Moving from THTC to another tariff- Will all consumer units be connected by Ovo to the new meter ?

Thank you that has cleared it up.

Got onto Ovo today to try & get them to Reconfigure ECAUL/ALCS.

On hold now for over an hour & so far nobody seems to know anything about the above Reconfiguring.

Is there a specific number I should call ?

The advisors don’t seem to know there’s a problem for many people.

They have apparently reset the tariff which may sort the meter but we have to wait 24 hours to see.

Meanwhile no heating since 8am & looking hopefully tonight to get a random burst 🤬

Live Chat via https://ovoenergy.com/help is faster for this. Use the keyword Agent to bypass the bot when it asks what you’re looking for.

Long story short, it’s just a SMETS Command they need to run.

So it appears now that having had a new meter on the eco9 tarrif , I am getting Eco9 on the main house circuit but Eco7 on the storage heating 🤷🏼‍♂️

At least we have overnight heat, which is all we use anyway , until I can get someone to reset it.

Not all bad news.

Thanks for all advice on this forum,hopefully I won’t need anymore 👍

I’m afraid this doesn’t make much sense. It always helps us to figure out what’s going on if we have a couple of clear photos of the meter itself (so we can read its display and see all its markings) and of the whole meter enclosure (cupboard or box or just a backboard on the wall) so we can see what connections are going to it and coming from it.

There are a few things that should match, but sadly they don’t always with new installations:

1. The first piece in the puzzle is the tariff, given on the plan page of your account. This should show the name of the tariff, its prices and (in the case of multi-rate tariffs like yours) the times when the unit rates apply. 
2. These times (Times of Use or TOU) have to be set up in the meter itself, so that it records usage at peak and offpeak times on the appropriate register. You should then be able to see the readings of these registers on the meter itself, and they should tally with the ones sent to OVO to give the basis for billing.
3. The same times should also be applied to to the switched circuit - the one that is only live during offpeak periods to power your storage heaters (and a water heater?). The switch that controls this is the ALCS (Auxiliary Load Control Switch) you’ve already learnt about. 

If there’s any mismatch between these three things, your system won’t work as it’s supposed to and your billing may be different from what it should be.

Let’s start with the photos and the details from your Plan page. When you post the close-up photo of the meter, please add a note of precisely the time it was taken.  Then we can with any luck unravel just what you mean by I am getting Eco9 on the main house circuit but Eco7 on the storage heating.

Having problems uploading pics as they seem to be too big.

Wrote an explanation to you but it disappeared.

Will try again

We had our Thtc meter changed last week for a meter on eco9 tariff.

The eco 9 tariff works ok on the house consumer unit changing tariff 3 times a day for 3 hrs.

The power to the storage heaters only comes on at 1am until 8am ,which is the timing for Economy 7.

Also the rates on the meter do not match those of the plan

Still cannot upload as the files are too big.How can I reduce them ?

The photo of the meter screen was at 1-15pm today.

The off peak times are GMT. 3 to 6 am,  12 to3pm , 7.30 to 10.30 pm

Thanks

As a result of this forums help I got onto OVO this morning to ask for the Reconfiguration of the meter.

The answer I got was “ kindly disregard this information “ from the forum .

They are (hopefully) sending an Engineer to look at the meter

Thanks everyone for the input but think it’s time to sign off & pray 🤷🏼‍♂️

I stand by my word - OVO Support agents shouldn’t be telling folks to ignore the Forum advice. We know the solutions well at this point.

I’ll let the Forum Moderators know.

 That’s very helpful, thanks.
  

Good. That means the TOU table has been properly set up (my point (2) above).

Not good. 13:15 BST is 12:15 GMT, so I would expect* the offpeak circuit to be live at that time. The meter screen shows in its bottom right-hand corner that it’s not: the little o´o symbol labelled ıı means that the second contactor (ıı) is open. When the circuit is live, it should be the same o¯o as you can see for the first contactor (ı). 

This most probably means that the ALCS is not properly set (my point (3) above). Contact Support and ask them please to get the smart team to send the ECAUL request to your meter to configure its ALCS to Economy 9 timings. 

The rates on the Plan page are shown ex VAT (because that’s what you’ll see on your bills). The ones on the meter and the IHD include VAT. Is this the difference you see? 

26.09 > 27.39 inc. VAT 
20.15 > 21.16   -”-
59.93 > 62.93   -”-

If they’re more different than that, ask Support when you contact them to have the correct tariff as shown on your plan sent to your meter. The tariffs and costs you see on the meter and the IHD are for guidance only - they aren’t used for compiling your bill.

Someone might ask you for the meter serial number (MSN), because that’s often the quickest way to identify it. Make a note of it so you can quote it readily along with your OVO account no. The MSN is shown above the barcode above the meter’s display screen, starting with 22M. 
  

*   The offpeak start times will probably be a bit (in theory up to 30 minutes, but normally not more than 10 minutes) later than the ones specified. This delay - specific to each meter - is to ensure that the distribution network isn’t overwhelmed by thousands of multi-kW heaters all being switched on at precisely the same time. To check the state of the circuit, then, wait until 45 minutes after the switch time before looking to be sure. 

Very helpful. You are right about the rates,they are correct with vat added.

I contacted support this morning asking to reconfigure.The agent told me to disregard this information & is sending out an engineer 

Will he be able to do it physically when he comes ?

I think I’m right in saying that all he can do is call HQ and ask for the right commands to be sent to the meter. In other words, there’s nothing he can do that the support agent wouldn’t have been able to.

