Unfortunately, it’s not usually possible to downgrade from a smart meter back to a traditional meter, except in very specific exceptional circumstances. Even in those cases, downgrading is extremely expensive and not usually worth the cost.

The only valid use-case that I know of right now, is if you need to switch from a Single-Phase Supply to a Three-Phase Supply. This is only likely if you have a need for a lot of electricity (most people don’t).

I’m sorry that this isn’t the answer you might have hoped for, but there's no longer any stocks left with any supplier to enable downgrades.

Our community volunteer has done a great job of explaining why we don’t offer a meter replacement from a smart meter to a traditional meter.

 

There is the possibility of removing the capability of the smart meter to send regular readings, under some circumstances. But that would mean going back to submitting manual meter readings every month, estimated bills and less accurate direct debits! 

Save the planet and earn rewards

 

Smart meters also allow our customers to take part in brilliant carbon busting challenges like Power Move and Power Move Flex Where we reward our customers for taking positive actions to reduce their carbon footprint!  

These challenges offer you the opportunity to be rewarded for shifting your electricity usage either out of peak times of the day, or shifting it to greener times.

 

Want to find out more about Power Move or Power Move Flex:
 

 

Keep up to date with your usage 

Not only that! But smart meters help our customers track where they’re using energy in their homes, see when the best times to use energy are- when the grid is greenest and compare their usage to similarly sized properties!

Make the most of your smart meter with the OVO Beyond App:

 

 

Top Tip* Change your smart meter reading schedule to half hourly readings to tailor energy saving tips for the customer and their home usage instead of generalised advise.

If you’re still having concerns over the smart meter you’ve got installed we’d encourage you to take a look at the guides below:

 

 

I am a customer of Scottish Power and requested that I have my Smart Meter removed.  They advised me that I would first need to contact the National grid to turn off the meters and when I challenged that, they then advices me that it is not reversible.

Where do I stand on this?

Thanks

Hi @codehaseyes ,

Just curious, but what’s the reason you want to have your smart meter removed? This just helps me figure out what advice to give, so please don’t worry - I’m not judging you!

Just as a heads up though. If the reason is because you want to downgrade from Smart Meters to Traditional (non-Smart) Meters, I’m afraid this isn’t possible. Once upgraded, there is no downgrade path and you’re committed to keeping them. The only way to “downgrade” is to not have a supply at all.

There are two reasons… First is that what is displayed on my display is lower (50%) than my actual bill.

Second reasons is health issues.

I see. I’m an independent forum volunteer, so everything I say is in a personal capacity.

I’m afraid neither of those reasons would be considered valid for a supplier to even consider removal. Be advised that even if it was allowed, it’d be at your own cost and you’d be looking at paying at least £300 for both meters, with no known exceptions.

The first reason actually has an easy fix. The SMETS Command Update Tariff Configuration should sort out the In-Home Display so that it has the correct tariff rates. You can ask customer services to run that command for you - it only takes a few minutes.

As for health issues, removing your Smart Meters wouldn’t make any difference. There’s so much radio noise in the background these days from so much stuff, that even if you don’t have Smart Meters, you’ll still get background noise coming into your house from a million other sources. You would literally have to terminate ALL use of electricity and move to Timbuktu to have any chance at all of escaping all of it.

As a matter of interest, can the Smart Meter be disabled or put into ‘dumb’ mode?

Nope, not for SMETS2 - that functionality was removed for SMETS2 because it wasn’t considered appropriate to keep.

Even with SMETS1, there’ll still be background noise regardless of what you do. It’s basically impossible to totally disable Smart functionality.

Ok, I will ask for them to run the SMETS Command Update Tariff Configuration tool to see if there is a synch, although I am sure they had already ran that.

I don't like the idea of additional EMF radiating in the house.

Well, it’s perfectly safe as long as you’re not constantly sleeping within 30cm of the Comms Hub, Electric Meter or Gas Meter. But chances are you’re not doing that anyway.

ok.  Thanks

Downgrading IS possible! I had a SMETS2 which went unserviceable, OVO replaced it with an SMETS1 (first generation).

I have been having problems ever since……ITS ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS

This thread is about downgrading from Smart Meters back to the older traditional meters. The issues about going from S2 to S1 aren’t the same as this.

Are you still having problems @Alf ?

