[onanov]

I had my smart meters installed 3 months ago. They have never communicated with EON who say it is a WAN connectivity issue and not their problem. Both of my immediate neighbours have working smart meters. We are 'up North' so using LRR communication on the Arqiva Network. I am told by EON that they are aware of the problem (4 separate engineer visits) but have no idea when or how it will be solved. VERY frustrating. Anyone had a similar problem?

[retrotecchie]

@onanov

How 'immediate' are your neighbours and what kind of construction is your property? The LRR system is usually pretty reliable, but can have issues and 'notspots', but that's not very common. Lots of folk around the Yorkshire area have issues with interference from Fylingdale.

Also, make sure you are not using any Powerline Ethernet extenders or TV aerial boosters. They will 'jam' LRR signals within your home.

[onanov]

Hi @retrotecchie. Thank you for taking an interest. Our house is semi-detached so one neighbour is attached, our other neighbour (detached) has their meters about 20m away from ours. Our house is stone with fairly thick walls (built c1850) and the meters are in the cellar. I appreciate this all sounds like red flags but the comms unit is next to a window in the cellar and the setup is similar to our 'attached' neighbour (same stone house) whose meters are also in the cellar - but they have no window. We have no powerline ethernet or TV signal boosters. As far as I can see, the LAN side of things is fine (solid green LED on Comms unit) The WAN led normally flashes every 2 secs (I think this means no connection) but sometimes I have seen it flash slower (every 5 secs). I understand that the slow flash means 'trying to connect' though one of the engineers suggested that it is possible to get false connections.

[retrotecchie]

@onanov

My house is also a mid 19th century 'stone and slate' so any signal that gets through is pretty poor at best. I'm in the lower half of the UK but in an area where they have already gone ahead and turned off the 3g networks so most meters round here have gone dumb.

It may just be your neighbour's semi blocking the signal....it would rather depend on how far away the nearest LRR Node was and in what direction, I would guess.

The fix is pretty obvious to me but whether or not a meter engineer has the savvy or not or has access to the right kit.

External antenna, run to the meter with a length of coax. Small helical antenna, about 3" long...fairly unobtrusive...our the edge of the cellar window. Not rocket science. All depends on whether the comms hub has provision for swappable antennas or not. Most have options.

[onanov]

@retrotecchie Seems the EMDI Standard 420 Comms hub has no option for an antenna. However, I have read some interesting posts re passive antennas which look like they might be an option.