Solar#6: 6 Months Post Install

Introduction

I kept putting off writing a 3 month review of our solar system - I want to write an honest appraisal and I had really wanted to be able to paint a 100% glowing picture of a fantastic investment...

...but, like most things, there is good and bad and the data is ambiguous. So, at last, I have bitten the bullet and written this 6 months review:

 

There are a few points that are not covered and I intend to cover in future posts:

• 6 months Return on Investment (ROI): as I write this, Octopus has resolved my smart meter issue and are just finalising my June through September bill. In this post I discuss energy (kWh) and power (kW), but in the end it all boils down to money (£)! A future post.
• Scheduling: GivEnergy are promising a solution to the firmware issue that, in some cases, means that scheduled discharging is not optimal - I do have a summary of this issue below and I will discuss the scheduling topic in more detail in a future post, once, I hope, the issue is resolved.
• Emergency Power Backup: I have not yet paid the extra for this facility to be installed.

 

I don't want this introduction to sound like I am disappointed with the system, so a few, more positive, points:

• It works - the system is robust and the 6 month performance looks to be on track to beat the 12 months figures in the Lovatts proposal
• GivEnergy software is cool and the overall hardware and installation looks neat, well designed and with solid construction.
• The GivEnergy software does allow the system to be scheduled for the Octopus Flux tariff and, so far, I believe it has been broadly optimal over the course of the spring and summer.

 

Lovatts Installation

All functioning well - solar system and roof.

Installation - My View: It Looks Good

Since the installation I have had not really needed any help from Lovatts and I would certainly recommend them to others. Their one shortfall is their limited knowledge of scheduling the GivEnergy system and they have tried to help here, but are limited by the support & documentation provided by GivEnergy.

 

GivEnergy Hardware

Not much to say here - it still looks good and has not skipped a beat.

 

GivEnergy Software - Phone App

This has great monitoring capabilities; this does help in understanding where energy is consumed and how to make savings - see section below "Consumption Visibility Gives Savings".

 

It took me a while to work out that the scheduling features of the phone app are limited; really a sub-set of the cloud app. Since working this out I have not used the phone app for scheduling. To add to the confusion:

 

• My installer had limited knowledge of how to schedule the system
• The GivEnergy helpdesk, while staffed by very nice and helpful people, do not have knowledge of the scheduling features of the system and they were not aware that the scheduling interface of the iOS app is different to the Android app version described in their documentation.
• The phone app documentation is limited: the more obvious features are fully covered, but not scheduling.

 

My view now is that the phone app (iOS and Android) are great as a monitoring tool, but it is best to do the scheduling in the cloud app. This is actually fine if, as I do, you want a set and forget system. It is easy to do a quick check on how the system is running on the phone app, but setting the schedule is a more considered activity, done (I had hoped) just once.

 

GivEnergy Software - Cloud App:

This has similar monitoring features as the phone app and much better scheduling capabilities. The cloud app also has some interesting reporting and data download capabilities that I have only made limited use of. There is no documentation for the cloud app (or none that I could find) and the helpdesk know very little about the scheduling features.

 

Scheduling with the Cloud App: Once I have the GivEnergy firmware bug fix I will report on this in more detail, in a future post. Right now my schedule makes use of the Octopus Flux cheap rate and peak rate periods:

• Timed charge: from 2am to 5am to 100% (Octopus Flux cheap rate)
• Time discharge 2 x 45  mins during the peak rate of 4pm to 7pm. The 2nd discharge finishes at 7pm. Both are set with a 4% minimum battery charge. My aim is to avoid consumption from the grid at peak rate and then to maximise discharge to the grid, without manual intervention.
• Outside of these times I use the ECO mode that works as you would want - ie prioritising home consumption of solar energy, then charging the battery and finally if home consumption is satisfied and, the battery is at 100% charge, it exports to the grid. If the available solar power is not enough for home consumption then the battery is used and, if this is exhausted, then the grid is used. If peak demand in the house exceeds the inverter/battery peak limit (nominally 5kW)  then the grid is used.

So far the battery has not been fully discharged at 7pm, on most evenings, ie we have only had very limited import from the grid at peak times and almost always because we have exceeded the peak capability of the inverter (nominally 5kW). This can happen, eg if the oven, grill and kettle are on at the same time, but actually accounts for very little energy (eg from my Octopus bill for 1st July to 28th Sept peak rate consumption is only 2.0kWh).

 

A bug in the GivEnergy firmware means that if we do not hit the 4pm peak rate window with the battery at 100% charge, and I do not adjust this time based discharge schedule, then we could end up with more peak rate import before 7pm. I think that this is likely to happen now that we are past the Autumn equinox.

