Green tech & greener living

Afternoon all We have just moved into a new house with a Combi boiler, previously house had a standard boiler & storage tank.Have noticed over the last week or so that the boiler ticks in a lot even when it is off(not manually activated, no timer and the thermostat is set lower than the ccurrent room temp)Having looked at some of the overnight events. I see we are using between 3.5/4kw per hour.does this seem normal? 

My smart meter was fitted on 31/05/2024.  I never had a problem with my electricity before then.My off peak storage heaters were off for the summer.  My immersion heater was still in use. It is on Off Peak tariff & has a Horstman Timer (it comes on between (3 am & 6 am). It is still in use & never been a problem. The immersion heater night rate KW hours are showing on meter readings on my account.In early October, I put on the storage heating.  When the off peak for the storage heaters came on at about 12.10 B.S.T. - It tripped all the lights, appliances, TV etc. in the house.The consumer box could not be reset to turn Lights, appliances etc., until the storage heaters were switched off at the switches in each room.My electrician has tested my electric system fully over days & weeks and still there is a problem.  His belief is there is a problem with the meter either a switch  or wiring in the meter.I keep ge

I’ve “inherited” an Ecodan/Zubodan ASHP, wet undefloor heating+rads downstairs, and rads only upstairs system and have many questions. I’ve been running the system with limited success over the last year and a half but with a newborn and a cold winter about to hit I want to make sure I’ve got everything efficient, cost effective, and working properly. I’ve read most of the threads here but still unclear on exactly what I should be doing for our situation and very conscious a small change could massively change the temperature in the house.Our current set up is:2x zones. Downstairs is 8 UFH loops + 2 rads, and upstairs is 3 rads + a towel rail. Both zones supplied by the same temp from ASHP. Every room downstairs has 1x UFH loop aside from the lounge and the hallway. Those two have 2x loops *and* a radiator with a TRV. Every room is thermostatically controlled. When temp is reached TRV & ufh circuit actuator shuts off for that room. These are

Plugged my Renault Zoe into my home charge point at lunchtime yesterday and left the app to do it’s thing. My app settings are Reached by: 09:00, Charge level: 100%.There were multiple charging ‘sessions’ but when the charge finished and I unplugged at 09:15 this morning both the car and the app reported the car’s battery level at only 96%.I’m sure I’ve used the app to charge to 100% previously. What’s going on and is this likely to happen again?

I have a Ohme charger and a 3 pin that came with the PHEV. I deleted the app as requested, but realise that when charging both, the 3 pin the PHEV won't get the charge anytime as they asked me to remove the connection.Is this the correct thing to have done or should I reinstall the app etc.

I keep getting invitations to get a smart meter and I really don’t want one is there a way to stop these invitations ? How do I make it clear to OVO that I dont want a smart meter ?

We have THTC with consumer units for Storage heaters,fixed appliances & lighting/mains.Will we be able to move to Economy 9 when the new meter is installed ?Will all consumer units be connected by Ovo to the new meter ?Can the power be delivered without being on a timer so we can manually control the heating.Would like some idea of where we from here & whether the future will be more expensive.Thanks 

Smart meter installed in 2022 for both Gas and Electricity - IHD that came with it never worked. Requested a new IHD every few weeks for about 6 months until eventually I gave up. Around end of September/start of October 2024, the smart meter died and an engineer came and installed a new smart meter on the 24th October 2024 and set me up with a new IHD. A day or two later, my electricity live data appeared on my IHD and readings started to be sent daily to OVO. Gas usage has never appeared nor sent any information to OVO. Live chat with OVO and was told it can take up to 21 days to register which would have taken me to Thursday 14th November 2024. Live chat again earlier this week (past the 21 days) where I was told I just had to wait and it will appear. Currently 29 days after install and still no information showing/sending. Very reluctant to believe it’s just going to appear. IHD says “Awaiting data - Please see system status” and when I check system status it says “G

If you are an Ioniq 5 owner and on the charge any time trial… how is it going?

Does anyone know how to find out if OVO is receiving data from my car charger? There used to be a section on the app labelled “ take my ev for a spin” in there you could see what OVO had recorded to date but it has since disappeared. I have asked OVO directly but the person I spoke to did not know and I have also emailed the charge anytime team with the question but have yet to get a reply. I am particularly interested as ( as I have reported elsewhere on the forum) they have not had any data since the 2nd October due to a change of charger. I have reset this up but want to be sure it is working as it’s worth about £100 a month to me.

I have a BMW X1 PHEV and an Octopus/ EO charger.The car will charge fine using the in car schedule, but won't charge using the charge anytime app. It starts to charge, but stops and then fails to restart in the time period.Can you help me to resolve this as I am unable to use the low rate charging

HiIve been using an OHME charger with my Tesla Model 3 for almost 12 months with zero issues. The last two evenings, the car failed to charge. I set it to charge immediately with no issue (other than cost).The Ohme app shows all the planned charging but when it starts the first slot it stops charging.Out of the blue, I received a personalised email saying I had to cancel Anytime from my Anytime App as it could be causing issues. I only had the OVO Energy App and OVO Beyond app so I removed it from my OVO energy app. I have now received an email from OVO basically saying they are sorry to lose me but I can rejoin next month to get the Anytime rate!!Pretty sure I won’t be the only one confused. My OHME app still seems to be talking to Anytime but I’m not sure I will be getting the 7p rate. If the original email was a circular that didn’t apply to me then I’m disappointed .What can I do to ensure I’m still getting Anytime? Any ideas - Ive emailed OVO

