We had an offer from our energy supplier to install new smart meters at our house. The only real advantage it offers us is that I no longer need to wander outside every month to take the meter readings.
We had arranged a date for a couple of weeks ago, but the work couldn't be done as both meters are outside and it was raining on the day arranged. So, rearranged for this afternoon.
The fitter called earlier in the morning and said he could start immediately if it was convenient. As he was in Eastleigh at the time, "immediately" was about 20 minutes later. When he arrived, he explained fully what needed to be done and the approximate time that it would take and got to work first on the electric meter. While he was at it, he updated all the cabling and tidied up the cable routing. That was easy.
Gas meters are a bit more involved, but it took less than 20 minutes, including the Gas Safe tests and purging the air from the system. Now all he needed to do was commission the system by getting the meters to talk to each other and to the meter network. And this was where the problems started. The meters didn't want to talk to each other. It might have been because the meters were on opposite sides of the house, but he thought this very unlikely, more likely a defective communications module on the gas meter as the electric meter had connected to the network. So, having conferred with the Grid Company, they requested that he install another gas meter.
So out with the meter he'd just installed and in with another from the van stock. Repeat the Gas Safe tests and purge the system.
More communications problems, it seems.
Another phone call and he reports that, with regret, he has been told to remove both new meters and reinstall the old meters. Electric off again for 20 minutes and re-run the Gas Safe tests and purging of the system.
He was a little(?) unimpressed with the people at the Grid. It turns out that their network is weak in this area and that a signal booster is required for Smart meters to work! The people at the Grid control centre are well aware of the problem, but don't think it important to communicate this to the companies that they contract to do the installations. So we are back where we started.
At least the fitter would get an early finish on a Friday with his other three jobs for the day being rescheduled. Well, it turns out not to be that simple as he is the area supervisor and is needed to help another fitter with a problem installation. Quite how he managed to remains smiling all day is a miracle!
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