 

Performance Numbers:

• Solar energy generation
• The Lovatt's proposals, based on the MCS calculation, states that for a 12 solar panel system we would produce 3,610 kWh each year. I was told to pro-rata this number for the 14 panel system, ie 4,212 kWh each year. After losses of 181 kWh/year (pro rated from the proposal), this gives 4,031 kWh
• For the 6 months from 1st April to the end of Sept the actual generation was 3,362 kWh. From what I can see the Solar generation energy figures given by the GivEnergy app are after losses, so 83% of the full year 4,031kWh in the proposal. It looks like we should exceed the proposal, by a decent margin, unless the winter is really, really gloomy!

 

• Power: The peak power of each solar panel is specified as 400 Watts in the proposal, or 5.6kW for an array of 14.  On 28th June the GivEnergy app showed a peak power generation of 7.257kW. I am a little dubious of this figure as on days with very variable levels of sunlight the peaks were always higher than on days with continuous sunshine. For example, the day with highest energy (36kWh) had a peak power of 5.38kW. I am not sure if this is an artifact of the measurement system of if the system is more efficient when there are only short bursts of high sunlight levels. In any case, given the non-optimal direction of the house, pitch of the roof and location on the globe, even the 5.38kW seems pretty good.

 

• System and Battery losses: I have struggled to make sense of losses - this is what I have worked out from the energy figures provided by the cloud app:
• Grid to home - there are no losses here (& you would not expect any, it does not go via the GivEnergy system).
• Solar: clearly there will be losses in the inverter, but the figures quoted are after losses, so it is not possible to work out (from the energy data) what these losses are.
• Battery in and out: This averaged 11% of the energy input or 1.28kWh per day over the 6 month period. During this time the battery was fully charged on most days, using cheap rate electricity and around 60% was discharged to the grid at peak rate with the remainder discharged to the house. On gloomier/shorter days there were one or more mini-discharge charge cycles. On longer sunnier days then the battery pretty much stayed charged and the house ran off solar/battery from 5am. While there is variability in the daily losses, there was no obvious relationship with the charge/discharge pattern on that day.

 

Solar production Seasonal Observations

Considering the 6 months from 1st April to 20th Sept (the first 6 months period where I have complete monthly data):

• Total production is 3,360 kWh, or on average 20.2kWh per day.
• The month with the highest production was June at 690kWh or, an average of 23kWh
• The month with the lowest production was September at 390kWh or, an average of 13kWh
• The June daily solar production range was 8.82kWh to 36.24kWh
• The September daily solar production range was 1.48kWh to 24.51kWh

It will be interesting to see how solar production fares in the winter months (as I make the final edit of this post, in mid-October, we have just had a miserable truly Lancashire day of  rain and dark grey clouds with only 0.76kWh of solar production for the whole day.

 

The thing that I have been surprised by is the enormous daily variability:

• Over 4:1 best day Vs worst day in the summer
• Over 16:1 around the autumn and spring equinox

Given this variability, then if a tariff requires scheduling to achieve maximum ROI (ie anything other than a flat rate tariff) then I think that the options are:

• Daily manual adjustments depending on expected weather and energy use profile
• A fixed schedule that is robust to a wide range of weather types and usage patterns
• A schedule that automatically adjusts depending on the weather forecast and expected usage patterns.

This topic is something for a future post - suffice it to say that my objective, at present, is the fixed robust schedule, & I think that, other than the bug mentioned above, the GivEnergy system allows this when combined with a tariff like Octopus Flux.

 

Accuracy: GivEnergy Vs Smart Meter Energy Readings

I took grid import and export readings roughly every 2 weeks from the smart meter and the GivEnergy software.  The readings for both import and export were in the range of 0.8% to 2.5% difference, with the smart meter giving slightly higher readings for both import and export. I was pleasantly surprised by how close these figures are and how closely the graphs match over complete days. The biggest deviations that I saw were in a period in September (9th to 20th Sept) where I was running the system to minimise grid import; on days where the import was <1kWh then the error rose above 2.5% - for example

	GivEnergy Cloud app	Octopus App	error (kWh)	error (%age)
11th Sept	0.17	0.30	0.13	43%
18th Sept	0	0.04	0.04	100%
19th Sept	0.29	0.33	0.04	12.1%

I am not sure that there is too much to draw from this other than there is a small error between the two meters that consists of:

• A small gradient error of <2.5%
• A small offset, noticeable at <1kWh/day
  
• A small amount of noise, noticeable at <1kWh/day

The smart electricity meters that I have had have both been labelled as 'class B' and apparently this means within 1% accuracy, according to IEC62053-21/-22 (but I must admit that I have not read this standard).

 

GivEnergy Cloud App May Export	Octopus Phone App May Export

 

GivEnergy Cloud App September Export	Octopus Phone App September Export

 

For both import and export the smart meter has slightly higher readings than the GivEnergy system, so no particular bias in Octopus's favour or mine (Octopus win a little on import, I win a little on export).

