Green tech & greener living

I’ve recently received an email stating that my analogue Electricity Meter is out of its Certification Period and needs replacing. I suspect that replacing like for like will not be an option so I may have to have a Smart Meter.I don’t (and won’t) use WiFi. I’m sometimes told mockingly that I am a member of the “Tin Hat Club” – well each to their own.Instead I use AV2 MIMO Homeplugs (made by Solwise/AZTech) to route Ethernet traffic around my flat. Some people disparage this as “legacy” technology but my experience with it over many years has been excellent. It is extremely reliable and the actual achieved transfer rates are good – 350Mbits/second between two PCs some way apart in different rooms (measured using iperf3).I’ve seen several reports that Smart Electricity Meters introduce noise onto the mains which can disrupt AV2 Homeplug working. There’s a post on this forum :-https://forum.ovoenergy.com/the-archive-149/smart-meter-and-powerline-wi-fi-extenders-no-signal-issues-14986in w

By the end of 2033, 2G and 3G mobile networks are due to be switched off by telecommunications providers. As a result, smart meters that communicate via 2G and 3G mobile technology will require the installation of a new 4G compatible communications hub to allow them to continue to operate in smart mode. In most cases, smart meter consumers with these communications hubs will need to agree to a visit from an installer and be present at home at the time of installation. Therefore, consumer engagement will be an important part of ensuring the success of the exchange programme. 

Hi,I have recently had a Vaillant aroTherm Plus heat pump installed, which is eligible for the Heat Pump Plus add on.I have entered all details in the eligibility checker and got a message back saying that OVO will get in touch in the next 5-7 days. It has been more than 3 weeks and I haven't got any correspondence with OVO.I have sent an email to OVO, and also I have been redirected to Heat Pump department but the line just drops after a while.I have exhausted all communication channels to get to some one to no avail.Any recommendations as what to do now? Basically their tariff is the main reason I signed up with OVO but I cannot do a simple thing of adding their tariff.

Hi, I have 2 electric cars and hoping to use Charge Anytime for them,I can see a response from OVO on a similar question 8 months ago where they said a new app update would allow this and was imminent, it seems this has not happened yet.Does anyone have any realistic workaround before I give up and change suppliers, thanks in advance 

Have just noticed that my online account is not updating with readings from my smart meter (since 08/12). This is despite my meter showing the usual flashing green lights and the display on my desk continuing to show the usual usage readingsI completed the online form to report the issue,which came up with the correct serial number but said “Your smart meters are talking to us” and didnt give any other options aside from Contact Us. I tried calling, but in the runup to Christmas I dont have time to sit on hold for 30+ mins at a timeI know you can submit manual meter readings, but I really dont see that as a solution, more of a sticking plaster. Its a bad time for this time to happen as Ive just had to start using my awful night storage heatersAny ideas? Ive had a search on the forums but cannot really see a definitive answer 

Has anyone else had issues where their new smart meters have been installed but not communicating at all, nothing being shown on display? In contact with OVO (4days ago) they confirmed it was a meter issue and would be in contact, still waiting for the call, and means another day staying in for the engineer, get a grip OVO.

I have a Scottish Power IDH with is now 11 years old. Yesterday it stopped working and when it is switched back on it shows the electrical reading and gas reading and then switches itself off.I have an account with OVO for my energy how do I get a replacement IHD and have it programmed to my existing smart meters?Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, not an OVO customer but seems a good forum for advice…Yesterday had my old multi rate electricity meter swapped out for a Landis e470 smart meter. Last night my economy 7 didn't activate to heat up my storage heaters or hot water. I live in a flat and the meter is in the meter room so don't have the smart meter display. With my old meter economy 7 activated at 00:30 until 07:30. Also turned on and off with a clunk from the consumer unit. I did verify with the engineer who installed the meter if economy 7 would work the same as before and he said yes. Is this likely going to be because the meter is new and still needs commissioning? EDF customer support isn't open weekends so just after some advice until I can contact them. Thanks in advance.Old and new meter photos attached  

