Green tech & greener living

What are the off peak times for Economy 10?

Some Information!  Little did I know that when we had a smart meter fitted (not WAN but HAN 4G we live on Isle of Skye no WAN SIGNAL) that the "in home display" could do so much! After storm Amey we lost power for 15 hours , when restored the smart meter had lost the link and we were asked for a manual reading which we got through the IHD. Whilst going through the menu we came upon the message's part , in it was a message to initialise the smart meter . I did this and within moments it was all working again !  None of this was explained to us , just that there was a menu on the IHD . Now we find that this will be the case every time we have a power loss and restart . Also the book left with the IHD only show what the buttons are and gives no information on the menu or programs!  I think this needs to be addressed! Luckily we are fairly computer literate and in truth the menu is good , but we struggled for a while.

Ovo have informed me that my gas meter needs replacing and that they can only replace it with a smart meter, they have also stated that it will be necessary to change the electric meter at the same time.I am extremely reluctant to have a smart meter, my main concerns being their accuracy and the ability of the energy company to charge higher prices at peak usage.  My fixed tariff is coming to an end soon and I feel that Ovo will use it as a condition of renewing with them. It seems I have very little choice.Also how do they know that my existing meter needs replacing?  

Im building a new house and need to purchase a ASHP, looking mainly at Vailant because of the OVO 15p per KW offer they have for their customers (which I'm one of) In order to receive this offer, do I need to buy the Vailant heat pump from OVO or can I get it from a certified MCS installer and still claim the new tariff? I will also be purchasing the Gateway add-on, is this the only requirements? If not, then maybe I will look at other ASHP rather than just the Vailant range Any help appreciated!

What is the best make of PV panels for the UK?

How do I read rate 1 & 2 on my E470 series 3 smet s2 electric meter as I can only find rate 1

I had a smart meter installed 2 weeks ago and since then my storage heaters and immersion element to heat up the water in a big cylinder tank are not working anymore. Both only run on off peak electricity. I have raised this with OVO, an emergency engineer, a commissioned engineer, came but couldn’t solve the problem. Since then I’m daily on the phone with OVO but nobody is able to help. I’ve raised a complaint, got a call from OVO and was told that my case is being looked into and I would get a call back. Nobody was ringing back. It’s very stressful to call daily, explain the same problem each time and not getting anywhere. I was even told by one operator that it’s my problem and not OVO’s.. It’s absolutely outrageous that an organisation like OVO is not able to rectify the problem. I wonder if someone had similar experience and can give advise how to handle the matter. Thank you

As September statements arrive for those on calendar-monthly billing, I wonder whether we’re all seeing a change in  the MPAN?  Dated 05 September 2025Dated 05 October 2025The old MTC (Meter Timeswitch Code) has been replaced by the much more helpful SSC (Standard Settlement Configuration), which records the peak/offpeak timings for those with multi-rate meters. Most SSCs are decoded in this table.  More changes are on the way: 

I had my electric meter replaced with a smart one today, and the IHD that was given is not the IHD 6 but the older IHD 3. Not only that, it appears to be an inferior version of the IHD 3 with no rechargeable batteries (IHD3-PPMID-AAA). This specific model was not listed on the OVO website. There is a battery compartment for a single AAA battery, however there is an issue where if you unplug it from the wall, and let the device switch to battery power, the buttons become unresponsive and they remain unresponsive when you plug it back in. To get the buttons working again you have to reboot it by unplugging it and taking out the battery. So I decided not to use the battery compartment. Are IHD 3 models still being handed out despite the IHD 6 being the newest model? And why are they handing out this inferior model?

Looking to see if anyone has converted their Indra smart pro from WiFi to Ethernet Mine is on WiFi but it’s not reliable so want to move it to Ethernet getting hold of Indra is difficult and all I have had so far is one response saying any loc electrician can do the work  but I am sure you would need to go into the settings on the installer app to tell the charger to use Ethernet instead of WiFi  so can anyone confirm if this can be done without being a registered Indra installer ? 

Does anyone have any information re economy 10 tariff that was supposed to be available before the end of this year?

Hi,I’ve been advised that I can join this trial.Problem is, this is my first winter using a heat pump so I have no comparable data to see if using this App/Company would make any difference to my costs.Also, I’m not sure I would be comfortable with a very fledging company (2024) taking over control of my heating/water system.With regard to hot water, it seems to function in reverse to what I use at the moment, i.e. my hot water is set to come on at 1pm, their system has the hot water ready at 1pm.  I’m not sure how they know when to start heating the water in order to have it ready by a certain time.Any comments?CBJ 

Hi. I am a bit concerned that, even though I have a smart meter, someone from Morrisons called to read my meter. I thought having a smart meter obviated having someone call to the house. Fortunately my daughter was at my house at the time as, if I had been on my own, it would have made me very uncomfortable.

I had a smart meter installed. Chose economy 7 tariff as have storage heaters and water heated by thermostat on off peak. Since meter installed off peak does not work. Ovo sent an engineer who changed the meter. Still no off peak. Ovo then said they’d fix the problem remotely. They said it was successful but still no off peak. Now they are saying it must be to do with my wiring or configuration and they can’t do anything more. Now what am I supposed to do? No heating or hot water since July 28th.