 

My view is that, even with these larger %age errors on low readings, the error band is pretty good and not significant in terms of billing.

 

Consumption Visibility Gives Savings

The GivEnergy phone app gives great visibility as to the instantaneous production and consumption in our home. My view is that, in general, I want to live my life without constraints set by energy consumption, but, having said that, if some easy adjustments mean that we save money then I am all for it.

 

Home Screen: instantaneous production and consumption	Power Graph: 3.3kW peak production - not bad for October	Battery Charge Graph

So how has this helped:

• The first quick win was that we saw that the dishwasher uses a little over 2kWh for each run - so we save around 20p each night or £70/year by remembering to run this overnight at cheap rate (it has a built in timer) - and is usually convenient to have clean dishes each morning (of course, this raises another question on whether to run a half full dishwasher over night! - we usually do).
• Anything with a heater is a high consumer - tumble drier, washing machine, iron, oven...
• Peak rate starts at 4pm and we charge the battery overnight at cheap rate. Export before 4pm gives us around 15p per kWh, export after 4pm around 25p per kWh. So if we get to 4pm with a full battery then we can export most of the contents at 25p/kWh. If we get to 4pm with a less than full battery then we might lose some export at 25p/kWh. So, do the washing on a sunny day, in the morning, then it is likely that you still get to 4pm with a full battery, and we have exchanged laundry for exporting at 15p/kWh, but do the washing on a gloomy day and the battery is not fully charged at 4pm and we have exchanged doing the laundry for exporting at 25p/kWh...

...Keep the laundry for sunny days - perhaps saves of 1 to 4 kWh (10p to 40p), or a £few per year.

• Before going on holiday it is possible to drop the background run rate consumption from 200W to 300W, by around 100W, eg by turning off various low consumption devices like the TV, printer, etc at the wall socket. 100W is 2.4kWh per day, so over a week's holiday that is 16.8kWh or around £2.50.

These are just some specific examples of how the visibility to consumption provided by the GivEnergy app is useful; being conscious of instantaneous consumption can be useful but, in my view, is unhealthy as an all consuming lifestyle choice! Spotting the bigger savings is perhaps worth around £100 per year for us.

 

Mature Technology? Where is this Technology on the Market Adoption Curve?

There is a marketing concept for new technology of the adoption curve

The Technology Market Adoption Curve

The concept of the 'chasm' was introduce by Geoffrey Moore in his book "Crossing the Chasm". My summary of the concept is that many technology innovations look like they have made a promising start, but actually it is the early adopters and visionaries who are buying them. Many technology products fail to convince the early majority to buy in - these people are looking for proof from other users whom they know and trust (ie not fancy marketing). There are plenty of people who disagree with this concept for all technology and for specific technologies. For example, for solar energy, does government incentive (eg no VAT) impact on the adoption curve?

 

My view is that the adoption curve is a useful concept, but is not precise and it is often hard to slot each individual buyer into a neat category.

 

Having said that, it is clear that for a technology product to succeed it must be easy to use and be seen be obviously useful if mass adoption is going to happen

 

My experience, after installation and 6 months with this system, is that solar panels, without a battery, are ready for the majority market and, as long as the numbers stack up, and you have a reputable provider, they are probably a reasonable investment.

 

However, add in a battery and the system is, in my view, very firmly in the innovator/early adopter phase. For a battery to reach its potential return on investment (ROI) it requires:

• Scheduling to get the full return on investment
• Flexible electricity tariffs and this needs a working smart meter (see my posts Smart Meter #1: My Journey and Smart Meter #3: My Journey Part #2).

Both scheduling and getting my smart meter to work has taken more time and effort than, I would have thought, the majority of people would want to spend.

 

My take is that I have selected (perhaps more correctly 'stumbled upon') two of the leading suppliers in the field (Octopus and GivEnergy), but it could be that other suppliers have these issues resolved - it would be interesting to get feedback from others on this point.

 

I do think that both of these issues are in the hands of the industry and, perhaps solutions are close at hand, if the players have a desire to resolve the issues. However, until the issues are resolved, my view is that domestic battery systems should only be purchased where the user is prepared for the effort required as an early adopter.

 

Summary:

The system is operating reliably and the software is good, with the exception of the scheduling points above (& more detail in a future post) and the issues with the smart meter (now resolved).

 

I am also coming to the conclusion  that the domestic solar+battery energy industry operates as a 'cottage industry'. It works well for enthusiasts, prepared to invest time and effort and is not really ready for mainstream users...

 

...but it is probably the case that the domestic solar (with no battery) makes life much easier, is a more mature market and is ready for the mainstream.

Smart Meter #4: So, How do you Fix Smart Meters?

Introduction

Am I just lucky? Did my smart meter spring into life due to some alignment with the technology gods on that Friday afternoon in September in a garage in Blackburn? Are there wider lessons to be learnt? 

