Solved

I've just had new smart meters installed - Why can't I see this and my usage data reflected on my account?


Userlevel 1

My new SMETS 2 meters were installed in mid September.  Since then, there has been no change in my account page.  The last entry there was that my electricity and gas were to be supplied from 5 May.  

My smart gas meter does not appear to be sending any data, I’m only getting a feed from the electricity meter.

I would like an idea of my usage, given the state of the fuel industry at the moment, I would at least like to have an idea if I will be in for some nasty surprises downstream.

 

icon

Best answer by Jess_OVO 19 October 2021, 12:50

View original

192 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hey there @Visoflex !

Thanks for the question, this does sound a little strange and I would have expected your gas meter to have started sending in readings by now. Do you have an In-Home Display handy by any chance, and if so does it show any gas usage data? That might help me to figure out whether the gas meter is communicating at all.

If you could snap a few photos of your meters and IHD and pop them in your next reply as well, that would be smashing. I can use these to figure out what you’ve got, which helps to make sure I’m giving the right advice. If you could also fill out your profile for me, that would be great.

Thanks!

Userlevel 1

There is no gas data at all - hence the query.  I will insert the pictures but as they’re quite large, they’ll have to go in separate replies due to the upload limit.

Installation details.

Electricity meter - Anclara SGM 1411-B
Gas meter - Uniflo G4SZV-2
IHD - Chameleon Technologies s/w v2.2

Userlevel 1

 

Userlevel 1

 

Userlevel 1

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Thanks, that’s perfect!

Based on these photos, it almost seems as if the gas meter isn’t connected to anything at all. If it was, your IHD should show it on the home screen. Let’s try a couple of diagnostics here, you’ll be able to use all of the information posted in this thread to help you fill out a Smart Meter Health Check later if you need to contact the Support Team.

If you look at the Comms Hub above the electric meter, you should see five lights that flash/pulse every so often. Please could you tell me which lights pulse and how often they do so. If everything is working as intended, you should be seeing the SW, WAN, HAN and GAS lights pulse once every five seconds.

If you could also wake up the gas meter by pressing any of the buttons and take a photo of the display while it’s lit up (ideally showing everything clearly), that will be really helpful as well. Please include that in your next reply.

Once I have these, I’ll be able to recommend the next steps.

Userlevel 7

Updated on 13/09/23 by Abby_OVO

 

Great to see you’ve already met our community volunteer and smart meter trouble-shooter, @Blastoise186.

 

 

Thanks for the question, this does sound a little strange and I would have expected your gas meter to have started sending in readings by now.

 

Just wanted to step in here just to clarify this point. As you mentioned your smart meters were installed in mid-September we’d generally advise that it can take up to 6 weeks from the install date for the meter details to be updated and your usage data to be populated both on your In-Home Display and on the usage pages of your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS).

 

There’s more info on this related topic, although I’m sure @Blastoise186  will be able to offer a slightly more technical explanation if you’re still noticing the same communication difficulties in a few weeks time.

 

Do keep us updated as we’re always happy to help and offer advice here where we can. :slight_smile:

 

Userlevel 1

SW, WAN, HAN and GAS lights on the electricity meter are flashing at 5 second intervals.  Picture of gas meter below.

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Perfecto!

Yup, everything looks good to me. Based on the lights, that tells me that the Comms Hub itself is healthy, there’s a healthy WAN connection to DCC (and therefore OVO), the Home Area Network is functioning normally and a gas meter has been detected and is communicating as expected.

As for the gas meter itself, the valve is definitely open as it should be, there’s a strong HAN signal between the gas meter and Comms Hub and no faults have been detected. So my diagnosis is actually pretty good.

I think it’s most likely just a case of your gas meter still being in the commissioning process and it should complete in the next couple of weeks. Once that’s done, it’ll hopefully start reporting usage data to your IHD and sending readings back to OVO. If it doesn’t submit them on your preferred schedule, feel free to let the Support Team know and they’ll get that changed for you.

It looks like you’ve also got the latest hardware revision too. So the Auto-Connect feature should continue trying to commission the gas meter every 55 minutes either until it successfully commissions or triggers a three month timeout.

And I think that’s probably saved you a call too! :D

Userlevel 1

OK Many thanks for your help.

Userlevel 1

8 weeks since installation.  No change discernible.

Userlevel 7

I’m so sorry we missed this latest update, @Visoflex.

 

As it’s now been over the usual 6 week timeframe when we’d expect your smart meter installation to be properly up and running, something does seem amiss. I’d recommend flagging this one to the Support Team who may advise you to carry out a full smart meter health check to help diagnose the issue.

 

Let us know how you get on with this - We’re always happy to offer smart meter advice here where we can. :slight_smile:

I had new smart meters (electricity and gas) installed by OVO on the 20th. And though it is too soon to say for 100% sure, my daily electricity usage/billing on myOVO seems to have risen since the new meter was put in.

 

What I can definitely say though is that the kWh listed on myOVO (and by extension, the billl) isn’t matching the number on my in-home display. On myOVO, I see 5 kWh of electricity used on the 21st of April; my home display’s history, meanwhile, displays 1.93kWh used for that day.

I note that 5 kWh is very much on the high end for me, whereas 1.93 kWh is  on the low end (though there have been a few days this month where my usage went lower). I’m more inclined to believe the latter value for the 21st of April, since I didn’t use many appliances that day and have seen similar readings for previous such days this month.

Has anyone else had a similar issue?

