Spike in energy usage during vacation

Hi @Krish 

Welcome to the customer forum, i am just a customer like you. 

No one on the forum can access your account. 

Have a look at this page where you see actual meter reading. 

This is what you are actually billed

https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings/history/electricity

If you want to contact ovo about account specific issues

https://help.ovoenergy.com/#contact_us_container

Or a direct message rather than a general post on their twitter or Facebook feed

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https://twitter.com/ovoenergy

Hi @Krish as Jeffus suggests, look at the readings recorded. Where others have seen and described something like this there have been estimated readings. It’s worth checking

Hi @Jeffus @BPLightlog ,

Thanks for your response. However, I don't see any readings recorded from Mar 7 - Apr 2. Please note that I moved to this apartment on Mar 7th. 

Thanks,

Krish

Hi @Krish interesting that there’s a large gap between 7th March and 2nd April for readings. Is it possible that the usage was just catching up during that time and so the daily level is not so accurate?

Was a request made to change the readings from monthly to daily or hourly ?

@juliamc No request was made from my side. 

@BPLightlog There seems to be something off, I don't see any meter readings but usage was marked. I am raising this again with customer support. Thanks for all your help

@Jeffus Thanks again, so provided the smart meter readings get updated in 6weeks or so, should I expect an updated usage and refund for additional bill paid. 

You may never see those missing smart meter readings filled in on the readings page. The 6 weeks is the time it can take for that first good reading to appear and the subsequent readings to settle down. Yours did this on the 2nd April. 

If you moved in on 7th March, i am guessing your first bill was something like 7th March to 6th April.

So you have a good smart meter readings on the day you moved in and on 2nd April, and then every day. 

So the bill will be fine. 

The 2nd April reading correctly covers the missing readings on 8th March to 1st  April automatically.

The bill will be accurate. You won't get a refund as you haven't paid too much. 

The usage page may never update, but you are not billed using that data.

Yours is actually one of the better examples as your readings settled down before the first bill finished. 

@Jeffus Got it. Thanks. The bill was £190 and usage around 420kw, which I feel is quite high provided we were out for 10 days that month. But that is something I should work with the OVO support. Thanks for all your inputs

You should get a better idea in the next bill or looking at the usage page but only from 3rd April onwards. 

The Day usage tab is useful as it will show to the nearest 30min when you are using electricity. You should be able to see any spikes or any large continuous electricity usage for things like fridge freezers or anything left on by mistake etc.

Feel free to post any queries in the future. 

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage?datePeriod=daily&unit=kwh&fuel=electricity

If you have any concerns about the meter itself you can run a creep test yourself

• I think my meter is clocking too fast - How can I test if my high usage is due to a faulty meter?

Hope all goes well in your new property. 

Hi all

New forum member 1st time poster. So apologies if this is a post that has been previously addressed.

We have noticed that we are having one hour spikes in electricity usage showing up on our data from the smart meter. Usually one appears around 01:00 to 02:00 and a second one around 06:00 to 07:00 (approximate times).  Occasionally we get one around 17:30 as well.  I work shifts so have been up and about ensuring that all electrical appliances are off. Fridge and Freezer not running as well as heating, lap tops etc. We have even tried to switch off the random items such as the Sky box in case of a it being a random download etc (don’t think they would consume a kilowatt in an hour in any case?).

Immersion heater is also definitely off overnight. No house alarm, external sensor lights are energy saving bulbs on a PIR and usually rarely activated.

We have solar panels fitted with an independent energy meter that confirms this load alongside the OVO app.

Currently we are seeing usage of around 2kw before the main part of the day has even began.   
 

I have looked around for answers - one

possible explanation is that this is the standing charge being added? 
 

Would just like to get some clarification and or to see if other users have noticed this phenomenon?

Oh btw it’s the KWH usage, I’ve attached an image from our solar usage app that mirrors the OVO data. At the time of the reading I was home from work and checked all appliances were off.

Can I ask where this consumption data comes from @Broken2 ?

Many of the ancillary measurement systems (including solar) are not completely accurate and so the answer may depend on that. 
Do you have a smart meter?

Good morning 

Thanks for your  reply ⬆️ 

Came home from work this morning and checked both OVO and solar apps to find that we were apparently using 1kw again. Checked all over and  no apparent appliances  which would use that level of electricity on. 
 

Decision was to throw hands up in the air and put the kettle on and damn the meters.  Took off work boots and walked to the sink to fill up the kettle, noticed that the normally cold floor tiles seemed warm underfoot….  Yes, we have electric under floor heating fitted, eureka moment. 

Checked the digital switch for the heating mounted in the utility closet which was supposed to be, off.  Blank screen found -indicating it was  off or so I thought.  Switched  it on to see a ‘flame’ signal and a temp indicating it was drawing power and reading a temp of 19 degrees. I dug out the manuals for the system to discover that even when it’s in the ‘off position’ there is an automatic min temp  setting option which in this case was set to 20 degrees by the installers. That’s now reset to a more conservative 12 degrees. 
 

It may seem trivial but 2kw a night soon adds up and, for no real benefit in this situation. 

The moral of this story is trust the meters and keep searching room by room - it’s there to find even by accident as it turned out!

Case closed I’m relieved to say. 
 

Thanks for reading. 

Good that you found out @Broken2 . So if all else fails,  ‘take shoes off to check for heat’ 😂

All week my meter usage is a normally the same , approx £1.36 a day , and that’s me at home cooking , washing etc, so how come on a Saturday when we were away all weekend , nobody at home , that my usage doubled !!!!

Hi @winkvyner 

Sorry to hear this.

Where is it you’re viewing this data? If you’re looking at the IHD it could be estimated and may not be accurate.

Have you checked the meter readings themselves on your online account? It could be that those have been estimated?  

Let us know if you’ve there are meter readings for the weekend or if the usage has been estimated. 

It’s on my ovo energy user app , now this is puzzling , because when I last looked at Saturday 12th reading it was £2.83 for Saturday but it now miraculously seems to have come down to £1.63 🤷🏼‍♀️, which considering there was nobody in the house from 8.30 am on 12/10/24 until 1pm on 13/10/24, it’s still more than days in the week when washing,  oozing , heating etc was in use 

If you check the actual meter readings on your app you should see what data OVO uses to produce this graph. Unless you have a smart meter with half hour data I think the usage graph is a ‘best guess’ of your usage. 

Hey @winkvyner 

As juliamc mentioned, those graphs are more of a guide for your usage, and are not used for billing. The best place to check the accuracy of your usage, would be the meter readings section. This is what you’ll be billed on and show if we’re receiving meter readings, if you’ve got a smart meter.

We’ve got a couple of similar topics that may also be helpful:

Hope this helps.