[Morphaniel]

Hi,

6 Months ago (in winter!) I had our clockwork meter upgraded to a smart meter by Eon only to discover that the meter didn't energise our storage heater circuits during the first off peak session after the installation. Clearly unacceptable (since we had no heating) this led to an emergency call out to fit a non smart meter, an official complaint, several compensation payments and a long saga with customer complaints handling that concluded with the fitting of a second - new - smart meter yesterday.

I am assuming the new smart meter is SMETS2 - it is certainly a 2024 model as it has an updated battery powered IHD. In any case, after the fitting it is again not energising the secondary circuit for our storage heaters.

Despite the dodgy summer we are months away from needing our storage heaters (our water is fine, it is on a timer on the main circuit). So I am happy to wait and see whether Eon updates the meter remotely to set it up correctly over the next few days - on this occasion the installer showed me a message on his ipad to the effect that there was some additional back office work to do before the meter was fully operational.

My question really is - is this normal and can I actually rely on Eon to get my storage heating circuit working in the next few days? On my original installation customer services knew nothing about remotely configuring smart meters (and precious little about Economy 7 or Economy 10 metering and timing - despite my prompting them based on my own experience...

[retrotecchie]

@Morphaniel

Any chance you could post a photograph of the meter, including the big wires going to and from it, or at least provide the Make and Model numbers?

Firstly, we need to check they have actually fitted the correct physical meter (5 terminal rather than 4) and a photo will help with that.

If the meter is a four terminal meter, all bets are off. If it IS a five terminal meter, then it should be a simple configuration command.

If you can take a photo or two, and include any additional connector blocks or auxiliary wiring around the meter, that may help to identify the problem. If the 'clockwork' removed was a 'ratechanger' rather than a separate timeswitch, then the chances are that the Economy 7 wiring may not have been correctly configured. A picture is worth a thousand words.

[Morphaniel]

Good morning! Apologies for not replying sooner - I was away yesterday...

Just to be clear, our original 'clockwork' meter was replaced by a smart meter earlier this year and this smart meter was replaced immediately, as an emergency, by a digital non-smart meter to get our heating running again. This non smart meter has remained in place for several months and is pictured here (sideways...)


As you can see, this meter was hard coded with Economy 10 timings. We were (and have remained) on Economy 7 billing and obviously we wish to continue to remain Economy 7. This meter has now been replaced with the smart meter pictured below (sideways):



As you can see, the meter has 5 terminals, all connected (as did the digital non smart meter).

What I cannot understand, if the problem is simply remote configuration, is why Eon appear to be completely unaware that this is required? Nothing in our interactions with Eon (telephone, email and helpdesk conversations) has warned us or explained that an Economy 7 smart meter installation may take several days to complete and during that time our heating circuit will not be energised. Even the message that the engineer showed me on this occasion did not make that clear, and yet surely it is essential information for Economy 7 customers who rely on a traditional secondary circuit for their storage heating?

Roger

[meldrewreborn]

@Morphaniel

You have a fair point. Is it so unreasonable to expect a meter aligned to your tariff immediately upon installation?

[Morphaniel]

@retrotecchie

I'd appreciate your review - I didn't reply correctly to your post!

[retrotecchie]

@Morphaniel

You have a five terminal meter. All good. It's quite possible that when it was commissioned, the auxiliary relay for the 5th terminal may not have been properly configured.

Is the meter correctly recording two rates (peak and off peak)?

Is there any other isolator/fusebox/consumer unit for the E7 heating? If there is, check that it hasn't been turned off by the meter installer and just not turned on again.

It would be unusual for the 5th terminal to not go live at off peak times, but it's not impossible! I'd put in a call to customer services and explain that the 5th terminal isn't energising correctly and get them to send an engineer to have a look, quick smart.

[Morphaniel]

@retrotecchie

Thanks! According to the IHD the meter is correctly recording two rates (there seems no way of reading the meter other than via the IHD). The secondary circuit wiring goes direct into the secondary consumer unit - and in any case, this wiring layout is the same as was in place with the digital non-smart meter, which worked fine. There is no other isolation in the circuits other than consumer unit ones (which are live :-)).

I shall give it a few days, bearing in mind the installer had a message to that effect and we are in the height of summer 😎

[retrotecchie]

@Morphaniel

Hopefully it will be something as simple as the meter registering correctly on DCCs communications network and then getting a remote configuration to tweak everything via software.

So much for the height of summer - I had to flash up the woodburner last night as it was a bit parky here 🤣