Green tech & greener living

Hi folks, I had an OVO engineer round today to install an isolator switch after my meter so that I can get work done on the consumer units safely, no issues with that - all went fine. Upon putting the power back on he said that my meter (a Secure Liberty 100 SMETS1 model) wasn’t ‘talking to OVO’ and suggested that he swap it out for a new one while he was here. At no cost to me so I said fine. Sadly however the new meter (a Aclara SGM SMETS2 model) could not pick up the WAN at all and he was unable to commission it. He said that it might pick it up in the future and someone could come and commission it then, but more likely it will just act as a ‘dumb’ meter until such time as Arqiva improve the radio coverage in my area. As I understand it the old meter would have used GSM networks to communicate rather than the Arqiva radio system which is why it was able to function fine in smart mode and the new one cannot. Can anybody advise on what the likely outcome is here? It is frustrating to have to go back to taking meter readings, but I am more concerned that my account details are correctly updated given that the meter cannot be commissioned and I end up with estimated bills. Any thoughts or experience welcomed. Thanks

Booked a smart meter installation several months ago and an engineer turned up for the appointment. After an initial survey he advised that smart meters could not be fitted in my house because the existing meters were not separated. He then advised that a kit was available to sort this problem but to date I’ve had no follow up. can anyone advise?. Clive

Hi Forum, We were on a vacation from Mar 29th - Apr 9th with only the fridge and boiler turned on. However our energy usage shown for days from 29th - Apr 1 is pretty high. For the remaining days i.e from Apr 2 - Apr 9 the per day usage reported is the same each day and as expected since we were out on vacation. But why would the 29th - Apr 1 usage is not the same and very high compared to the rest of days we were out on vacation.

Looking at having PV system installed panels on east and west roof elevations. Have no room in garage for batteries or the inverter. Can these be attached to the outside walls with a canopy over the top. Concerned about security and if the batteries will be affected by the weather. Anyone had this done? Thank you.

economy 7 water heater running continuously since key overwrite I have a key meter and all electric Dimplex storage heaters and an immersion water heater designed to run on Economy 7. I had an overwrite on my electric key due to another issue. In the last couple of days I have noticed that I can hear the immersion water heater heating at all times of the day. Previously I only heard it heating up during the night on the Ecomony 7 times. I have been told by OVO already that my meter does not use the RTS signal so it’s nothing to do with the signal being switched off. I also noticed a storage heater switched on during the day today for the first time this winter heating up during the afternoon. Im a bit concerned as to why this has suddenly happened and worried that it will start using a lot of electricity. So far it doesn’t seem to have but I’ve only just noticed it. Can someone please advise?

Hey, I have a bog standard single phase meter, which I would like to have switched to a smart meter but I’m being told that “Sorry, we can't install a smart meter yet” on the eligibility website. My neighbours and just about everyone I know seems to have a smart meter so it isn’t a signal issue. There IS an unused Teleswitch + meter for an old heating system that is unused. Ideally I would like that Teleswitch meter removed, then the single phase meter changed to a smart meter but I’m assuming the Teleswitch is what is blocking the upgrade? I have asked support but they also just repeat back that they can’t install one at the moment without giving a reason. Any ideas on how to get this fixed?

I had a Easee charger fitted as recommended by my electrician last year. I am due to take delivery of my Kia EV shortly. I am also a OVO energy customer. Bizarrely I seem unable to take advantage of the anytime + tariff as i have neither a compatible charger or car. How can this be the case? Has it now come to the point where you choose the car and charger based on an available electricity tariff?! Com on OVO get Kia on board ASAP.

my powers been out since yesterday morning, this is the second time this month. I recently installed a smart meter and I think that’s what been causing all this trouble. I set it up for direct debit, but it keeps switching to prepayment mode. I’ve absolutely had it with ovo, there’s no helpline or anything. My whole family is left to start the week with no electricity, no showers or anything. Kindly rectify this or let me know what I can do! TIA

I’ve been with OVO for just under a year and the online booking tool still reports that I’m not eligible to receive a smart meter. I understand we’ve had a pandemic but I can’t fathom out why there continues to be a problem. I live in a new build development in Greater London and there are existing smart meters in the building’s meter cabinet Any advice gratefully received.

I’ve just had a Kaisa MA329b Smart Meter fitted. Has anyone been able to find a user manual for this model? The OVO Engineer said he wasn’t given any information about this meter type, so couldn’t help.

