Programming night storage heaters via the smart meter or PIPIT IHD

Howdy ​@bentrovato ,

This actually needs to be done by the Supplier using SMETS Commands! There isn’t a way for you to do it yourself. The required command is Update ECAUL/ALCS Configuration.

Please ask the customer service of your supplier to run it for you. If that’s OVO, you can find the contact details below.

If you need a hand finding the contact info for any other supplier, let me know and I’ll happily grab it for you.

Hey ​@bentrovato, 

Welcome to the community!

I hope you're doing well! I’m curious, how long have you had your meters installed? If they’re a recent installation, we may need to send a remote command called ECAUL to make sure they’re set up on the right peak and off-peak circuit. If your meters aren’t new and you’re just now experiencing some trouble with your storage heaters, we can work together to troubleshoot the issue!

When you mention “in our attic room,” does that mean the storage heaters in that room are the only ones having problems? Or do you have other storage heaters in different rooms that might be acting up as well? Any photos you can provide of your setup and meter could also be really helpful. 

I’ve reached out to ​@Firedog, my go-to expert on storage heaters, and he’ll likely swing by with more questions and suggestions for you as soon as he can. Looking forward to helping you out!

@CHRIS_OVO thanks for your reply. I can’t say exactly how long it has been since we had smart meters but about 5 years I think. An electrician came round to check the storage heaters and said they were working fine. He then said he thought they may never have been programmed. Certainly, looking at my bills, there is very little expenditure on the secondary tariff. 

We don’t have any other storage heaters - the rest of the house is heated by a gas central heating system.

Just to repeat though, there is nothing wrong with the heaters - when I use the PIPIT IHP device to send a boost message, the heaters both come on. It must be the timing.  

​@Chris_OVO Thanks for the ping!

​@bentrovato We really need to see nice clear photos of your meter: close-ups so we can read the display and all the markings on the meter itself, and an overview showing all the cables into and out of the meter, along with any other gubbins on the backboard it’s mounted on.

The fact that your IHD is a Pipit suggests that the meter is a SMETS1 Secure Liberty 100 or possibly 110. The 110 is the one normally installed where there are storage heaters run on a tariff like Economy 7 (which is still very much alive and well). The circuit feeding storage heaters has several names: some call it the switched circuit, to distinguish it from the constant one that powers everything else; you might also hear restricted and unrestricted, offpeak and anytime or Low and Normal.

If your tariff is Economy 7 or similar, it may be possible as ​@Blastoise186 pointed out for the meter’s auxiliary load control switch (ALCS) timings to be adjusted remotely. However, if as you say there is very little offpeak usage, then you are paying over the odds for everything else. The difference can be really significant. You’ll have to do some sums to work out the relative costs of (a) charging the storage heaters overnight and running, say, the washing machine and dishwasher at the same time, while everything else is charged at the higher daytime rate, or (b) running everything at the more reasonable single rate.    

SMETS1 meters haven’t been installed routinely since about 2018, so it will be very interesting to see your photos.