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

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!