Confirm economy 10 hours and rates

Prices and ToU timings vary from place to place. Note your area no. from this map:
 

The Economy 10 timings are given here: Economy 10. The MPAN referred to is the area no. you noted above.

Note that the smart meter will introduce a delay into all the timings. It will probably be around 10-15 minutes, and it will always be the same. 

Current prices are here: Our prices | OVO Energy. Use the filters to cut out tariffs you’re not interested in.

If you login to your account online and on the left select ‘Plan’ then ‘Plan details’ that should show you your current tariff with the information that you require.

The ‘Prices and unit rates’ should give you the hours and costs per kWh.

They are shown there as ex-VAT, so multiply the rates by the kWh used, (for both peak and off-peak), then add the daily standing charges, and then add VAT of 5% to the total.

If you are using the app then the information is found under ‘Bills > View plan details’

The plan details only give standing charge, peak rate and off-peak rate.

I want to verify that i’m getting 10 off-peak hours per day.

I want to verify the times of day i’m getting those hours and that the off-peak rate of 22.03p is being applied to kwh i’m using during those periods.

Can ovo provide the raw data they use to generate the bill which includes all the above.

No, I don’t think so. You will have to do your own investigation of what your meter’s doing. You have to find out precisely at what time the meter stops recording on one register and starts recording on the other. You only have to do this once, so long as you’ve established when your nominal offpeak hours are. For example, if your afternoon slot is supposed to be 13:30 - 16:30, the meter should be recording at Rate 01 until 13:30 and a few minutes beyond, at which point it changes to Rate 02. You should time those few minutes (often 10-15, but possibly 0-30), because usage outside the offpeak period is expensive. 

You also have to check that the meter is energizing the switched circuit that powers your storage heaters at the same times as the register change. You may be able to see this if the heaters have an indicator - usually a red neon - that lights up when the power is on. The IHD may also be a good guide, because it should show an amber or red light when a heavy load like a storage heater is fired up. The ‘using now’ figure will change from 10s or 100s of W to a few kW. There may also be a sign on the meter itself while the switched circuit is live. 

We’d have to know what sort of meter you have to be able to tell you what to look for. A close-up photo clear enough for the markngs and display to be legible would help, as well as an overview of the meter backboard or cabinet so we can see all the cables.

Your online account tells you what rates are applied to peak and offpeak usage. Why do you think you might be being fleeced?

​@h4X0R thanks for your post, and welcome to the OVO Forum.

I’m glad to see ​@Firedog and ​@Nukecad have been so helpful here. It’s most likely that everything is set up exactly as it should be, and will follow the same time-switches as with your previous supplier. I’ve sent you a private message to request your Meter Point Administration number (MPAN). Once I have this from you, I’ll be able to tell you the times your meter switches between peak and off-peak.

Cheers!

Thanks for getting back to me ​@h4X0R.

I’ve checked your switching times and can confirm you’re definitely Economy 10, with the following times:

• Register 1: 0000-0500hrs / 1300-1600hrs / 2000-2200hrs

• Register 2: 0500-1300hrs / 1600-2000hrs / 2200-2400hrs

If you check your meter readings page on your online account or app you’ll be able to see which of the above registers is ‘peak’ and which is ‘off-peak’. Further Economy 10 advice can be found on our website here and in this previous Forum article:

I hope this helps!

Ben has helpfully reported what your meter’s tariff switching table is set to. That may be only half the story, though, because your meter is probably also turning on the power to your heating equipment so it’s not live during peak hours. If it is doing this, it’s of course vital that the switch that does it is also set to the E10 timings. If there’s any mismatch, you could be seriously out of pocket if power-hungry equipment is running in peak periods. The photos we asked for will help; if you can, please take the close-up of the meter in the middle of one of the offpeak periods. 

​@Firedog thanks for your time. Your comments have been helpful. 

I don’t have a storage heater. Nor do I have an in-house display as I’m on the fourth floor but my meter is on the ground floor.

My central heating system is electric but I manually turn it on/off so it isn’t a concern.

My immersion heater does operate automatically. I have no way of controlling it. There are no lights on anything to indicate it is on, however it is audible when working. 

So far, I have verified that the immersion heater comes on at precisely 13:00 and at 20:00, in-line with the economy 10 off-peak periods. I still need to check if it comes on at midnight. 

My meter is a Landis + Gyr E470 Type 5533. I’ve found that by default it displays the the current rate being recorded. So I’ve started taking readings at the start and end of each peak/off-peak period, like so:

There are still a few more readings needed to complete the set but it looks correct so far. I used the ovo website daily reading history to verify that rate 1 is Peak and rate 2 is off-peak, as expected:

I observed that the rate switches at 10 minutes past the hour, so my immersion heater is using 30 minutes of peak rate per day (3 off-peak periods x 10 minutes), which isn’t ideal. That’s 15 hours per month. Is there any way to adjust that?

This is what my meter installation looks like:

Thank you for the pictures: they’re a great help.

The box bolted on to the right-hand side of your meter is the switch (technically the ALCS) that turns power on and off to heating equipment. I would have thought that this will be the main space heaters and - presumably - the immersion heater. Ideally, it should switch at the same instant that the tariff changes. It has a helpful indicator lamp that glows blue for off and green for on (and red for oops!), so that’s how to check whether its timings are right. 

It may be that your space heaters aren’t controlled by this switch (“I manually turn it on/off so it isn’t a concern”). This has the potential for being costly if they’re running at peak rates …

It does sound as if the ALCS is switching your immersion heater on and off. This again might be costly, because it means that it could be heating up when there’s no need for it. Most immersion heaters will heat up a full tank of water in three or four hours from cold. My (oversized) tank stays warm for two or three days, although it might struggle to produce a hot bath on the third day. Having it maintain its design temperature all the time is probably unnecessary. 

Bathing can be a major expense; you haven’t mentioned a shower, but many all-electric households like mine have a really power-greedy electric shower; at 9.5kW, it’s the greediest of all my equipment. A shower fed from the hot water tank is likely to be very much less expensive.

I’m a little surprised when you say the immersion heater comes on at ‘precisely’ 13:00; if it is indeed controlled by the ALCS, it shouldn’t fire up until the rate switches at 10 minutes past the hour. I’d ask you please to check this carefully: something is triggering it, so if it’s not the ALCS, what could it be?

That isn’t right. Your supplier is obliged to provide a working  IHD. There are several ways of solving the problem of distance between the meter and the IHD’s ideal location (your kitchen, perhaps): here’s one, for example: How It Works - Alt HAN Co

One of the IHD’s features is a ‘traffic light’ system. This is just a lamp on the device that changes colour when the load suddenly increases, e.g. when you switch the kettle on  - or the immersion heater starts up. That would tell you about a major change of load within ten seconds of it happening.

We may be better able to understand your system if you showed us photos of your Consumer Unit(s) (‘fuse boxes’), with the lid propped open and clear enough for us to be able to read any labels for its trip switches. 
  

tl;dr

• Check the precise time the light on the meter’s ALCS changes from blue to green or vice versa;  
• Check the precise time the immersion heater starts up;
• Ask Support to arrange for you to get an IHD and make it work.