I have smart meters, installed by previous home owner but they were with another utility provider.  We’ve changed provided to OVO and I can see monthly & yearly usage on my OVO app but my bills are all estimations, so I assume the meters aren’t talking to OVO but are talking to the app.  Finding this very strange.  

Hey there @Haz !

That’s a little strange, but I have a few possible theories that could help to figure this one out. I’ll need to try and narrow them down a bit to eliminate a few of them though. As a forum volunteer, I can’t access your account but I can still give general advice that can help you out.

Could you post some photos of your meters and In-Home Display (if you have one) in your next reply please? If you don’t mind sharing who your previous supplier was, that will also be helpful too. I can use these to give me a few clues.

Thanks!

Hi, I believe these meters were installed by Scottish Gas or Scottish Power.  The previous home owner got them installed.  I don’t have an IHD as when the previous owner passed away they family cleared the house including the IHD.

Thanks for any assistance you’re able to offer.  

No worries, thanks for the photos!

I have some slightly bad news for you I’m afraid. But first, here’s a quick explainer as to part of the problem

You have the SMETS1 version of the L+G E470 electric meter installed by British Gas and also the same for the L+G G370 gas meter. They’re almost certainly still running on the proprietary Centrica WAN that only British Gas can access. As such, it won’t be possible for OVO to pair up an IHD right now as these meters probably aren’t communicating with OVO yet. They will eventually work with OVO once migrated to DCC, but it’ll probably take a while - you’ll be notified by OVO once there’s more progress on this. There’s got more details below.

The good news is that once OVO is able to connect to your meters, you should start to get proper smart meter readings and usage data through. This will also explain the discrepancies right now. OVO’s billing platform is currently estimating your usage - you’ll need to submit manual readings for the time being which will help to smooth this out.

I’ve also spotted a possible safety issue with your electric meter. It appears that some of the anti-tamper security seals are missing on your main service fuse below the meter - PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THIS otherwise you will risk a very nasty electric shock. Your local Distribution Network Operator will be happy to resolve that for you free of charge however, so I strongly recommend you give them a call as soon as possible. They’ll most likely arrange to visit within 48 hours after that. Here’s the full list and the areas they cover - you’ll want to speak to the one that covers your area.

I hope this helps. Feel free to reply back if you still need a hand with this issue - I’m subscribed to this thread and will be notified if you reply. If you need any help with anything else though, we’ll be happy to help you out on the forum anytime. :)

Thank very much for your comprehensive explanation.  This certainly helps me understand how it all works.  
 

I’ll arrange to contact my local distribution network operator and get the safety issue addressed.  

Great to see our resident Landis+Gyr expert, @Blastoise186 giving you some tip-top advice here, @Haz.

If you’re seeing estimated readings on the monthly summaries it does sound like we’re not currently in communication with the meters (the info shown on the usage pages is likely based on estimates too). In this case it’s worth reading the meter manually and submitting these readings via the ‘meter readings’ of your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS) a few days before your monthly summary is issued to make sure your charges are up to date, before your meters get ‘enrolled and adopted’. We’ve got a great guide to taking a manual reading here:

 

Hope this helps - Keep us posted with how you get on! 

Interesting to see the billing system has been picking up 30min usage figures from my smart meter for gas and electric but the daily figures on the monthly tab have stopped updating, as have the figures on the yearly tab. The 30min figures tally with those i can see on the Bright app so look like actuals. 

I think the bill usage figures have also stopped updating which is not surprising. 

Am assuming it will sort itself out over time. Am just going to let it run for now and see what happens.

Sorry this one slipped through the net yesterday, @Jeffus.

Looks like we could be seeing some intermittent communication issues with the midnight meter readings received from your smart meters (side note - these are slightly different to the half-hourly usage data which we might still be getting for the most part). As we use the meter readings to calculate your charges this explains why you’ve noticed that your live billing has been paused for these days. We’d always recommend heading to the ‘meter readings’ page of your OVO app (download for Android or iOS) which should show the meter readings we’ve received from your meters over the past month.

