Why do I get estimated readings in my bill when I have a smart meter?

Why does OVO keep requesting meter reading when I have a Smart Meter?

Hi ​@Snowflame ,

The two most likely reasons are:

• Your meter hasn’t been sending readings recently
• You requested Monthly readings rather than Daily/Half-Hourly

You can fix the former via the tool at https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com and the latter by talking to OVO Support to increase the read frequency OR by changing your preferences in the app.

Hey ​@Snowflame 

Blastoise has already given some very helpful advice here. I just wanted to add the following topic which you may find helpful:
 

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently switched to a smart meter with Ovo Energy, and I’m really happy with the convenience. However, I’ve noticed some discrepancies in the energy usage readings compared to my previous manual meter readings.

I’m wondering if there are any tips or steps I can take to ensure that my smart meter readings are as accurate as possible. Is there any way to reduce fluctuations or errors in data? Additionally, I’ve heard about the option to reset or calibrate smart meters does anyone know if this helps with accuracy?

Thanks!

What sort of discrepancies are you seeing? 

Smart meters provide two sets of data: the half-hourly usage figures (so long as you’ve selected the half-hourly option) and the meter readings, which will be taken daily unless you’ve selected the monthly option. The difference between two days’ readings will match the sum of the usage figures for the day to within < 2Wh. These two sets are retrieved from the meter separately once daily for most customers.

Smart meters are precision instruments, manufactured to exacting tolerances and certified to meet government requirements for accuracy. There’s not likely to be any question of the precision of the figures you’re seeing, if they’re indeed coming from the meter and not from OVO’s sometimes fanciful estimations.

Hey ​@BenColeman 

We have several topics related to this question but it depends really what discrepancies you’re referring to?
 

Do any of these resources help?

The discrepancies I’ve noticed are mostly between my manual readings (taken periodically before the switch) and the daily usage data shown in the OVO app it’s consistently about 5-8% higher now.

I didn’t realize the half-hourly vs. daily data could play a role, so that’s helpful to know. Just to clarify:

If the meter’s daily readings are accurate (as you mentioned, being precision instruments), could the difference be due to how OVO processes or estimates the data before displaying it in the app?

Or might my previous manual readings have been less precise (e.g., human error or meter aging)?

I’ll double-check if I’m on half-hourly or monthly readings in my settings. Appreciate the insight about the <2Wh tolerance that gives me a good benchmark to compare.

(If you’ve encountered this before, any tips on how to reconcile historical vs. smart meter data would be great too!)

That’s not likely, unless the old meter was well past its best-before date. If the old usage data you’re seeing are based on actual readings and not estimates, then they should be accurate to within a kWh or two because any decimals are ignored when readings are submitted manually. A reading could be 123.999 kWh, but it would be entered as 123 kWh. If the next day’s reading were 124.000, that would be entered as 124. The day’s usage would thus be recorded as 1.000 kWh, which is … errr ... 1000 times too big!

A smart meter stores readings exactly at midnight (GMT) each day. You may be able to check the reading that will eventually appear in your online account against the one available on your IHD on the dot of midnight, so long as you don’t have a split-rate tariff like Economy 7.

It might make it easier for us to spot the discrepancies you’re seeing if you could share screenshots or tabular figures - we might even be able to come up with a reasonable explanation! 

I have moved into a new place within the last 2 months (1 bed 1 bath, very small, all electric) and every time I submit a meter reading I get told they are lower than expected. 

There are two of us living here, and we are both students so we are very frugal - we never have the heating on, we always have the lights off unless it is night-time and we are not asleep, and we only turn the water heater on before our showers. 

So when we submit readings and it says 'this is lower than expected' we believed we would have lower bills as a result. However, we are frequently being charged upwards of £70 a month, more than we have ever paid in flats before this where we had gas and had flatmates who used the energy excessively.

We are sadly not eligible for a smart meter, but would like some guidance as to why our bills are so high for our usage, and any tips to reduce it (that arent 'turn off lights, dont have heating on, switch things off at plugs' - as we are already doing all that).

How often are you submitting meter readings ?