 

 

Raising the Height of the Communications

Hub was the Solution to Poor WAN Signal

for me in Sept 2024 - the 6th engineer visit from Installation in June 2021

 

0.7% or 10%?

Some Googling gave me two numbers:

• The Data Communications Company (DCC) claim that only 0.7%  of premises (or around 200,000) are not covered by their Wide Area Network (WAN).
• UK Government/BBC say that over 10% or 4 million smart meters do not work (see my post "4 Million Smart Meters Don't Work") because they cannot communicate with the energy providers (via DCC).

 

However, the BBC report is about both gas meters and electricity meters, my focus is really the electricity meter. For these the  Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (Desnez) figures for June 2024 are 1.4million smart electricity meters not working out of 19.5million installed, or 7.1%.

 

But the difference is still over 10x; why?

 

The plot thickened when I read that Ofgem (the industry regulator) says that the DCC is obligated to provide coverage to at least 99.25% of premises in the UK and the DCC subcontractor for the Northern region, Arqiva, claims, in their June 2022 Annual report to have had 99.5% coverage in 2021, for the North of England and Scotland. 

 

What does coverage mean to DCC and Arqiva. I could not find their definition nor any details on where the 200,000 premises that are not covered are located. Does coverage mean something different to 'a signal good enough to make a smart meter work'? Is it that the signal is fine and the installation engineers are just no good at installing the meters?

 

...and then another question occurred to me: the over 10%/1.4 million non-working smart electricity meters reported by Desnez seems to cover only smart meters not operating in smart mode (ie "traditional mode"). Are there other meters like mine that for a period (before raisingthe height of the comms hub) missed readings on some days? How many people has this affected?  Does this issue matter? Will the users of these smart meters be able to use flexible tariffs and be rewarded for their contribution to getting to net zero?

 

Why the 10x difference?

Can both 99.5% coverage of premises in the North and 10% non-smart smart meters both be correct? I found this diagram on the DCC website:

The Smart Meter Eco System is Complicated - this diagram is from https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/

 

To me, it sounds like there are different view points from within this eco system:

• Arqiva and DCC are in the 'it's all on plan' camp - all we need to do is get the last 0.7% working
• The Energy suppliers provided the figures for Desnez and they seem to be in the 'Houston, we have a problem' camp.

 

The responsibilities are perhaps a clue:

• DCC are responsible for the WAN and providing the Communications Hubs that connect smart meters to the WAN (the DCC budget report gives a figure of £138 million to be spent on communications hubs in 2025, rising to over £200million in 2027)
• The energy suppliers are at the 'coal face' having to install individual smart meters and get the comms hub to work.

 

Now, if one individual engineer is struggling to install working smart meters then I might believe that the problem is with that engineer. But if many engineers are struggling, then the issue must be in the bigger picture. My discussions with engineers visiting my home gave me an impression of a highly competent and knowledgeable team, keen to help and get my smart meter to work; however, the equipment and options available to them are limited to replacing a meter and requesting someone at their base to see if they can connect to it over the WAN.  My take is that while in some cases there may just be a need for a stronger signal, it could well be that giving installation engineers more backup and options may resolve many issues:

 

• Comms hub - sensitive for weak signals
• Comms hub - signal transmission strength
• Help with identifying obstructions to the signal
• Comms hub mounting options to avoid obstructions to the signal
  
• An instrument to measure signal strength
• Better information provided to engineers
• A proven and standardised Installation process
• Etc.

 

My take is that installation engineers understand the issues, for example, one engineer who visited me, feels that obstruction to the signal is an issue affecting many homes that he has worked on, eg a house with a non-working smart meter in a cellar Vs next door with a working smart meter above ground. Is the reason for the gap (0.7% Vs 10%) that, while many homes have a good signal outside, the smart meter comms hub is not designed to suit the location of the meter in these houses? Perhaps for 9.3% of homes, while there is good signal in the street outside, the electricity meter is in a location in the house with poor signal?

 

It would be interesting to get DCCs explanation for the gap between the 0.7% and 10% non-working meters. What is wrong with the 9.3% of meters/comms hubs that are in areas covered by DCC and the smart meter does not work?

 

Does Missing Data / Unreliable Coverage Matter?

 

In my case, I had a period of a few months where data for odd days was not reported - I have not seen a number for how many meters are affected by this issue of unreliable data reporting. My sense is that this number is in addition to the 10% of meters working in "traditional mode". Is this a significant number? Is this a significant barrier to receiving the financial incentives for low carbon technology (heat pumps, EVs, solar panels/batteries)...

