Please do not rely on this as I’m still looking things up.

As far as I can remember, S2 Gas Meters might try to keep the supply active if the battery dies while in Credit Mode. However, - in common with ALL other gas meters - they will close the valve if the battery is about to die while in Prepayment Mode in order to prevent fraud.

Thank you for your reply. It would be great to get an authoritative response from OVO on whether the valve stays opens or is shut if the battery dies for the latest gas meters installed by them when in credit mode.

There are contradictory replies on this forum, and to be clear this is for credit mode (not prepayment mode which shuts the valve when battery fails).

While the battery should last 10 years, there are reports of them failing much sooner than that.  It is disappointing that there is no trickle-charging of these batteries. The battery is most likely to fail in cold weather, which is precisely when one would not want the gas to be turned off if one is away, due to the risk of water damage after frozen pipes. I have not been able to update all the lagging on the pipework under the floorboards in our 1930’s house due to access difficulties in one area, hence there remains a small risk of this happening.

Hi @vrmike, thanks for posting.

As this is a customer forum, it’s not a natural fit for getting official responses or advice from OVO directly. Our Support team are well placed to help. 

But I can relate to my own experiences when asked this question in the past. If memory serves, the valve should stay in an open position when the battery dies, but this is not always the case. Hence why if the battery dies but the supply isn’t disconnected, the meter replacement appointment isn’t considered an emergency. If the supply is disconnected, an engineer will visit that same day to do a meter exchange. 

For anyone else reading who might be in the same situation, this is the number to call to arrange the appointment: 0330 303 5063.

Who can I phone out of hours? My dad in law since 5pm tonight has no Gas, unable to cook and no heating. He is vulnerable heart issues, mobility issues  uses a zimmer. I phoned so many places tonight to try get him warmth to no avail

Not many options for gas at this hour I’m afraid. If it was electricity then 105 could have worked.

Please post photos of the meters.

Hi @AbiBin17,

I hope your father in law has been able to arrange an emergency engineer, if a meter fault was confirmed as the cause of being off supply? 

Blastoise is correct that there’s no third party who can visit to perform work on the gas meter, so contact to OVO needs to be made between 8am-6pm to our Support team. 

If your father in law hasn’t already, please recommend that they sign up to the Priority Services register. 

Hi

Thanks for your replies, I have added him to the priority list as he's immobile,has heart issues and unable to go out or answer his door. 

I made him breakfast here this morning and my husband handed I'm the hot food to him on his way to work this morning..An engineer is booked before 12.50 today  hopefully he will have warmth later today.

Thank you

Anne

HI @AbiBin17

Hopefully it all gets sorted today. 

Out of hours emergency contact options are not great with lots of suppliers. 

If you ever think about helping him switch, it might be worth looking at Octopus. At least on paper their emergency contact options out of hours look much better than OVO via both phone and email. 

https://octopus.energy/blog/power-cut/#:~:text=Call%20our%20freephone%20line%200808,reach%20our%20team%2024%2F7.

I’ve been waiting for an engineer to come and fix my meter I have no gas so no heating and no hot water. My newborn grandchild is staying with me and the house is freezing. The engineer is failed to turn up and no phone call don’t know what to do as OVO don’t have a number to contact them out of hours 

Hey @Kemolash,

So sorry to hear this, it sounds like a very stressful situation to be in.

The following topic might have some helpful information:

*Taken from the above topic* In a scenario where the gas meter is faulty and off supply and the energy supplier is closed, the National Grid will be unable to replace the meter. In the case of OVO Energy, our Support team are on hand 6 days a week to help arrange a short notice engineer visit to replace that meter. Our Social team are able to support you as well - send them a message on Facebook or Twitter from 9am - 5pm, Saturday and Sunday. This team are also able to schedule in an emergency meter appointment if needed.

Have you managed to contact the Support Team today to re-book your emergency appointment? 

Lost gas supply this morning. Smart meter not working. 
OVO call centre closed until Monday, what can I do to get my gas supplies back?

https://help.ovoenergy.com . Live Chat is open until 2PM on Saturdays.

