I give meter readings each month, why is my bill still based on estimates?

Periodically actual meter readings are issued in time for the billing period to accurately reflect usage (Monthly charges). When estimated readings are used in the charging calculation , there may be a meter reading that is a reduced amount from the estimated reading used the month before. That may mean a “credit” is due to be taken into account in the calculations. Why would the prior months’ estimated usage be used as the starting point in the following month, and not the actual reading issue.

If a bill has been issued (and not updated), then I would have thought it necessary to use the same reading to start the following bill, otherwise there would be a problem in the process (and an incorrect bill).

Example

Month 1 - Estimated use 100

Month 1 - Actual use 90

Charges - 100

Month 2- Estimated use 100

Month 2 - Estimated use 90

Charges - 100

Month 3 - Actual use 90

Charges - 90

Charges for three months 290.

Charges should be 270.

The billing presented is so unclear as to make calculating , and explaining these differentials quite difficult.

Apologies Month 2 Actual use 90.

Assuming this relates to a non- smart meter (or possibly a 3 phase AMR?), as far as I understand, if a reading is supplied to the account, it is updated at that point. If estimates are often higher than actual, regular manual updates can help to adjust the system

It is a while since I had non smart meters, but when I did, I discovered a couple of things. First of all OVO only deals with billing of completed 24 hour periods. My billing period ends on the 3rd of the month. My intuition was to (when I remembered) to give my reading on the 3rd of the month. However, this meant that OVO “estimated” what the reading would be at the END of the 3rd of the month. The illustration that I include here shows how, in one of the months shown here, I sent my reading on the 4th of the month (i.e. the first day of the next billing period) and OVO used this as both the closing reading of the month and the opening reading of the next month, so no estimated reading was used. I discovered, therefore, that the best day to send my reading to avoid an estimated value being used was to send my reading on the 4th of the month (the first rather than the last day of my billing periods). 

(P.S Thank heavens for smart meters so that I do not have to worry about this now!)

Probably need to see screen shots of the three bills to be able to comment ​@3Phasesupplies

Obviously take out any personal information. 

Make sure they are all pulled from the website at the same time rather than using any old copies in case OVO have updated the bills.

It is quite difficult to comment otherwise 

So in the last couple of months my bill appears to go up very quickly for reasons I don't quite understand

I have attached a couple of screenshot to illustrate this in the first 1 you should see an average of £7-£8.per day,but a couple of days later it shows an average of £16ish,granted its been colder so my heating has been on much more but the change makes budgeting for my bill very difficult,this has been happening for the last 2 or 3 months

Any tips or pointers on how to keep better watch on what's happening would be much appreciated 

Those look suspiciously like estimated figures. First thing to check is that your meter is set to send data for every half-hour (touch the little rubber stamp in the top right-hand corner of the home page and scroll down to Settings - it’s the first item there).   

Above Settings, you should see Meter readings near the top. Touch it, then the View reading history button. Do you see your recent daily readings? Or only monthly? What is in the Type column? 

Hi ​@AnythingGood, and welcome to the OVO Forum. I hope you’re well.

I agree with ​@Firedog here - it does look like this usage data could be based on estimates. Please could you check if the reading schedule of your smart meters is set to monthly? If so, we’d recommend changing it to half-hourly. This’ll give you the most accurate usage data, and will show you a half-hourly breakdown of each day’s usage. You can find out how to change the reading schedule online or on the app here:

Many thanks for your replies,appreciate your time and input

I don't actually have a smart meter (I've attached a picture of the only meter I have) so sadly I don't think I can change the schedule,maybe a call to OVO is now in order

I only moved into to this rental property about 5 months ago so haven't really done much about my energy bills

A smart meter would hopefully help massively with keeping a eye on things at the very least

Thanks again AG

That is indeed an older type* SMETS1 smart meter.
(I think that you probably mean that you don’t have a In Home Display).

If it has been ‘adopted’ onto the national Data Communications Company (DCC) network then it should be sending readings.
If it hasn’t been adopted, or isn’t sending readings, then unless you have sent in manual readings your usage will have been estimated.

*I do note that it has a 2016 date, that model has a certification life of 10 years and so it is probably due for replacement.

Here is the forum guide to that make/model of smart meter:

In your app as screenshot above try taping ‘Day’ just under the green ‘Usage’ - If you are set to half-hourly  readings (and it’s sending them) then it should show you something like mine from yesterday:
 

That is very definitely a smart meter, albeit to the SMETS1 specification. It should have been ‘enrolled and adopted’ on to the DCC system long ago like my own of the same vintage was in 2022. Mine was a few months later exchanged for a SMETS2 meter, which is a big step forward. 

I asked what type of readings you can see on your meter readings history page. Have you been taking regular readings and submitting them manually every month since you moved in? If you haven’t, and the meter isn’t sending readings automatically, OVO won’t know how much to charge you and will have to guess.

If you touch one of the buttons on the meter, the display should light up. Assuming the display isn’t completely blank, could you take another photo clear enough for us to read what’s on the display? While you’re at it, can you tell us what the little LED indicator lamps on the communications module (the gateway mounted on top of the meter) are doing? They may be of different colours and flashing at various intervals or solid.

Do you have an In-Home Display (IHD) to go with the meter? It will have been supplied when the meter was installed, but transient tenants have been known to take the IHD with them when they move out, even though it can’t be used anywhere else. It’s a very useful piece of kit if you can find it; mine looked like this:
  

Thanks for your help as always ​@Nukecad & ​@Firedog 😊.

Just to let you know ​@AnythingGood the ‘Usage’ pages of your online account and app are set up to work with smart meters that are working on a daily or half-hourly reading schedule. If your meter is on a monthly schedule, then the graphs will not be showing correct data, and there will be estimates in use in-between the monthly reads. If you could follow the guide above to check your reading schedule we’d appreciate it, and we look forward to hearing back from you re Firedog and Nukecad’s questions. 

This guide shows you how to use the ‘Usage’ pages, once they’re set up as half-hourly:

There is also another possibility here, that your smart meter isn’t in communication, and working as it should. This guide will help you determine if this is the case:

So I’ve now done this the app says it can take 24 hours for this change to take affect so we shall see if that makes more sense

Thank you all for your responses

Firedog, to answer some of your questions

“If you touch one of the buttons on the meter, the display should light up” it does 

“can you tell us what the little LED indicator lamps on the communications module” the centre LED with WAN written next to it flashes pretty constantly as does the red LED next to the keypad

“Do you have an In-Home Display (IHD) to go with the meter?” No sadly I don’t, I’d like 1 as I found previously at my last address it was very helpful

Thank you all for your time, I will have a good look through the guides you’ve attached as soon as I get chance and see if I can find my way around the meter and check everything is as it should be

Cheers AG

​@AnythingGood we look forward to hearing back from you.

If you don’t have an In Home Display (IHD) drop our Support Team a line and ask for one - they’ll send you one free of charge. When it arrives you’ll just need to contact them again, and they’ll help you pair it to the meter.

Cheers!