Green tech & greener living

I know I’m not the only person with incandescent light bulbs that are now collecting dust in a cupboard. My lights are now all using LED bulbs but I can’t bring myself to throw the old type ones away. What do other people do?

I had solar panels installed by Ovo in August 2024. The Shinephone app was installed on my new Samsung phone. It works but is slow to load and often needs two attempts to get it to work. With over 1m downloads, it is only rated at 2.6. I strongly suspect that it shows a figure for the power generated that is too low.Is there another app that can read the data and, ideally, the data from the smart meter as well in real time? 

The app was working fine for a few months, but today I received a notification that the car was not connected to the app and needed to be reconnected. I tried to reconnect, but I am not receiving an email from Mercedes with the verification code. I have not encountered this issue before. I have checked my Mercedes me login, email, and junk folder. Do you have any other suggestions?

As per the title my IHD idles at the bottom of the green until I switch anything on in my flat even the kettle or toaster (both new) and then it goes to the top of the red. I’m only in a small 2 bed , 1 sitting room/kitchen flat and going through £300 a month in electric since moving in 2mths ago despite being out from 7.45-6 Mon-Fri and even when I’m in don’t have the TV on etc much . I don’t get why using anything is draining my electricity so much . I have underfloor heating but that’s on 2hrs a day as once I saw the bill the first month I adjusted it right down but no difference to my electricity bills 

I have just changed my Porsche Taycan 4SCT MY2023 for a new Taycan MY2025I have deleted the old car and added the new one. Charge Anytime is connected to My Porsche Account and the App can see the car and the SoC but gets stuck finishing the connection. On the Dashboard screen it says connecting to your Porsche with a wiring circle. The Last update time refreshes and has a green dot.I have charged the car but I get no credit.Is there an issue connecting to Gen 2 model year 2025 Taycans? 

Hello! We have recently installed a 12kw Zubadan air heat pump in nov2024. I am not happy with the usage as we used thermostats and it consumed too much - but this is another topic. The issue now is that in january the consumed hot water energy is bigger than the delivered hot water energy: consumed DHW - 186 delivered DHW - 141. How is this possible? I don’t know how the settings are done for hot water, but this not seems physically possible. We have the model with the 200l hydrotank inside.

Hi, 5 days ago my IHD began showing lost connection. It had been working perfectly since install in September. I’ve read on this forum that it could be to do with no mobile reception but we have that and can tell by the WAN red light flashing frequently on the elec meter. (Plus it worked perfectly before). Does the IHD need repairing with the smart meter? Thanks Will

Hi guys,I was wondering if anyone could shed light with my issue. It just started today and only had it installed June 8th. As I was plugging my car to charge instead of your usual indicator, it started flashing purple indicator 5 times. As well as in the web app it is not recognising the device.Please help.  

Hi All,Had a look through the forum and couldn't quite see a thtc query that covered my questions.Obviously I need to move to a smart meter but an OVO engineer came out but then said they couldn't change the meter because I had a thtc setup (even though this was why OVO sent him) he said he'd let them know and they'll be in touch to sort. I haven't had anything other than another email saying they'll be in the area and I need to book an appointment to change the meter.I haven't had any other info on what the plan is but surmise itll be E7 or E10, I even had to go to the ombudsman last year and ended up with a significant amount of compensation and confirmation they couldn't make the change as they had no way to decommision the second mpan and I'd still be charged or my system may not work (maybe this has changed now but that was less than 6 months ago).Anyway, my main question is about hot water as I no longer have the bigger storage heaters, I do

I notice the App has stopped updating my daily usage.  Does this mean that my smart meter has stopped sending data to OVO ?  IHD still works OK

I have done some reading on here and followed advice from other posters but I wanted to check to see if I have things setup right. Goals Be economical, not wasteful Keep temperature in the house at 22-23 degrees C Have hot water in the morning for showers and in the evening for bath for children Heating Setup I have it set to Compensation Curve, at 14 degrees external or below the temp is at 46 degrees for the rads (at least that’s how I understand it works) Thermostats are Heatmister Slimline, they are set at 23 degrees to knock off the rads if it gets too warm This setting is 24/7, I read that its better to keep the house at the same temp all the time. Plus we work from home all the time so don’t want it cooling during the day. Hot Water Setup I had it to warm the 200L tank up to 50 degrees between 2am and 4am, and to come on once the temp dropped 10 degrees b

Hello! I own a Mitsubishi Ecodan / Zubadan ASHP 14kW with a gas boiler attached as backup heat source. It can help in colder periods but it should also switch based on energy price.Mitsubishi also released this document https://hoctorrefrigeration.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ECODAN-Hybrid-Boiler-Application.pdf Which states that it can be achieved but it is not technical. The HP has an Intelligent operation mode where it can select Cost based between electricity and gas based on the price/kW of each energy. I expect as example that at a certain outside temperature,COP=3 and 3kW heating are produced from 1kW electricity1kW electricity costs 0.6. But it produces 3kW heat with a cost of 0.2 /kWheat 1kW produced with gas costs 0.2 =&gt

