Switched supplier: Economy 7 smart meter not sending reads and IHD needs re-configuring?

Hi @MikeMilf , yes, with any switch, the meters take a while to get back in sync. If they behaved previously they should be ok. Worth keeping an eye on them and a manual reading in the meantime helps smooth your usage level

Thank you for a swift reply

I did think that would be the case as everything appears to be working but thought it best to ask

Will keep an eye on things as you say!

keep an eye on it!  I was with Shell moved on the 13th April, still can’t see any data 4 months later, apart from 2 days in May when it worked!!!!  I can see my data in Loop so obviously an issue between OVO and the DCC not my meter.  Somewhat fed up now!

Hmmm that doesnt sound encouraging. What is it like dealing with Ovo customer services? I was with SEB for many years and towards the end (post Ovo merger) their support and website was utterly appalling

I got a smart meter around a year ago, and never did get my data linked to my website account. On the other hand it linked to the phone app inside a week…..go figure lol

Speaking of which, the Ovo website now says it is receiving data so I will check for readings and ongoing bill over the weekend. Fingers crossed.

bit rubbish, I have had 3 web chats and the issue is still ongoing. I can see the data in loop but its still annoying and I have to give manual meter readings.  Also my opening meter reading was messed up so my billing has been a shambles!

Yup….we now have 4 days of smart meter readings shown on my account, but my actual usage/billing isnt updating. Will give it another seven days

On a separate note (and forum discussion) my smart meter/IHD seems to have gone out of sync with my off peak circuits in my home. According to the tariff times shown my IHD, 2am (dont ask) is peak rate and only switches to off peak at 6am

This presumably means that whenever my off peak circuits switch on at midnight, I am going to get charged full rate. Yes I did check that all the switches in my immersion cupboad were as they should be. I only noticed there was an issue as my IHD was showing a red usage light…..something that has never happened previously since having it installed

Your IHD isn’t the ‘rule’ for peak and off-peak timing. As you suggest, it’s probably just out of sync. It might need a command to put it back from the support team. 

Aye I know you are right…..

Something has definitely changed though as I checked my tariff on the IHD in Early July to make sure SEB had reduced prices following the price cap change

Is there a way of contacting support directly without  going through customer services?

You could try webchat 

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

That’s not likely. If the meter has been properly configured, it will clock all usage on the appropriate register according to the time configuration. This is regardless of any switching of circuits that might take place. So even though the IHD shows something different, usage in the specified off-peak period will be charged at the off-peak rate.

When your online account settles down, you’ll see that there’s not a precise relationship between half-hourly and daily usage figures. That’s because the daily figures are taken from the meter readings themselves, but half-hourly usage is taken from the consumption figures that DCC provides.

Your bills are always calculated from the meter readings. You’ll see the peak and off-peak figures on the Readings page, so you can check whether there’s any great difference between the aggregate half-hourly usage in the off-peak period and the difference between the meter readings for the same register on the same day. It should be quite obvious if two hours of immersion heater usage (perhaps 6kWh) are wrongly recorded on the peak register. 

Thank you for that detailed reply…..appreciated!

I took the time to write down the various tariff rate and time changes from my IHD, and according to that everything is reversed. I am supposedly getting 14 off peak and 10 peak hours….so in effect Economy 14. Thats okay in summer perhaps but when the night storage heaters start being used I want to make sure they get charged up at off peak rates!

I need to know if my meter is out of sync with the offpeak circuits in my flat, or if its just a corruption of my IHD data

Unfortunately, whilst meter readings are showing on my online account, usage and billing are not being updated. The meter readings do look a bit ‘peak heavy’ but at the moment Im trusting to luck and I dont like it

Before you say ‘contact support’ I tried the link and what transpired got me to screaming point. Three times I opened a session, answered security and some dumb standard questions from the bot, then sat like a lemon for around 45 mins waiting for a service agent to connect. Apparently I was always number 1 in the queue so I guess I was reallllll unlucky haha

I know I havent got the technical knowledge, but i do work with numbers for a living, so I know something isnt right…..I just dont know if its serious or not

Can anyone offer a way of getting someone technical on the phone who can send check my setup and perhaps send a remote reset command or suchlike?

