Moving to OVO Economy 10 (with or without storage heaters)

I think you’ll need to probably just wait a bit longer - these things are reliant on a third-party beyond OVO’s control… One that doesn’t exactly know how to be speedy either...

​@Keast 

Hi Keast

Sorry to hear you have still got problems,our smart meter was installed on 1st October and we were happy with the installation except that we were only getting economy7 times/signal (we are also refugees from THTC).

My OH sent an email into OVO last friday (15th nov) to check we were actually on economy10 and OVO called us back,my OH mentioned to the Lady at OVO that we appeared to be on economy7 and we were switched to economy10 whilst she was still on the phone (it was during the afternoon signal time so very obvious when one of the lights came on) but we were surprised to get it sorted so quickly.

Hope you get yours sorted soon - as you say it is bloody cold in Perthshire at the moment :(

I was just going to add that the only reason we had the smart meter installed was because our housing ass/OVO fitted solar panels some months ago - our old meter was still working perfectly but unfortunately whilst the solar panels were working - our old meter was running backwards :)

Just to finish off - our storage heaters are not coping with this weather and soon run out of heat - what a useless idea they are in scotland LOL,good job we have our oil filled radiator as well.

​@Blastoise186 Thanks for that information.

If that would be OVO’s response it is unsatisfactory on so many levels I would not know where to start.

A suggestion: OVO publishes the process they are following to move customers from THTC to Economy 10. That would inform customers what to expect, and would put them, Help Desk agents and contributors to this forum on the same page. I understand there may be differences in the detail (location for example) but the same steps are surely followed for each customer. Any interfaces with outside agencies could be documented with target response times. 

I started this thread having been told by an OVO staff member that moving from Economy 7 to Economy 10 would require a site visit (that is why I decided not to try Economy 7) and currently I am waiting for on-line action before 3rd December (2 months later) to do exactly that. No mention was made of any industry standard 6 week wait either at that point. My experience so far suggests the process the process is being developed on the fly. A published process would give me confidence that everyone in OVO knew what they were doing.

​@maxaret Many thanks for that information. I agree storage heaters are not enough without backup heating, and they are expensive. My thinking is that the modern heaters are much better at retaining their heat (we have Dimplex Quantum): THTC/Economy 10 is a good option, especially because the afternoon charge tops up the heaters for that early evening period when OP rates are not available. We have used storage heaters for 40 years, we are on our third generation of heaters. Almost every year I considered moving to gas heating but was put off by the disruption and capital cost. I console myself now by telling my gas powered neighbours that we are greener.

I’m not sure how much of that can be published I’m afraid. The rules are strict about not leaking secrets - I’d have to ask before I even considered writing up something like that.

​@Emmanuelle_OVO I asked ​@Blastoise186 above if an outline process document could be published showing the steps involved in moving to Economy 10 from an old RDS meter.

That would help me and maybe other users understand why we are stuck on Economy 7 after a meter replacement. My meter was replaced on 1st October and I have now been told I will be on Economy 7 off peak supply until 3rd December. 

Is there any reason why customers cannot be provided with that information to help with decision making on how to heat their houses?

Wonder why some are having problems while others seem to work as intended?  Is it down to the meter engineer or what?

Yet another Perthshire resident here, and I seem to be one of the lucky ones where it was installed and started working on correct Economy 10 times immediately.

Hey ​@Keast 

This was the latest update we have internally. If we get any further updates we will update all our related forum topics:

 

Update on RTS shutdown:

As part of the RTS Project development, we are really happy to share with you our progress:

As you may be aware, the RTS signal that instructs some of our meters when to move to the “Off Peak Period”  will be closing down soon and we need to arrange for all of our RTS customers to have a meter exchange so they don’t lose any of their meter functionality.

The RTS signal will end for our customers on 30 June 2025. The period between 1 July - 30 September 2025 will then be used to close-down the RTS signal and allow us to manage any unexpected customers impacted.

After a very successful pilot, from the 17th June 2024 we will begin writing to our Economy 10 RTS customers to invite them to call us to arrange for their meter exchange. 

We are continuing to work at pace to enable the same solution for the majority of our other RTS customers and our aim is to begin writing to these customers in Aug 2024. 

We will continue to update you on our progress.

 

I had my smart meter installed on the 27th of November, it was up and running straight away.

I am on economy 10 I got through to OVO the next day to check what tarrif I was on and she assured me I was on the tarrif. Also checked my online account and the THTC acct gone and replaced with the new one. Also got all the details of the times for off-peak and peak rates which ar as follows  Off-Peak  0430am-0730am    1300pm-1600pm  2030pm-1230am

                                   Peak rate   0730am-1300pm   1630pm-2030pm  1230am-0430am

Checked over the smart meter and everthing seems to be as the previous people in the know have explained in above comments.  My total usage has averaged out at 30Kwh and £6.98. I am running 3 storage heaters and using the boost for hot water. I am in the North of Scotland and we are in for some cold times     Tarriffs are  26.2p standard  21.26 economy  62p standing charge, which I think is a ripoff.

I’m afraid that’s just how it is with the tariffs ​@Davide . I know OVO well enough to know they would get you cheaper rates if they could, but alas the upstream and wholesale costs in North Scotland are just some of the highest in the UK so there’s not much OVO can do about it.

I would advise caution regarding using the Boost function - you WILL pay Peak rates for that.

… unless it’s only used during offpeak hours, of course.