Hopefully the signal will recover itself but if the meter readings are missed for more than 5 days you might want to take a look at our guide  above which helps you identify and investigate ongoing smart meter communication issues on your online account.
 

Keep us updated - it’s really helpful to others who might be seeing the same missing usage data issues.

Hi, I’ve lost faith in getting anywhere by email so thought  I would try this post…

After many months I now finally have the correct meter IDs assigned to my account (a long story but not relevant). I’ve been assured several times that Ovo is receiving electricity readings, but every time I log in it’s showing estimates and the message that the electric meter isn’t sending readings. Any idea how this can be fixed?

The other issue is that I don’t have an IHD, the smart meters became dumb many years ago when we moved suppliers (SMETS1 meter) and it’s vanished. I spoke to staff on the online chat and they said there are no spares and they have no idea when they’re getting some, so I can’t even monitor what’s going on.

In all with the huge price rises I’m panicking a bit that I’ll get a whopping great bill and I have no way to check what we’re using. Please help someone!

Sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling to see your Smart meter usage data when logging in to your online account, @chrispr.

As you mention some smart readings have been received, I’m wondering whether there might be some intermittent communication issues with your electricity smart meter. If you haven’t already I’d really recommend checking out the guide above.

Have you managed to take a manual reading from the electricity meter before? If not we may be able to help advise how to access this reading so you can make sure your energy charges are correct and up-to date.

I’ve double-checked and whilst ordinarily we’d be able to get an In-Home Display (IHD) sent out for you in a few weeks, currently our stock of replacement devices is affected by supply chain issues. We should still be able to get a device requested for you and can send this out as soon as we get the devices back in stock.

Even without an IHD, you should be able to check your usage costs on the ‘usage’ pages of your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS) so I’d recommend completing a smart meter health check and forwarding the results to our Support Team, if you do notice the communication issues are ongoing. We’ve got a guide to this smart meter health check for each meter type below:

 

I’m really hoping this information helps to ease your concerns over receiving an unexpected large bill. Do let us know if you need any more help diagnosing what’s up with that smart meter. 

Hi @Jess_OVO thanks for replying.

I’ve been through the health check (SMETS1) and everything looks OK - electricity meter has 5 flashes, HAN connection on the Gas all good. Meter IDs are correct too.

In my online account it currently says “Looks like we couldn’t find your usage data”, I think it was receiving gas readings but I can’t find them at the moment, I’m pretty certain it’s always been estimated electricity readings though.

I will email the support team and see if I get a response

many thanks

You’re right in thinking that those flashing sequences don’t necessarily indicate an issue, @chrispr - however if you’ve noticed any estimated readings appearing on your monthly summary, it could be an intermittent issue. The best place to check this would be heading over to the ‘Meter readings’ page of the OVO app (download for Android or iOS) which will show  a history of all the readings we’ve received from both meter over the past month (any missing dates here means we may have lost communication on this date).

Forwarding the full Smart Meter Health Check results on to our Support Team is the best next step. Either via email (usual response time around 5 days) or via our Live Chat which you can access by clicking ‘Message Us’ on this page.

Hope this helps get to the bottom of things. 

good day or maybe your number

Hi @Juli ,

Unfortunately, it looks like your comment got corrupted on save somehow. If you still need help, please could you post your comment again in this thread.

Thanks!

Hi I recently got a smart meter installed about 4 weeks ago, we don’t have an in home display due to the distance (block of flats).

The smart meter never submits meter readings and it’s very sporadic so I’ve had to do this myself a few times.

The ovo app under the usage section displays nothing of use either, it displays Gas even though we’re an all electric household.

we’re currently £350 in credit but daily charges aren’t being deducted.

Does anyone have any answers to these questions? 

Thanks.

