When is 'friendly credit' or non disconnect mode

This isnt always true.

My heating turned off at 6.10am today

The gas supply was off.…

I had emergency credit.

I prompted it the night before to use the e-credit, I was low, on my last 2quid and you get a warning.

This should be automatic or at least instant like with the old keys you used to get.

Also, im in the no disconnect period.

Why did it turn off? I KNOW it was on early this morning cos my heaters were still warm.

OVO cant do anything right

I leave in March

Hi ​@thereturn 

Emergency Credit has ALWAYS required you to manually accept the offer - regardless of meter type. Putting the key/card in was the old way and was actually to place a message on the key/card that you were using EmCr so the supplier would be notified automatically at the next top-up.

Auto-reconnection is banned for safety reasons - you can’t risk a gas leak or an iron left on!

​@Blastoise186 

HAH!

I had ALREADY requested it….

You completely missed out the actual issue, why was meter off supply during “non-disconnect hours”

See, when I request it on my meter its before the emergency runs out, and then we get to emergency it is automatically done for me.

For example, I can be on emergency credit warning when I come home on an evening.
I will accept the prompt and press “E-cred”.
Then in the morning or later than evening I will here its little jingle telling me my emergency has come on.

You always give slightly wrong very skewed towards OVO advice, B.


Also, its not banned.
Its OVOs policy
I've had other meters with other companies within the past 3 years that do still do this.
You put your card in, key in, landlord token, and WHAM instant Gas or Electric.

If you run out of credit (including EmCr) before Friendly Credit hours activate, you will go off-supply immediately and it won’t come back on even during FC/ND hours - this is not OVO specific.

If you accept/request EmCr when the offer is made to you regardless of meter type then it will engage automatically when the regular balance hits zero - but it will disengage if you top-up before then.

Auto-reconnection from being off-supply is what’s banned, not flipping over to EmCr/ND functionality. Smart Meters are more likely to request manual approval from the customer to restore supply after a top-up than some of the older meters were - but with gas it’s 100% mandatory to have the customer manually approve the action for safety 100% of the time.

see!   (inb4 “theyre not smart theyre different nurrrhhh” Read what I said and what was said back.)

“This should be automatic or at least instant like with the old keys you used to get.” I lamented.

“Auto-reconnection is banned for safety reasons - you can’t risk a gas leak or an iron left on!”

below shows thats not the case….


 

The items you have highlighted were for Traditional Prepayment Electric Meters - the steps are not the same on Smart Meters because there is no key slot on them.

However, the concept is basically the same - you have to manually request/accept/approve EmCr when the meter offers it to you - it won’t engage without your permission. The exact method for doing so depends on your meter, but the principle is the same regardless of supplier/meter type.

If you accept EmCr before your main credit runs out, the supply stays on - that applies across ALL suppliers and meters.

“Auto-reconnection from being off-supply is what’s banned,”

THAT makes more sense ​@Blastoise186 
an important distinction to make….

I appreciate the safety issue, with the other meters and the keys I imagine its doing a similar request thing its just so much quicker though.

Often people are off supply and use their emergency to reactivate it, don't they? That's a manual request, reinserting the key, but instant on the customer end.

And yeah, I ran out of credit late in the evening like 8pm or so?

I did the request when I got home at around 5pm cos I was in low credit.
 

That is permitted, yes. You can restore supply via EmCr if you have any available - the meter will first give you the EmCr Offer and once accepted, it will authorise the supply to be restored.

Worth noting that Smart Meters usually require you to initiate supply restore after activating EmCr/topping up mainly due to the fact you can do so remotely and might not be at home when the credit lands. This is why you have to then approve it manually - it gives you a chance to make sure you didn’t leave the iron on or the gas cooker running.

Better that than a house fire!

“However, the concept is basically the same - you have to manually request/accept/approve EmCr when the meter offers it to you - it won’t engage without your permission. The exact method for doing so depends on your meter, but the principle is the same regardless of supplier/meter type.”

except it can take up 30mins or longer….

“emergency” credit….

“If you accept EmCr before your main credit runs out, the supply stays on - that applies across ALL suppliers and meters.”

Then what happened in my case?

I came home, accepted “e-cred” before 6pm, heating was on.
after 6pm my credit ran out, by around 8pm I got the jingle and my heating was on.
When I woke up at about 5.45am heating was on
6.10am I’m off supply
you can see I’m still off at 6.44, I could still feel warmth in the radiators.

So I got disconnected when I shouldn't have been

seperately...

It takes too long to get back on supply

 

Once you top-up a Smart Meter, you can use the UTRN Code to force the credit through immediately if waiting isn’t convenient and/or it doesn’t come through automatically. There is no penalty for doing so - the meter will sort itself out if the credit later comes through by simply disregarding the duplicate transaction.

I don’t know what happened in your case and I can’t find out myself - you’d need to have OVO run diagnostics for that.

And whats the UTRN code for emergency credit B?

Unique Transaction Reference Number - it’s a long code on the receipt whenever you buy credit.

There isn’t one for EmCr - it’s not for that purpose.

Then how would that help here?

 

Many folks read the Forum, so my advice is always written with that in mind. My answers may seem strange but it’s based on experience and what works for the community.

That probably wouldn't benefit anybody, only confuse the matter.

Its a separate fix for a separate issue.

OVOs emergency credit policy is clumsy, slow and basically is putting people in danger with their CPAP machine etc.

I think we should leave it there.