Tutorial

Identifying Smart Meter Issues on your online account or OVO app

Identifying Smart Meter Issues on your online account or OVO app
Show first post

119 replies

R
Rank

Mmm, security lights on motion sensors, frost guard setting on any equipment, or in the greenhouse, anything like that?

Or to get more suspicious, does anyone have a key to your property, say a neighbour?
(Nipping round while you are away to watch your TV, feet up with a cuppa).

I have a simple flat :). Security lights sure, but there's no animals. And definitely no one has the keys, i hope.

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

… the smart meter was taking readings every 3-4 days or more, now is taking them every day!!! I do not want it to be every day and never asked for it

 

Just to clear up a common misunderstanding: a smart meter records two sets of data all the time every day: the amount of electricity passing through it every half hour, and the reading(s) of the meter registers at midnight. The data are stored (by law) for some time within the meter itself, and transmitted to the DCC at intervals. 

The frequency with which readings and usage data are polled by OVO varies ostensibly according to the customer’s wishes, and I can’t really understand why any customer would not want to know as much as possible about his consumption. For a start, it would make it much simpler to diagnose conundrums like the one you’ve been presented with. 

Just as a matter of interest: usage data for the days over Christmas (22-26 December) are also missing from my account. I don’t know whether this indicates a wider fault, or it’s just coincidence that the three of us in this thread seem to have experienced similar difficulties in the same period. It’s of no consequence in most cases, so long as the meter readings are present for the start and end of the billing period.

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

It’s also worth saying that unless you ask otherwise, daily reads are the default setting.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @ronron,

 

Some really helpful advice given by our Community Members here,

 

If you upload a screenshot of your meter readings page we can look into this further for you. Please don’t include any personal account information.

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
R
Rank

It’s also worth saying that unless you ask otherwise, daily reads are the default setting.

@Blastoise186 I did mention in my post that :).

R
Rank

Hey @ronron,

 

Some really helpful advice given by our Community Members here,

 

If you upload a screenshot of your meter readings page we can look into this further for you. Please don’t include any personal account information.

Thanks @Emmanuelle_OVO , I have already in my post, what different view you mean?

R
Rank

… the smart meter was taking readings every 3-4 days or more, now is taking them every day!!! I do not want it to be every day and never asked for it

 

Just to clear up a common misunderstanding: a smart meter records two sets of data all the time every day: the amount of electricity passing through it every half hour, and the reading(s) of the meter registers at midnight. The data are stored (by law) for some time within the meter itself, and transmitted to the DCC at intervals. 

The frequency with which readings and usage data are polled by OVO varies ostensibly according to the customer’s wishes, and I can’t really understand why any customer would not want to know as much as possible about his consumption. For a start, it would make it much simpler to diagnose conundrums like the one you’ve been presented with. 

Just as a matter of interest: usage data for the days over Christmas (22-26 December) are also missing from my account. I don’t know whether this indicates a wider fault, or it’s just coincidence that the three of us in this thread seem to have experienced similar difficulties in the same period. It’s of no consequence in most cases, so long as the meter readings are present for the start and end of the billing period.

 

Thanks @Firedog , really useful information.  Indeed my question isn't with regards to measurement per se, but rather sending the data and relative consumption of the meter in doing that daily vs / less frequently. In my account I want the daily/hourly measurement,  but is it necessary to pull that info daily from the meter, causing more consumption?

That of course, if nothing else is going on.

BPLightlog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hi @ronron , the smart meter itself records the information anyway as Firedog has already mentioned. It doesn’t add to the home consumption as its power is taken from before your meter reading. 
If you’re thinking more about the in home display (IHD), depending on model, this accounts for around 5kwh per year so very little

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @ronron,

 

I meant that the charts could be based on sporadic readings and estimates. The best bet is checking the meter readings themselves. 

 

Hi @ronron , you could check the meter readings themselves as the chart is only a guide - it should be in line with usage but not suitable for cost evaluation. 
There are simple steps to check your smart meter depending on its type. 
 

 

 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
R
Rank

Hey @ronron,

 

I meant that the charts could be based on sporadic readings and estimates. The best bet is checking the meter readings themselves. 

 

Hi @ronron , you could check the meter readings themselves as the chart is only a guide - it should be in line with usage but not suitable for cost evaluation. 
There are simple steps to check your smart meter depending on its type. 
 

