Smart Meters Too Far Apart

  • BeaSeb's Avatar
    Level 1
    My gas smart meter is 30 ft from my electric smart meter, and consequently it doesn't reliably send information to the electric meter, and then The IHD. There seems no solution to this highly frustrating situation, it's been stuck at £1.17 for 5 days straight now. I just discovered other energy companies supply relay booster boxes for these situations, so why doesn't E.on?
  • 2 Replies

  • theunknowntech's Avatar
    Level 78
    Howdy @BeaSeb,

    I'm really sorry to say this, but unfortunately 30ft is out of range of just about all Comms Hubs that are currently available and there's no easy fix for it. I know what you mean by relay boxes, but I'm afraid they've since been banned across all suppliers - especially for SMETS2 - due to security vulnerabilities that were discovered. I know some of the details, but it's not something I'd be willing to disclose on a public forum - and I'm also not the person who originally discovered and disclosed the flaws either.

    From my understanding, even for SMETS1 those signal relay devices have been basically withdrawn when the stocks ran out a couple of years ago now and have never been restocked by any supplier. Most of the info from the suppliers who've mentioned it have left the info up for legacy reasons more than anything else. My friend Blastoise186 is currently in discussions with one of them about either removing that content or updating it to clarify that the devices are no longer available. It is unlikely that any supplier will offer them ever again.

    The only solution would be a Dual-Band Comms Hub in the future once they become available. I'm not sure whether upgrades would be allowed though.
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  • BeaSeb's Avatar
    Level 1
    Thank you. I really feel strongly this should have been made known to us prior to allowing smart meters to be installed in the first place, we made it perfectly clear when booking that the meters were metres apart. The only people that have benefited from the installation is E.on as they no longer have to pay someone to read the meter periodically. Meanwhile we are desperately trying to conserve our usage but have no idea how much is being used, which was the whole point of getting these smart meters installed. Its a decision I have regretted from the outset.