Hi All, Wonder if anyone can answer this.I have one Storage Heater in my property which i would like to replace for a standard Ceramic Core Electric Radiator. I understand that it would have to rewired differently via an electrictian and i would need to change my Tariff (Currently on Economy 7 Ovo Tariff) so i assume to Economy 10. My Water is heated at night via Electric immersion heater which i assume ties in with the Economy 7 as it keeps in around midnight i think. I have a smart meter installed aswell in the last couple of yearsSo what is the best way to tackle all of this as i cannot get a straight answer as if i change the Storage Heater to normal Electric heater won’t this affect the water heating because of Tariff change or am i looking at this all wrong.Any advise could be appreciatedThanks 

Hi, I have a gas meter for my flat that was originally installed in the 1970s for the whole house with seven open gas fires. The house was sub-divided into four flats in the 1980s but I ended up with the original house meter for my flat. I would like to install a smart gas meter from OVO Energy but it will not be possible as it is not a drop in replacement. How do I first down grade to a smaller sized standard meter? I have a gas boiler and gas hob in the flat only. The 3 gas fires are now disconnected. Do I need to contact National Grid? Thanks Nick

Why is there an ‘e’ on the dial ? Surely it is more efficient to lower the hot water temperature towards ‘min’ ?What hot water temperatures do the different numbers give ?

Hello My Grant ASHP (Grant Aerona3 10kw R32 Heat Pump) has consumed almost 10kw in the space of 10hrs, from midnight to 10am.  The heating was set to be steady at 17.8 and nothing else was running overnight.  It was cold last night, getting down to aprox 2-3 degrees.Does this sound normal?Thanks so much in advance.

Hi,  we’ve moved back into our home since a complete renovation and our electricity bills are now 1.5+ times higher.  we have a smart meter, but only received our home display a few days ago and so far it’s not connecting to the network, so we can’t see live usage figures.  However, I have noticed some substantial peaks at certain times of day, which is making me think the cause might partially be down to the hot water system.  we have a Worcester Bosch system boiler along with a 250l cylinder, but this is all heated by gas. since we heavily insulated the property during the refurb, our gas usage is about the same or less.  Do the pumps for hot water in ‘system’ heating/hot water arrangements, use a particularly high amount of electricity? has anyone seen this before? thanks  

Hi all, I’ve been looking at the possibility of getting an EV in the future but we have a few issues with how we will be able to charge it. Firstly our house is in a small close set back away from the road with no possibility to get power from the house to the car if it’s parked on the road unless I drape a 50m long cable across all my neighbours’ front gardens.Secondly we have a parking space and a garage which is part of a row of garages for the whole close, but this is again away from the house and there’s no way to get power from the house to the garage without going through other peoples’ homes!My question is would it even be possible to have an EV charger installed on my garage or anywhere I can use it? I’ve thought about maybe solar panels on the garage but with it being on a row would I be able to get permission, and would it even provide enough power for what I need? I’ve searched this issue all over the internet but haven’t found a

Hi I recently moved from THTC 2 meters to Economy 10 with Smart meter . I did this in preparation for the RTS switch off next year.I am a bit worried because I don't know how to tell whether or not my Quantum Storage heater charges up during off peak hours or not? I believe that the meter/circuit board automatically switches on the storage heaters to charge up during off peak hours only? Is that correct? It isn't something which I have to set but rather the meter automatically communicates to switch the storage heater to charge. But how do I check that this has been set up and is working correctly so that I'm only being billed during off peak hours? That's my worry.... what if its wrong and I don't realise?I have the actual storage heaters set to Comfort Home All Day. And my understanding is that this just releases heat from the storage heaters all day long and that I probably don't need to worry about timings etc for that as it is the charging up of the storage heater

This is a question for some technical advice on V2G with the Nissan LEAF. I have been on the V2G scheme now for almost 5 years using firstly a 40kW Leaf and then 2, 62kW LEAFs including my present one. I have the original Indra charger and am exporting 450-500 kW per month to The Grid. I am looking at replacing my present LEAF for the new LEAF…however it’s not expected to be launched till late 2025 or early 2026. The present 62 kW LEAF is no longer in production for new orders. The new LEAF will also be equipped with an onboard inverter capable of V2G but is expected to be fitted with CCS connector (Not yet confirmed). The question is can my present charger be converted via a new CCS connector or adapter (I’ve seen someone in Holland who’s developed a ChaDeMo to CCS connector plug) to work with the new LEAF or will I have to get a completely new charger? I appreciate it’s one of those “Wait and see” questions but just floating the question now…

Has anyone managed to sign up for Free Miles for Future Ev. Not working on my app.

“The Truth about Smart Meters” is on BBC Panorama tonight, and available on iPlayer now.It’s generally very damning of the rollout of the system, saying that there are 36 million Smart Meters and 3.5 million don’t work properly or not at all.I’d like to focus on what they say about an apparent north/south divide. In the North (Scotland and northern England), where a radio network is used to communicate with your supplier, they are saying there are significant issues with communications - with anecdotal stories from Glasgow, Derbyshire and County Durham.Energy UK confirmed there are significant issues but, on the BBC News website, Ofgem claims there is no statistical difference between complaints in the North and South. I wonder who is correct?The case in Glasgow was resolved by fitting a Smart Meter Hub that uses the mobile phone network. Strangely, there was no mention in the whole programme of the potential issue with using the 2G/3G mobile phone networ

Hi everyone,I'm new to OVO and recently moved into a brand-new house, and I'm the first person to live here. My latest bill, starting on the 3rd, shows an increase in energy consumption by 2 kWh compared to the first month. I haven’t changed any of my electricity usage habits, and I don’t care about the 2 kWh increase, but I’d like to know the reason.