 

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO I don’t like assumptions. They’re smart meters, it’s technology we pay for that’s supposed to work. This wishy-washy way of dismissing concerns is tiring, and it’s endemic to our overall customer care system. It’s sickening and has to stop.

Technology either works, or doesn’t, and that’s on the provider to fix when it starts playing, not customer. If the system tells me that data is measured every 30 minutes, and then provides that data to me, I WILL take it at face value and run the numbers, so no, it’s not a guide. WHEN SM communicates the data to the datacentre has nothing to do with HOW this data is captured and store. You can send the SM readings to the centre once a year for what matters, but it will still contain the measurements as they’re set up in the software. So terms such as “delays”, “gaps” in sending the data are not compatible with the quality of the data. Simple as that.

Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @ronron,

 

Are you set to daily, monthly or half hourly meter readings?

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
R
Rank

Hey @ronron,

 

Are you set to daily, monthly or half hourly meter readings?

Hey @Emmanuelle_OVO ,

I can see them every 30 min in my account. That being said, the communication of these from the smart metre to datacentre has increased to daily now, instead of every set number of days before December. Assuming smart metre energy consumption comes out of my pocket, that’s unnecessary waste/cost.

The metre will always capture the consumption by design, unless it’s broken or malfunctioning.

BPLightlog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +5

Hey @ronron,

 

Are you set to daily, monthly or half hourly meter readings?

Hey @Emmanuelle_OVO ,

I can see them every 30 min in my account.
…

Assuming smart metre energy consumption comes out of my pocket, that’s unnecessary waste/cost.

The metre will always capture the consumption by design, unless it’s broken or malfunctioning.

As I mentioned earlier, there’s no consumption from smart meter recording as it has to record anyway and isn’t counted as usage for the consumer. 

Independent volunteer - Sitting in a Faraday cage, waiting for a signal
Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

I can also vouch for that. I’ve previously studied the circuit boards for a Secure Liberty 100 Smart Electric Meter - the person who got hold of it and helped me with the analysis knows who they are and I’ve agreed to keep them anonymous - and was able to confirm that the meter took its own power from before the point of measurement . As a result, the metrology functionality is completely blind as to what the meter itself uses.

Either way, it’d be less than 2kWh a year and comes under the Technical Losses element of Standing Charges. You’d be talking maybe £2 a year at most.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
D
Rank
Userlevel 1

One simple way to test meter would be to switch off isolator switch or consumer unit main switch for an hour or so, reading would then be zero, proving that we do not pay for energy consumed by smart meter.

 

The hand held device you can unplug until such time as you want information, that you do pay for. But there’s no requirement to use it, so your choice. All metering data etc can also be viewed using OVO Application on a mobile device.

 

Just checked my hand held units power consumption with a power meter, it and its transformer are using 5 Watts of power.

 

That’s 120 Watts per day (0.12 kWh per day) if you decide to leave it plugged in.

 

 

D
Rank
Userlevel 1

With my house in away mode my biggest consumer is the fridge/freezer, that can vary if there’s a cold or warm spell of weather. Any central heating control units would also be energised although heating and hot water off.

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

They're actual readings, I did check that :). 

 

Backing up a bit: OVO have an unfortunate tendency to mark some meter readings in some places as ‘actual’ when in fact they’re anything but. I’m fairly sure, though, that the meter readings page gives a true indication of where each reading comes from, e.g. Smart, Manual or Estimated. If the readings you’re concerned about (for 23-31 December) are labelled Smart, then they came from the meter and indicate pretty convincingly that something was using that electricity. If they show anything else, or indeed if they’re missing altogether, something else is at play, like OVO’s impenetrable mechanism for estimating usage. What do you see on the Readings page? 

It’s not likely that anyone would have been fiddling with your account on New Year’s Eve, so any strange behaviour in the latter days of December would probably extend into January. Is there evidence of that, again on the Readings page?

Have you seen your December bill yet? If so, is there any comment in the entry Closing reading as of 31st December? If it is estimated, it should say so in tiny letters. This was a recent one of mine:
  

 

But perhaps you’ve now discovered by looking at the half-hourly usage figures what it was that was using electricity while you were away?

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
H
Rank
Userlevel 2

Gosh, this thread suggests that some Ovo customers actually have access to their on-line account.

