Green tech & greener living

Hi All, I’m wondering how the experiences have been for people who’ve installed a heat pump to an existing property. What was the buying experience like? What was the install experience like? How has the performance been? And what about running costs of the ASHP vs whatever you had before? Cheers in advance Steve

Hello I am thinking about having a smart meter installed, but I have solar panels. From research online I understand that the smart meter British Gas use are compatible with PVs – which is great. But I would like greater understanding on the interface / the meter reading which will be displayed. So for example: - If I am using £1 of electricity an hour and its at night (no PV electricity being generated) how would that differ on the smart meter reading from using £1 of electricity an hour In the middle of a sunny day where my PVs are generating electricity. Would it display the same cost usage (still £1 per hour) – thus ignoring the energy being generated, or would it display a lesser figure taking into account the amount being generated by my PV? Thanks.

We have tried to have a smart meter installed (by Bulb, our current supplier) but the installation failed because the mobile signal on EE where we live is too weak. We do have reasonable signal on other networks (Vodafone, O2). My first question is, do all companies use the EE network for installation? Assuming we are stuck with the EE network, would a signal booster help to make the installation viable? I am not exactly sure what needs to be boosted - is it 2G, 3G or 4G? We live in Bedfordshire, in a village. So we are not isolated and otherwise have reasonable connectivity!

When I joined OVO I didn’t get the lovely smart colour In Home Display they advertise showing your actual current useage, but a fairly useless Secure Pipit 500 black & white unit that defaults to a meaningless display of the total you’ve ever spent with OVO. With the need to monitor energy usage more closely, can anyone recommend a good In Home Display that I could buy if necessary which shows as a default display the actual live gas and electricity usage? Sadly, I can’t get anywhere with OVO themselves...

Hi everyone, I’m a former SSE customer who was moved to OVO in July and I’ve had nothing but problems with readings and bills since then. My latest problem is that the smart metre readings sent automatically and registered to my account are wildly inaccurate. Today’s registered reading from the smart metre for example was 3664 but the actual reading on my electricity meter is 3466. How is this so out??

We have just had an air source heat pump installed. I am concerned about the insulation and found your forum very helpful. 10m of pipe work from ASHP to house. 13mm insulation. See photos. Would be interested in your opinion. Thank you

I am looking for some advice regarding my elderly father's meter installation. My father had a letter from his supplier advising him that he needed to have a smart meter installed because the radio switching service that controls his off-peak storage radiators is expected to be de-commissioned next March. My father agreed to the installation and I arranged to be present. In the event, the installer declined to fit a smart meter on the grounds that there is an earth leakage trip switch on the supplier side of the meter (installed by the Southern Electricity Board in the 1970s) and it is now policy to install trip switches on the customer side of the meter. He suggested that we either employ an electrician to move/replace the trip switch or manage without the smart meter. He pointed out that the off peak switching is managed by a clock and so is not affected by the radio switching issue. I was surprised that the householder would be responsible for wiring on the supplier side of the meter but when I contacted them they confirmed that this is the case. I indicated that in that case we would probably do without a smart meter but was told that even though the switching is not radio-controlled, the supplier may still disconnect my father's heating next March. I suspect this is a bluff but as my father is in his nineties it is worrying. Has anyone else encountered this situation? I can post a picture of my father's existing meters and wiring if it helps.

Hello, I have recently moved into a new flat and am having issues/confusion with my electric board set up. A new smart meter was installed in 2017 (outside the property) - but i still have many things which i believe are obsolete / not working. Whilst the new smart meter is outside, everything else is housed together inside. I was just wondering if anyone knew exactly what all these were, if they’re still needed and also who is able to come and remove/amend anything out of place? (massive newbie here) Many thanks

We have a heat pump installed but Ovo still charge us the gas standing charge even though we paid them to remove our gas meter and cap the pipes, no one we have spoken to seem to understand that we no longer use gas only electric. It's a real disincentive to having a heat pump, we are trying to be green and do the right thing so this has really upset us as bills are so high as it is. Has anyone experienced similar?

