THTC meter - Removal Request

Thanks you @Chris_OVO 

By my calculation, you owe me £293.33

Two days ago the engineer came and changed our two meter THTC system to a one “SMART” meter system.
When this was originally discussed with OVO we were told that our tarriff would be changed automatically to economy 7 or 10 however our account plan still show as THTC 
I have uploaded the readings from the old meters which  the engineer failed to do on Friday
The meter installed is apparently connecting via wireless and transmitting our usage. 
We received no instruction as regards how to use/read the new meter or how the new meter will effect the use of our night store heating/immersion heater system
Does it have load switching capabilities?
Having examined the installation I note that there are separate feeds to lighting and power and the heating /hot water  consumer units.
Do I presume that the meter SGM1416-B ser 22MO164394 is capable of switching the Heating/Hot water circuits on and off when the TOU 3 or 4 nightime tarriff is in force or will we/our landlord need to have a timer / contactor installed to control the offpeak consumer unit ?
OVO are closed at weekends so I am left in limbo not knowing what they have done.
HELP!

 

Hi @DaveIS ,

That meter does indeed have built-in load switching - it will trigger automatically based on the configured schedule. You don’t need to touch it nor make any physical changes as it’s now all part of the meter itself - doing so would actually be considered tampering so please don’t attempt to modify any of that stuff.

As long as it’s set up correctly, the meter will switch your heating/hot water loads on and off at the agreed times for your new tariff. If it doesn’t, there’s a SMETS Command to Reconfigure ECAUL/ALCS that OVO Support can run on request to force it to update the timings properly.

You arguably don’t need to read the new meter - it’s best to let it read itself and submit readings automatically. If you want to read it anyway, it cycles through them automatically or by pressing A a few times.

Your account is probably still updating, but I’d say talk to OVO tomorrow and they can check the progress. You should see everything fully synced up within six weeks though.

Where do you see this? I’m just curious, because I’ve only ever seen TOU Rate 1 or TOU Rate 2 on meters like this. If you also have Rate 3 and 4 registers, this could indicate a major difference between tariff set-ups for THTC on the one hand and Economy tariffs on the other.

 Thanks for your interest 
When I inspect the new meter display it cycles through the registers TOU 1 & 2 show a value but
TOU 3 & 4 are at zero however I assumed that this was because our heating is not turned on and the immersion heater being well insulated does not call for heating over the night time period

 I had a long chat with OVO and sorted out my present queries!
I can confirm that the AclaraSGM1416 does handle load switching and does have Four registers 
[TOU 1 2 3 4]  which is future proofing to allow for handling whatever tariffs they may introduce
I am told today that my new meter has been programmed to the “Domestic Economy” Tariff which is suitable for Scotland ?????
The tariff gives an hour extra of off peak but looks to be expensive at peak rate and the new higher Standing Charge is not welcome!
[Economy 8 is the nearest equivalent]
I will monitor the cost and decide if this is the best tariff for our usage pattern

@DaveIS Thanks - that’s more like it! Please make sure that TOU rates1 and 2 are the right way round: 1 should be for peak and 2 for offpeak (this has been known to go awry, I’m afraid).

OVO seem to have hidden most of their tariffs until the new price cap takes effect tomorrow, so I can’t say anything about your Domestic Economy plan. I’d say, though, that it may not be just a question of ‘the best tariff for our usage pattern’ but also of ‘the best usage pattern for our tariff.’

When they replace the THTC meters with a smart meter, do you still get the electric shower and the fitted electric heater on a cheap rate 24/7, the same as THTC !!

If you’re staying on THTC, then yes you would. Going to Smart Meters by itself would NOT change this.

If you’re being moved to any other tariff, then it’d be based on whatever tariff you select - please discuss with OVO before making a choice. Please note however, that ALL usage on Economy 7/Economy 7 type tariffs would be at the cheaper Off-Peak rate so you’d want to take advantage of that. However, ALL usage during Peak hours would be charged at Peak rates so you will want to think about this carefully.

Thanks for the reply,

I took out storage heaters, and replaced with air source, so would I be better off just going for a single tariff, if possible !! Its only immersion that still on the twice daily tariff,

shower, towel rails, electric fire and air source all on same cheap rate tariff 24/7,

Dont know if its best to keep diferent tariffs or try and get one standard tariff,