Meters have evolved a lot in the last 30 years. New tech allows a Five-Terminal Meter to run THTC setups with the help of an external contactor. It’s very much possible now with the Aclara SGM1416-B. I’ve seen it in action.

Almost everything will be directly on the meter and the storage heaters on the external contactor. Easy!

That all sounds very positive and I look forward to relatively simple exercise . Thank you for the reassurance and prompt response. Much appreciated.

As metalsman says, THTC has the great advantage that you can use panel heaters at the cheap rate 24/7. Is this going to disappear when OVO installs our smart meter? We are supposed to be getting a smart meter for Economy 7 installed on October 17, but OVO have not offered us any discussion on other tariffs or how we can come anywhere near the advantages of THTC. Can a smart meter be reprogrammed after it is installed? Any advice would be most welcome. 

Hi @JohnMcD ,

If you’ve not been offered THTC as part of the upgrade, then it’s probably because THTC will no longer be supported in your area at all going forward. If memory serves, it’s not necessarily OVO’s decision either - the DNO may have requested this.

Ultimately, THTC is usually terrible value compared to other options these days. If you tell us what you’ve got in your current setup, we can advise further.

Thank you for your quick reply. We have 2 meters: a standard one and an RTS one. Into the RTS one are wired ALL our heating devices. We also have solar panels and a battery and OVO have persistently refused to acknowledge our input to the grid and pay us anything for it. Here's a photo of the setup

.

Thank you for your quick reply. We have 2 meters: a standard one and an RTS one. Into the RTS one are wired ALL our heating devices. We also have solar panels and a battery and OVO have persistently refused to acknowledge our input to the grid and pay us anything for it. Here's a photo of the setup

.

I was offered e7 or e10 only and wasn't asked anything about my current setup which is the same as yours but without solar panels. I asked if we would lose the 24hr panel and focal point heating element of THTC and was told we would. I opted for e10 as we are retired so would suit us better. Just as well I had done my homework before phoning as the advisor really only wanted to make a smart meter appointment. I was told the person who would change my meters would explain everything.  This forum has been great.

Howdy!

Just thought I’d also swing by to add something that I didn’t see mentioned yet. Getting FiT/SEG while on RTS Meters is unfortunately something that snarls you up in circular dependency issues and I don’t think it’s all that easy to get unfortunately - especially because SEG requires a Smart Meter or a suitable Export Meter - but in real terms actually requires a Smart Meter and you can’t get a Smart Meter until your RTS Meter is eligible to be upgraded - and you can’t upgrade an RTS Meter until the right Smart Meter is available to replace it.

You can kinda see where that rabbit warren goes. Once you’re on a Smart Meter, I imagine getting SEG will be 1,000% easier so you may want to try again after that’s done.

OVO will have already known you were on THTC before you booked the upgrade - if memory serves it would have been flagged up to the agent you spoke to almost immediately. The reason you didn’t get offered to keep THTC is because it’s going away completely for almost everyone, the only folks who’ll be keeping it are a small group in Northern Scotland (for which it’ll remain their only option at the moment).

While you do lose the 24 Hour rate when moving to E7/E10, you do gain something else which may help to balance the books. Unlike THTC, the cheaper E7/E10 Off-Peak rates apply to ALL your usage during Off-Peak hours, not just heating/hot water stuff. Please feel free to take advantage of those hours to do useful stuff with heavy appliances as that’s how you’ll get the most out of them.

If you ever need a hand with anything else at all, we’re here for you so please do feel free to swing by anytime. If we can help you out, we definitely will. :)

When my wife phoned OVO to arrange for the installation of a smart meter, they offered her only Economy 7 to replace our THTC. I'm thinking E10 would be better for us. (Like Joycie, we are retired and are in much of the day, especially in winter. ) But I don't know. The tariff rates my wife was quoted for E7 were:

Peak rate: 25p per unit.

Off peak: 14.2p per unit.

Standing charge: 59.25p per day.

Would the rates for E10 be different?

Can Blastoise advise?

It’s possible that some kind of DNO restriction meant you could only get E7.

That’s all I know.

You can see all of OVO’s tariffs in your region on this page: Our prices | OVO Energy. Select Electricity only, then use the filter to select Multirate and your preferred payment method. It’s possible, though, that not all of them are available to you for various reasons. 

The rates on that page are all exclusive of VAT, so be sure to compare like to like.

So got my Smartmeter installed to replace THTC this morning. 
Now have no heating as not on E10 as advised just seems to be on single standard tariff. 
Bet this will be fun to sort out. Initial call wants to wait and see but no heating isn’t good. 

Seems like we’re likely suffering from what happened in this thread

Not sure where to go to get this fixed? Any help very much appreciated.

Congratulations on your new meter! It’s early days, and the installation engineers and their guides at HQ will still be learning how to deal with the myriad problems they’re bound to encounter, so don’t lose heart yet. 

Could you post a couple of photos, one close-up of the meter so we can see its display and other markings, and the other of the whole meter box/backboard so we can see the way it’s wired up? 

If it has little LED indicator lights, what are they called and what are they doing?

Did you get an IHD? What is that doing, if so? What sort is it?

Last, where are you in the country - postcode region, for example?  

We may have some ideas after hearing what you’ve got to say.

Thanks, pics attached hopefully. The WAN & HAN systems are working as both have updated balance and popups since installation and talking to Ovo. The IHD seems to be working ok. I’m in Aberdeenshire, AB43.

