Why have the daily gas & electric combined costs showing on my smart meter gone up?

  • StuB's Avatar
    Level 1
    One day last week my smart meter, for some reason, was showing 0 for my daily electric & gas costs. The following day this seemed to correct itself as it started showing a value for my daily electric & gas costs BUT compared to my previous daily costs they seem to have gone up, WHY? i.e. previously when I came down in the morning my smart meter would be showing a daily cost of around 0.50p whereas now it shows a cost between 0.70p-0.80p. This has been consistent for over a week now.

    My tariff is fixed unto March next year (so my costs should not have changed) and my consumption has not changed, so why is my smart meter showing inflated costs?

    Thanks In advance

    Stuart
  • 7 Replies

  • Best Answer

    Beki's Avatar
    Best Answer
    @StuB Morning! We may need to send an update to your in home display. That being said, in home displays are not an entirely accurate representation of your usage and are there as a guide only. If you're concerned about your usage you can always pop us a message on Facebook/Twitter (or here if you like) and we can look at your usage with you.
    Beki
  • Best Answer

    theunknowntech's Avatar
    Level 78
    Best Answer
    There is another factor to consider actually.

    When your Smart Meters and In-Home Display are first installed, they tend to have default data to begin with, which is sometimes updated with more accurate info right upon the devices joining the Home Area Network, but this sometimes doesn't happen until much later in the commissioning process - which can take up to six to eight weeks for a full commission to complete. Only after that can you generally rely on the rates being correct, but if they aren't... There's a fix for that. A few well crafted SMETS Commands such as Update Tariff Configuration sent by the supplier usually does the trick. The command can be executed manually, but it can also trigger automatically - usually to make sure the actual tariff is downloaded properly. This is my suspicion and I've seen it many times before.

    You may want to check the Smart Meters and IHD to confirm they've all got the right rates. Exactly how you do this can vary, but for an IHD it'll usually be under something like Account in the menu. Smart Meters can vary because of how many possible meters exist, but for an Aclara SGM1300 Series or Aclara SGM1400 Series, it's all under the B Button menus. If the rates appear to be incorrect, you'll need to ask for someone at E.On to send a few SMETS Commands to change them. Only usually takes about five minutes, but sometimes needs 24 hours.
    Just another guy passing by... The unknown tech way...
    Pete is an IHD Tariff Update Robot! 🤖 Anasa is a Giant Enemy Robot Spider 🕷 🤖 Hannah is neither! Need Customer service? click here! Replacement IHD Guide? Here it is!
  • StuB's Avatar
    Level 1
    @bekig Morning! How do I request an update to my home display?

    I understand my home display is a guide only but the figures have been very consistent until last week so was wondering what has changed to cause such a jump in the displayed costs.

    Thanks Stuart
  • Beki's Avatar
    @StuB Pop me your account details if you like and I can send an update.

    Have you done a reset too?

    To reset your IHD please follow the instructions below.
    - Unplug the device from the mains, and switch it off (there is a small on/off button on the device, press and hold this until it is off).
    - Take the device near to your electricity meter, as close as possible.
    - Switch the device back on (hold the on/off button down) the device should come back on and resync.
    Beki

  • Beki's Avatar
    @theunknowntech That's awesome thank you! That's exactly what I would do my end and attempt a tariff update 😊
  • theunknowntech's Avatar
    Level 78
    np. I learned it all from the manuals for the Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID IHDs, the entire 108 page long SMETS2 Aclara User Manual and reading up on the entire list of SMETS Commands that I have on file in my personal archives. It's also the reason I have multiple IHDs paired up to my own meter. Took a lot of convincing to get my supplier to let me have multiple IHDs though. While it's possible to pair up to four at once on S2, most suppliers won't give you more than one at a time. They prove useful for testing stuff...
  • theunknowntech's Avatar
    Level 78
    I would have edited this in, but the spam filter here clearly takes a bit of a dislike towards me. I'm pretty sure it's because I'm way too technical and it can't figure out that my content is actually legitimate.

    But one thing I can also say is that these SMETS Commands also target the meter, rather than the In-Home Display (which synchronises with the meters afterwards and pulls down the config from there). It's the same reason that the IHD only shows the correct time when it's able to communicate with the Comms Hub properly. The Comms Hub is like a network time server for everything else downstream - which includes the meters, IHD and anything else on the HAN. It provides an easier way to get the job done even if the IHD isn't powered up.

    And is secretly one of the hacks that lets me run two Chameleon IHD6 IHDs on my own setup and not brick everything.