Not Very Smart Meter

  • AlanStorey's Avatar
    My Gas meter has been playing up for a long time now the home display says GAS SUPPLY DISCONNECTED, I was very happy with NPower but the takeover by EOn is well just bad what do I do?
  • 28 Replies

  • Best Answer

    theunknowntech's Avatar
    Level 80
    Best Answer
    This sounds to me as if the gas meter has lost the connection with the Communications Hub and stopped sending heartbeats completely. I've known quite a few SMETS1 gas meters completely shred their batteries way faster than the 15 year life span - and in some cases completely draining the battery in just three or four years. If the battery was getting low, it should have been sending a "dying breath" warning to alert the supplier that a Meter Exchange might be needed due to low battery.

    It's also possible that the gas meter might still be undergoing a firmware update right now - these can take longer for gas meters than for electricity meters, because the firmware update has to be delivered slowly and in small chunks with each 30 minute heartbeat. I can try to figure out some possible checks you can do, but I'd need to know what make and model your meters and In-Home Display are. Photos of them would be ideal if you're able to do that.

    In the meantime, try to wake up your gas meter by pressing at least one of the buttons for two or three seconds so that the display lights up. This can sometimes force it to attempt to send a heartbeat immediately. If the display fails to light up at all after multiple attempts, it's possible that it's faulty. Keep your IHD turned on and close to the electricity meter while you do this and then check it again after about 30 minutes, just in case.

    The reason for this is because I'm curious to see if the gas meter is even talking to the Comms Hub over the ZigBee HAN at all, since if it doesn't, that could explain the issue. Even if the meters aren't talking to a supplier via the WAN, they should at least still be talking to each other since the connection between them is a sort of local network.
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  • BethS_EONNext's Avatar
    Staff
    Hi Alan, thanks for your post :)

    Is there any chance you can pop me a private message with your account number or address so I can look into this with you and make sure all has gone to plan? I'll be back with you as quickly as I can.

    Hopefully we'll speak soon!

    Beth :)
  • Beki's Avatar
    @AlanStorey - Can you pop me your account details in a private message and I will be able to have a look into this with you?
    Beki
  • AlanStorey's Avatar
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    Thanks for the help these meters got installed in November 2019 so only about 18 months old. As you can see the meter is advancing now but the ihd still shows gas supply disconnected, the IHD has changed over night to say i used 6. something but converting the cu mtr to kwh i used about 3 when i go into the account info the unit and std charge rates are ok but it says my bill so far this period is £99999 billing period unavailable, waiting for supplier details and waiting for cin.
    Thanks for any help
  • AlanStorey's Avatar
    This sounds to me as if the gas meter has lost the connection with the Communications Hub and stopped sending heartbeats completely. I've known quite a few SMETS1 gas meters completely shred their batteries way faster than the 15 year life span - and in some cases completely draining the battery in just three or four years. If the battery was getting low, it should have been sending a "dying breath" warning to alert the supplier that a Meter Exchange might be needed due to low battery.

    It's also possible that the gas meter might still be undergoing a firmware update right now - these can take longer for gas meters than for electricity meters, because the firmware update has to be delivered slowly and in small chunks with each 30 minute heartbeat. I can try to figure out some possible checks you can do, but I'd need to know what make and model your meters and In-Home Display are. Photos of them would be ideal if you're able to do that.

    In the meantime, try to wake up your gas meter by pressing at least one of the buttons for two or three seconds so that the display lights up. This can sometimes force it to attempt to send a heartbeat immediately. If the display fails to light up at all after multiple attempts, it's possible that it's faulty. Keep your IHD turned on and close to the electricity meter while you do this and then check it again after about 30 minutes, just in case.

    The reason for this is because I'm curious to see if the gas meter is even talking to the Comms Hub over the ZigBee HAN at all, since if it doesn't, that could explain the issue. Even if the meters aren't talking to a supplier via the WAN, they should at least still be talking to each other since the connection between them is a sort of local network.
    Attachment 123Attachment 124 meters installed November 2019
  • AlanStorey's Avatar
    This sounds to me as if the gas meter has lost the connection with the Communications Hub and stopped sending heartbeats completely. I've known quite a few SMETS1 gas meters completely shred their batteries way faster than the 15 year life span - and in some cases completely draining the battery in just three or four years. If the battery was getting low, it should have been sending a "dying breath" warning to alert the supplier that a Meter Exchange might be needed due to low battery.

    It's also possible that the gas meter might still be undergoing a firmware update right now - these can take longer for gas meters than for electricity meters, because the firmware update has to be delivered slowly and in small chunks with each 30 minute heartbeat. I can try to figure out some possible checks you can do, but I'd need to know what make and model your meters and In-Home Display are. Photos of them would be ideal if you're able to do that.

    In the meantime, try to wake up your gas meter by pressing at least one of the buttons for two or three seconds so that the display lights up. This can sometimes force it to attempt to send a heartbeat immediately. If the display fails to light up at all after multiple attempts, it's possible that it's faulty. Keep your IHD turned on and close to the electricity meter while you do this and then check it again after about 30 minutes, just in case.

    The reason for this is because I'm curious to see if the gas meter is even talking to the Comms Hub over the ZigBee HAN at all, since if it doesn't, that could explain the issue. Even if the meters aren't talking to a supplier via the WAN, they should at least still be talking to each other since the connection between them is a sort of local network.
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  • theunknowntech's Avatar
    Level 80
    Thanks. I've been able to identify your meters and IHD as being:

    IHD: Chameleon IHD3-CAD-PPMID (SMETS2 variant)
    Electric Meter: L+G E470 (SMETS2 variant)
    Gas Meter: L+G G470 (SMETS2 variant)
    Comms Hub: WNC SKU1 Cellular

    I know all of these well, so I know a way to check the health (I have a huge dislike towards L+G though). If you look at the Communications Hub above the electric meter, you should see five LEDs. Of these, the ones for SW, WAN, HAN and GAS should pulse together once every five seconds. Please could you tell me if this is the case. In particular, if the GAS LED is flashing separately at a different time to the others, such as every one second, every three seconds or completely off. I can use this to get an idea if the gas meter is talking at all.

    I can then try to advise on what you can do.