 

...on the latter question the result for the customer (in my case) was a phone call to Octopus every month so that they could manually request the missing readings. Now, while the people at Octopus are very nice, I would not want this as a long term relationship - I lasted just over 2 months before I got frustrated with the situation. Perhaps I lack patience. I would be intrigued to know what Octopus do if the customer does not request the missing readings? Do they bill on standard (non-flexible) rates or would they, unprompted, make the request for missing readings. My experience is that Octopus bill at standard rates, rather than requesting a manual re-read of missing data, unless they are prompted. Of course it could be that I was unlucky and this is not typical.

 

Energy suppliers and smart meter users with unreliable connections please do comment.

 

If my experience is typical then users with unreliable WAN connections will be on standard rates and miss the return on investment possible with flexible rates. How many premises have unreliable data reporting from their smart meters?

 

Smart Meter Reputation

Martin Lewis points out that the problem is worse than the 10% of non-working meters  - the 'brand' reputation of smart meters is so poor that the 40% of people who do not have a smart meter yet will not want the hassle of getting one.

 

How do we fix this?

During my career as an Engineer I have run into a few cases where systems did not perform as expected by customers. Each situation is different, but there are a couple of common threads in resolving problems:

 

• Transparency - data available to all stakeholders (in this case: users, DCC, Energy suppliers, journalists, politicians...)
• Clarity on who is responsible for each part of the problem and solution.

 

Transparency

Imagine a map of the UK showing the latest smart meter data, published on the internet, available for anyone to read - view the whole country or zoom in to street level.

 

It would help engineers install meters if the map showed signal strength and areas not covered by the DCC WAN. It would help show if this is a straight forward install in an area with good signal or do they need to worry about optimising the comms hub location?

 

Showing WAN radio mast locations might help engineers assess obstructions to the signal; potentially useful when refining hub location.

 

Where smart meter users give permission, then the exact location of their meter could be shown and, perhaps by postcode area for those who wish to be anonymous. With each meter its WAN status and if problems who is responsible for fixing this (eg Octopus, Ovo, DCC...). If I see that all of my neighbours have working smart meters, then perhaps I will say yes to having one installed?

 

Zooming out on the map might give statistics for an area: %age of working smart meters, %age with issues, etc. Easier for everyone in the DCC team to see where they have problems still to solve.

 

As well as practical help for engineers this would also highlight accountability for solution (eg energy provider or network provider)

 

Clarity on Who is Responsible

Ofgem also have a handy guide: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/policy-and-regulatory-programmes/smart-meter-transition-and-data-communications-company-dcc

The smart meter eco system is complicated. Below is my take on who is responsible for some of the key parts of the problem. These organisations all employ talented engineers with in depth knowledge of the problems, but I couldn't resist adding my thoughts (based on limited information)  on what might be  done to help solve the problems:

What responsible Possible solutions (just my thoughts) Installing Smart Meters Energy Suppliers Clear, proven process on what to try if a smart meter WAN does not work. Providing Comms hubs DCC More options available for 'weak signals', eg longer flying leads and weather proof boxes to mount comms hubs high up (like mounting a TV aerial or satellite dish) Published instructions for getting a Comms hub to work DCC? It might help if everyone did the same thing and then the process could be refined as solutions are found. Published mapping of radio masts, signal strength as well as working / non-working smart meters. DCC? Is the problem weak/no signal in the area or an issue with a specific obstruction, between the meter and the radio mast, in a good signal area? This would help inform the solution - a new location for the comms hub or just accept, for now, that the house is one of the 0.7% not yet addressed by DCC. Signal strength meter for each installation engineer DCC? This should help avoid 'trial and error engineering' for comms hub location and should speed up installation if the engineer could measure the signal strength before she/he starts work and, in the event of problems, provide better data to DCC engineers. Collecting data from smart meters DCC If just some data is missing, on an otherwise working smart meter, automatically retry reading the missing data. Flag an issue for a DCC engineer to resolve if the problem persists. Collecting data from DCC Energy Supplier If just some data is missing, on an otherwise working smart meter, automatically retry reading the missing data from DCC. Flag an issue for the energy supplier engineer to resolve if the problem persists.

 

Energy suppliers and DCC - please do comment on your areas of responsibility - have I got this right?

 

Smart Meter Reputation

Word of mouth is key. If a customer ends up waiting in all day on 5 occasions for 5 engineer visits then they will likely say bad things about smart meters...

...on the other hand, if installation is smooth and quick and users see benefits of £100's per year then the remaining 40% will be clamouring to have a smart  meter installed.

 

Additional Costs

A web based reporting tool, comms hubs with longer remote cables, instruments for measuring signal strength, etc will have a cost...

...but, based on my experience, getting a smart meter to  work, with the current (trial and error) approach in an area with less than perfect signal (but still within the 99.7% DCC WAN signal coverage area?) means:

• 6 engineer visits
• 3 comms hubs tried
  
• 2 electric meters tried
  
• 2 gas meters tried
  
• 28 phone calls with the energy supplier
• 43 e-mails with the energy supplier

It sounds like this cost will be multiplied by 1.4million non-working smart meters amongst the current install base.

