Green tech & greener living

Hi, I’ve got a Daikin 11kw ASHP for my underfloor heating and radiators upstairs, floor area 130ms 6 rads and 4 towel rads upstairs combined kw outage 7.5kw. I’ve got a 20 litre buffer vessel for my unit. My problem is whenever the temperature drops to 4 or below like yesterday my ASHP is constantly on because of the defrost cycle and can cost me upwards of £30 a day for my electricity. I’ve rang Daikin and explained that this surely can’t be right, I’ve insulated between walls, joists there’s 90mm insulation in all my loft areas I’m on the weather dependent curve to be cost efficient but the defrost cycle is killing me! My electricity bill for January was £500! The only thing Daikin have told me to do is to increase the buffer size of the buffer vessel? I’ve looked up and rule of thumb for buffer vessels is 10 litres to every kw of size of unit? So in theory I should need at least 100 litr buffer vessel not the minimum 20 litres that my installer fitted to gain warranty? Will chang

Brief Background: I live alone in a 2nd (top) floor flat in a newish block of six flats, so relatively low usage.  The electric meter is in a cupboard under the stairs in the communal area entrance, and the gas meter is outside on an exterior wall at ground level.  Point to point distance between them is probably about 15 metres.  The IHD is on the edge of the range to pick up a signal from the meter, and fluctuates with being connected and offline.I had smart meters fitted in June after holding out for years given all the problems I heard about them from other people.  When they were fitted the engineer said he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to change the gas meter due to it’s distance from the electric meter.  However after checking it, he said it was fine and both were replaced.  The electric meter switched on my account fairly quickly, but the gas meter hadn’t changed after a couple of weeks but I was told to allow 6 weeks and it did eventually change.Since the whole

We have a 3 phase supply to our house and would like to have a 3 phase smart meter installed.I saw various discussions on the ovo forum regarding people having 3 phase smart meters installed so I decided to give OVO a call.. I was told on the phone that they do supply 3 phase smart meters and that I could have one. I made the switch from Birtish Gas and now that im a customer I’m being told that OVO do not supply 3 phase smart meters?!Customer support said that an engineer can wire a single phase smart meter... I’d have thought that we have a 3 phase supply for a reason and chucking everything onto a single phase might not be the best idea? Any input would be greatly appreaciated.

Hi. I’ve just acquired a new iphone but my Charge Anytime app won’t recognise my email address and/or password on the new device. I’ve tried countless combinations but nothing works. Has anyone any advice please or encountered a similar problem?Many thanksPaul

Hello,I spend most of the year in Canada but have a holiday property on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I have been paying a standing charge of £29 a month for electricityeven though the house is vacant. I can just about handle that, but recently OVO has been mumbling about raising charges to £92 a month! One problem I have is finding someone to read the meter when I’m away. Someone suggested I get a ‘smart meter’. My questions are:-Would that be a fair, wise and economical choice?-Is there a fee to install a ‘smart meter’? James.   *edited by moderator*  

Does your smart meter have to be plugged in all the time? I turn the display thing off sometimes to plug other things in. Will this affect OVO getting my readings? Thanks

Hi, I have a smart meter that was installed by EDF. The WAN is blinking ever 5 seconds. EDF said that they cannot commission the meter due to signal. They say they cannot inform the DCC as they have not been able to commission.  However I have read that the wan blinking every 5 secs means that the smart meter (electric is communicating) I would be grateful for any insight here. 

I had to submit my meter readings manually after my smart meter decided to just not send them anymore. I was unable to enter the readings online so contacted the web chat advisor. He asked me to take photographs of the meter readings due to them not sounding correct. I then received an updated bill stating I needed to up my DD to £1038 a month from £191 I usually pay. I'm absolutely shocked and definitely can't afford this. My usage is stating that I used over 7000kw of gas in January. My January 16th meter reading was 07935 KW (sent by smart meter), today's reading is 90302kw. I barely put the heating on and my smart meter shows I use around £7 a day on gas and electric (electric is always higher than gas in my house). What do I need to do now? Surely this is an error on my meter? 

For the last year only I have the app for Charge Anytime on my phone. My wife doesn’t have it. Long story to why I have it and a lot of issues relate to setting it up.fast forward to the other week. I was away working and my wife says her car didn’t charge. I checked the Indra app and could see it didn’t charge. Now my wife wants the app!However I’ve tried to set the app up for her ( thought just could put my details in on her phone) but doesn’t work. The app says connected on my app on my iPhone but on her Samsung S23 it says not connected.we have to use an Indra charger as it’s compatible with charge anytime as Our VW e-Golf isn’t a compatible car.Has anyone had experience with Indra chargers. I’m pretty certain I’m using the the correct app as it’s talking to Ovo and I’m getting the credits but Indra reckon I’m using the incorrect app. In a nut shell All we want to do is see the charger connected on two different handsets so we can tell it’s in I

I have solar panels but no battery. I submit regular generation readings for FIT but I have no idea how much of my generated power I actually use.i understand that the smart meter readings on electricity bill are from the actual meter so do not include generated power, but the smart meter shows power actually used.How can I find the figures for actual use (monthly or annual) so I can calculate this? I can only see figures at the instant I’m looking at the meter so it isn’t helpful at present

I got id4 last June & haven't had any problems with charging. I swapped my supplier to ovo to take advantage of charge anytime & since every time I use a public charger I think the app is cancelling the charge. The car is currently plugged in a public charged over 2 hours away from my house & won't charge. When I open the charge anytime app it says charging but it won't start until after 22.00,has anyone had this problem? 

