meters when programmed with “split” calendar timings (ie multiple start – stop – start – stop commands) where it only responds to the first “start-stop”, which sounds very much like your earlier situation https://community.eonnext.com/thread...ll=1#post57379 </edit>

May I ask…? When you say you now have a standard meter:
Is this an E7 (5 port) smart meter, but without its Comms hub so set to work in “dumb” mode, or some other arrangement

[meldrewreborn]

@DaveS

sorry to hear of this. It seems quite similar to this thread

https://community.eonnext.com/threads/9585-smart-meter-off-peak-control-failure?p=57365&viewfull=1#post57365

For which we have no update.

while the automatic switching of your E7 heater from the meter is what is required and what Eon Next are required to deliver, a separate timer in the 24/7 circuit would remove much of the immediate problem and put you in control.
@geoffers has explained lots in his post. I wonder if these issues are coming up more often due to a greater number of systems being changed due to the RTS switch off, due very soon now.

[DaveS]

@meldrewreborn We are being told that a smart meter requires nothing more than a meter swap out to make it work, plus the additional features such as automatic meter readings. Why should I start interfering with the system that I am kept very much in the dark about. Installing an additional timer would only cost me money to save the supply company a bit of effort in providing what they promise. As I am not always home at the right time for meter readings I would really appreciate having automatic readings taken by a smart meter.
As I mentioned already, the problem has not been addressed by the management. An installer puts a meter in. It doesn't work. So an installer puts another meter in. That doesn't work either. The installer's boss says I give up put a standard meter back in. Also the time delays in returning to do these attempted corrections is vast and totally unreasonable. You lose your main source of heating so the Ombudsman has to get your bill adjusted etc. etc.
When the first smart meter fails there is a vacuum and no tech savvy person is available to diagnose the fault because the management have not employed any such people. You pointed out yourself that 1 hr off peak heating was 99% there technically. Who was going to fix it? I was obviously misled regarding the DCC. Just an excuse to shut me up. Then put a standard meter in. No wonder there are 4 million smart meters not working properly. For about 20 years, I have done computer maintenance in smelters and the oil industry where a failure requires a 15 minute response time to fix it. Call outs at 3 am etc. Something a bit nearer that timing is what's required. That would soon reduce the 4 million figure. Installers are good electricians and they do a good job at that level but they don't have the wide knowledge required to diagnose all the faults.
I know that the electrical supply companies will be penalised if they don't meet their smart meter targets. So they just keep installing them whether they work or not. The suppliers should only be allowed to count working meters for their quota. Then there would be a more realistic approach.
Well, that's my opinion.

[geoffers]

@DaveS - I totally agree with you with the suppliers level of service/coordination & C.S lack of understanding etc👍But unfortunately the government's push has been to get smart meters installed - not to make sure they're working 😕

To play devils advocate regarding the 4 million non-working meters: it's not necessarily the supplier's fault that they're not working. The meters themselves do function as meters (recording daily usage), but the majority of issues is with the communication which is out of the suppliers' hands (and I'm sure they must be as frustrated as their customers)

Unfortunately when the system was designed (probably 10 or 15 years ago) it was using the latest (at that time) 2g/3g mobile technology in the South of the country, and long-range Arqiva wireless network in the North . Unfortunately if you don't have a signal, or the 3g has been switched off in your area (total switch off delayed until 2033) the Comms hubs can no longer connect, so the meter reverts to "dumb" mode.

There is (should be) currently a roll-out of new future-proofed 4g/LTE comms hubs which will require replacing for everyone, which should hopefully address this problem. I have also read that where there are still 4g connection issues, they are designing a secure internet based alternative to using mobile connections, but what stage of development this is at I don't know

[meldrewreborn]

@DaveS

These issues are complicated for us volunteers on the forum to get our heads around , sometimes because of incomplete information.

In your case i gather you have electric off peak water and space heating, so you require a functioning meter with a 5th port to feed those exclusively off peak circuits. That will requite the ALCS information within the meter to be correct and align with your E7 type tariff settings. Whether it is operating in smart mode depend on the radio reception in the North and mobile type connectivity in the south. That connectivity is obtained via the communications hub fitted on top of the electricity meter.

I posed the question in relation to E7 issues post the RTS switch off how an E7 customer would get on if they're in a communications dead zone. I was assured that customers would be left with a functioning meter correctly operating their tariff timing, using an internal clack which drifts in time only very slowly.

We've been told that some 5 port meters have a known software/hardware fault such as that you describe. All you can do is to keep complaining and demanding a functioning meter - perhaps of a different type. If the setup has no connectivity then remote resetting of the ALCS isn't possible so its an engineers visit to fix. Swapping the meter should be la ast resort, only when its identified that the meter is in fact faulty. If the meter is found to be operational when test the supplier has to pay for the meter in full for the remainder of its rental life. That cost goes into our bills.

The communications side is a different problem. But at the moment there are lots of meters that do not communicate properly. While this can be because of you being in a dead zone (how about neighbours?), it can also be because of a fault in the communications hub or in the handling of data between the home, the DCC and the supplier. We don't get to know the exact causes.