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Can I get a SMETS2 smart meter installation when I sign up to OVO?

  • 24 August 2018
  • 78 replies
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78 replies

Ive recently been informed by Lumo that they won't be installing smet1 after the 16th March, so I've gone for an install on the 29th I'm in Essex so take it that counts as the south.
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I've just witnessed a SMETS2 installation by OVO at a mate's house in Devon. Details and photo are on another thread here.

So it seems like they are not always going to wait until 16th. It probably depends how many engineers are SMETS2 trained in your geographical region.

And, on that note, the thoroughness of the OVO training was immediately obvious in the way the engineer carried out the job. Knowing I was present, he kindly spoke out loud as he was carrying out each step of the process. There's a strong audit-trail including the need for him to submit 23 photos of parts of the installation. He also enters codes into an OVO App which record things like the type of mains incomer to the property and the physical status of the wiring.

Well done OVO! This fully vindicates your decision to phase out the use of 3rd party meter installers.
Funny now just had my appointment for the 29th cancelled and told to book new one only appointments available is the 14th and 15th of March going to given them dates a miss
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Hey @Stewieb ... you had a Smart Meter installation booked to occur on the same date as Brexit?!

Not surprised it was cancelled. There's only so much stress one can take in a day! 😯
Hey @Stewieb ... you had a Smart Meter installation booked to occur on the same date as Brexit?!

Not surprised it was cancelled. There's only so much stress one can take in a day! 😯

More likely to get the meter install then a deal getting done 😀
I asked for a SMETS2 a couple of weeks ago and was told "we do not fit SMETS2 in your area at present", ie Suffolk, which is odd because surely fitting SMETS1 is supposed to finish on March 15th, ie less than 2 weeks away, after that date they no longer count in the jobs completed.
I declined the offer to join the SMETS1 queue, I guess I'll have to wait until whatever technicality is preventing Suffolk being covered is sorted out!
Hi

Currently have a SMETS 1 meters installed in our property and I am tinking of switching to Ovo.

When switching is there anything I need to do with the Smart meter or the new account?
Has anybody had any problems when switching suppliers?

Are Ovo rolling out SMETS 21 meters in the Wiltshire Area?

Kind regards

Steve
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For everything you need to know about switching to us with smart meters, @Steven10, take a look at this topic.

We'll eventually be rolling out SMETS2 meters everywhere, read through this topic for more information. 🙂
Many thanks, very useful
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@Steven10 you might also want to read here where I've given an overview of my own SMETS2 installation last week.

If you've already got SMETS1 meters, it's most likely that they will simply receive a software upgrade to operate with the SMETS2 protocols. I have no idea how this occurs for customers who move to OVO, but whose meters are from an earlier Energy Supplier whose meters OVO didn't ever use.

Perhaps @Eva_OVO can find someone in OVO who knows more about that please?
Before I take the leap to go smart I want to get assurances from OVO that I will get a Smets 2 meter, that it will not cause issues with my PV system and that they can cope with an old house with thick walls and large gaps between the gas and electricity meters.
How do I talk to someone without being charged for contacting them as my contract will penalise me for contacting OVO?
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Hi @Grumpypurple Welcome to the OVO Forum.

I checked your Profile to see which geographical area you're in, but it's still blank. Please fill it in, then we can better answer such questions. Thanks.

PV system... if installing a Smart Meter disrupted a pre-existing PV system, then it wouldn't have passed the certification process! If, however, your existing meter is providing you with particular facilities which aid your usage of PV, then please say what these are here.

Thick walls and distances between the two meters is usually overcome by installing a Zigbee Repeater in a suitable location within the house. This is mains-connected but takes negligible power.

Most of these issues are covered during the installation process itself. There's not much that can be achieved by talking to OVO at this stage. You'd actually get far more extensive information from this Forum!
Can OVO please advise if they are now (June 2019) fitting SMETS2 meters in the Lancashire area?
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Please read through the above feed, @samread, you'll find all the info you need. 😊
if i request a smart meter now can you guarentee a SMET 2 meter
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Take a look at the best answer, @brianelectgas, the link will let you know if there's SMETS2 appointments in your area!
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Hi @brianelectgas - just to make things clearer, please note that Lancashire addresses are in the Northern Territory of the National Smart Meter Network.

The company overseeing the roll-out of SMETS2 meters in your area is Arqiva and they use meters manufactured by EDMI. You can read more of the background on this Topic about SMETS2 Installation.

The network communications in Arqiva's territory are different to those in the Central and Southern areas of Britain. It is taking longer to ramp up the volume of SMETS2 Meters in the North.

