MQTT Electric meter readings - British Gas
Hi all,
I came across a post from Jane on one of the Home Assistant forums...
"do you all have L&G electricity meters? From speaking to L&G and Igloo we learnt there is a known bug on this meter which results in extremely low day/week/month consumption values, this is what you are seeing. The values are 1000 times lower than they should be which is why they seem to not appear at all.
L&G have advised that this is fixed in firmware version 38040202 or later - you can check your version in the Bright App (no idea if it is in the MQTT feed). You will need to ask your supplier to have your meter firmware updated; we recommend that you contact the Smart Meter Technical team.
We’ve had a few BG customers get very inaccurate replies from BG Customer Service - and are seeing if we can pursue this on your behalf via the DCC BG Account manager."
I seem to have this exact issue. Has anyone managed to contact British Gas and get their meter firmware updated? I'm sceptical about getting through to someone that will help and not sure I'll have the patience to resolve this :D
How is the firmware updated anyway, is it pushed down or does someone need to come out to my meter? I guess I'm asking if British Gas would eventually update the meter themselves, or if it is something I have to ask for.
One last question, why does the 'combined Glow in home display (IHD)' and Mobile App appear to show the correct data, but the MQTT values are wrong? are they using different data?
thanks
Tim
Comments
I have the same issue, although I'm with Bulb and have yet to hear back from them when I asked about having the firmware updated (last weekend I think).
Regarding the app, it's possible it's just using the difference between the meter reading 'now' and whatever your comparison period is, rather than relying on the cumulative values its tracking incorrectly. I've got mqtt data going into my own database and then into grafana and I've just done my own calculations as well as I obviously can't rely on the meter's values. I could multiple by 1000, sure, but it would end up rounded to the nearest kilowatt and I want more detail than that.
I too have complained about my defective Landis Gyr E470 meter to British Gas which was escalated to the Ombudsman and they ruled in favour of BG on the basis that they had "no access" to the updated firmware (V38.04.02.02).
The Ombudsman stated that BG could "not obtain the firmware" and that was judged to be "all reasonable steps were taken" which I find to be completely absurd. BG provided no evidence they could not obtain the software. If British Gas tried they could easily obtain the firmware from Landis Gyr if there was any desire too.
Needless to say, the decision has been appealed.