Many Thanks in advance

There is no remote reset of that kind. The best option is https://smart-meter-help.ovoenergy.com and then leave it with the team.

Appreciate the link - have filled in the form. 250 chars was…...challenging haha!

Will respond within 45 days??!!!??? flippin ell

This sounds as if your account is now on OVO’s latest billing system. Does your Readings history page look like this?
  

If so, you may be able to see the way your meter is set up to record usage on the various registers. If what follows becomes too technical, please forgive me and ignore it 🙂

First, get hold of your meter configuration details: while signed in to your account (e.g while viewing that readings page), open a new tab in the same browser session and visit this page: 
smartpaymapi.ovoenergy.com/orex/api/supply-points/account/1234567 
substituting your own account number for the last seven characters in that URL. 

This should show you a page with JSON data about your meter. It may be an impenetrable mess, or if you’re lucky it may be quite legible - it depends on your browser’s capabilities. This is what my E7 configuration looks like:
  

Each meter register is called a “tier”, each with its own number,  “timeOfUseLabel” (TOU) and  “timePatternRegime” (TPR). Make a note of these details.

Then download and open this PDF: TPR_Reference_sheet_2022.pdf (engie.co.uk) to enable you to decode the TPRs. The table is arranged for the convenience of electricity distributors, not consumers, so the second column with TPRs is sadly not in numerical order. That’s why you have to use Search to find the ones you’re looking for. Each one has five digits, so you have to add leading zeroes to make up the numbers. Mine are thus 00040 and 00206, and this is what I learn from the table:

The times are in UTC, so there may be an hour’s difference during BST.

I’d be very interested to see what your E10 setup looks like if you made it this far. Does it seem to match your expectations, even though the IHD may have different ideas?

Well I managed to get the data (see below). Found the TPR codes on that PDF and allowing for BST the times do match my expectations, however they are the complete reverse of what shows on my IHD

For instance TPR 374 gives off peak at 00:00 to 05:00 yet when I check my IHD at say 3am, I see a red light on the IHD and hourly usage shows at around £1.35. With SEB it was always around 85p

Not sure if its just my IHD has corrupted, or its someone with fat fingers at Ovo…..trouble is i have to wait 6 weeks for my usage and billing to update due to “verification”

Sincere thanks for getting involved…..youve certainly gone above and beyond 👍

As an example, as of right now at 10:35, my tariff shows at 25.96p with next change to 34.86p at 14:00

Even allowing for the 1 hour BST this should be peak rate ie the higher figure

When I switched  on my offpeak switch just now, the light doesnt come on. so my flat doesnt think it is in a cheap rate period

Good to hear the meter’s set up correctly, @MikeMilf. Top self serving workaround from our non-engineer engineer, Firedog. Mike I’d wait 6 weeks till your switch date and if the IHD is still showing those registers round the wrong way, ask for it to be repaired with our Support team. If that doesn’t work you’ve already raised the issue with the Smart team so you can sit back and wait for those 45 days. 

Nothing showing on the IHD affects your billing or charges. 

Yup...I think I should get some perspective and just wait the six weeks, by which time I should have my first bill

Looking at the meter readings on the website, overall I think the daily readings are in range, whether they are chargd tt the correct rate just needs confirmation

Guess I should sign off for now and give you guys some peace! Will report back if anything of significance develops

All of this input helps us to look at other’s experiences better @MikeMilf so no worries about following up 😁

Yes I know I said I would wait six weeks and I guess I have to, but this development has me a little concerned

For the last three days I have kept my off peak circuit for the immersion tank mainly switched off, purely to get some baseline readings so to speak. I then only turn it on at 2pm (I work from home) to take advantage of the cheap rate

What concerns me is that looking on my account, it is the peak rate readings that are spiking a bit not the off-peak which are staying pretty much static day to day

Every time I switch the immersion on, my IHD light goes immediately red (as I have previosly mentioned), which never happened with SEB.