We've had updated Dimplex storage heaters (Quantum QM100RF etc)  for 2 months now, and there’s one thing that isn't good. The kitchen has a patio door. In fine weather the sun comes through it in the afternoon and heats up the room a lot for an hour or more. We are on Economy 10, with its afternoon charging time coinciding with the most heat from the sun  to this room. The heater’s smartness seems to decide to stop charging it up with heat for later. I suppose it “thinks” that it's warm weather outside so it won't need to output much heat later.  That’s been OK until recently, when on some days it’s been sunny but very cold outside (freezing yesterday). The result is that the Quantum heater runs out of heat early in the evening.  The other rooms are shaded from the sun, and their heaters’ output fully all evening. Is there any way in which I can influence it to input energy more during this afternoon off-peak period?  I cant see any settings that let me. PS   various leafets, instructi

10 weeks ago we had a smart meter installed to replace our anytime and economy7 meters.The engineer who did the install said we’d still have economy7. When we booked the smart meter install we said we wanted economy7 as that’s how we get our heating.I contacted support to see when the economy7 readings would start to show and was informed we’d been put on a single rate. Only we’re still on anytime and economy7 according to the website.The OVO support said they couldn’t make the meter dual rate which was rather disappointing to say the least.The meter is an Aclara.I’m waiting for the back-end processing to finish and then I’ll make a choice.What are our options?Is the Aclara capable of dual rate?Could we approach aother supplier to get our reduced-rate heating again?Can OVO remotely get us to dual-rate once they get their act together?Would we need another, different meter? So many questions, so few answers. As approx 60% of our electricity use was economy7 this is going to cost us a fa

pros and cons of having a smart meter please?

 Boiler new Aug 2022. Ideal Logic+ Combi CThermostat / programmer fitted May 2023. Ideal Halo RF, not wifi connected.August 2025 weather compensation fitted. Ideal OS2. Straight forward to install the sensor and two core cable connected and run into the house for connection to the boiler. Cable run approximately 5m. Terminal on the sensor are not marked and the boiler weather compensation terminals likewise not marked. All connections made as per the Ideal instructions sheet.Boiler switched on and nothing untoward. The instructions state that the house temperature is now controlled using the boiler flow temperature dial. Turn it clockwise to raise the house temp and anticlockwise to lower the house temp. The screen should indicate a range of 5℃ minimum and 30℃ maximum.When I move the dial it performs as it always did and shows a temperature of the water  flow. Minimum 30℃ and maximum set by myself of 64℃. Previously the minimum flow temperature was 40°C.Checked my connections and all O

Hi Had to change to smart meter due to telesignal switch off. Used to have total heating total control. Economy 7 doesnt heat my storage heaters enough. Requested change to single rate and ecaul sent to energised port 5 all the time. Ovo have refused this to send ecaul after changing to single rate. Its cold and don't know what to do next any help would be really appreciated at this time. 

I use the online Portal to monitor my usage and costs each day for both electricity and gas. While there is, often a slight difference between the Day Tab Total and the Month Tab Total, it is not, usually as large as it was for my usage yesterday (23rd November 2025). I wonder if anyone can suggest a possible reason for this disparity? 

Hi guys,First timer here so thank you for letting me join.I have a condensate boiler with an outside pipe for the waste water. For the last two winters either my outside pipe or the condensate trap under the boiler has frozen. I have double lagged the outside pipe and I have lagged the trap as well. I am still worried that if we get a weeks worth of really cold weather ( like the last two winters ) something will freeze and the heating wont work.We are away from home for 3 weeks in January ( if I was home I wouldn’t be so worried ) and want to know if I could do the following in the basement. There are air bricks and small holes around the room.Could I get a small heater and use it with a thermostat plug so that if the temp drops below 3c or 4c the heater would kick in ?? If this is an idea then what size heater would I need. The room is about 10’ x 8’ and about 7’ high. The heater could sit close to the condensate trap and direct any heat onto it.If this isnt a good idea does anyone h

Hi All, I recently purchased a CUPRA Formentor Hybrid. I enrolled in the Charge Anytime. The app worked brilliantly for a week or so and today I noticed something was wrong. I connected my car to change it and the app couldn’t not detect it, simply said car is unplugged and odd thing was it connected with the car last at 5:30 am… it was after 15:00 when I noticed that. I thought I’d remove the car from charge anytime app followed by app removal and re adding it all. All I get now is a screen where my schedule should be that says : Please wait few minutes whilst we finish connecting to your CUPRA. I raised it with them too but they simply responded it’s out of their scope and they can’t see any issues. Has anybody experienced anything like this before? How was it fixed? Thanks

Hi, I have £120 credit on my charging credit wallet. Can I just find a charger on the app and plug in and it uses that credit up? 