Hi Blastoise186……..yep. 

Ok. The forum moderators have been notified. Please wait for them to stop by.

EDIT: A response was posted in the thread below

Interesting thread and some good points. I have a question on this matter I would like to discuss, and I hope the OVO aids can help. Its specifically regarding privacy. It has come to light recently that the functions or rather capabilities of these meters are incredibly intrusive which the general public may not be fully aware of. On those grounds alone surly there should be a clause where customers can opt out?  

There are three levels of consent at play. You can freely choose between them whenever you want.

• Monthly - which simply pings in a meter reading once a month with absolutely no other usage data at all
• Daily - which submits a meter reading every day with basic usage data i.e. how much you used throughout the entire day
• Half-Hourly - which submits a meter reading every day with a full half-hourly breakdown of all your usage

Privacy is at the heart of the design. You have nothing to fear - GCHQ has way more invasive powers anyway!

Energy companies can, by law, gather certain data. In fact they have to be able to gather data otherwise they wouldn't be able to operate. That data includes name and address, location of your meter and regular meter readings. To streamline the process of gathering meter readings we now have smart meters that send readings securely to energy companies.

At a minimum they send the data once a month, which gives energy companies the minimum data they need to charge you. If that's all you want then you can opt for that.

They can also send data more frequently. This has some advantages that you might wish to take advantage of, such as tariffs with cheap overnight rates and more accurate monitoring of your account. But if you don't want to take advantage of this you can ask the energy company to set your meter to send a reading once a month. I'm sure you'll agree there's nothing intrusive about that?

I have arranged to have a smart meter fitted, but I`m concerned about all the problems people are having. Can I return to conventional gas and electric meters if I experience the same problems?

Hi @bennie ,

Nope, once it’s done you are committed. However, I wouldn’t worry too much. This forum has a large selection of volunteers like myself who can help out if things go wrong, and this is backed up by OVO’s Support Team who can fix almost anything.

I’d recommend you do the upgrade anyway, the chances of it working properly massively outweigh the chances of a failure.

The only people who complain about their smart meter are the very small percentage of people who have problems. The vast majority of people have no problems and never mention it, because talking about a working meter is really dull!

The most common problem people have is the meter not sending readings automatically. If that happens you can send readings manually, which is what you do now.

Hi @bennie . I also held off from having a smart meter installed. I had heard of a number of early issues. I did wait for the new SMETS2 (new generation) roll out but we had ours installed a year ago and have had good service since then. As @Blastoise186 and @M.isterW have also said, there are a number of really helpful people here who can help if anything crops up

Hey @bennie,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community!

Exciting you’ve got your smart meter appointment booked in I can see our Community Members have already given some tip-top advice here.

Just wanted to add we have tons of great resources on this topic:

Keep us posted with how you get on.

I have a question….

I had my Energy bill (26 days) and it appears to be almost double of what is displayed on my smart meter display calculate for 26 days.  There smart meter includes standing charges but not VAT/

I have asked the energy supplier to either:

1 - Disable the smart meter and I supply manual meter reading for the next 3 months.

2 - Run the SMETS Command Update Tariff Configuration tool to see if there was a sync issue.

I have emailed them twice and no response.  They are usually good at responding.

This has been an ongoing issue for several months since having the smart meter installed.  I am very suspicious about the bill as I hardly use that much energy to warrant a £200 bill  (electricity and gas) for the month.  

Any ideas?

Thanks

Hi @codehaseyes 

I don't work for OVO. Just posting in case it helps. 

1. Do you remember what day you had your smart meter installed?

2. The smart meter and In Home Display (IHD) in your home should include the standing charge and VAT unless there is an issue.

The costs you see on the usage page exclude VAT and standing charge

https://account.ovoenergy.com/usage

The costs you see on the plan page exclude VAT

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

3. Your bills only use the tariff information on your plan page

https://account.ovoenergy.com/plan

The tariff information on your smart meter and IHD isn't used for any billing purposes.

4. When you say double, do you mean cost or £? Can you give us the kWh usage on your bill and on the smart meter? Post a image of both if you can? 

Just going to answer part of that question as well actually.

Once Smart Meters are installed, there is no going back as you are committed to keeping them from the moment the engineer leaves site.

Likewise, Smart Functionality cannot be disabled.