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Can my smart meter be tested to make sure it is accurate and not over clocking?

  • 3 October 2017
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I've always been a little suspicious of my meter readings and changing to a smart meter has not altered that. There are just two of us living in a four bed house. We cook with electric and use gas for water/central heating. We also have solar for water which reduces the bill substantially through the summer. However, our DD has always been between £150 and £178 per month, whereas most of our friends are paying sub £100. We've recently compared bills, usage and costs per kWh with friends who houses and lifestyles are comparable to ours and their DDs range from £60 - £80 pm. How can we be so far adrift?
I would like my meters checked to ensure that they are measuring correctly. Can this be arranged?

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Best answer by Lucy_OVO 12 October 2017, 15:15

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Updated on 21/07/23 by Emmanuelle_OVO

 

 

 

High Usage costs?

 

It is very rare for Smart meters to clock your usage inaccurately, particularly if it’s showing the same level of usage as the meter that was replaced. As with most things in life, making usage comparisons with other households is not always as easy as it seems, as there are many factors which could explain the differences you have seen in your monthly energy costs.

 

We’ve put together this great guide to ways you could reduce your monthly bills and would highly recommend checking out the Centre for Sustainable Energy - who can give impartial energy-saving advice.



Inaccurate Meters

 

If you’ve explored all other possibilities and are still concerned about the accuracy of your meter, you can arrange to have a meter accuracy test (MAT) or an OFMAT for gas. You can request this by contacting our Support Team - they may recommend you carry out a creep test before arranging an engineers visit, find out how to carry this out here.

 

There is a up-front charge for the engineer to carry out these accuracy tests, more info on costs here. A meter is deemed faulty if it’s clocking too fast by at least 2.5% or slow by at least 3.5%. In this case the cost of the appointment will be reimbursed but it’s worth considering carefully before scheduling the appointment as there is no guarantee what the outcome of the test will be.

 

If found to be faulty, we will need to complete a faulty meter exchange. and once the faulty meter exchange has been completed we will be able to re-bill your account, factoring in the results of the MAT test.

 

Tracking your Usage

 

One of the great benefits of having a Smart meter is you’ll get much great visibility as to what might be using energy around your home and when your usage peaks.

 

You can ask our Support Team to set the meter to send us a reading every half an hour, which will allow you to see a really accurate breakdown on the ‘Usage’ page of your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS). More info of getting the most out of these graphs here - 

 

 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

 

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

 

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