Hi @Philip93 and welcome to the OVO online community,

Great to hear about your new smart meters. As you mention you’re installation only happened in the last month, it sounds like things might still be in the process of getting fully set-up. As there’s quite a bit going on behind the scenes (check out this user-guide for more details) we’d recommend waiting at least 6 weeks, to see if the communication issues resolve themselves.

If you’re logging to your online account at this point and things still seem amiss, take a look at the guide at the top for the next trouble-shooting steps.

Once things are fully up and running you’ll be able to view your usage here too, which might be helpful if you’re not able to use an In-Home Display given your flats distance from the meter.

Hope this helps. 

My smart meter has not been sending gas or electric end of month reading for about 3 months now emailed ovo two times had no replies called and been told they know there is a problem my end and been looked into by tech team? Told to submit on line but screen does not display the boxes to submit readings. Now been told to submit by phone OVO advisor said there is a problem there side and lots of people are have the concern.

question isthere anyone else on OVO using same concern seen as that’s what they are telling

Hi @garystokey and welcome back to the OVO online community,

Sorry to hear there’s some communication difficulties with your smart meters at the moment. In case it helps we’ve got a guide to help diagnose these at the top.

Usually we’d expect your OVO app to accept manual meter readings if we haven’t received an automatic reading in the past 5 days, so I’m wondering whether this might be a technical glitch. Have you tried logging in to the browser version of your online account to see if the readings can be entered here?

I dont use the app i had to get rid of it some months ago it kept telling me its time to go we are updating the app we use the web version? but nothing every changed so always access the ovo homepage/ meter readings from my laptop tried using google chrome and internet explorer and edge but always get the same result 

During phone calls with ovo they said the tech team are trying to see why my meter does not send readings and they said last week during the phone call they know there is a problem with there online system and shelby who i spoke to said they would have to put some message on the website to advise there is an on going concern. But i have not seen anything, or may be she was just giving me speal so i would end the call??? who knows

to be honest i am getting a bit cheesed off with been fobbed off

I dont use the app i had to get rid of it some months ago it kept telling me its time to go we are updating the app we use the web version?

That message usually comes up when your account is about to be migrated to the new billing platform, after which you’re able to continue using the app in “new mode”. From your screenshot, that process might have failed to run or not taken place.

@garystokey

I don't work for OVO, a few of us try and help out with a few posts if we think we can. 

Interesting you said end of month reading. We have seen some users with their meters only setup to send one reading a month. 

I would check with OVO what reading frequency your meters are set to.

They can be set to send readings every 30min. OVO can do this for you if you ask them. This should help anyway in the future.

Of course you may already have known all of this.

Honestly, the elapsed time for OVO and many other companies to respond to emails, unfortunately means i wouldn't recommend emailing OVO for anything unless you needed to send them a document etc. 

thanks for the replies will will call ovo and see if it can be changed to send every 30 mins

still cannot get the app to work i have downloaded the latest app this evening to my iphone  but it still says use the web version

Hi @garystokey, 

You’ll be seeing this message if your account with OVO sits on the old billing platform (named internally as ‘Apollo’. Instead of going to the moon, the Apollo app was shut down. Why? Kaluza, part of OVO Group have built an in house billing platform, named internally as ‘Orion’. Eventually all OVO customer accounts will be on Orion. There’s only a few left on Apollo due to some reason or edge case that Orion will be in the process of accommodating. 

You’re probably not interested in this and I don’t blame you. This should all be behind the scenes. All you want is a great, effortless digital experience. I’m sorry that so far, it’s not been like that. Don’t forget about our Support team should you need an update. 

So once again the usage for gas not available on the app.  IHD is showing an amount but I suspect it is not sending readings as been sitting at that amount for a day or two.  Again!  Getting really fed up with this.  Works for a week or two and goes down again.  Electricity is fine because display is only about a foot away.  Gas meter however, is outside on a side wall.

Hi @Scotia121 ,

Could you post photos of both meters and your IHD please? We might be able to help you out with diagnosing the issue.