Hi @Retroanaconda , from your message you mentioned that the engineer said that your meter wasn’t talking to OVO therefore it wouldn’t have been working in smart mode - unless you think differently. 
There are problem areas for signals but improvements are being made for many and - for example - if any neighbours have a working smart meter, it may be possible to link the signal via that device. 
If your new meter doesn’t pick up a signal, then as long as you supply readings when required, your account should be accurate. 

Thanks for the reply.

The old meter worked fine and provided daily smart readings to OVO. After he reinstalled the cutout fuse he said it couldn’t reconnect to the network - personally I’m not convinced there was anything wrong with it.

What concerns me is that if the meter was unable to be commissioned, how does OVO know that it was changed? In my account it still lists the old meter serial number and I suspect if I try and submit a meter reading then it will throw an error as it’s reset back to 00000.

The engineer should have left a card relating to the old meter and its final reading (take note and photo). They should also report back to base regarding the new meter although it does take a while for the records to be updated. 
 

This is sadly not an uncommon experience. There are a number of ways forward, with no suggestion on my part of which if any might work for you:

• There is allegedly a mechanism called ‘buddy mode’ in which the communications hub (CH) on your meter can connect to another similar one nearby which is able to reach Arqiva. I’ve not read of anyone in this situation though, but it’s not impossible.
• Trials are being conducted with ‘dual-mode’ CHs which contain a SIM so that if long-range radio (LRR) isn’t working, the CH tries to connect to a mobile network. This has apparently been successful particularly in urban areas where the topography gets in the way of the LRR signal.
• I have recently been reading fascinating discussions about practical solutions involving variously fanciful  methods of ‘boosting’ the LRR signal on site. In some cases, it’s been enough to erect a repeater aerial that picks up the Arqiva signal and conducts it to another close by the CH with no need to touch the CH itself (which is probably illegal). Here’s a start: There is hope for anybody trying to get a smart meter in a poor signal area | Speak EV

I’d also point out that there are plenty of examples of local interference affecting the CH connection. It’s worth spending a bit of time to move anything which might be radiating near the meter to eliminate this.

I’m afraid it’s a question of either waiting - months or even years - for DCC and/or suppliers to come up with an acceptable solution, or taking matters into your own hands. 

Thanks folks. I do have the card with the closing meter reading on so hopefully that information has got back to OVO and the account will be updated. I’ll keep checking over the next few weeks and see what happens.

Very interesting discussions about aerials and signal boosters, all a bit beyond me I am afraid so I will just have to wait for the technology to catch up.

It’s somewhat ironic that the ‘old fashioned’ SMETS1 meter was able to communicate fine as it used mobile networks. All in the name of progress I guess?

Hey @Retroanaconda, 

Our volunteers @Firedog and @BPLightlog have already given some really useful information so far! I’ve just included a few links below that might help you going forward. 

how to submit your gas and electricity readings

If you’ve any further questions then please let us know 

So the app has now triggered the ‘we can’t get a reading from your smart meter’ message and asks for a manual one. But the meter number is still the old one, so I doubt that a reading which is around 50,000 kWh lower than the previous is likely to be accepted without issue.

I presume I am still best to wait for the account to update to recognise the new meter number before submitting a reading?

Hey @Retroanaconda, 

If the meter number is still showing the old one on the app i’d recommend speaking with our Support Team or through Whatsapp 0330 175 9695. They’ll check the account to see when the new meter number will go live for you and when readings can be submitted. 

Let us know how things go for you! 

I took your advice and spoke to them today and they said it could take 14 days for the new meter to update on the account. 

Can I ask what may seem a stupid question?

Obviously since the swap there are no readings being submitted, so it seems OVO’s system is estimating my daily usage until I provide one - which makes sense. As above I can’t do that until the account updates to reflect the new meter number.

What doesn’t make sense is that the estimated usage is sitting around 13.5 kWh/day when my actual usage in the weeks preceding the change averaged more like 4-5 kWh/day.

Why are the estimates so high when they know what my usage is?

It takes up to six weeks for a newly installed Smart Meter to fully commission - Smart readings might not show up during the process until the meter is ready.

As for the estimates? If you rarely submit readings, it makes it harder for OVO - and the industry as a whole - to get reasonable guesses. Estimates should never be relied on - there’s a 100% chance they’ll be wrong no matter who your supplier is.

Thanks, but if you read above you’ll see that it was not commissioned at all as there is no WAN signal here. I have to wait until Arqiva improve their coverage. My queries regarding the account updating are related to the meter number only, I know full well that I will not be able to have smart readings for some time (months/years) but I cannot even submit a manual reading until that happens.