The garage where our cars are parked is about 4 metres from the house and Distribution Board. There is a standard 13 amp socket in the garage on a spur from the house. The garage is hardly larger than the cars, a golf estate and a polo.  The estate has to go nose in, the polo tail in, so as to be able to exit the cars in the small space between ever-widening car dimensions. We have solar panels on the house, which feed surplus into the grid, and an economy 7 tariff. Is it possible to fit one - and in future 2 - chargers in the garage? How much space is required around the cars to be able to connect to them - or is that a “how long is a piece of string?” question that depends on the specific model? Does the system allow for daytime charging using surplus from the panels, but otherwise only the night-time electricity?

I have twice had an engineer out to fit a Smart meter only to be told  because I'm on Economy 10 it's not possible as Economy 10 has          3 phases and Smart meters only allow for two. Indeed up until about a year ago Ovo's own website stated quite clearly that there was no Smart meter which was compatible with Economy 10 (that section of the OVO website seems to have disappeared). Now I gather from the News Media that after the end of June our Economy 10 meters are not going to work!!!To date I have not received any notification of this.  I and numerous others where I live would like to have a CLEAR explanation of what is going on specifically as regards Economy 10. 

Hi How long do it take for Charge Anytime credits to show up on your account ?

Hi all - long time listener first time caller, This is a Charge Anytime question aimed at any folks from Ovo who frequent the forums. I have a Polestar 2, and a Pod Point Solo 3 charger.Neither of these are currently supported with the new Charge Anytime, so I was wondering if there is an anticipated timeline for additional EVs to be added to the supported car list, or is it a case of Ovo rolling out new EV support whenever it can become available? I appreciate a lot of this is out of Ovo’s hands & they are reliant on what the EV can actually do, but if there is an anticipated timeline for other EVs (if this is even possible) then it would be really helpful. Many thanks!

Can I get a smart meter for my 3 phase home supply and benefit from the overnight EV tariff.It seems like none of the electrical supply companies can offer me or even explain the benefits of having a smart meter connected to a domestic 3 phase supply.I have two electric vehicles so this would make sense. At the moment I have a standard Economy 7  meter connected to a 3 phase supply and I am charged on a split tariff where my overnight electricity is nowhere near 7p per kwh.  

The last step on the OVO charge anytime app tells me to enable the ‘find my car’ functionality for vehicle location. I have been searching for this in the car as far as I can see location is on but there isn’t anything specifically that says ‘find my car’. Can anyone help? 

I had an electrician round this afternoon to discuss fitting a EV charge point and he said that we need an upgraded fuse cut out, the house was built in the 1930s and it's probably the original fuse cut out (the fuse element is just a piece of copper wire!).I need this upgrading to something safer and with at least an 80A fuse.The electrician was also asking what earthing facility is at the property and how the earth is provided in the street.  There doesn’t seem to be a DB earth terminal.Who do I contact?  (I live in Staffordshire, distribution ID 14) Many thanksSteve  

Hi, Just a bit of background, I've been working for a meter operator for 3 months now, primarily assisting in commissioning meters and investigating revenue protection cases. Embarrassingly there's so much I still don't know. And I've noticed your expertise and would really appreciate any simple explanations you might have to offer. Specifically I just want to a clearer understanding of smets in general. What is the DCC? What's a hot shoe? When a new tenant comes in what happens to them with a tampered meter from the previous resident (Revenue Protection). How do comms hub work. Why only 1 smart meter to 1 MPAN? Just a lot of general stuff. I just want to be able to feel like I have a firm foundation so I can confidently advise in metering. Would appreciate any help, thanks in advance

hi there, we have a KAIFA FL100 meter. can anyone tell me what button to press to get the current meter reading, please?

If I have a smart meter installed by OVO , then switch providers and the meter(s) malfunction who do I    contact to repair meter(s)

Most smart meters will soon start sending readings every 30 minutes as standard. If yours doesn't already, it will switch to half-hourly readings in 7 to 10 days.I have never had a smart meter keep an eye on my meter readings, I only have the one in near my electric consumer box that I take meter reading from, do you supply smart meters.

Hi, I’ve just joined OVO and I’m unable to link my Volvo 2024 Recharge to OVO Charge Anytime. I’ve tried several times but the Volvo app just says sorry, your accounts can’t be paired at the moment. I have the Pod Point which isn’t recognised so the smart charging will be via the Volvo app. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, D

Hi I'm with OVO energy for electric and eon for gas. I got told to get smart meters you have to be with same company for both. I don't know why this would need to be.