Ovo fitted smart meter yesterday. However it seems the signals are interfering with the combi boiler remote controller signals and now heating does not come on . NB . There is no issue with the gas supply as the cooker is ok and hot water from the combi is also ok.

THE fixed rate 1yr including boiler service essentials plan offers a boiler service. The plan has an £60 excess per claim for an engineer sent out. Is this thr case for the free service - so I would pay £60 for this or is it really free. Thank you

Why is “night rate” electricity much cheaper to have if used with an electric vehicle tariff than a straightforward (Economy 7) storage heating tariff and why is the cheaper tariff only available if you own an EV?

Hi Since having my new meters fitted the IHD loses its connection, sometimes for a month, I think it's faulty, does anyone else have this problem?

Updated on 14/04/25 by Abby_OVO Market Wide Half-Hourly Settlements (MHHS), what is it? ‘Market Wide Half-Hourly Settlements (MHHS) is a nationwide change, backed by OFGEM , to the way energy companies can use customer smart meter data to make buying and selling energy more accurate. Under the new industry model, we’ll be able to buy and sell energy for our customers much more accurately. We’ll move away from estimating what we need and instead, we’ll base our buying on half hourly data, collected from 30 million homes. What are the benefits? Helping to ease pressure on the national grid, preventing power outages To help us meet our Plan Zero commitments Forecasting your usage better, meeting your energy needs better and limiting energy waste Contributing to the national scheme to fight climate change May help to save costs How to view and update your meter sends readings On home screen click the person icon Click 'how often meter reads send' You can select between monthly, daily and half-hourly As well as being able to view your preference online and in app, it’ll also be included in your monthly statement. If we’ve written to you about your consent updating automatically, you’ll get a notice period to update this to daily if you’re eligible. If we don’t hear from you, the change will default to half-hourly. If we’ve got in touch by email your notice period will be 7 days. And 10 days if we got in touch by post. If you miss the notice period or want to change your preference later down the line, you can do this at any time via the online account and app as detailed above, or reach out to the Support Team . Will my data be safe? Yes. All data collected, stored and used will be in full compliance with GDPR. Your data will only be used if we have consent to do so. For more on how we use your data, check out our Privacy Policy . For more information, check out the dedicated MHHS FAQs page.

hi guys hope everyone is ok i have a Dimplex storage heater qm050rf whch i have been using for the past 2 years. i switch it off when it is summer and switch it back on when in winter. it has been working for the past 2 years but now it seems to only blow out cold air. i have never changed any settings and the date and time is right. i am aware that it could take 2 to 3 days to heat up but it has been over a week now. the boost works. things i have tried: factory restore setted the timer to what time i want. tried looking for the thermostat reset button but cannot see it. i am really stuck on this matter. hopefully someone can help many thanks p.s this is a dual installation heater.

So recently decided to use Ovo boiler service, instead of my regular person. They sent someone on 27th Sept who said the boiler was in PERFECT CONDITION! A week later, boiler is showing signs of pressure loss, and unable to fill back up. When I called them I am told I do not have service cover & they can’t do anything. The boiler has been working fine ALL YEAR, till they showed up. Now I have to write to complaints and it will take 14 days to respond. This is just the worst result from using a so called reputable company.

I'm looking to get my meters upgraded to smart meters. I just wanted to double check if there will be a problem. Currently my gas meter is installed at 6ft internally in the garage. The garage is in integral garage within the house. Do I need to contact the gas network to have this lowered before requesting a smart meter installation?

I got a BMW 330e PHEV in February, and have had continuous problems with charging at home from the start. Charging will get under way OK, but be interrupted at frequent random intervals, so that I have to reset charging at the car, when charging will restart, only to fail after 2-50 minutes. The problems occur at any time of day or night. Details: 1 BMW checked the car's charging 2 days ago, and found it free of any fault. The car's charging control system is being triggered to shut off the supply of power by some change in the quality of the power supplied by OVO. 2 interruptions occur whether I supply the power via my Indra Smart Pro charger OR via a 3-pin plug from one of our domestic sockets (using in this case the BMW-supplied Flexible Cable Charger. So apparently the fault is arising upstream of both my domestic outlets and Indra Smart Pro charger and its separate cabling from the meter box. As far as I can understand, this can only be in the meter box itself, or even in our domestic supply to the house. However, this supply has never shown any other such fault, nor limited the use of any of our domestic appliances. 3 charging via a public charger, and at BMW's garage proceeds without any interruption, fault free. 4 My Indra charger was installed by one of Indra's approved supplier/installers 5 I an signed up for OVO’s "Charge Anytime". Credits have been applied as expected to my billing, BUT those only arise from this charging in a highly interrupted manner, as I described. My car's battery is only 12kWh capacity, but I have experienced up to 10 interruptions to each charge session, necessitating reset/restart of charging, so a charge needs many hours overall. I am advised by BMW that they have experience of such failures to charging from other customers including Intelligent Octopus customers. They explain their understanding as being that the interruptions to charging arise from the sourcing of electrical power . They say that I should request a "change of tariff" to fix the problem. I’m a retired engineer, but frankly unable to understand either what can be causing the problem, or what the cause/solution advanced by BMW means. I have written a similar note to the above to OVO Energy, but for my own satisfaction I’m hoping for clarification from the gurus on this superb Forum - hopefully in words even I can understand 😉