Back at the end of March I spotted that my smart meter swapped from the off peak cheap rate to peak rate just after 8am each morning, but did not disconnect my off-peak circuit until 30 minutes later. Every morning I have been charged the peak rate price for any power taken by my off-peak hot water storage tank to reheat after supplying hot water for my washing, showering, washing dishes, etc. Four months later, and OVO have still not sent the correct instructions to my smart meter. Am I the only person being consistently over-charged this way?

Hi All, I’ve been told by another supplier (pre OVO) that I couldn’t have a smart meter because of the way the houses in my small terrace (4) were set up. I was told that the engineer would need access to all 4 houses at the same time! Has anyone else heard of this. or could someone explain? Cheers Dome

Is there a way of finding out how much electricity I am producing with my solar panels ? Or how much I have been paid so far in FIT Meter readings ?

I would like to upgrade my supply from single to three phase. We are installing solar panels, an ASHP and car chargers and will need the increased supply. I was in the process with SSEN and Bulb, but that was obviously stopped. We then contacted another supplier and they said they would be able to install a three phase meter. We moved to the new supplier, but they have now said they will not complete a meter exchange from single to three phase. Before I move to OVO, please can you confirm that you are able to offer the meter exchange from single to three phase? Many thanks.

Hi there, I just had solar installed over the last few days. It was 14 panels which is 5,460 watts. The inverter is a 5k inverter. I know nothing but queried this, how can the inverter be smaller than the max consumption? They said its normal to under spec the inverter by up to 20% as you never get the max output. When then panels get hot they are less efficient etc. Anyway, when they get up on the roof they say there is actually room for 2 more panels, do I want them? I said yes thats great, but surely now we need a bigger inverter? Now the max output is 6,240W. The inverter is 5k. No they say, you will never get to the max, maybe once or twice a year. So here is the data from today. the very first day. Clearly you can see its bumping up against the max across about 2 hours in the middle of the day. I know its very hot, but I’m told the heat actually makes the panels less efficient?! So my question is is this normal, that I’m creating DC i can’t convert to AC? The 6k inverter is about £60 more expensive. This really seems messed up to me, but I though I would ask here before I push it with the company. Many thanks James

Hi I have an offer on my ovo account for a Tado smart meter for £120 which can be paid up front or in interest free instalments. However, when I go to pay it doesn't give the option for instalments. Has anyone managed to take up this offer and paid in instalments? I have emailed ovo a couple of weeks ago and had no reply. Thanks in advance :) Natasha

Hi Eventually getting round to installing solar panels (various delays from all sides) and we are being asked by installers: - “Is your three-phase smart meter (Aclara SGM1433-B) a ‘Vector Sum Supply Meter”? Does anyone know how we find this out as the Aclara documentation doesn’t seem to confirm one way or the other… Thanks

Firstly. I should point out that I work on the technical side of smart metering so I do know a lot about the system and how it works. I originally had smart meters installed by OVO in April 2021. I live in the CSP North region, so that means Arqiva radio network Comms Hubs (EDMI). The Comms Hub did not have a signal at that point but I believe this is reported and DCC then have to address the coverage issue within 3 months. 3 months later, no improvement, but I left it for a while. About 9 months later, I noticed that the WAN LED was indicating a connection (LF flashing), but no HAN connection to the meters. I then had another visit from OVO who ripped all the existing meters off the wall (new asset provider) and recommissioned the whole lot. The service requests to add the electricity meter did not complete and I am now left in the same situation. The WAN is showing as connected. I know how to join the electricity meter and can probably work out how to join the gas meter. However, I need to get OVO to send the service requests to the Comms Hub to add the two meters and the in-home display. The thought of phoning customer services and trying to explain all this I know is going to end up nowhere. So how can I get someone to issue the service requests while I join all my devices? Or will I have to book another visit where they will try once and if it fails, walk away leaving me in the same position?

