Moving from THTC to Economy 10. Will the new smart meter charge storage heaters during off-peak periods only?

Hey ​@rayshields & ​@Lecky, 

Just tagging you to let you know that our friendly neighbourhood Luke has stopped by with some wonderful engineering advice! 

Hello ​@Lukepeniket_OVO & ​@Chris_OVO 

Many thanks. I take it, therefore, that the new smart meter will (or can) be programmed to charge the storage heater cores during the off-peak periods only; with no straying into the costlier hours.

As a matter of interest, how many hours of charge are currently provided each day by the soon to be defunct RTS THTC system? This information will allow me to compare the total hours of off-peak charging available under each package, so that heater output settings can be altered to compensate if necessary.

We can’t give an exact answer to that one, but THTC offered between 5 and 12 hours Off-Peak per day depending on weather conditions. There is no guarantee they’d be at consistent times though.

Hello ​@Blastoise186 

Thanks. Allows me to make the comparison. Moving from THTC to Economy 10 will mean, therefore, a change from weather-dependent automatically variable timings to a fixed ten hour daily charge, spread over Economy 10’s three allotted off-peak periods, irrespective of weather conditions. Hmmm.

Correct. But unlike THTC, EVERYTHING gets to benefit from the Off-Peak rates on E7/9/10. Use it wisely...

Hello ​@Blastoise186 

Seek Off-Peak. My motto from now on.

Hello ​@Lukepeniket_OVO 

Thanks for the reassurance.

Update. Smart meter installed three days ago. Very neatly, I must say. 

However, no user instructions whatsoever (either oral or printed) were provided. The use of the IHD, likewise, remains a mystery. Surely there must be user guides provided by the respective manufacturers. Unlike the previous two meters of the RTS THTC system, which simply provided readings of the energy used in kWh, the new system reportedly provides a varied wealth of information. In order to access this information, operating instructions are essential. Surely OVO customers should not have to trawl the internet for help.

Congratulations on your new toys 🙂

User manuals are indeed available online.
For the meter itself, Aclara SGM 1400-B series

For the IHD, there are several different types and versions being provided. If you post the make and model of the one you have, we can rustle up a link to a manual for it. The one I got had a helpful tutorial built in, so go through all the menus to see if yours has, too.