Tutorial

How to submit a traditional meter reading on the OVO app

  • 27 September 2021
  • 44 replies
  • 8315 views
How to submit a traditional meter reading on the OVO app
Userlevel 7

Updated on 15/01/24 by Abby_OVO 

 

Not sure how to submit a meter reading on the App? We’ve got you covered in this handy tutorial 😊

 

On the homepage, you’ll find a box at the top labelled ‘Your next reading’, here you’ll find when to submit your next reading(s).

 

Click ‘Send a meter reading’ to take you to the ‘Meters’ page, where you can submit your readings.

 

Exact appearance may vary

 

Here you’ll see the meter serial number for each of your meters as well as the last meter reading that was submitted and the date this reading was received. If you’ve got a traditional meter, you can view a full run-down of all the meter readings you’ve previously sent us by clicking ‘view reading history’.

 

Exact appearance may vary

 

Exact appearance may vary

 

You can click ‘Back to meter readings’ to go back to the main Meter Readings page, from here you can submit the reading for each meter by clicking the ‘Send reading’ button.

 

If you’ve got dual fuel, once you’ve submitted the electric reading you’ll see a thank you message, and you can then submit the gas reading from there.

 

 

This page has a handy guide to reading your meter (both standard numerical meters or the slightly trickier dial meters). You can then enter the reading you’ve taken (removing anything after a decimal point or in red) in the box or boxes (for Economy 7 members) provided. If you enter a reading that doesn’t match up to the previous readings we’ve received you may see this error message.

 

 

 

Exact appearance may vary

 

We’d encourage you to double-check the reading you’ve taken (particularly if it’s a dial meter!) and make sure you’re not including any digits after the decimal point. If the latest reading is correct but you’re not able to submit it here due to this error message, our Support Team can look into this for you.

 

Economy 7

 

If you’re a dual-rate (Economy 7) member but only have one box showing, this could indicate a technical issue with your account, in which case our Support Team will be able to log both sets of readings and refer the issue on to our tech team.

 

You’ll only be able to enter the readings here on the same day they were taken. If you’ve taken the readings on a different day, email these to our Support Team who’ll be able to submit any readings previously take, at a later date.

 

All set for the next month. If you now refresh your Homepage, you’ll see the balance adjust to include the latest usage within a few minutes of submitting the meter readings.

 

 

Interested in a Smart Meter?

 

Don’t want to have the faff of logging the readings every month? You may be interested to hear more about the benefits of going smart.

 

 

Not able to submit a meter reading online?

 

 

If you are getting an error message when you try to submit your reading, it could be that the reading is a lot higher or lower than the previous readings, and as a safety feature the system is therefore trying to prevent large billing errors from occurring. You can check this by tapping meter readings then view reading history. 

 

I'd advise getting in touch with our support team and sending them a photo of any error message you are getting, as well as a photograph of the meter and meter reading.

 

Got a Smart Meter that’s not communicating with OVO?

 

The following topic might be helpful to you:

 

 

You’ll need to complete a smart meter health check, this will go directly to the right team who can take a look into your meter issues:

 

 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

 

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

 


44 replies

For the past 2 months I have been unable to submit an electricity reading on the app and website and it says I no longer need to thanks to my smart meter. I haven’t had a smart meter installed so I am a little confused and worried I am going to receive a huge bill. 
 

Has anybody else experienced this? 

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hi there @Jodi Tearle !

That’s rather unusual, but I do have solutions that can help with this. Would you be happy to take some photos of your meters for me and pop them in your next reply please? I can use these to double check exactly what kind of meter you have, just to be safe. That message should only ever show if you do have smart meters, so I just want to double check so that I can figure out where the issue might be.

There’s also a bit of a hack you can do to get the meter readings in if things aren’t working via the app and website. If you call the Support Team and choose the option to submit a meter reading, the automated phone system will take a reading from you and submit it to your account, even if the other methods aren’t working.

I’d definitely recommend having a chat with the Support Team as well about this, as they’ll need to take a look. If you let them know about this thread as well, it will speed things up. But I’m happy to see if I can figure out a few clues first. :)

Userlevel 7

Any updates on this one, @Jodi Tearle ? We’d love to hear if you managed to get to the bottom of things.

If not post some photos of your meters below as this can help us check what meter type you have...:slight_smile:

All of my readings for my gas meter have vanished. Electricity is OK

I can’t enter meter readings properly now and my balance is now incorrect.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hi there @lynnayling !

That doesn’t sound right. Unfortunately there’s not much that can be done here via the forum, so you’ll want to have a chat with the Support Team once the office re-opens in the New Year to get this fixed properly.

However, there’s one trick I can think of that might help. If five days pass with no meter reading, you’ll be able to submit one manually. Alternatively, you can try to submit one one over the phone using the automated system. If you call 0330 303 5063 and use Option 1, you’ll be able to give that a go. I can’t promise it will work, but you might get lucky.

In the meantime, don’t worry. Your account balance will be corrected by the Support Team if needed and your bills will also be fixed if they get affected, so you won’t be out of pocket.