 

I am guessing that the initial investment in a more intelligent approach to installation would be quickly repaid. I am also guessing that, without a robust and reliable product, the costs will only increase in trying to convince the remaining 40% of the population to convert to smart meters and/or trying to force an installation on an increasingly reluctant public...

 

...and then there is the cost to the planet if we do not accelerate  the adoption of new technology like heat pumps, EVs and solar panels - if these are shown to save money then the adoption will accelerate - robust smart meter communication is part of that.

Smart Meter #3: My Smart Meter Journey Part 2

Introduction

As promised an update on my smart meter; how did Octopus respond to my latest e-mail and follow up phone calls on 2nd and 18th Sept...

...Engineer booked to call on Friday 20th Sept with a flying lead for the comms hub.

 

Engineer Visits with a plan: 2 Things to Try

 

1. Single Band Comms Hub:

He changed the comms hub to a single band unit because he hard heard on the Octopus smart meter installation engineers' grapevine that the single band HAN network hubs were better with weak WAN signals (he actually installed the same model as was installed on my 1st smart meter in June 2021, the EDMI CS010A. This was mounted directly on the electricity meter, as per the June 2021 installation, but this time the KAIFA MA120 meter.

 

Result: commissioning did not work 1st time (his office based colleague could not connect to the comms hub), so he tried the next thing...

2. Flying Lead:

Using the same single band comms hub and electric meter he added the KAIFA FL100 Flying Lead. The location of the hub was selected as the furthest convenient location from the meter as the flying lead length would allow (further left or up was restricted by central heating and gas pipes). This gave about 53cm extra height and was about 13cm to the left (see images below).

 

The same model of comms hub as was installed back in June 2021 (above photo of June 2021 install)...	...but this time with the FL 100 Fly Lead to get more height and a little to the left

 

The two ends of the FL100 mount on the electricity meter and the comms hub. It appears that connections are common between brands as here the KAIFA meter connects to the EDMI comms hub directly an via the FL 100 flying lead (see close up images below).

 

The engineer did not believe that this would work and I must admit that the short lead length giving only a 50cm gain in height did not seem likely to have a significant impact.

 

KAIFA FL 100 flying lead mounted on top of the MA120 electricity meter	Other end of the FL100 Flying Lead mounted under the comms hub

Result: his office based colleague connected to the comms hub straight away, allowing the electricity meter, gas meter and In Home Display (IHD) all to commission 1st time.

 

Discussion

The various hardware configurations and commissioning attempts are summarised below:

 

Event	Comms hub	Electric meter	WAN worked	Notes
June 2021 Engineer Visit	EDMI CS010A Direct mount	EDMI ES-10B	No	No WAN communications - smart meters working in dumb mode
May 2023 Engineer Visit	EDMI CS010A Direct mount	EDMI ES-10B	Yes	WAN communications established a few weeks after the engineer's visit. Electric meter working correctly, gas meter and IHD not communicating.
March 2024 solar system installed	EDMI CS010A Direct mount	EDMI ES-10B	intermittent	After my solar system was installed, Octopus starts to miss readings on around 5%  of days. Manual retry from Octopus would capture missing reading.
June 2024 Engineer Visit	EDMI CS020A-06-32 dual band hub Direct mount	KAIFA MA120	No	No WAN communications - smart meters working in dumb mode
Sept 2024 Engineer Visit	EDMI CS010A Direct mount	KAIFA MA120	No	No WAN communications  after single attempt to establish communications - no extended test.
Sept 2024 Engineer Visit	EDMI CS010A FL 100 Flying Lead mount	KAIFA MA120	Yes	WAN communications established on 1st attempt. Currently showing just over 30days of data with no missing days.

 

There is some danger here of making a generalisation from a limited data set, but here goes:

 

• Signal is weak where my electric meter is located, but smart meters are designed to keep on trying to commission indefinitely (eg KAIFA MA 120 will try every 4 hours) and so the original installation sprung into life after the May 2023 engineer's visit.
• It is likely that the installation of my solar system (inverter and battery) did impact the WAN signal so that after this about 5% of daily readings were missing (but could still be read when Octopus performed a manual retry - see diagram below).
• After installing the comms hub around 50cm higher the best WAN signal was seen:
• Commissioned on 1st attempt
• No missing daily readings (so far)

The comms hub is now about 5cm below the top of the battery and located opposite the gap between the battery and inverter (see photo below)

 

DCC provide communications hubs and also supporting information - the diagram below, from DCC, would indicate that my solar power inverter and battery would not be classified as 'significant metallic obstructions' by DCC. Neither the solar installation engineer nor the smart meter installation engineer highlighted this as an issue. However, the battery &/or inverter do seem to have some impact, causing some missing daily readings. I am assuming that the battery and inverter meet electrical interference standards and so that leaves their earthed metal boxes as a likely cause of the problem.