HiI have been on Charge Anytime now since September. I am seeing credits come through on my bill but they are not close to the savings for the month being shown on the Charge Anytime app. I have tried contacting the various helpdesks but have not got a sensible answer yet….See data below… any help gratefully received!  

There is plenty of information regarding heat pump maximum output (and COP) for a variety of ambient and flow temperatures, but where do I find the minimum output?Most state electronic (compressor speed) control, so I assume they can modulate down. But how much?I have downloaded umpteen data sheets for the Vaillant arotherm+ 7kw model , but have been unable to find the information.Anyone know?

Hi everyone, Just recently bought my first electric car. I’m look at having a home charging port installed. I’m currently looking at the Easee One (https://proev.co.uk/easee-one) & The Zappi (https://proev.co.uk/myenergi-zappi). Is there any advantage of using one over the other? The car is a Tesla if that helps. Thank you, Sam

I have moved into a flat and removing storage heaters to fit electric radiators. However the circuit is on economy 7 and sockets dont work daytime. I know I can get an electrician to alter the fuseboard but it runs through the economy 7 meter so would need that removed?

I have a 3-phase 200Amp supply. KVA is 101 and I need to have a CT meter installed. This is for a single house which is using only electricity (no gas). I have EV chargers, heat pumps etc. Can OVO install a CT meter and offer me a domestic tarrif?

If I am compelled to have a new meter can I opt for a dumb meter that is a smart meter with the comms taken out,

I have problem to set up chargeanytime app. Specifically I can't connect to my Mercedes vehicle ID to Kaluza. I tried many times but I failed  , the ID can't be recognised. Could you advise ?Thanks   

Hi, our set up solar panels (had for 10 years and never any issues with old traditional meter -  no actual recorded export as on old style tariff where assumed 50% of generation exported), battery since July 2023 - again no issues with the old meter, but battery and solar panel apps have shown significantly less exported since battery installed as hoped for. We had a smart meter installed 19th January and have been able to see the half hourly readings are being collected by OVO since the day it was installed via our account page on the OVO website so it looks like the meter is communicating with OVO - but it looks like the meter readings are being processed by OVO back to front (likewise on the display in the kitchen).  Our solar panel iPhone app (Enphase) show we have imported approx 96KwH since the meter was installed and exported 1.7 or so (battery means really not exporting any at this time of year).  The meter is showing a -A value of 99KwH and +A value of 1 KwH.

Hi,I had a smart meter installed on Friday and since then my immersion heater has not been heating up overnight. I’m on an economy 7 tarrif and the meter installed is a 5 terminal meter. The meter shows two rates and both meter readings have changed so it appears to be recording energy use on both tarriffs. Nothing has been tripped and I’ve also tried resetting the immersion heater but still no hot water. The boost function still works though. Has anyone had a similar experience/know what a fix might be?Thanks!

Hi there, I’ve been looking at some of the data coming from my EcoDan system. Something you can see here just looking at the tank temp maroon line at the top (chart is last 24 hours of time). At around midnight the HW temp falls to about 40 degrees which triggers the pump to bring it back up to 50. The temp then falls back across late night / early morning. Given I know no one is going to use the HW until 7am, is heating up at midnight a waste? It seems like that intially, but then you have to factor in that the tank temp would still fall further if not reheated at midnight.  Wondering if I could / should stop the HW heating up at midnight? (Of course if I had a nighttime elec tariff this could be a better strategy) 

I need to change the time that my Alcara smart meter switches ON/OFF the Economy 7 output - my new tariff has different times for the of-peak rate.  I have a 5-port meter.I think this is accessed through the engineering menu - what is the passcode for this menu?  Can the times be changed remotely by the energy supplier?

I added £70 to my account on Wednesday, after getting the keys to my new house. We were not officially moved in as such until last night, and my IHd is reading emergency credit? And so is outside, but I cannot fathom how 70 pound worth of electric has been used when nothing was turned on till last night?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 

Not with OVO but I’ve found the forum very helpful previously so posting here if anyone has any ideas. EDF have no idea what I’m talking about… New property (to me) which is being renovated soon. Had SMETS2 meters installed a couple weeks ago, and an isolation switch today - both installs organised by EDF but carried out by their contractor. After the isolation switch was installed and everything reengerised, the reactive kv light is constantly lit on the meter. Installer said “that’s normal” and left. Any idea why this would be? Initially thought due to not having much of a load on the meter, but even when running a heater, the kvarh light stays lit. Image of the thing I’m seeing below: