You may not want that experience for your customers but OVO will not communicate with me or reply to several emails. They even still list Raman Bhatia as the CEO! He departed weeks ago & the new one, David Buttress has no obvious email address to contact like his predecessor! The Ombudsman is looming.

We have already raised the name change to the right team - just yesterday in fact. It’s being worked on.

In the meantime, my understanding is the Raman Complaints inbox at Raman-complaints@ovoenergy.com still works as-is.

Well they do not reply to emails!

Hi @johndebs,

I’m really sorry to hear this. 

This is currently with our Forum_Support team who’ll be looking into this for you.

Asking for a friend, yes really. He is on Superdeal. Has 3 meter readings. Peak and off peak meter and a MPAN. Heating Energy Use meter has a MPAN. 2 people in a 2 bed house out all day. No storage heaters EVER turned on just 2 electric heaters when they need them. No hot water turned on EVER. they put dishwasher on a couple times a week. A power shower as and when. Summer bills Peak £250 + Off Peak £43 , Heating Energy use £73. Firstly can someone explain the off peak and heating energy use? I thought off peak is for instance storage heaters and water. NONE of which he uses. So what is the stored heat use? His yearly bills are hitting £6000+ we are are 4 people in 3 bed two doors down with OVO on economy 7 and use a quarter of that. Anyone have any thoughts what’s using all the flipping energy?

Hi @Tricko ,

We’d probably need to see photos of the entire setup to be able to offer much advice on this one. If you can provide that, it’d help a ton. Details on the tariff itself can be found at https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/electric-heating/three-rate-tariffs . It does a better job than I could of explaining this particular tariff. Long story short, stored heat would be referring to storage heaters and immersion heaters.

With that being said… Superdeal probably isn’t the right tariff for your friend anymore. Given that his Superdeal Meters are no longer supported anyway, it’s probably about the right time to arrange a migration to Smart Meters. This would allow him to shift to a tariff that’s almost certainly better value and I’m willing to bet will probably be much, much cheaper.

If he’s up for it, give OVO a call on 0330 303 5063 (Squad 70 is best suited for this particular request) or use Live Chat to request migration to Smart Meters. The team can discuss his options and figure out the best path forward. OVO won’t proceed without his explicit consent so he’d be welcome to just talk about it initially and have the notes saved on the account to come back to make a decision later if that’s what he’d rather do.

Please don’t wait too long though! As the deadline of June 2025 looms, we think there’ll be a massive rush to get the upgrades done.

The stored heat is for storage heaters and immersion heaters, usually on an entirely separate circuit.  It only turns that circuit on at cheap times and it’s billed at different rates and usually on a different “meter number” (MPAN) to ordinary usage.  It USED to be far cheaper than off-peak, nowadays it can actually be more expensive and it’s largely pointless unless you’re at home 24/7 (e.g. housebound, etc.).

Peak and off-peak circuits are always switched on, their pricing just changes during the day.  Heating circuits are NOT (unless you manually press a boost button or similar).

That’s a ridiculous amount of energy and I would guess he has a water immersion heater and/or storage heating that’s always “switched on” but that the heating meter controls, and he doesn’t realise it.  So he’s boiling up the water heater every time the heating tariff turns on, whether he needs it or not.

I moved into a house with the same, and I had all the heating ripped out and just replaced it with convector heaters.  My normal rate is actually cheaper than my storage heating rate, and I only care about heating when I come home from work, not throughout the day when I’m not at home.

I’m also changing the immersion heater for an instant hot-water heater because I really don’t need to be heating hot water throughout the night, having one quick shower, and then letting it get cold throughout the rest of the day until I get home when I have to heat it up again.

Usually the heating circuit will have a separate fusebox (consumer unit) for it.  You can switch it off and see what circuits goes off and whether that reduces his bill.  I imagine he’s got the water/heating devices themselves “turned on” but doesn’t know that because they are only actually powered late into the night.

Hello,

I currently live in the north of Scotland and rent a house which is currently on the THTC. tariff. Ahead of the planned radio tele switch shut down next June, I have been contacted by Ovo to book a smart meter fitting to replace the current meters.

I believe that I will need to move to an economy 10 tariff with the smart meter installation, this being the closest tariff to the THTC heating charge-up schedule.

I would be very grateful if anyone who has any experience of economy 10 and storage heating could share their views on the following questions.

1. I think I may need to install an immersion heater timer, as I don't believe we will want 10 hours of water heating for our needs (I do not believe THTC tariff heats the water for as much as10 hours). Am I thinking right here please?
2. Secondly, we have the very earliest Dimplex storage heaters in our property. They tend to give out most of their heat simultaneously with charging up i.e. they aren’t great at storage of heat. I am concerned that they may not be best suited to the rigid economy 10 charge up times, mainly because the gap between the end of the early morning charge up (4.30 a.m to 7.30 a.m.) and the start of the early pm charge up (1.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.) is six hours. Last winter our THTC tariff boosted the heaters until about 10 a.m. in the morning on very cold days, and it really helped.

I wonder perhaps that having more up- to- date storage heaters such as ‘quantum’ heaters may be advisable with economy 10? 

Any experience with old storage heaters, water heating and economy ten would be most welcome and thank you if you can share this.

Hi @ElectricLadyland ,

I can call on @BPLightlog @Nukecad and @Firedog for part of this - they’re more experienced than me at the number crunching!

But Economy 10 does split things up so you get a couple of top-up boosts during the day - it’s not a single 10 hour continuous charge overnight! :)

Bear with us, more replies are on the way!

Hi

I am currently going though the process from THTC  to E10/smart metre being installed 7th Oct.  I also have a few old storage heaters.

I believe the change will only involve a metre change. The timings given by OVO are I understand a guide and should in theory remain as they are as OVO has no control over the E10 timings, they are controlled by the grid/power producers. I too in some of the colder days notice my HTHC timings on occasions to operate outside of the published HTHC timings in very cold weather. As you will notice in the past normally weather timings of THTC switched on/off near the published time but not always on the dot, give or take 30 mins. 

The side benefit from the change is that when the E10 is on, the whole property benefits, all sockets, at the moment only the heating and hot water comes live using HTHC. So plan heavy use appliance use around E10, washing machine etc to save a little.

I have added wifi spurs/timers to my Storage heater and water heater, so turn on off during THTC/E10 as needed and are not always on during THTC/E10. . I changed some of the old storage heaters to WiFi controlled heaters. This allows me to warm up rooms using only when needed with the THTC/E10. As you say the old storage heaters do not store any heat for a long time. If I could afford it I would change the whole system to a wet radiators/heat pump, but  the whole house needs piping for radiators and the amount of work to install then redecorate the whole house is way outside my budget, even after the Heat pump grant, as I qualify for no other benefits.

In short apart from changing the metre, not much else should change in timings, with benifit of E10 use to all sockets.

I don’t think I can add much, I’m afraid. There are just so many variables, like

• the number, size and type of the night storage heaters (NSH). If they’re set to charge for three hours before 07:30 and again 13:30 - 16:30, that might work.
  Mine are rated at 3kW, and they take 3 hours to get hot. Sadly, though, they’ve run out of steam by mid-afternoon (I’m on Economy 7, so no daytime offpeak slots). I’m sure a 13:30-16:30 boost would help a lot. 
• The size of the hot water tank and how much hot water you need each day. Many of them have two elements, one at the bottom and the other near the top. The bottom one would be live at offpeak times, the other always live, so it could be switched on for a peak-rate boost if someone uses all the hot water before you’ve managed to wash up. In any case, it would be a good idea to fit a timer switch to manage it. 
  My own tank is at 210 litres far too big for little me; if I leave it to heat up during the night, it takes about 2½ hours and uses 7.5kWh at cheap rate. It provides enough hot water for two or three days, although it wouldn’t stretch to a third (hot) bath. 
• The late evening offpeak slot would allow you to use extra direct heating (panel heaters, convectors) to maximize comfort before bedtime. 

If you’re currently on OVO’s THTC tariff, you should find that your heating would be only marginally more expensive. Your other usage, though, would be at a lot lower rate on E10 than on THTC. If you have a friendly neighbourhood electrician, he may be able to advise, and quote you for fitting a £20-30 immersion heater time switch.

Any more questions, please ask!

Hello, many many thanks to all of you for your very thoughtful comments, I appreciate you taking the time to write these replies.I think I will aim to get a water tank timer fitted and persevere with my landlord to try to upgrade the old storage heaters.

Once again, many thanks to you all!

Hey @ElectricLadyland,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community,

I’ll ask internally & see if I can add anything to what Firedog has already said.

We have a helpful forum topic you may find interesting:

Our expert was very happy with your response @Firedog! 

They just wanted me to add clarity that the Economy 10 times are rigid and not controlled by the grid @ElectricLadyland 

I had OVO on a radio teleswitch meter / tariff.  They came out the other week to change to a smart meter and Economy 10.

It has a set series of hours spread over the day (they differ in Scotland, I believe), and those hours are ALWAYS by GMT (so in the summer they are staggered by an hour).  There are 3 periods for mine, for example. 

The heating circuits will turn on in those hours.

The smart meter given will give you an hour’s warning when the tariff is going to go up or down and a little countdown to it (it doesn’t announce this, it’s just on the screen if you’re on the right “page” on the device).  This is I suppose the idea behind smart meters, that you think “Oh, the price is going to go up in an hour… I’ll put dinner on now” or similar.

I now have only two chargeable rates (peak and off-peak), and the water / storage heating only turns on when the Economy 10 times are active (and are charged the same as other off-peak usage).

It seems a LITTLE more sensible, but I still believe that storage heaters and stored water heating is a bad idea in the modern age unless you’re trapped at home and absolutely on the lowest budget necessary (and prepared to survive a little cold, especially in Scotland!).

I replaced my storage heating entirely (so I basically just have peak/off-peak and convector heaters given that I have no gas supply), and I will be replacing my stored hot water when I can (probably not this winter by the look of it).

From what I can tell, Economy 10 and a SMETSv2 smart mater is far easier to transfer to other providers, too.

Hi Emmanuelle-OVO

Your post that E10 timings are rigid, can you please post times for *edited by mod* postcode and are these times guaranteed by OVO and soley controlled by the smart meter ?

Hi @Kirrimove ,

Please don’t post your address/postcode here - this Forum is public and you just leaked your location to the world.

The best place to get the exact timings from is via OVO Support at https://ovoenergy.com/help - they can look it up for you.

But I can confirm that with Smart Meters, the meter itself controls the times locally once it has been configured, after which it will continue to run them on a static basis even if Comms drops out for any reason.

The only example we’ve seen here of actual Economy 10 timings in Northern Scotland (the Scottish Hydro region, designated 17 or P, depending on where you look) were as follows:
  

I extracted the detailed information I have given here from one of the scripts powering the account site*.  This source gives my own timings (which are not E10) as GMT: !0, and I know that they shift by an hour in British Summertime. 

I don’t know how to confirm this categorically; I wouldn’t trust Support from my experience to have either accurate or up-to-date records of things like this. We’ll know in a couple of weeks’ time if all those newly-installed E10 meters in N Scotland suddenly start switching heaters on and off at the same local time as before.
  

If anyone’s really interested, I found the list of TPRs at line 61222 (getClockingHours) in 
https://account.ovoenergy.com/_static/vendor.bundle.18b2ab63bbe3baa1.js

You can find the associated SSCs in this file:
TPR Reference Sheet16.pdf

This was I obtain from support today for Glens/Angus area in Scotland. Not the same as I was informed when signing for new smart meter change from THTC. But not a million miles away. I will report back after a couple of days to see if this is indeed the case. 

Those are exactly the same GMT times as I quoted above, so what is different from what you were told when you signed up for Economy 10? The times are agreed between the supplier and the DNO (SSEN), so should be set in stone.

I’ll be very interested to hear what times your heating comes on after 27 October! It could well be that the data I found aren’t completely accurate. 

As regards the guarantee you were given, there may be a slight delay (a few minutes) before the heating comes on at the start of each offpeak period. I say ‘may’, because I’m not entirely sure whether the random delay built-in to these meters applies to this plan times. You may have to take a stopwatch to compare the time shown on your IHD at the advertised start of an offpeak period and the time when the red light comes on to indicate a major load. 

Please keep us informed!

Following on.

I was told by CS when I arranged smart meter install my new E10 timings would BST 1-4 pm 8-10pm 12-5 am. As these timing was not what was happening I contact CS via chat  a few days ago and was told my timings would be BST 5.30-8.30 am 2. 30-5.30 pm 9.30pm-01.30 am. These timings I am actually receiving at he moment (bst), take a few minutes. Location Angus Scotland.

On arranging set up I was told by CS my Tariff shown on smart screen would be Stand charge 0.6635, Standard 0.2402 and off peake 0.1821, this was quoted for a start date of 7th Oct. My screen is showing Standing Charge 0.6292 Standard 0.2616 off Peake 0.1821. So a difference in Standing Charge. 

Meter reading take on transfer, and what was added to my account did not corresponded. After phone call reading adjusted to correct reading on old meter, now seen on my online account this morning. New billing seen online is all over the place. I cannot see tariffs for Standard and off Peake rates. I can only see Standing Charge 0.6292 (inc tax). OVO app does work for E10 tariffs, account viewed online.

I was told on this call billing will take 2-6 weeks to sort it self out. Why this long ? Why was my traiff not fully showing.  Todate I have not received a written notice of E10 tariff costs , only verbally via CS and this has not been 100% correct.

I am hoping that billing will adjust in time, but fearful if it not correct on setup/now it will take longer to untangle. So far I spent 3-4hrs dealing with this either on chat, a call or on hold. 

Hey @Kirrimove

When a meter is exchanged the national database needs to be informed so they can update their records. The removal reading & install readings are confirmed by a third party data collector & need to be loaded & updated onto our billing systems as well as the new serial number(s). So the industry timeframe is six weeks.

Keep us posted with how you get on once the timeframe has elapsed. 

Sadly, Support don’t always get it 100% right. The timings should be pretty straightforward, but it’s easy to misread a line in a long table. Rates, on the other hand, are a jungle that it takes a native to navigate, because there are just so many variables:

• Region
• Name of tariff
• Date tariff was released
• Type of meter (single- or multi-rate)
• Payment method (Direct Debit, On Demand or Prepayment)

OVO are required to publish their tariffs, so you can find them for your region on this page: Our prices | OVO Energy Note that these aren’t set in stone, with some of them changing weekly. These figures are all given ex VAT.

When your account is transferred to a different tariff, you should get a message (nowadays usually by email) giving the rates you’re signing up to - including VAT - and other T&Cs. This is the basis of your contract with OVO, and if there’s any difference between what the email contains and what you see on the Plans page, you’ll have to contact support to find out why.

It may take some time for all these details to be updated in your account, specifically on the Plan page and on bills. Your first bill should have the right rates, although even this can’t be guaranteed, because there are separate bits of the company that deal with all the various aspects of account management. Updates unfortunately don’t move between them at the same pace.

The timings are laid down for an individual multi-rate account by the Meter Timeswitch Code (MTC) which is part of the MPAN (the label in the graphic on that page isn’t quite right). 

I’m sure it will. How long that might take is another question.