 

Diagram taken from DCC document Communications Hub Supporting Information v2.0 In the 'North' region (Arqiva network) the comms hub should not be installed with a 'Significant Metallic Obstruction on 3 or more sides' where dimensions of the object are greater than: X: 32cm Y: 18cm D must be more than 18cm   In this case dimensions are: X (battery): 80cm Y (battery + gap + Inverter): 128 cm D: 285cm Ie a significant object on 1 side only and more than 18cm from the comms hub.

Top of battery (left) is about 5cm above the comms hub. Both the Inverter (right) and battery  are earthed metal boxes, mounted on the opposite side of the garage (approx 2.8m wide).

 

My take is that the DCC specification of a 'significant metallic obstruction' is too 'black and white':

• Objects that are more than 18cm away and/or not on 3 or more sides will have a small impact
• In weak signal areas then a small impact may cause failures.

 

There are just under 54 million electricity meters in the UK and DCC report that their network covers all but 0.7% of these, or 380,000 properties. I live in a village within spitting distance of the Greater Manchester border; I struggle to believe that my house is within the 0.7% area of non-coverage (it would be interesting to have DCC comment). So should that mean that a smart meter installation, that meets the DCC installation specification, should always work?

 

Perhaps surprisingly, the additional 50cm height of the comms hub makes a big difference, and this also helped the comms hub 'see past' the inverter and battery to the (unknown to me) location of the Arqiva/DCC antenna...

 

...of course all based on this one install (it would be interesting to hear from others in the 'North' on their experience of the flying lead).

 

Conclusion

The FL 100 Flying lead enables a slightly higher comms hub location that, in this case, makes a significant difference to the signal strength and also somewhat helps the comms hub 'see past' metallic objects.

 

Suggested Future Work:

• Octopus &/or DCC/other installers trial the FL 100 unit at other premises that are thought to have a weak signal - what proportion of the Northern region non-working smart meters start working with this additional, approx 50cm, of height?

 

• DCC specify some longer flying lead lengths. What is the maximum cable length possible? Perhaps a 10m and 15m option could be produced to allow the comms hub to be located in an attic and maybe a weather proof box to mount the comms hub on an outside wall.

 

• DCC publish a map of signal strength. It would e useful to know if a target smart meter location is in the 0.7% of properties that DCC believe are not covered.

 

I believe that the above will save money, by increasing the proportion of smart meters installed first time AND improve customer satisfaction...

 

...I have loads more ideas for stream lining smart meter installation, I feel another post coming on.

 

And Finally:

Many thanks to all the folks at Octopus who helped to get this resolved: Matt, Becky, Pardip, Joe, Lexis, Jordon, Tia, Amie,  Mercy, Arran, Lou, Georgia, Harrison, Jack, Leigh, Daisy, Katie - the journey took over 3 years, but, thanks to your hard work and persistence we made it in the end.

 

Feb 2025 Update:

A neighbour sent me this photo of his smart meter. He had a number of elecricity suppliers and their subcontractors try to get his smart meter comms working. He used this post to convince his supplier (this time Ovo)  to try the FL100 flying lead to get the comms hub working; it did the trick and he is now getting cheap rate electricity to charge his EV.

 

 

Smart Meter #2: "4 Million Smart Meters Don't Work"

Introduction

4 million smart meters are not working in smart mode (BBC).

 

Why this matters

For net zero to work it requires every household to invest in alternatives to fossil fuel consumption. Every year millions of people buy new cars and new heating systems for their home (or a new build home). All these people will make the trade off between investing in something that will use fossil fuels for the next several years or something that will consume electricity (increasingly from renewable sources). Roof top solar is a small contributor to the UK electricity production (solar is around 4%, a third from roof top solar); domestic roof top installs have potential to increase this significantly.

 

Which is the Best Use of Land: Solar Panels and Houses or Solar Panels?

With growing use of EVs and heat pumps electricity demand will rise; shifting demand to off peak periods is one of the paths to minimising new power grid infrastructure, as well as reducing the need to fire up gas power stations to meet peak demand.

 

How do Smart Meters Help?