Most of the comments you read about SMETS2 meters on the OVO Forum are currently from customers like myself, who live in areas served by Telefonica's meter communications network. However, we would like to hear more from customers like yourself. Your experience of getting SMETS2 Meters in the Northern Territory would be a very useful addition to the pool of knowledge available here.

So please let us know what happens, even if everything goes wonderfully well and you experience no problems!

And please fill out your Forum Profile, because that's where I look for basic information about correspondents here. Thanks.
I had my SMETS 2 meter installed at the end of March, works fine for Gas, it looks as if they take a reading every day! However, it has failed to send any Elec readings, the last I heard was that I would be getting "estimated" readings for Elec in the future until the problem is sorted. I was a bit miffed that after 40 years in the industry, I'm not trusted to read a meter, despite submitting my readings since March exactly on the days specified! Be aware everyone asking for a SMETS 2, it seems that they don't always work!
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Hi @stonosnr. This is interesting. Yours is the third site known to me that has reported a SMETS2 electricity meter not sending readings. We discussed another of the three on this Topic here.

I believe we now know what was the issue with the first site to inform OVO of such a failure because the customer was at the VIP Open Day in Bristol last week when we discussed it!

There is a known issue with some SMETS2 gas meters not sending readings. But failed electric readings is a very different scenario because the Communications Hub is physically bolted to the top of the electricity meter and therefore doesn't use wireless signals to transfer the data.

I'm just going to tag @Darran_OVO here so that he can draw this discussion to the attention of the engineer Ben, who is investigating these issues.

It would help us all if you could fill out your Forum Profile too. We need to know your approximate location (nearest town will do), Smart meter installation date, what type of heating you have, and any peripherals such as an EV Charger, solar panels etc. Thanks.
My SMETS 2 was fitted on Tue 26th March 2019, pm. I live on the outskirts of Ipswich, Suffolk on high ground. My heating is Gas, Warm Air, I do not have an EV charger or Solar panels. When I look at my Gas consumption on the OVO website, there is a daily reading, so the Gas part is working fine. The Gas is 100% heating, we cook by Electricity. I've been in touch with OVO Customer service staff around 3 times advising them that the Elec part of SMETS 2 did not appear to be working, the KWh are registering correctly though in the digital window. I did a survey of which LED's were flashing and how many seconds between flashes which were to be passed to the Smart Meter Dept. No contact since then.
Since January my smart meter has been playing games. Initially the hub was informing that we were using circa £50 a day combined gas and electricity. I worked out that the unit rate had been multiplied by ten for some reason, but as this was not reflected on my Ovo account, I didn't bother that much. Unfortunately, my electric meter is no longer communicating with the smart hub or Ovo. The gas meter is working fine, communicating with the hub and Ovo.

Does the smart meter installation come with a warranty?

Is there any quick checks I can do to identify the issue. And do you provide assistance rectifying the issue
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Hi @David John Bradshaw - We're discussing the issue of SMETS2 electricity meters failing over here on another Topic.

Can one of the Moderators (@Tim_OVO? @Nancy_OVO?) please move/merge this Topic across there please?

The problem about erroneous/high readings on your IHD is being discussed here. Note what I've written about my IHD being "corrected" a week ago, and also my earlier message here, which @Darran_OVO helpfully amended when he informed us that the problem is due to a software error in the Communications Hub, and not the IHD itself.

Feedback on SMETS2 installations on the Forum is being read by Ben, a member of the SMETS2 Team at OVO. So please feel free to add comments and clarify issues.
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We can chase up the team and get an update for you, @stonosnr. If you have Facebook or Twitter send us a message there with your name, DoB and account number.

If you don't use social media, you can speak to them through online chat on our Help Centre.

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Thanks for the update @stonosnr So I'm going to assume that the LEDs on your Communications Hub were all indicating the slow-flash patterns which you can see on my animated diagram here.

When you communicate with Customer Support on such an issue, I always recommend that you send am email to them rather than speaking by telephone. This enables them to bounce the message through to the relevant engineer, and you also get to retain a dated copy of what you've reported.

I agree that the SMETS2 Electricity meter itself is operating and correctly displaying the usage. So the fault is only in relation to the usage data being transmitted to OVO via DCC.

OVO may not yet know if these failures from electricity meters are due to a common cause, or whether there are different reasons. One other person has reported such a fault over the weekend. Obviously the more customers that do so, the easier it will become for the engineers to identify a pattern.

Many thanks for your help / advice. I contacted customer service with all my observations via their twitter feed, so maybe there is still a copy on there. I'll have a look later and see if I can copy / paste into this forum topic.

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