Thanks - that looks familiar. I have the same model of meter (but not that LRR communications hub) and you’ve probably also discovered from the thread you referred to why you have no heating yet. 

There are still a couple of pits to fall into even if you persuade Support to get the ALCS properly configured to switch the heating circuits on and off three times a day at the right times . The meter register settings have to be right, too, because otherwise your billing won’t be. 

You’ve already checked your online account; on the Plan page, do the tariff and timings look right? We’ve seen cases where the customer was expecting to be on Economy 10 but was in fact on an Economy 7 tariff, which could prove ruinously expensive. Heaters were charging at the right times, but some of the night-time and all of the daytime heating consumption was being charged at the peak rate. You don’t want that to happen!

Thank you. I’m trying to talk with someone right now but they have no idea what they’re talking about and won’t transfer me elsewhere. 
As far as I can see the meter is programmed as a standard single tariff. 
Could being PAYG (previous occupant insisted on this and I couldn’t get it changed while on THTC) be a problem? All this was discussed with OVO previously though. 
 

I don’t think having the meter in prepayment mode makes much difference to how it functions as regards timing, but I admit I hadn’t taken that on board. If you’re at all technically-minded, I’d suggest you download the manual for your meter and spend some time familiarizing yourself with it. It’s an incredibly complicated piece of kit as you’d soon find out.

You should have somewhere a document giving the name of the tariff you’re on and what rates you should be paying at what times. Are you saying that there are no such details on the plan page of your account? This is what I could find:
  

Were you calling OVO to ask for the smart team to send the ECAUL request to your meter to configure the ALCS? Or have you got past that and on to other things?

Thanks again :) 

Firstly on PAYG OVO doesn't show anything online. Nothing. I previously had a credit account so I can login but it just says 

So the tariff you show is what I would expect to be on, I don’t know. There hasn't been any correspondence about the change.

Secondly I tried to ask for the ALCS to be updated but the call handler didn't understand what I was asking for. They've booked an emergency appointment for this evening but I can’t imagine a subcontractor can reprogram the meter and tbh it’s looking like they won't turn up anyway.

My thoughts at the moment, which I couldn't convey on the phone as they wouldn't accept they could reprogram a meter, are that the meter model is most likely correct and is correctly wired but it just isn't set for the tariff it should be.

You have to know how much a unit of electricity is costing you. You say the IHD is working. Somewhere in one of its menus you should be able to find the tariff.  You didn’t say which type of IHD you got ...

nSigh!] We’ve heard this before, too. There’s nothing a visiting engineer can do that the support agent should be able to: get hold of the smart team, give them the MPAN and/or MSN and ask them to send the ECAUL request to set up the ALCS timings for Economy 10 in your region. I’d be surprised if there’s anyone around to do that after office hours. You might make a note of the two numbers so you can rattle them off along with your OVO account no. whenever someone asks for them:

• MPAN (Meter Point Administration Number) - the unique identifier for the electricity supply to your house (you only need to remember the 13-digit bottom line );
• MSN (Meter Serial Number) - the unique identifier for the meter itself. You can see that at the top of the meter just below the communications hub, starting with 21M.

Much appreciated again. Not at home to show you but the HID is this one. 
 

Yes I can find the tariff on that (standard at about 22p) but with payg an online account just doesn’t exist. 
 

Unsurprisingly the engineer didn’t make any form of contact last night. At least that’s another £30. Couldn’t get another appointment today yet as out till later but will try this afternoon. Can’t get anyone on the phone to put me through to Smart or understand that it can be done remotely at all. Also confusion when the E10 tariff can be applied to the account but I’ll argue that another day. 
 

You'd think this was something I’d initiated not OVO after, supposedly, lots of work and testing to replace THTC. 

Hey @ByeeTHTC 

I’m really sorry to hear about the trouble you’ve been having since the smart meter was installed. Sadly meter exchanges with THTC meters do quite often come with some problem along the way, as Firedog mentioned.

I’m glad Firedog was able to help advice you on the right path. Please do keep us update with how you get on getting the remote commands sent by the Support Team.

Thanks but I can’t get them to do anything remotely. 

Probably not just THTC setups! I am on Superdeal & had a E10 smart meter appointment due today but on the engineers arrival, as I expected would happen, he was unable to carry out the change due to our setup! In the past few weeks since the smart meter was offered I have several times suggested for an engineer to first visit to ascertain the setup before the booking or at least get me to send a photograph. Both suggestions were rejected as not necessary! Apparently our setup is unusual (as I have frequently told OVO & before them SSE) & requires a 3 phase system before a smart meter can be fitted. That requires a visit from the grid people before rearranging another smart meter appointment! Wasted day staying in & time spent preparing the meter ‘room’ for OVO. Do they really think all these  difficult non-standard situations can be sorted by June 2025? I doubt it.

Being offered a smart meter.

Currently on simpler energy plan THTC. As I don’t have smart meter yet cannot access ovo app as doesn’t support these old meters so have to use online account. 
question is once the smart meter is installed how do I arrange a new energy plan as obviously the current energy plan will become obsolete 

looking at the online account there is nowhere for you to change to a new energy plan once smart meter installed 

‘’under plan’’ online account it only shows your current energy plan ie THTC 

Do I have to contact ovo energy after the meter is installed and if so what time period after the meter is installed do I contact ovo to arrange new energy plan to suite the smart meter