Also, there’s options like WhatsApp and OVO’s social media which are also monitored at weekends

Have a faulty meter but have gas supply

5 cancelled appointments by OVO as non emergency. Whilst this is going on OVO refuse to reduce DD.

How do I get this problem, which belongs to OVO fixed, I am the only one suffering.

Hey @Intend,

I’ve responded to you on this thread:

If your meter has stopped showing readings, the estimated usage should be based on your previous usage:

So it should in theory be in line with your usage previously, if the meter was showing high consumption then this could have skewed the EAC. If you’d like to upload a screenshot of your meter readings page we could take a look into this further. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to your account so can only make assumptions based on the information you’ve provided. 

This is very useful to know. I was thinking of installing smart meters because of the mails I am getting from OVO to get smart meters installed. From all the responses, it seems there’s hardly a party to accept ownership/accountability if something goes wrong like this with smart meters.

It’s not very often that they fail however. I wouldn’t worry too much.

And tbh, when your existing meter dies (which they all do eventually), your next one would be Smart anyway.

Thank you for sharing this. This is very useful to know. It sounds like Smart meters aren’t matured enough tech to rely on; especially when it comes to something as crucial as the energy supply. 

@knightbeat but how do you know it was the Smart functionality that failed? If the valve closed, the battery died or the Ultrasonic Sensor failed for example, that’s not Smart functionality - that’s normal gas meter functionality found in both Smart and Non-Smart.

Batteries die. that’s always been the case.

I saw that Octopus Energy has reinstalled an analogue meter after a customer complained about their existing smart meter. @Turratim  has mentioned that their supply was cut off due to a faulty smart meter and the OVO call centre is closed until Monday. If the smart meter tech is that unreliable in its current state, can Energy Suppliers say that someone’s next meter would be a Smart Meter anyway?

The issue is, people have been using the existing meters without these unnecessary problems. 

Downgrading is rarely allowed and will sooner or later become impossible. Stocks of Traditional meters are rapidly depleting and there won’t be more of them.

The tech is more reliable than you seem to think, but ultimately a prepayment gas meter WILL fail with valve closed whether it’s Smart or not. The user in this case didn’t specify their payment method.

Again, as those Traditional meters get older… They’ll suffer the same faults (and many already are). I need to see proof of your claims, otherwise they can be challenged.

https://smartme.co.uk has all the facts you’re after

I personally think it's cool to have smart meters installed and observe the usage being inside the house. My only concern is ownership and accountability when things go wrong. I am paying with DD; but someone who’s on pre-paid payment method should also have the right to continuous supply of energy when they make payments. If something goes wrong with the meters that cuts off the supply, they should be able to get it fixed immediately without having to wonder who’s responsible and whom to contact. Unlike a normal house appliance, a faulty meter cannot be fixed by DIY and it’s not even the property of the homeowner to do so. If smart meters have increased the probability of this, then there is a problem isn’t it?

I’m afraid you’re somewhat incorrect. The supplier does have the responsibility to restore supply. However, you still have a responsibility to pay for what you use.

A Prepayment Meter whether Smart or Traditional that fails is unable to charge for what you used, so therefore it will cut your supply off if a fault/failure occurs to prevent fraud (otherwise it’d be abused like crazy). Smart Meters actually reduce the probability of failure as they’re better built but the Smart functionality does not have any part to play in this sort of thing.

If you need the supply to stay on when a fault occurs and/or you need a 100% guaranteed continuous supply, then PAYG is NOT suitable for you anyway.

In all cases, a catastrophic failure might cut the supply for safety reasons and this is NOT caused by Smart features or anything to do with Smart Meters specifically. Safety cut-outs are safety cut-outs which act independently of that.

Who you contact is easy. Your supplier - if the electric fails, you can also call 105.

But that also isn’t based on any actual research/study stats, isn’t it? Even someone like myself can write an article like this claiming that these are facts if I am paid by an Energy company to produce such material. 

By the way, even on this forum, are there similar issues mentioned about traditional energy meters?