Faulty traditional meter

Yum! I love the smell of fried meter in the morning! :D

I’m afraid the unit is dead and must be replaced entirely. Please use Live Chat in the morning to report this - it’s WAY faster than email.

You’ll be upgraded to Smart Meters as part of the repair - you won’t be charged for this.

Either way, the Certification on it has Expired so it needs to be replaced anyway.

Hi @zedzedhoney , do you have a ‘start’ reading?

If you are on a single rate tariff then the figures showing with 1 top left should be the reading to take - although I have seen some take the Total reading.

The red flash does show energy consumption. 

Normally the flashing part has a steady reading on it (we’ve been here 9 months and given several readings) it’s usually says something lije 9875.33 or whatever

Sounds like it is faulty then. Those meters are not used anymore so it needs replacing 

Great! That’s exactly what we don’t need. We live on a wee island served by broken ferries so nothing will happen fast! I’m not sure I want a smart meter, sounds like there are tons of problems with them especially with old houses and intermittent mobile/wifi. We also have a second meter that is on a cheaper tarif for our hot water and heating (which is oil as there’s no gas on the island) and that is working fine…we need that cheaper tariff or we will freeze! 
 

Very worried now 😩

To be clear, I LOVE technology, I’m just aware that we live in a very low tech place where simple things do better and there are frequent power cuts/storms and it’s very much like the 1970s generally…so finding qualified people or getting engineers over is very lengthy and complicated so hi-spec cars/smart home devices can be a bit tricky when they go wrong and there’s nobody who knows how to fix them locally! 😫

You can only get meter repair done by your energy supplier anyway, so you can't rely on local engineers. It's illegal for anyone else to touch it.

Even without Smart features, it will still function like a regular one.

Ok great, so due to remote/inaccessible location I’d guess from reading local chatter that they have a deal with a meter installation company on island who do installs for all the energy suppliers, a bit like in Peppa Pig these will be the exact same people who do the engineer jobs and probably also the internet/BT and also the butcher as it’s a small population and sending people over would result in a wee holiday for them! But I guess I’ll find this out on Monday when I call OVO.

My other worry is we currently have a separate second meter for heating/hot water charges that’s on a cheaper tariff (due to no gas on island for heating/water) and I’m unclear if we can retain both a smart meter AND the separate one? 
 

Thanks for replies

Ermmm bit confused you won't have a meter for oil! Doesn't matter if you have a smart meter that doesn't work "smart" if will just work in the same way as your current meter (before it broke) did you will need to send in manual meter readings

No we have a seperate meter for cheap electricity to run the system that heats our house and water…it’s oil-fired central heating so we have a massive heating oil tank that is filled once a year…but it takes electric to run the system, kinda like a combi boiler but with a water tank and oil not gas, and we get a cheaper rate for that since without it we’d perish I guess! 😁

Thanks so much, yes this is exactly what we wondered…what happens when an old meter gets to 9999?? Was hoping the 0018 was just it going back to the beginning…but then it’s also flashing 0000.0.0 too so I’m not sure. I’ll attach a picture of the extremely complicated cupboard of doom we have inherited! The house was once a public building with a big kitchen at one point so it has some heavy-duty looking things in the levy cupboard, as well as the oddness of oil-fired things back ups, plus a second back up electric immersion heater (which some idiot left on and cost us £600 the first month we moved in till we realised!)

You don't need cheap rate electric to run an oil boiler (we have one) it's no different at all to a gas boiler it uses minimal electric and that's just for the pumps to pump hot water around your system whether it's a combi or a system boiler using a cylinder makes no difference so I'm still a bit confused. You really don't need a cheap tarrif just for that, the only thing you generally have a dedicated cheap tarrif, such as economy would be for night storage heating. In fact if you have a dual tarrif you will be paying more for your day rate and that will wipe out any gains you get from your off peak rate, so maybe look at that

Massive cupboard of complicated doom! Including from left to right: the cheap tarif hesting/water  meter, the flashing meter, Frankenstein’s lever, a separate meter to keep track of the guest cottage usage, the big hot water tank (heated by oil) out of shot a back up boiler thing and an extremely expensive electric immersion heater. It makes my head hurt trying to work out what does what…and sometimes during storms when we all lose power for several days as the guys try to get round all the downed lines reconnecting us all one by one it’s a challenge to remember what button does what!

Hmmm I really don’t know then, this is just what the previous owners said ‘For God’s sake don’t get rid of this meter as it is the cheap rate one for the hot water and heating if you get it all on one it costs a fortune!’ 