A working smart meter allows automated 30min energy usage readings and billing; The user can then benefit from the range of flexible tariffs that pass savings on to the user for off peak electricity consumption:

• EV: Flexible tariffs might save £400 per year (based on 10,000 miles from home charging using Octopus Go night rate Vs standard day rate and 4miles/kWh (see Carwow for some example EV energy efficiencies)

 

Octopus Go tariff: low cost electricity at night to charge  an electric car

• Heat Pumps: Flexible Tariffs make the case for heat pumps - for example The Guardian shows the change from operating a heat pump with standard tariffs Vs for example, the Octopus Cosy Tariff is typically around £200 per year and can make the difference between a heat pump being less expensive to run than a gas boiler and more expensive on the standard tariff.  https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/13/are-heat-pumps-more-expensive-to-run-than-gas-boilers).
• Solar with Battery: Flexible tariffs help the domestic battery (and solar) investment case, for example the Octopus Flux rate means that you can buy electricity at cheap rate and sell at peak rate with a difference of around 9p/kWh. So for a 10kWh battery this means around £300 per year.

 

On top of this you can run other high consumption appliances at the cheap rate and add to your savings, eg my dishwasher consumes around 2kWh per wash, a convenient and easy way to save £100/year by programming an overnight run.

 

These investments are filled with uncertainty (how long will an EV last and how much will it cost to insure and repair?) and all are big ticket items for most people. Of course, there is the emotional side to this too, about feeling good on saving the environment and your view of the latest tweet from Elon Musk Vs the very nice cars that his Tesla company builds. The point here is that a working smart meter pushes the calculation significantly in favour of an investment that contributes to net zero.

 

So How Many People do not Have a Smart Meter that can tap in to Flexible Tariffs?

The UK Government states that working smart meter uptake is now at around 55%. So 45% of users are missing out on the chance of the return on investment boost of flexible tariffs. A good chunk of these have the 4 million smart meters that do not work and await a solution from their energy provider. The rest need to be convinced to embark on the smart meter journey.

 

Each person in this set of 45% potential users will need to be prepared to wait in all day for the engineer to visit, perhaps more than once. Perhaps e-mail and telephone their provider, maybe many times...

 

We all know that 'Time is money'; many of the people with money to invest in 'green technology' are time poor and even at minimum wage (£11.44/hour) a saving of £300 is only worth investing 26hours...

...the smart meter install needs to be achieved with minimal effort for the user or the above savings are meaningless. Martin Lewis points out that the smart meter installation record risks brand damage. It is easy to see why: as word of mouth from the users of these 4 million meters spreads no amount of advertising and PR will make an impact...

...the only way to fix the reputation is to fix the 4 million smart meters.

 

The Smart Meter Dream:

If all smart meters worked then the switch from fossil fuels will accelerate as the investment case for millions of people to buy EV's and heat pumps will be that much more attractive. Home owners will see a bigger return on a solar panel and battery investment adding to renewable energy supply and domestic batteries that shift demand from peak periods...

...but we get more:

• Flexible tariffs work by encouraging users to shift demand away from peak periods reducing the need for suppliers to turn to gas generation and flattening demand on the supply grid
• Roof top solar panels do not require fields to switch from food production to solar farms.
• As growing electricity demand is shifted to off peak periods the need for new grid infrastructure and the associated environmental impact, is minimised.

 

My Experience of the Smart Meter Dream:

• Without exception, all the Octopus people whom I spoke with were polite and as helpful as they could be.
• The Octopus team do have some good processes in place - for example each of the people whom I spoke with had access to our history of calls and e-mails.
• The processes and information available to the Octopus team, relating to smart meters, was very patchy and sometimes contradictory:
• Am I on the "North" ("Arqiva") or "South" ("O2") network? (correct answer - "North", I think)
• How long is data held in the meter if the data connection is not working? I still don't have an answer for this that I trust.
• Is there sufficient signal strength in my area?
• Do my neighbours have working smart meters? (knocking on doors was the engineer's solution here)
• Which direction is the radio mast? What might be obstructing the radio signal path?
• What are the options if my meter does not work (external aerials, signal boosters and having DCC increase the signal strength were proposed by various enthusiastic members of the Octopus team, but as far as I am aware none of these options exist in the "North" network).
• While weak signal strength was pointed to as the cause of the issue by all the engineers that visited, none of the engineers had an instrument to measure signal strength nor a specification as to what is required.
• There was no escalation path for difficult installations - after 5 engineer visits the proposal by the Octopus Customer service representative for a 6th visit with no new plan seemed like groundhog day.
• "North" of England (ie Arquiva provided) communications network does not provide good coverage of my home using the equipment and processes available to an Octopus smart meter installation engineer.
• The  network provider, Data Communications Company (DCC), Arquiva, are often pointed to by the Octopus team as the source of problems (eg weak signal), but, while I heard Octopus people say that the issue will be raised with DCC I have never heard anyone at Octopus say that DCC has responded.
• My take, based on this experience: Octopus could operate more efficiently (eg 1 or 2 engineer visits in place of 5), but in the end they do not have the tools to do the job, not the backup from the network providers that they really need.

 

So How Do You Fix Smart Meters?

 

The subject of another post (spoiler alert, I don't have all the answers, yet!...)

 

I will also provide an update on my smart meter journey