I agree that estimates are never going to be 100% correct, my question was more to do with why they’re three times higher than the established usage pattern which the previous working smart meter gave them data for.

In short - OVO know I use about 4-5 kWh per day but their system is estimating my usage at three times that. 

This is not uncommon. Apparently, when a meter is replaced (the technical term is Meter Exchange, commonly referred to as MEX), historical data from the same supply point are disregarded for some purposes, like estimates of usage. Instead, OVO seem to use an ‘industry average’ which may well be very different from what the actual usage has been. It shouldn’t matter too much, depending on how you pay. If you pay by Direct Debit, you may find that it’s set far too high because of this disregard for historical data. That should only last a couple of months, though, at which point it will be reviewed. Any credit you build up would come in handy to cover high winter bills.

Be sure to take regular meter readings - weekly is not too often - and keep a record of them safe, perhaps with a photo to back them up every month. Evidence like this is vital when doing battle with the DD SS, which you sadly may end up having to do.

How do direct debits work | Customer Help and FAQ (ovoenergy.com) 

Should you end up paying too much, it will all come out in the wash once your account is up and running and you’re able to submit regular readings. It’s best to submit them in the morning of the first day of your billing period; that way, you’ll get real bills with no estimates involved.

I have had some interesting correspondence with DCC today. These paragraphs particularly:

“Thank you for your email regarding the Smart Metering Wide Area Network (SM WAN) coverage to your property. 

I'm sorry but your energy supplier is correct,  our network doesn’t currently cover your postcode.

Unfortunately, around 0.7% or circa 200,000 premises nationally, fall into postcodes where it wasn’t viable to provide coverage because of topography or low population density. These postcodes were identified when the network was designed and built some 10 years ago.”

So the obvious question is - if my postcode is in a dead spot which has been known for 10 years then why did OVO install a meter that they knew would not work?

Apparently a 4G solution is being tested for deployment in 2025 so I would hope I would be a priority for this. 

“...would not work” isn’t strictly true. It’s a meter’s job to measure, and this is what your new meter will do. What it can’t do, even though it was designed to, is send its measurements automatically to your supplier, so you’ll have to do that yourself until it can. So it is working, but just not with all the advanced functions. You are no worse off than before.

4G is coming soon - I can confirm that. Please watch the Forum for updates.

Even if the meter can’t connect, sometimes the swap just has to happen anyway due to the old one being end of service life - it can always be connected later after all. The MOST critical functionality is that it can record meter readings locally, everything else is secondary.

“You are no worse off than before”

Not true, I had a working smart meter before.

I presume when 4G comes they will just be able to swap the comms module on top of the meter rather than change the whole thing out?

FWIW you’re better off with SMETS2 anyway - they’ll be far easier to upgrade to 4G than any SMETS1 unit. We’ve seen some info on how suppliers are planning to do it. Once it goes public, we’ll be able to talk about it more openly.

Long story short, yup. The comms hub can just be swapped out.

Pleased to report that the account finally updated today to show the new meter number and a zero reading on the day it was fitted. I can now put my readings in again and so will continue to do so until DCC pull their finger out and get the network functional.

OVO are still hugely over-estimating my usage but that obviously gets overwritten with actual data each time I do a reading so I’ll do it every week to minimise the risk of estimated bills. 

I’m really glad to hear that you can now submit meter readings as the online account has been updated with your new meter details @Retroanaconda. As you say, every meter reading you submit will adjust the estimates.

If you’re eligible for the Priority Services Register you can opt in to have regular meter readers attend your property.

So to follow on from the above. I noticed the other day when doing my weekly meter reading that the WAN light on the meter had started flashing every 5 seconds rather than every 2 seconds. From reading other threads on the subject it would appear that this means that it has managed to pick up a connection finally to the LRR network?

Do we think it is worth asking OVO to send someone out to reattempt commissioning or should I just wait for the 4G solution (if it ever happens)?

You probably can get commissioning going now - I’d definitely recommend going for it.

Hi @Retroanaconda,

It seems our forum volunteer has given some good advice here already. 

Our Support team would be able to book this appointment for you.

Please keep us updated on how you get on.

Well they are going to come out and have another go at commissioning the meter.

The signal appears to come and go, sometimes it’s flashing every 5 seconds and then it goes back to 2 seconds for a while. I presume that if it did manage to get commissioned, then such drops in connectivity would not be an issue and it would just upload daily/hourly usage data as and when it could connect?

Hi @Retroanaconda I haven't read all the posts in detail so apologies if you haven't already tried this

Try downloading one of the official ofgem regulated 3rd party apps and see if they can see your meter and any data as things progress. For example

https://hugoenergyapp.co.uk/

https://loop.homes/

Sometimes they pick up some data quicker than ovo.