Why would we be charged more for our standard rate just because we pay less for one particular appliance? I’m not aware that the cheaper tarif is a night/off peak rate, but it is attached only to the heating/hot water system, so all our other electric usage is on one meter, but the boiler is on a cheaper and separate meter regardless of the time we use it.
 

I’m scared to mess with any of it in case we end up paying more somehow or having to do a big rewire when a smart meter gets put in as we don’t have any spare cash for that…it currently all works perfectly (or did till the flashing) and the electrician had no issues or safety concerns when adding in some new fused sockets for appliances etc. 😟

Go and take a look at your bill(s) and do the maths. Workout how much electric you use at each rate and what each rates price per unit is, the standard rate is around 28p/kwh

I’m afraid you MUST replace the current meters soon anyway. You have an RTS Meter which will break within the next 12 months as the RTS Service that powers it is shutting down. Given the setup you have, both meters will have to be replaced together - it won’t be possible to replace just one and not the other.

Unless you want your heating/hot water to break, you will have to migrate to Smart Meters. OVO will able to set it up so that a single Smart Meter will replace both existing meters and maintain the same tariff rates. Given the wiring setup, that’s the easiest option - the tariff could always be changed later.

Assuming you don’t have THTC, this should be possible to do now - but it must be done by an engineer assigned by OVO as basically no-one else will know how to do it.

Just googled THTC this sounds like what we do have doesn’t it? A seperate meter just for the heating/water?

Amazing! I love your picturesque descriptors! And you’ve got loads of lovely room in the cupboard of doom!

There’s some serious kit there, it actually looks extremely tidy and well organised to me, and, to my untutored eye at any rate, it still seems very serviceable, if respectably aged! BUT instead of just two or three RCDs protecting your breakers (always a nuisance and hazardous if one faulty circuit trips an RCD supplying several circuits, and it makes monthly testing awkward), I guess eventually you’ll opt to have each individual circuit MCB protected by its own RCD (or each circuit with its own RCBO?). And modern type A, B, or F RCDs are specifically recommended for nearly all circuits (inverters, EVs, LED lighting, washing machines etc.)…I couldn’t make out whether your existing RCDs are the older type AC?). A friendly local electrician won’t charge very much to have a look and advise you, also on earthing etc. but I’m guessing as it’s an ex-public building the wiring and switchgear etc. is probably robust and safe. Wouldn’t cost much for an opinion, though…if you haven’t already done so.
 

I especially like Frankenstein's lever!  Eaton MEM switchgear, great make, those bigger jobbies cost the thick end of a grand.

Perhaps the dual tariff is some kind of legacy from the building’s public past?  Good luck with chatting to the OVO customer services folk tomorrow, I’ve always found them extremely helpful…all the best, please do let us know what eventually transpires for you on your lovely rather wild-sounding island! Were I a gambling man I’d be guessing Hebrides?

EDIT. Ah, OK, I hadn’t seen “…it currently all works perfectly (or did till the flashing) and the electrician had no issues or safety concerns when adding in some new fused sockets for appliances etc….”.  Reassuring stuff…good luck.

I need to see a closer image of all the meters to be able to identify if that’s what you’re on. Please ensure the photos clearly show the entire front of the meter and all text on it.

Quote snipped so my response isn’t 1000 miles long. :)

That would be my guess as well, but it’s also possible the island in question is a Load Managed Area which requires THTC - only the DNO would know for sure so I’d suggest checking with them.

https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/electric-heating/other-two-meter-tariffs

we don’t have electric storage heaters, but we are thinking of putting some into the attached rental cottage as it’s currently not heated, so this would mean they need attached to the same meter as the water/oil fired hesting? Thanks 

Yes I was thinking some legacy from a commercial set up, which probably isn't suitable for domestic usage paterns

Storage Heaters aren’t the golden bullet that they once were - use caution as there may be better options. We’ve got members here who can help with that advice better than I can.

But yes, they would definitely have to be on the off-peak rate. You don’t want them on peak! Trust me on that one!!!

Hot water/heating, normal electric, Franken-Lever

No idea, but includes: oil fired boiler, water tank, back up long arm tick thing, back up electric immersion (never turn on or it costs £600!) We currently use wet radiators fired by oil, the cottage has no heating but we thought we might install clay core rads or storage heaters…which by the sound of it I should get wired into the THTC meter…except that is going to break in a year because of stopping something or other or is that just the main/broken meter? 
so confused! Thanks for all your advice guys.