Hi all, I've had a search of the forums here and on the internet in general, but I've not found a definitive answer to this. Now the weather is getting colder, I want to have the option to precondition/preheat my car before I depart. However, I don't want the car to use up any charge already in the battery, rather I'd prefer the preconditioning to be using electricity from the grid to ensure the maximum charge I've set gives me exactly that and it doesn't drop any because I'm preconditioning /preheating the car. Important variable - The way my Zappi 2.1 is set up is it's the charger which is integrated with Ovo and NOT the car. The Zappi is showing that it's in 'Managed' (MNGD) mode. Therefore everything charge wise is controlled by and limited by the Ovo app and system. Car is a 2024 Porsche Taycan GTS.  Thus, the scenario would be as follows:- I return home in the evening and set my ‘ready by’ time for 0700 the following morning. The charge is set to 85%. I plug in the charging cable

My Indra charger has been 'offline' for the past few days. Have been unable to get through to Indra. (There were 30 people in the queue when I phoned this morning, which I've never seen before). I've tried switching off at the RCD several times. Im aware there are other threads on this topic. But wanted to specifically know if there are other users experiencing difficulties today. Can't charge at the 7p rate which is frustrating. But can boost charge. Does anyone know if either OVO or Indra are liable for the 7p rate not being available.  Still within 3 year warranty and starting to think I've got a duff charger as this kind of thing is happening far too often. 

Hello,  looking for some advice - done a fair bit of research/reading but still a bit confused by a few things;we moved into a property in April that has a daikin heat pump (fitted in 2018). Obviously efficiency only really become an issue in last few weeks since heating required. Realise it’s a bit of a journey at the beginning to work out what you need from it.  We have 2 zones, UFH in main part of house (1 thermostat) and another thermostat for rads. we have set the thermostats to 18 in day (we don’t love a hot house) and 17 overnight. there seems to be conflicting advice as to whether you should set room thermostats or have it on constantly and just dictate room temp by trial and error with flow temp or am I missing something?Also everyone says you shouldn’t turn it on and off but when the fan is not running does that mean it is off as surely it has to cycle and the fan will stop when it gets the room to temp and then when the room temp drops eg 0.5 degrees it will kick in again? D

Trying to complete the EV charger survey but cannot switch on the camera and microphone for the walk around video on an iPad. Any help appreciated. Thanks in advance

I’ve heard that energy suppliers can remotely control smart meters in order to even cut off the energy supply to a certain property. It made me wonder if they can remotely override the meter reading by adding extra units on top of the actual usage regularly. If they have remote control access to it, when/if a customer complains regarding an abnormal increase, they can even remotely adjust it so that the meter would not be seen as faulty during any inspection. Is there a guarantee or a way to validate that this would never happen to smart meter users? 

I recently had a GivEnergy 9.5 battery installed to work with my solar panels. I am having difficulty getting the battery to charge manually via the app or online. I contacted GivEnergy and have been advised that there is an API ? in place with OVO and this may be stopping me setting a charge time to make use of my off peak periods (economy 10 with smart meter) I set it to charge manually for eg. 1 hour and it stops charging after about 10 mins 🤷‍♂️ Can anyone offer any advice please ?I should add that OVO are not charging my battery at any time and I’ve had it now for two months. The only time it charges is when the sun shines ! which in the Highlands isn’t often at this time of year !

Here goes I have a single tariff smart meter . I need take out my coal central heating due to health reason.I need a meter that can accommodate economy 7 or similar (2 rates) as I couldn't afford to run on a single tarrif And ideas would be helpful thanks 

I'm moving into a new home. Got the keys but not physically moving for a week. On the tenancy pack, the letting agents have provided readings.I've created an OVO account. A smart meter display was already plugged in so readings are already being sent. Checked my new account. No gas reading yet but the electricity is way off from what was in the tenancy pack. I've never had smart meter before, so I'm wandering when this was installed does it start at '0' so will differ from the main meter? I was trying to lower the stress and get things sorted before the physical move but this has just added to it. I can't remember the exact figure but tenancy pack was roughly 33000 and my OVO accounts showing a reading of 20600.