Hi,We’ve been using the Ovo / Charge Anytime App for the last 6 months and in general it has worked well for the supported car & delivered savings (but less well for our Kia which is in Beta).However there was an App Update this week, and the “Urgent Charge” button has disappeared from the Dashboard page that we used to use when needing an urgent charge during the day.Has anyone else had the same issue, and if so what is the new way to get an urgent charge (other than setting the car to privacy mode..)Also, in the last week we have had issues where the car is not charging to the required level overnight (eg 80% or 100%) even if plugged in for 12 hours…as example last night it only charged from 25% to 54% having been plugged in for 12 hours - has anyone else had the same issues and if so figured out a workaround?Thanks 

Hi, my new Cupra Born arrives tomorrow so I need to get set for home charging.I don't have the charger yet but Cupra offer a deal where they supply it although I don’t actually know what model or when it will happen.I’ve looked at the links to Charge Anytime plans but there’s so much info it’s hard to know where to start.  Since the car is from Volkswagen group it seems there is a special arrangement in place but I don’t really understand it.  Should I be looking at a plan or Pas you go, or are these the same thing?Other people I know with EVs are with Octopus Energy so I haven’t been able to get any friendly help.Please can the forum please help to simplify things for me. Many thanks,  Bruce

Hi guys,  i wonder if anyone could help. The batteries died in my est wireless thermostat for a couple of days a couple weeks ago. Now even tho i put the reauired temp above room temp and there is the little flame on it as the heating is on, it just doesnt turn it on. Anyone has any idea what i could do? I am close to giving up 😀 thank you

Hi, Our smart meter failed over the weekend which resulted in being without gas for nearly 24hrs? Can OVO provide answers to the questions below? 1. Why did the smart meter not proactivly inform me or Ovo that the meter was about to fail ? No warning it just died and left us ( family with 2 children under 5) without gas for heating,Hot water or cooking. Not very SMART ? 2. We thought the battery life of the smart meter was on avergae 10 years? this lasted 3 at best ? engineers that have visited say that on average its 2 -3 years? Why are we being informed its 10 years ? Essentially are we looking at replacements every 3 years? Not very SMART ? 3. Upon discovering we had no gas we tried to contact OVO out of business hours... which is a challenge , number on this site and on the internet are business hours only and it took a lot of searching to actually find an emergency contact. once we did get through we were informed that there was n

Morning allSo I downloaded the new OVO Charge App yesterday following the prompt from the old app.Install and registration worked fine, it pulled through my charging history and my charger details.I plugged in last night and set  the schedule in the new app but this morning no charge had taken place.Checked the pinned thread (which I hadn't seen prior to install) and everything seems correct however I did have to re-login to my charger app this morning (didn't  check yesterday as it serves no purpose now everything is via the OVO apps).I also can't connect to my cars app now, although again it's pretty useless so I don't use it, so that could be unconnected.Questions… - should I delete the old OVO app? - are the 2 apps clashing? Although they are syncing in terms of ready byFYI my charger is an EVEC, car is a 2025 Vauxhall Grandland and phone is a Google Pixel.Will try again later now I'm signed into my charger ap

Hi, I have 2 electric cars and hoping to use Charge Anytime for them,I can see a response from OVO on a similar question 8 months ago where they said a new app update would allow this and was imminent, it seems this has not happened yet.Does anyone have any realistic workaround before I give up and change suppliers, thanks in advance 

Good morning, be gentle first post here and looking for some advice…. i am an OVO Customer of many years. i have an EV car on order and its arriving 1st week of March 2023 looking to fit a home charger. ive been reading up about chargers and seen there is lots of talk about Zappi 2 chargers seem to be the best one in the market currently.  can the forum give advice on the chargers OVO do and can i use a Zappi 2 with the OVO Anytime and Anytime + rates please ? any help on this would be appreciated thanks 

I keep getting emails from OVO tellignme that “Your electricity meter will be affected soon”and to replace my RTS.However, we don’t have an RTS, just an old Venner timeswitch (photo attached), so am I okay to just ignore the email?The timing on the Venner is a bit dodgy, but since we have Economy 7 but don’t tend to use it I’m not really worried about that. 

Has anyone else had trouble with charge anytime limiting charging to the car. I've set my car to charge overnight, with plenty of time to get to 100%, but when I check at 7am it's not fully charged. When I look in my charger log it's only been charging at 3.5kwh and not the full 7kwh, hence it's not fully charged. Is there a fix for this? When first plugged in, it charges at 7kW, but then when it stops and reschedules the charging for the middle of the night, it seems limited (probably by the car) to 3.5kw. If there isn't a fix for this, ita pretty useless, and given the rates are doubling to 14p/kW, it might be time to leave.  I have an Audi Q4. 

So my electric is with OVO who recently just upgraded my smart meter to a SMETS2 meter with a IHD 3. My gas is with British Gas who installed a SMET2 smart gas meter.  I was told by both engineers who installed these meters that I'll be able to see live usage on my in home display with both of these meters. However, my gas usage is not showing up on my in-home display and it's been 3 days since installation.  I spoke to someone from OVO who was determined that two different suppliers can't be showing on one in home display.  I spoke to British gas and they're telling me to wait and the usage will show up on my IHD 3.  Apparently my gas smart meter is communicating with my electric meter because the gas light on the SMETS2 meter flashes and flashes every 5 secs.  Why will my gas usage not show up on my IHD and isit even possible to do so?  Thanks