However, he may be able to check that the configuration update worked - but only if it worked there and then. We’ve seen many cases where the command had to be sent more than once before the change actually took effect. It’s easier with Economy 10 than with Economy 7, because a physical check can take place in daylight. With E7, the physical check would have to be done after midnight (in some cases after 01:30!) or before 08:00 (or even 07:00). 

With a reasonably competent customer on site, I’m sure this engineer’s visit could have been avoided, allowing him to get on and exchange somebody else’s RTS meter. They’re going to struggle to meet the 30 June deadline as it is, without scarce engineering resources being expended on what appear to be unnecessary tasks.

Just my possibly ill-informed opinion, of course 🙂

Hey @connorsbjc 

I’m really sorry to hear about the experience you’re having with this.

Sadly by the sounds of things, an engineer won’t be able to do anything in this case, and a simple remote command should fix this. 

We’ve seen this quite often off the back of 5 port meter exchanges and I can’t say I’ve seen an example where sending an engineer was the fix when the heating or hot water isn’t working following these installations. 

We’ve got a few topics on this already:

As Firedog mentioned, the engineer can contact the Support Team while on site to have the commands sent, and wait to see if they work as they should, but other than that, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to do anything as it’s probably not the meter itself that’s causing the problem.

Do keep us updated with how you get on.

Thank you. I actually asked the advisor why he couldn’t do the ACLS for me & as previously mentioned was told to disregard this information on the forum.

As I do have power to the heating overnight but at the Economy 7 timing , I have no clue as to the rate per kw they will be charging. 

Hard to believe this is the 21st century 

Well ! Progress possibly.

After many hours another Ovo advisor has agreed that it can be done remotely when the account is updated to the new meter. When is an unknown. May get it done or may have to try again.

Also had a scare with a bill for £1750 on my online account for 1 months power.

Pleased to say it was sorted very quickly by the advisor on chat & I can relax again.

Life is too short for all this OVO hassle.

Hey @connorsbjc 

Glad to hear things seem to be sorted out now, do let us know if you’re still experiencing any issues, or any in future.

Sorry to hear about the trouble with the bill too but I’m glad that’s been sorted too, without knowing too much it sounds like it’s probably had something to do with a meter reading somewhere along the line that the Support Team were able to fix. Glad that was sorted for you quickly, I can’t imagine that was a nice shock, and as you said life’s too short for hassle - I couldn’t agree more there.

Hopefully that’s everything resolved now but do feel free to pop back to the Forum any time if you’ve very got a problem or question, we’ll be here to do our best to help.😊

Hi Abby

Thought it was too good to be true. My online bill ,which was updated online yesterday to the correct figure of £130 for September ,has disappeared & the original bill of £1750 is back up. I have been onto Ovo and they say it will take a while for the account to be updated to the new meter.

Pity I can’t upsticks and get out of this mess of poor billing & wrong meter settings,only a matter of time I think.

That’s a new excuse I haven’t heard before - I wonder what it means?

I got my fingers burnt in a parallel case yesterday - of course, remote commands can’t be sent to a meter that’s not in communication with OVO, and communication may not have been established straight after the meter exchange. 

One signal you can check yourself is the state of the LED indicators on the communications hub on top of the meter. When all is working as planned, these two green lamps should flash at five-second intervals. What are yours doing?

[WAN is the Wide Area Network, the system set up by DCC to connect smart meters with suppliers and others, in Scotland provided by Arqiva, usually using their TV transmitter masts.  HAN is the Home Area Network, a Zigbee network connecting the meter with the In-Home Display (IHD).]

Both are flashing as you say. Meter still operating on 2 different tariffs, why can’t they send the signal immediately to change the heating to eco9 ?

Judging by the figures on the IHD the overnight tariff is way up. Last nights heating shows as 12 kw for £3.80

Trying to stay sane through this shambles

That looks painful, but you can’t base any decision on what the IHD says as regards costs. The £ figures you see there can’t be relied on.

OVO will be charging you full whack (27.39p/kWh) for your usage 01:00-03:00 and 06:00-08:00. Usage 03:00-06:00 should be at the offpeak rate (21.16p/kWh). The £3.80 will include £0.63 for the standing charge (62.93p/day), so the electricity has apparently cost £3.17, which is only a little bit less than what 12kWh would have cost at peak rate (£3.29 - £3.42).

It could be that, having switched on at ~01:00, your heaters were more or less fully charged by 03:00. Three hours later, they decided to take more charge - so you missed out on much of the offpeak slot. This sort of thing won’t happen once the heaters are being switched on and off at the right times.

That’s really good news, because it means that your meter is in communication with the network and so with OVO. Have you checked your online account in the past couple of days? Once communication is established, it might take a day or two for the billing system to catch up, to record the new meter (whose serial number (MSN) you noted a couple of days ago) together with its opening readings and any subsequent ones received.

You may also be able to see half-hourly usage data on the usage pages; if you can’t even though the MSN is now the right one (shown on the readings page), check on this page that the account is set to receive half-hourly data.  

Once that’s all settled down, it will be time to contact support again to persuade them to get your meter configuration updated. 

So it seems that my heaters only come on in the night between 1am & 8am but I am paying the Peak rate for the power until the meter gets switched over to eco9. Not much I can do in the short run but pay up 

Thanks Firedog.I am now looking at sending readings.I have taken  2readings. Tou rate 1 & Tou rate 2.

What do they refer to as I need to enter them & I am not sure which boxes are relevant.

I do check the online account regularly & the heating to see if anything changes. Nothing so far. I appreciate your input very much,it’s helped me navigate this mire and get some peace of mind 👍