[Beki]

@retrotecchie @theunknowntech So this is a known issue with the DCC at the moment. Within E.ON Next it is affecting around 400,000 meters for which the DCC will need to bulk fix.

Basically the daily read logs that are coming in to us, are coming in blank 😫 as you can imagine, this doesn't create a meter read, and then doesn't bill the accounts etc etc. We need the smart team to look deeper into the system called the BOL which lets us have a look at all the messages the meters are sending in order to diagnose these issues.

I'm thinking that @Karln's situation is exactly this, as there are no other indicators on the account that have caused red flags. (It's very obvious usually if there is a smart meter error.... Imagine red pen all over your school work...yeah, it's that obvious! 😅)

[Karln]

Well.
I think i have sussed out why my IHD went up in flames and i feel such a fool.

Next to my IHD i have a rock salt lamp which removes moisture from the air.
Now i did not notice that the rock salt moisture catch tray had over flowed a little bit (where the rock salt lamp and my IHD sit its a dark corner).

With it over flowing and with the IHD power lead sitting at the bottom it was sat in about 2mm of water now i did not notice this until i turned the hallway light on 2 days later and spotted the little trail of water.

So it did not self combust due to a fault.

How silly do i feel right now but i thought i would post up to let eon next know.

Karl.😣

[theunknowntech]

Ahh ok. Still, it should have been more resistant to that kind of thing! I wouldn't completely rule out poor design yet.

[Karln]

Just got off the phone with Beki from eon next. (what a lovely person to talk to).
Beki explained to me exactly what is wrong with my IHD not showing my usage and its not an eon next fault its an outside sauce fault which is being worked on but no fix date can be given.
So i am happy now i know what's going on as Beki made it clear as crystal (thank you Beki).

Now that is sorted just got to make my mind up whether to order a ivie or glow ihd?
I am edging towards the glow as it is c.a.d.

Thanks.
Karl.

[Karln]

Originally Posted by theunknowntech

Ahh ok. Still, it should have been more resistant to that kind of thing! I wouldn't completely rule out poor design yet.

I am 99,9% sure that's what caused my IHD to set on fire.

Yes it might be a bad design as the power lead sits flush into the base and forms part of the foot plate where the IHD stands up unlike the ivie IHD where the power lead is half way up the back of the device.

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by Beki_EONNext

@retrotecchie @theunknowntech So this is a known issue with the DCC at the moment. Within E.ON Next it is affecting around 400,000 meters for which the DCC will need to bulk fix.

I wonder how many meters with the other companies are affected? If the issue is happening with all other suppliers, then this indicates that there is something seriously wrong!

[meldrewreborn]

As I keep saying 15 % of smart meters were dumb in government stats to end of Sep 2022. The SMETS1 migration programme is now finished. Detailed stats are not available but I think the bulk of the dumb meters are still down to unmigrated and unmigratable meters.

[meldrewreborn]

I personally doubt that this is due to switching by consumers, more likely the transfer of meters from company bespoke systems to the DCC. Which has been an issue for ages and still unresolved.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

This probably boils down to the BOL, or Business Organisation Layer, which is the 'interface' between each individual energy supplier and the DCC themselves.

Similar to the days of flat bed scanners in the earlier days of home computing. Different manufacturers (Epson, Fuji, Canon, etc.) all had different ideas, different electrical connections (USB, parallel port, SCSI), etc. and different hardware level drivers. All the software companies who made imaging software wanted to work to a single standard so any software package worked with any scanner, regardless of hardware differences. The industry then developed something called TWAIN which was a translation layer, or interface, that allowed any hardware to work with any software.

The energy companies work like the scanner manufacturers. Different internal systems.
The DCC is setting the data standard and transport method which is similar to having a common standard for imaging software.
Each company's BOL is like the TWAIN plug-in which let's one side talk to the other, and like scanners is bespoke for each company.

Back in the 90s when PC imaging was the butter on my bread, scanners never gave me too many problems and neither did the imaging software. TWAIN was almost always the problem. Not implying that the analogy is exact, of course...

And just for gag value, the acronym TWAIN....it stood for 'Thing Without An Interesting Name'. Make of that what you will.

[theunknowntech]

Unfortunately, I don't have contacts at any other suppliers beyond those me and my friends have already notified (which is basically two). Barely any of them have community forums in the first place and tbh it also takes time to earn the trust of community managers and build up that relationship anyway. It's not something I can just burst into any random place and pull out a megaphone over.

However, I'd argue this issue is most likely to affect only suppliers who got hold of IHDL products rather than using Chameleon, Geo or Hildebrand. Those three are far more common than IHDL or any exotic brands that never really took off. As far as I'm aware, the alert has already landed at the only two suppliers known to have used IHDL products. There'd have to be some kind of industry wide alert to reach the rest, which I can't do myself I'm afraid.