Every morning my smart-meter says I’ve used around £0.45P of energy. Have I or does this include the standing charge?

Updated on 18/03/25 by Emmanuelle_OVO: How to read the many versions of an L + G electricity smart meter! Landis + Gyr don’t make things easy when it comes to working out whether your smart meter is SMETS1 or SMETS2. Thankfully our community volunteer has already written a great guide to help you work that one out: Need to take a reading from one of these meters to submit on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS)? - We’ve got you covered! Have 2 square buttons, one directly above the other, like this?: This one’s known as Type 5424 If you’ve got a single rate meter, you may notice that you’re reading is already showing on the default meter screen. Need to see it back-lit? Just tap the ‘A’ button to scroll through the display options until you see ‘R01’ the reading will be shown in the bottom right of the LCD screen. If you’ve got a dual rate version of this meter press and hold down the ‘B’ button for roughly 5 - 10 seconds - then tap the ‘A’ button. This will toggle between the ‘R01’ reading and the ‘R02’ reading as demonstrated in this handy video: If your square buttons are spaced out in diagonally opposite corners like this: And this one’s type 5394 It may look slightly different but the process is the same: Now for a bit more of a mystery and an appeal for some peer-peer knowledge sharing! Got a SMETS 1 version of this meter with a black border around the screen, like this?: Landis + Gyr E470 SMETS 1 We’d love to include this version in the guide but are struggling to work out the method for reading this one manually. Got this meter and managed to work it out? - Comment below and help others who might be at a loss! Brownie points to whoever figures this one out first OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today! Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

What is OVO best tariff for Air Source heating?

It’s 6:45am, and my EV is not charged and has not started charging. I plugged it in yesterday at about 5:30pm. The Charge Anytime app said it was planning my charge to start after 8pm. Then this message changed to ‘planning your next charge’ (ready by 07:00 tomorrow) up until midnight then changed to ‘ready by 07:00 today’ It worked fine the two other times I’ve used overnight charging. The Volvo car app shows the cable has connected but is not charging. The Hypervolt app shows no charging taking place, and that it’s under the control of ‘OVO mode’. Not sure what to do next as all the apps seem to be working and charger is locked into car - help! Any advice appreciated

hi guys the other bedroom has this heater and just wondering if anyone has used one? i was hoping its economical so i wont have to buy another one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335491780879?_skw=stiebel+eltron+cns+100&itmmeta=01J971HFEHHDRDKG2NJ689XAY4&hash=item4e1cde510f:g:L74AAOSwtZtmmO6g&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKll7K9L8cBx%2BAFHTMcq7td35leCUdePSM85cg4yudKkiMw%2BD2dZ5bkJzJgYPpB77KqGXoOQ%2FwlhsB9XS2uc5jHG4Xe71XLxe2TJSNC8e5A60wpFuZLAQNBUSqT76Y4JNtv%2BvRz6zTwadt%2B2%2BUd3pGiu5GtHXUD0t4h9HbQifrpY%2FsIhunwxMrSND2gn1MFHwqt0kR9yEM5Lv%2BBTUMwaRDoHPxxb7d72LpGmDyQS9dFPmqI5hZ5cKXsbUwlzh6YvitcAfxclsbTcgGAGg3YpsHORORhl27Jh3mIIwxerGKmE6g%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR673xeHJZA many thanks guys

Hi, my Hypervolt pro 3 charger was installed today and linked to Charge Anytime but unfortunately the Charge Anytime app only charges on ‘urgent charging’ mode despite having a schedule on the ‘Schedule’ tab. Can someone assist and let me know if they’ve had a similar issue? My car is a BMW fyi. Thanks!