What luxury - unlike the rest of us who have been locked out for nearly a year now.

Blastoise186
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

@Hadders52 almost everyone can use the app/website. There’s only about 1,000 or so who currently can’t.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!
I
Rank

Hi Folks,

 

I’ve had endless issues with my electricity meter, and need some help. So the in-home hub stopped working a week into having it (over a year ago) but smart readings were still being sent to OVO. I decided to get a new in-home hub sent out to fix it recently, and after ringing up to get the meter connected to the in-home hub in November, my meter stopped sending smart readings (and the inhome hub still doesn’t work). An engineer was scheduled to come out today but hasn’t arrived (this has happened to me 3 times now - them just not turning up).

 

I wish I could just give manual readings but I don’t want to right now because they are so different to what the smart readings were giving and make my bill really erratic  - here is an attachment showing where last year I did some manual readings (31st July, 23rd May) and you can see the drastic different between the subsequent smart readings.

 

I have googled and watched videos about how to read my meter (landis gyr type 5533) and I’ve followed all the advice but it’s still strange.

 

Today’s Rate 01 (and Total Import - they are the same) is 01167, whereas the estimate is 00426.

 

Can anyone help? I’ve tried ringing up so many times and they say wait for an engineer, but the engineer never comes to the allloted appointment! I’m honestly at my wits end - it’s been over 2 years of trying to sort this meter out now.

 

Really appreciate it

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

It looks as if the smart readings are being taken from a different meter: the average daily usage according to the smart meter readings is only just over 1kWh/day, while your manual readings indicate 3kWh/day. The consistent series of smart readings is very different from your manual ones.

Can you compare the serial number (MSN) on the meter and the one on your bills?

Is the supply address on your bills identical to your actual Post Office address? Any chance of confusion with another property nearby? It’s possible that the wrong MSN has been assigned to your MPAN - the unique identifier for the supply to your property. 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
Emmanuelle_OVO
Rank
Userlevel 7

Hey @IzzyB,

 

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

 

Firedog has offered some really helpful advice here. Is you meter set to monthly meter readings?

 

If the engineer didn’t turn up you may be entitled to a £30 compensation.

 

 

 

Are you able to upload a photo of the meter reading you are seeing? 

 

Lets get to the bottom of this. 

Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
I
Rank

@Firedog  Thanks for such a quick response! 

 

So my serial number is correct to my meter on the bills, and I just did an online search of my meter serial number and it returned Ovo as the supplier and the correct MPAN number that I also have on my bills. So it feels as if it does all match up? 

However, before I was with Ovo I was with octopus, and they were useless with helping, and I eventually moved to Ovo and they replaced the whole meter. But when I was with Octopus and swapping to Ovo they had a really hard time on the phone finding my MPAN number associated with my address - two times engineers got sent to the wrong address because of this. I wonder if it’s happening again? If I remember correctly we sorted the MPAN issue because that’s when I got the new meter. But it is strange. Good that the online search is returning the right MPAN number to meter serial though … I’m VERY confused.

 

@Emmanuelle_OVO I’m attaching a photo of the meter - this reading is what the Rate 01 read too.

And yes someone on the phone said they’d organise the £30 compensation, but really I’d rather it get sorted than keep receiving £30.

 

Izzy

Firedog
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge

Really strange. Do you have an IHD? If so, you could see whether the third-party aggregators are getting the same data that OVO are applying to your account. You can’t see the meter readings, but it’s easy to compare - say - daily consumption figures. OVO are saying you use 1.1 kWh a day, while you say it’s more like 3.3 kWh.

I find this the easiest: Smart Meter Reports (guylipman.com). Just follow the instructions to create your n3rgy* account and then start examining your data.

As Emmanuelle hinted at, it would be a good idea to ask Support to check whether your account is set to receive half-hourly data. If it is, you should see exactly the same figures as the third parties get from DCC. 

 

*n3rgy are a part of SMS, the company that manages most of our smart meters.

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
I
Rank

@Firedog My IHD stopped working a long time ago - it was trying to set up a new one through ringing up Ovo that caused my meter to stop giving smart readings to begin with (trying to fix one problem caused a bigger one eeek). Followed the instructions and the IHD would just not to connect to the meter, and now no readings at all since.

 

I’ll try check with support like you mentioned.

 

 

Reply


Terms & ConditionsCookie settings