We have a 12 panel array which is feeding into our Pylontech US3000 battery. On a good day like today our battery is 90% full the panels are producing 2.97kwh. As our usage is low at this time, 2pm, the energy produced by the panels is being fed into the grid. we are just about to go onto a new tariff paying 44p/kwh A new Pylontech US5000 battery will cost £1400. Is an additional battery worth investing in? Not sure how to work it out. We are currently producing between 1/3 and ½ of our daily usage This obviously goes down considerably in winter months between 1-3kWh depending on the weather.All our hot water at this time of year is coming from the panels via a solar iboost to an immersion heater Summary, half our production on a sunny day is being fed to the grid. What can I do? How many batteries would I need.

I have permission from Network Power to install 9 kWp on my roof and they said to contact OVO to let them know. I cannot find where to contact let alone who to contact, is there anyone who can help on this forum.

Well here is your chance.… Opened by a ChargedEv engineer in front of me (I didn't ask) while i finally have my replacement unit. @Transparent , @Blastoise186 thought you may in partuculat be interested. And yes, he left it opend like this in the rain too...

Hi All, Started with OVO over a year ago moving from e.on. So at the time of that move the tariffs sent to the meter by OVO were incorrect - VAT was added twice as I recall. I tried via customer support to get it fixed but to no avail. I KNOW it does not affect the billing but it does affect the IHD budget/usage display. In the end I forgot about it - it was roughly right. Moving to a new tariff in March (radically different) I hoped the update would fix everything :-) Well the electricity is now correct but Gas hasn’t changed from the incorrect ones of a year ago. I raised this with Customer Service and Joseph emailed me “I understand that your In-Home Display (IHD) is missing some data. We have now sent some information to your smart meters remotely which should reinforce the connection to your IHD. Please allow 24 hours from receiving this email and then turn your IHD off and on again and keep it as close to your electric meter as possible (as your electric meter acts as the communications hub for both meters). If your IHD is still missing information after this process, please let us know as there are other things we can try.” Unfortunately nothing has changed after a couple of days and I have emailed to say so. In passing, the Bright app operated by Hildebrand Technology has got one correct reading for the kWh for electricity but the wrong figure for per day and the incorrect but IHD values for gas! My understanding is that Hildebrand are a DCC Other User and get this data from the meter. Checking on the meter itself I can only access the electricity tariff which is correct. So my questions are….. Is it possible to check on the meter what the gas tariff are? I cannot find them in the menu structure. How can Bright/Hildebrand get a wrong number from the meter? What “buttons” do I need to press with OVO to get the right numbers downloaded to the meter and thus IHD and Bright app? I have responded to Joseph above but have little expectation based on my attempts a year ago. Why does this matter? Because I am getting Solar installed and want to see the correct budget/bill/usage/export on the IHD!

Hi, I’ve recently had some Solar panels fitted and I need to take an export reading for my SEG application. I have a Landis+Gyr E470 SMETS1 with a Trilliant comms hub identicle to this one: I’ve read a couple of guides online and tried to find the Export on this thing with no luck. Going through the menu I get; Time Date Credit Mode Standing Charge Total Act Import Rate 01 Act Import Meter Balance Anyone know what I have to do or is it not possible with this thing?

paid £26 for this ihd6, looks like it can’t be paired, rang my providor who said I needed and installcode, not something it came with. No looking at the ivie bud at another 54£ thinking i’ve paid 26£ on ewaste, are these ihd6 only work if sent by providor?

Hi I have a problem with my electric meter as it is an looped neutral meter I really want a smart meter but the most companies can’t change a looped meter could you maybe help me with this problem

Hi, We purchased our property with solar panels a couple of months ago. The previous owner provided two readings, solar panel tall and solar panel export (meter) readings. I’m not sure where he took those readings from, would it be from the smart meter where i would normally provide my electric meter readings from? Or would it be somewhere else? I also have the below device (see picture), but the reading only shows import and not export. I’ve also contacted OVO asking them to explain what readings i need to provide and by when something i am still waiting for a response on thanks in advance