Whilst I know you said the status/settings of my IHD wont affect my bill, but this doesnt seem to be born out by what Im seeing. I just dont fancy being overcharged and then trying to get a credit. My own experience is that easier to find rocking horse muck, than get accounts staff to understand technical matters

PS You guys have been brilliant, so no offence intended

Hey @MikeMilf,

I just had a similar query from another Community Member:

Based on the research I’ve done, I imagine that after the switch your IHD has reverted back to assigning ‘high’ or ‘low’ usage colors based on average consumption. After a while, your IHD will learn your habits and adjust everything on your energy use. 

However, as for the consumption issues with the meter itself, I’d advise performing a ‘load test’ to see if your peak/off peak are clocking when they should: 

How do I tell my day and night readings apart?

If you’re unsure which reading is which sometimes the readings will be labelled - high and low or day and night. If not you might be able to check the current reading against your reading history on the ‘Meter Readings’ page of your online account.

If you can’t work it out using these methods the next step is to carry out a Load Test​. This involves taking two sets of readings at midday and during the afternoon. Only one reading should change between these times which will be your daytime register. 

Erm with the greatest of respect thats exactly what Ive already done and mentioned in my previous post

I had everything else in my flat switched off or on standby. I then turned on my immersion heater on for 3 hours at a time that should be off peak rate (2pm to 5pm) and went out so nothing else was being used. The offpeak light in my immersion cupboard came on as it should so my flat certainly thought it was in an off peak time,

Having done this twice now, on separate days, when I check my meter readings it is the  peak, not off peak readings that have jumped.

Ive been told I have to wait six weeks, but im seeing a problem develop here and would sooner nip it in the bud

Wow Jessica that is an incredibly useful response.

Whilst a speedy resolution doesnt look like likely, it certainly helps  that Im not barking up the wrong tree.

My overall usage is currently pretty low, but there is a definite spike in peak readings on days where Ive done the load test (which sounds identical to how you do it). I will do some more, only a little more scientifically with dates/times as you suggest. Incidentally does your IHD instantly go red as well?

Because my summer usage is low this isnt going to cripple me, but I must get this sorted before my offpeak night storage heaters start becoming necessary.

Finally, may I enquire how receptive CS were to realising there might be a problem? I only ask because whilst I was with SEB I had to endure a billing problem which only got resolved via the formal complaints procedure (I won).

Also did you contact them directly by phone first or did you have to endure a chatbot or webform first?

Anyways, sincerest thanks again for relaying such useful info. Lets hope we both get this sorted. At least the forum team know there is a problem that others may run into.

This is really interesting, so thanks @JessicaRose  for unravelling this mystery. I should have spotted the fault when @MikeMilf posted his meter configuration.

I discovered earlier that DCC insists on treating the first tier (in Mike’s case, that would be Register 0 labelled Tier 1) as the peak register - it would naturally be the only register for a single-rate supply. So I was quite wrong in assuming that your (identical?) configurations were working properly since the peak/off-peak TPR settings were right. But if DCC is pushing register readings the wrong way round, this will of course affect billing and it looks like there will be a real mess to clear up for all those E10 customers recently migrated to OVO. 

The aspersions that have been heaped on your ‘misbehaving’ IHDs seem to have been misplaced: the red lights worked to alert you to an apparent fault, and they were reporting peak/off-peak usage correctly, as far as I can tell from Jessica’s report.

It would be helpful to know what make/models of meter and IHD are involved here, in case the fault is confined to particular types of meter. 

We’ve all learnt something valuable today 🙂