Hope it helps!

After giving a meter reading hiw long does it take to be applied to your account? I submitted mine a week ago and its still not showing on my app

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hey @Geri Staff !

I suspect the meter reading never went through at all, did you see any errors by any chance? If accepted, it gets processed within 90 seconds and shows up on the app within five minutes at most. I’d recommend trying again.

If you still get no luck, give the Support Team a shout here.

Userlevel 7

Hi @Geri Staff and Welcome!

 

Can see you’ve already met our top community member, @Blastoise186. He’s got it spot on here:
 

 

I suspect the meter reading never went through at all, did you see any errors by any chance? If accepted, it gets processed within 90 seconds and shows up on the app within five minutes at most. I’d recommend trying again.

 

The guide above might help too.

 

Let us know if you’re seeing any error messages or you managed to get things updated?

 

We’re happy to do some trouble-shooting here if it helps. 😊

Hi it appears I entered the elec reading on the gas account and now it won't let me enter the correct reading as its now way out of sync. I emailed customer support to explain but its still.not been rectified so I still can't enter the correct one. My monthly bills are therefore still wrong. The elec works on the smart meter but the gas has never worked smartly and this has also been reported but the response to that was that there is a 45 day response time so I will have to be patient. 

 

I just want it right so I know where I am standing with my account. 

Userlevel 7

Thanks for the update, @Geri Staff - submitting readings round the wrong way: classic. 

 

It’s a shame to hear it’s going to take some time to get them corrected. If this is an opening meter reading from when you joined, there’s a few steps that have to be taken to get it changed. 

 

If it’s just a normal mid contract reading, it may be in a queue with our team to get changed. Just keep a note of your readings and keep paying your monthly Direct Debit payment, so that when the readings are fixed and your account is billed correctly, there’s credit in there ready for it. 

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Just went to put a meter reading in online and have been told that my new reading is lower than my old reading and that it isn’t right. But the old reading is around 1990 and the new one around 2170 so to me that’s clearly higher and can’t see why the online setup would say different. 

Userlevel 7

Hi @LewisR and welcome to the OVO online community.

 

What a strange one, and something I’m not sure has been raised here before.

 

As long as your meter readings line up with any previous readings, there shouldn’t be an issue submitting these on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS), so I’m wondering whether you might have discovered a bit of a technical bug with your account.

 

If you haven’t already we’d recommend getting in touch with our Support Team who can check things for you and get that reading logged. Find their contact details here.

 

Do pop back with an update - It really helps others who might have a similar issue in future.  

Trying to read this for a relative in hospital, feeling dumb but i am not confident of my interpretation of this, even after reading guide, can anyone help?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @Midge it looks like 07831. 
You can see where the pointers are not quite to the next number so the previous one applies. Ignore the red dial 

Thank you, very much appreciated. Withdrawing my mensa membership now 🤣

Userlevel 7

These dial meters are ridiculously difficult to read, @Midge - thankfully a smart meter submits readings automatically. Here’s a link for your relative and wishing them all the best during their staying hospital. 

 

OVO have made a guide on reading meters here. In the meantime, I actually love interpreting these on behalf of confused households and I I agree with @BPLightlog: 07831

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

It also looks to me like that meter has an expired certification as well, so it’s probably due for replacement anyway. But I also get 07831 even though I find those things a nightmare to read.

Hi,

I have tried to submit my monthly meter readings, but the electricity reading is not accepted. I get an error saying “There was an error while submitting your reading. We're sorry about this, please try again later.” I’ve had this error for a few days now. The gas reading went through ok.
Anyone got any idea what the problem might be? Is there a problem with the website?

Many thanks.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hey @markymedic ,

What happens if you try to use the automated phone system on 0330 303 5063? Does it work that way?

Good question, didn’t know that was an option. I’ll give it a go and reply soon.

Thank you.

Doesn’t work, it doesn’t recognise my account number apparently.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Ok, one last thing to try. This all helps me figure out options!

Can you use the OVO Energy app and try that way?

Sadly, I haven’t been able to login to the app for a year or so (see separate forum entries about app problems - some sort of issue with migrating accounts to a new system, think I’m last in the queue).

I can always try again at the end of this month, but if the problem recurs then I’d like a plan.

When I called, phone lines were closed and I used the automated meter readings system. I’ll try to call again when the lines are open.

Assume this is a problem with my account, not a general problem then?

 Thanks again for trying to help.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Yeah, sounds like a corrupted account to me. Thanks for trying those routes.

I think the best option I can recommend is to fire up a Live Chat via https://help.ovoenergy.com and give a link to this thread when you get through (as well as any others that you think might be relevant).

Userlevel 7

Hey @markymedic,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having, 

 

Do you have a smart meter? If so, it might not let you submit a reading if we’ve already received one. 

 

When you check your meter read history, is the reading you’re trying to submit out of line with the previous readings? 

 

If neither of these options are the case, I think @Blastoise186 is right, it may be an issue with your Online Account

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