[Dragonfyr]

Hi there,

So I was with British gas. They installed a smart meter. During my time with them, they had some sort of defect on the handheld part of the smart meter setup. It was a safety concern regarding its power adapter. So I through the thing away and waited for a new one, that never turned up. They did send a plug out though, which was really badly packaged, like it had come from China.

Then I switched to E.On. Partly because of price but also because I could never get a decent answer as to where my replacement read out part was!!

So I asked E.On for a smart meter read out part, they wouldn't give me one. This has gone on for a few years. And I've asked a LOT!

My electricity and gas bills are through the roof and I'm paying stupid AMOUNTS. This affects my mental health, of which I am struggling really badly right now.

E.On told me last year that in 2022 there will be some sort of upgrade / system modification which will mean I can get the part I need.

I don't know what it's called. Its the hand held part that has all of the usage on it?

Can someone PLEASE just send me this item so I can start to monitor my electricity usage?

I have even been tempted to modify + set up one myself, but that seems like a really bad idea

Thanks,
Gary

[theunknowntech]

Hi @Dragonfyr,

I think you've probably got a SMETS1 setup based on what you've described. Unfortunately, there is no way for you to get an In-Home Display for it on your own and from my understanding, the supply of SMETS1 IHDs has mostly dried up at this point. It's extremely difficult even for energy suppliers to get hold of them - and your current energy supplier would be the only way to get hold of one. I do know of only one IHD that would probably work which is the Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID-S1 as it's dual compatible with both SMETS1 and SMETS2 setups. However, demand is massively outpacing supply of them right now as literally tons of customers are asking for one across many suppliers and Chameleon is reportedly struggling to keep up. It's possible that more will come in stock eventually though.

You can't build one yourself either, as you'd get stuck in 50 years of red tape just trying to get it approved by the ZigBee Alliance, let alone approved for use with a Smart Meter.

If you need a hand with trying to figure out your high bills though, please let me know. I can't access your account myself, but I can offer advice that might help you trace the culprit and resolve it.

[Landmark]

I think the hand held device you are alluding to is called an In Home Display unit. I assume you had your smart meter fitted several years ago; if that was the case your smart meter will be SMETS1 (first generation). There is a legal obligation to provide you with a replacement IHD; just ask customer services.

You state that you are paying stupid amounts. How much exactly per day?

If you don't already know how to take readings from your particular smart meter, just post a photo of it to verify the model and theunknowntech may advise you how to read it and to see if the meter is working properly by doing a creep test.

Sorry to hear about your mental health issue, I hope you are receiving help for this and taking good care of yourself.

Please keep posting to share your experience, whatever the outcome and you are quite welcome to discuss freely your feelings here.

Wishing you all the best for now😉

[theunknowntech]

Actually, it's only a legal requirement to supply a customer with the initial IHD roughly around the time of the meter installation. There's no requirement to provide further IHDs at a later date, although almost all suppliers try to provide one if possible depending on stock levels. Replacing a faulty one within the first year of having it is almost always honoured for example.

However, there's no such requirement to provide another IHD if you've since moved supplier and while most will try to help you out anyway, there are exceptions. One of which covers cases where it's impossible to provide an IHD because there aren't any compatible ones available. It's something I'm keeping an eye on though and I will change my advice if the situation changes.

As mentioned though, I can help out with things like a Creep Test and Burns Test if needed. If you'd like to know more about those, feel free to ask me.