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Smart meter not so smart

Electricity, Tariffs, Monitoring & Providers

Last Post by MikeF 3 months ago

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MikeF

(@mikef)

Eminent Member Member

172 kWhs

Joined: 1 year ago

Posts: 13

Topic starter 14/01/2025 7:47 pm

I live in Yorkshire so am in the northern area for meter communication. I have a 3 phase smart meter fitted by EDF 12 months ago. It has never communicated with the smart meter network managed by Arqiva. EDF have sent out 2 engineers and they have admitted that i have no signal. I have a heat pump and would like to get a TOU tariff to run it.

I have 2 questions

Is there anything I can do to get a signal?

And

is there a map showing the masts in the HG postcode area, so that if there is a large gap I can try to get a group of people together to put pressure on the authority’s to try to get it fixed.

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IanMK13

(@ianmk13)

Reputable Member Member

3166 kWhs

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 193

15/01/2025 4:54 pm

@mikef Have you tried searching in these forums? Information about possible options in such situations has been posted here in the past. @transparent is the resident expert in these matters. Perhaps he can post links to his previous posts.

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Transparent

(@transparent)

Illustrious Member Moderator

13536 kWhs

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Posts: 2356

15/01/2025 8:11 pm

The first bit of good news is that you're not near Fylingdales.
The usual Arqiva frequency (412 - 424MHz) can't be used there because it would disrupt national security receivers.

However, you are still in the Northern Territory, where the Communications Hubs have no options for adding an external aerial.

The HG post code area is also too far north for someone to try 'breaking the rules' and attempting a connection to the Central Territory using a Comms Hub which talks to Telefonica.

Arqiva operate a wide range of different data-gathering apparatus, including radio-comms for the emergency services.
I don't believe there is map in the public domain which identifies solely the 400-odd transmitter masts which serve the National Smart Meter Network.

The 'correct' way that this should be handled is for your Supplier, EDF, to escalate the issue to DCC.

They have a master map which shows where sites are identified to have 'no signal'.
If there's a cluster, then their engineering team can negotiate possible solutions with Arqiva.

If that too fails, then there is another solution being developed for the 300,000 properties which are known to be permanently beyond the reach of the Telefonica and Arqiva transmission networks.

There is to be a type of In Home Device (IHD) which interfaces both to the Smart Meter Comms Hub via Zigbee 2.5 (at 2.4GHz) and to your home WiFi.
The new firmware will allow it to operate as a gateway.
That allows DCC to direct SMETS Commands across the internet to such properties, and receive data in return.

How does all that sound?

Save energy... recycle electrons!

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MikeF

(@mikef)

Eminent Member Member

172 kWhs

Joined: 1 year ago

Posts: 13

Topic starter 16/01/2025 5:22 pm

@transparent Thanks for the info, i will try to get EDF to escalate to the DCC, if that doesn't work i will have to wait for the new WiFi system to go live. I will ask EDF if they have a timetable for this.

I may volunteer to test it for them as if i could use a variable tariff i would probable save a reasonable amount

I will keep you updated if i get anything useful

Cheers

👍

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