I need help as I think my usage is excessive

Yes, that looks like nonsense. Contact Support and ask them please to recalculate your charges based on the readings you’ve given.

A rogue figure seems to have crept in for 4 October; can you see it on your meter readings history page?

Hi, i have these which shows it jump up on the 4th and then returns to normal on the 16th.

Contacted ovo and they have said they will look into it.

Quite clearly looks like theres a mistake but been a couple weeks now and still can't get an answer from them and keep requesting payment 

Thanks. I suggested you look at the meter readings, not the usage pages. Something has prompted the system to start estimating usage, and it’s probably a rogue figure around 4 October. 

If they keep demanding payment, I think the process is to contact the Collections team (0800 0699 9831) to get them to stop while Support are finding out what happened.

Hi sorry, 

Just looked at meter readings and lots seem to be missing 

Hey ​@Rebecca1983,

Welcome to the community! 

As ​@Firedog has said looking at your meter readings really helps us understand what’s happening. It looks like prior to the 31st of October the readings were infrequent and at some point your billing has fallen out of line. It should be an easy fix and our Support Team will raise a billing case for you to have this corrected. 

You can reach them on 0330 303 5063 or at the links below:

Whatsapp - 0330 175 9695

Social links -
https://www.facebook.com/ovoenergy/

https://x.com/ovoenergy?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/ovoenergy/?hl=en

Keep us updated once they’re raised this for you and how things progress. 

Very roughly 1m³ is 11.2 kWh, so the 83 m³ is around 930 kWh. Reasonable.

Working backwards 1474 kWh on the 7th (the lowest of the spurious readings) is around 131 m³ or 5.5 m³/hr. Given that the maximum flow rate of the gas meter is probably 6 m³/hr that is some demand!

I am always dismayed when I see software systems managing to churn out such obviously incorrect data. You would hope that if data was so far different from the norm it would flag somewhere.

I've had a new  combi boiler installed and new central heating system. I used to have oil central heating with an old.combi boiler. My current gas usage is huge last.month alone it was 5300 kw an that 1 month my heating is on roughly 6 hours a day 3 hour in a morning and 3 in an evening with the thermostat set to 16 so it is not.on all the time. I don't know what to do. I do live in an old stone house with minimal insulation but I do have double glazing. Can anyone help ?

Can you mention the make of the boiler, temperatures set for heating and hot water (if you can tell) and any other relevant details.. no of radiators, size of house etc?

Hi the boiler is a ideal heating logic combi esp1 30 we have 10 radiators house is a semi detached stone cottage 2 large bedroom 1 small upstairs and and entrance hall with 2 large rooms either side and a 1 story extension on the back with a kitchen and bathroom. Current timers set for weekends 8am till 10am and 1.30pm till 7pm as we have a 4 year old and week days 6.20am to 8.30 am then 2.30pm to 8pm thermostat is.never put above 17 degs boiler floor temp for heating  is set to 60 and water to 55

One of the things with only having the heating on for a short burst of time is that the fabric of the house is never getting to a level where it helps the overall temperature. Your insulation levels might be the most significant factor here as the amount of heat put in quickly leaks away. 
Unless you need those high temperatures, I might try reducing your boiler heating temp to 55deg and your hot water to 50deg. There should also be a setting to only heat hot water on demand rather than keeping a quantity ready (therefore always heating).

I have to admit that at the levels of gas usage you mention, I would also be checking for leaks

Ok  I'll try knocking the temps down i did try leaving heating on all the time for a few days but it looked like it was costing alot so set it to timed again. I know the insulation is not the best as it's solid stone walls and no real roof space for insulation. I think the hot water is heated as needed as u hear.it fire up when the hot.tap goes on

A couple of other thoughts ..

do you have an idea of the equivalent power the old boiler used during a winter month?

and are you sure the 5300kWh is accurate and not an estimate. 

Not sure about old.system and it's what I've been reading so it does look right. I'm just at a loss atm over £300 a month and still feel cold

Hi ​@James anslow 

Can I ask a couple of questions?

I assume this is a sealed system? Expansion vessel and filling loop rather than header tank in the loft?

Do your radiators get hot (too hot to comfortably touch) within say 10 minutes of the heating turning on?

Can you hear the boiler “turning down” after 15 to 30 minutes?

Do you have a smart meter with half-hourly readings?

Working backwards from your 5300 kWh.

Average power usage = 5300 / 30 (days) / 7.5 (hours) = 23.6 kW. I think your boiler is rated 24 kW, so this suggests that your boiler is running continuously at full rate when it is on.

Yes it's a sealed system as no header tank

 Radiators do get hot when it comes on quite quickly. Takes a while for the boiler to turn off

 When I get the thermostat is reading around 12 degs and takes around 1 hour for it to hit 15 to 16. I don't have a smart meter for.my gas as they are not supplying in my area at the minute when I asked.

Our house heats from 15 to 18°C in around 1 hour, so it looks like the heat output from the radiators is heating the room up at about the right rate. I would expect the boiler to modulate down as soon as the radiators get hot. I think your boiler is rated at 24 kW, but should turn down to about a quarter of that (6 kW) as the flow temperature reaches the boiler set-point (I think you said 55 or 60°C). Initially the boiler is heating up the circulating water, but once it has reached temperature it just needs to keep it hot.

The quick sum I did above suggests that your boiler is running flat-out during the timed on periods. However if that was the case I would expect the radiators to be roasting hot (even as hot as 80°C). That would be the only way the radiators could deliver that amount of power into the house (unless the radiators are oversized).

So I need to check that the boiler is modulating down when it should do (when the flow temperature gets near to the setpoint) and exactly how much gas is being used during the 7.5 hours it is on each day.

If you take a series of daily readings, taken about the same time when the boiler is timed to be off (say around mid-day) then you can start to work out your actual daily usage.

Assuming a metric gas meter:

(To-day’s reading - yesterday’s reading) * 11.2  = Daily gas usage in kWh.

Divide this by the on-time between the two readings (6.20am to 8.30 am = 2.1, 2.30pm to 8pm = 5.5, total 7.6 hrs) will give your average power.

In essence I am trying to determine if this is a boiler fault or a meter reading (estimate) problem, or even something like confusion between a metric and imperial gas meter. A picture of the meter might help here.