For some reason, just today my IHD has Emergency Credit on the main screen with a line and green dot saying selected next to it, even though we have plenty of credit for both gas and electric, never shown this before, or is this a new thing, as a I’ve not touched any settings on it?
See photos..
Best answer by Blastoise186
Updated on 08/08/25 by Abby_OVO
Hmm… Curious…
So the electric meter is reporting healthy credit and in a normal state and the gas meter reports healthy credit, Non-Disconnect hours and a message is waitng for you…
You might want to read that message on the gas meter. Enter the menu with C and you’ll find the option to read it in there. Please tell me what it says.
If it’s the same message that showed on the IHD it says Gas Meter Initialised, but will go look at the actual meter now….
As a I suspected exactly the same message that showed on my IHD
Ok, you can delete that via either the IHD or gas meter to get rid of it from both of them. It’s just basically confirming that a config change went through.
You might want to let OVO know about this in the morning - just to be safe.
+9Hi
That’s weird but shouldn’t be a problem. Please can you check the credit balances on the meters themselves and show us photos of those too?
+9Hmm… Curious…
So the electric meter is reporting healthy credit and in a normal state and the gas meter reports healthy credit, Non-Disconnect hours and a message is waitng for you…
You might want to read that message on the gas meter. Enter the menu with C and you’ll find the option to read it in there. Please tell me what it says.
If it’s the same message that showed on the IHD it says Gas Meter Initialised, but will go look at the actual meter now….
As a I suspected exactly the same message that showed on my IHD
+9Updated on 08/08/25 by Abby_OVO
Hmm… Curious…
So the electric meter is reporting healthy credit and in a normal state and the gas meter reports healthy credit, Non-Disconnect hours and a message is waitng for you…
You might want to read that message on the gas meter. Enter the menu with C and you’ll find the option to read it in there. Please tell me what it says.
If it’s the same message that showed on the IHD it says Gas Meter Initialised, but will go look at the actual meter now….
As a I suspected exactly the same message that showed on my IHD
Ok, you can delete that via either the IHD or gas meter to get rid of it from both of them. It’s just basically confirming that a config change went through.
You might want to let OVO know about this in the morning - just to be safe.
Yes I will do thankyou
+4Hey
Sorry to hear about this issue with the IHD.
You’ve had some great help from Blastoise186 on this. Let us know how things are this morning and what the Support Team say.
Does anyone else have problems with the online chat?
I had an issue with my IHD, not being able to access the emergency credit function. Despite explaining several times what the problem was I was told that emergency credit could only be accessed through the meter and only when the balance was below £2. I explained that I have previously been able to activate the credit on the IHD when it goes below £5. I was then sent info on how to activate emergency credit on the meter. I told the advisor that I am at my mum as my dad passed away this week and my 21year old was at home and unable to access the meter. I was offered “friendly credit “ but declined as I didn’t want the debt as I can top up tomorrow I just wanted the IHD to work properly. I gave up after 50 with no solution and being asked irrelevant questions such as should be make a note on your account that your dad has died. I found the whole experience upsetting and stressful.
why are OVO advisors not helpful?
According to the OVO website If your balance falls below £2, your smart meter will offer you the option to use emergency credit.
https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/article/activate-emergency-credit
+4Hi
I’m sorry to hear about the experience you had over webchat.
It does sound like they offered to do everything they could at the time, they can’t activate emergency credit remotely, this has to be done in person through the meter or IHD.
On the point of the balance required to activate emergency credit, I checked in with the PAYG team about this just to be sure as the amount does differ per meter type. They have said for smart meters it should allow you to activate below £5. From some parts you mention, was this not appearing on the IHD yet at the time? Could you please let me know where the meter is located? Is it located somewhere inaccessible to access the emergency credit?
I am really sorry for the situation you were also dealing with during the interaction, but as mentioned the team did everything they could to support where they could. You can always raise a complaint if you feel this wasn’t dealt with correctly.
I have taken this away to have the web article updated, as well as try and get this fed back to agent teams.
It was the issue with the IHD I wanted resolved and I know this can be done remotely. It showing emergency credit was available but it could not be activated when he pressed yes.
The meter is easily accessible but I had the key with my house keys so he wasn’t able to open the meter box.
yes OVO did try and support me but did nothing to resolve the issue that I had raised.
I have since turned my IHD off for 24 hours and this did not resolve the problem.
Can’t face wasting nearly an hour of my time again not being listened to by an advisor
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OVO Energy Ltd, Floor 5, Crescent, Temple Back, Redcliffe, BS1 6EZ, (Company no. 06890795) registered in England and Wales.
OVO (S) Gas Limited is registered in England and Wales (Company No. 02716495) at Floor 5, Crescent, Temple Back, Redcliffe, BS1 6EZ.
OVO (S) Gas Limited is part of OVO Group Ltd