 

Userlevel 6
Badge +3

I would suspect that the meter data is not getting to OVO yet (it usually takes a few weeks). If you look in you account section you should be able to see the actual meter reading data by ½ hour if you select day view. Also in account is meter readings which shows (or should) the daily readings from your meter and if they are from your smart meter or guesstimated (should be labelled smart for actual reading). In the same section it shows meter serial numbers, have a look and see if they match your new meters or the previous ones.

Your in home display should match your new meters and be accurate. My OVO relies on communication from your smart meters and is usually a day behind.

Make sure you keep the final meter readings from the old meters safe ( just in case something goes wrong).

It should all settle down once the data comes through from the new meters. 

 

Alright, that all makes sense; thanks very much! I checked my usage data on myOVO and that indeed all seems correct, so I guess I just need to wait for the billing to catch up.

Recently had Electricity and Gas meters upgraded to smart meters, the electricity is working fine and is sending updates however the gas meter is not communicating. The gas meter is visible on the portable display and shows the correct data. In an attempt to address this issue I tried to enter the readings online, but my account is still bonded to the old gas meter and will not accept the latest readings. On raising a complaint Photographs were requested of the installation (completed by the ovo engineer ????) as proof of the work done these have been submitted and are on file.

My account is now almost £1000.00 in credit and refunds cannot be issued until an updated reading occurs, this will not happen until the gas meter problems have been resolved, after 3 long phone calls to customer services no one appears to understand the problem.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Howdy @Ian-t !

It can take up to six weeks for newly installed meters to fully set up. But if you can post some photos in this thread, we can try to help with diagnostics. :)

Userlevel 7
Badge +2

Hi @Ian-t

You could download one of the free 3rd party energy apps and keep an eye on when you can see gas readings via them. 

This is one of the free apps some of us use.

https://glowmarkt.com/

There are versions for apple and android phones.

Although unlikely this will give you an idea if their is perhaps something amiss with the OVO systems rather than the smart meter network just needing time. 

Fellow Sufferers,

I had installed OVO smart meter (SM) and a mobile app a few days ago. Issues:

  • There is no usage data (gas or electric) available on line for my account.
  • The mobile app shows different daily usage (both gas and electric) compared to the display of the SM.
  • The mobile app shows three lines of conflicting information. Please see example images below.

 

Any guess what is going on?

Kind Regards,

  1. K.
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hi @Yagottabe Kidding ,

If you’ve only just had a new Smart Meter installed, it won’t be ready to show you anything yet. Please allow up to six weeks for the commissioning process to complete and you should start to see usage data around that time. You might see it sooner though, but there is no way to speed up this process.

To make the most out of it, you may want to consider asking the Support Team to set your meters to Half-Hourly Readings.

Hi Blastoise 186,

Thanks for your prompt answer.  As far as I can tell the little unit with the display is communicating with the gas meter and with the electric power meter. Its readings gradually increase throughout the day as we use gas and electric energy. They are zeroed every day at midnight and are added up to show the weelky and the monthly usage, which could be called on display. Can you please explain which part of the commissioning process are still incomplete and would require six weeks of time. Please feel free to be as technical as you need in your answers.

Kind Regards,

  1. Kidding
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

No worries.

There’s two sides to the networking. The Home Area Network (HAN) runs on a variant of ZigBee and is managed by the Comms Hub above your electric meter. This is how the Comms Hub, Electric Meter, Gas Meter and In-Home Display (IHD) communicate with each other. There’s also the Wide Area Network (WAN) connection that goes from the “other side” of the Comms Hub to DCC, either via Cellular (currently GSM/GPRS) for the Southern Territory on the Telefonica WAN which runs on the O2 network, or via Long-Range Radio for the Northern Territory via the Arqiva WAN.

All of this goes through the Data Communications Company, or DCC for short and from there, reaches suppliers like OVO. DCC manages all connections to SMETS2 Smart Meters and is starting to manage all SMETS1 units as well by migrating them through Enrolment & Adoption. It’s only once DCC is happy the connection is stable and secured properly and the equipment has been fully updated with the latest firmware, can OVO be allowed to establish their own connection via the Supplier role. It’s only after this that OVO can start taking meter readings.

Userlevel 7

Hey @Yagottabe Kidding,

 

Sorry for the issues you’ve had. 

 

As @Blastoise186 said, it can take up to 6 weeks for your new smart meter to be updated on the systems from the date you had it installed. We have a great guide here for more information:

 

 

When you applied to have your smart meter fitted what frequency did you select for the readings to be sent to us? The options are half hourly, daily or monthly. I’m wondering if this might have something to do with the fact you aren’t getting reads online. 

 

The In Home Display (IHD) relies on home area network (HAN) which would be why it’s showing usage data but the smart meters are not, if you selected monthly readings.

 

Here are some similar threads you may find helpful:

 

 

Hope this helps. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +2

@Yagottabe Kidding sometimes one of the ofgem regulated 3rd party apps picks up meter readings a bit quicker than OVO, although this is not always the case.

This is one a few of us use if you are ever interested in looking at alternatives to view your smart-meter data. 

https://www.glowmarkt.com/

Hi

i had a new smart meter installed on 7th Sept. One meter reading was sent on the 14th (billing time). My online account shows the “smart meter not sending” message.

I can see from the in home display that the tariff changed today, so it’s taking to something.

 

also I’m supposed to be on economy 7, but can’t see a second tariff on the display.

could somebody clarify if I have a problem or not!

thanks

Reply