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My smart meter fitting experience resulted in gas supply being capped as the engineer thought they identified a spillage with my gas fire appliance...

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 12, 2021
33 replies
4929 views

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd leave my tale of woe about my smart meter installation.

New smart meters fitted Jan 19th(already had smart meters which were working!!)for whatever reason. Installer fitted both electric and gas meters and gave me the Ihd for them.

He then tested gas meter told me I had a 2mbar drop on gas pressure (4mbar permitted),then he told me I had spillage in my gas fire and capped my supply off.

Opens his phone and tells me to look on yell.com(yellow pages) I need a gas engineer to come sort the problem out.

So Jan 19th no central heating and no hot water.... wonderful.

Electric meter installed working ok

Installer then turns the ihd device on and says this could take 24-48 hours to sort itself out.

Luckily for me I'm friends with a plumber who's gas Safe registered he came round redid the pressure drop test with a digital meter with printout (not the water gauge the installer used) and this recorded a drop of 0.79mbar which he said is absolutely fine. The condemned gas fire,he looked around the flue and the self contained fire and didn't see any spillage,no smell of gas so nothing really wrong. Uncapped the supply and lit the boiler and we were back on.

Now the point of this story is apart from the cost and hassle of getting a gas engineer out is I've now got 2 'smart' meters which do not talk to my Ihd or send readings to OVO on my online account in shows the correct serial number for the electric meter but no readings from 19th Jan.

The gas meter is not the correct meter serial number and I've not sent any gas readings since 19th Jan so I'm acrueing a very large gas bill when someone finally gets round to sorting my meters out.

I've rang OVO and filled out their detailed form about the new meters (type,serial num,readings,comm unit) and have since been told it's likely to take up to 45 days to be looked at by the smart team.

Overall a very poor experience with no end in sight.

In the meantime I'm racking up gas and electric charges.

Unhappy

Gooner1511 ☹️

Best answer by Blastoise186

Updated on 10/11/25 by Ben_OVO

You’re welcome.

Yup, that’s a good plan as well. If you try to enter the readings from a meter that’s not currently registered, it will almost certainly cause issues and either get rejected instantly, or throw your account massively out of sync. Your account credit should help to smooth things over once the next reading comes in though. As long as you keep making payments and don’t have a sudden surge in energy usage, there shouldn’t be any bill spikes!

As for the testing, I’m not really sure why the installer thought they found a problem, and as a forum volunteer I wouldn’t be able to access your account notes to see what happened. But it does seem a bit strange though.

What I also know is that OVO isn’t responsible for anything beyond the meter, for which we’ve got a guide for that at

As far as I’m aware, an engineer installing smart meters is allowed (and most likely required) to cap off anything that looks like a possible safety issue that they come across, in order to make it safe temporarily. But any repairs of appliances etc beyond that are beyond the suppliers control and that requires another engineer.

What is a 'capped meter'?

A capped meter refers to a gas supply that has been cut-off by inserting some sort of physical block into the ECV (Emergency Cutout Valve) or pipework leading to the meter. This doesn’t refer to a disconnection or dead supply. A capped supply can be uncapped, if safe to do so, by a gas safe engineer.

Removing a gas supply

Even if your gas transporter has capped your supply, you’d still be listed as having an gas supply on the national database and as you’ve found are liable to continue paying a standing charge. In order to get the supply de-activated so you can stop paying this standing charge, you’ll need to contact our Support Team to schedule in a meter removal. As a non-essential maintenance job there is a charge for this however we charge these jobs at cost price and once removed you’ll no longer need to worry about the continued gas standing charges.

Switching supplier with a capped supply

You’re free to switch suppliers, even if your supply is capped. It’s worth bearing in mind that your new supplier will continue applying standing charges and take over responsibility for the maintenance of your meter. If you decide to get the meter removed after a switch your new supplier will be able to arrange this and the cost for this job may vary from supplier to supplier.

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gooner1511Author

Rank 2

I again telephoned the customer support and was told it would take up to 45 working days from the date when the smart meter health check was completed by myself,so would expect this to be looked at by the end of may. (Meters were installed on Jan 19th)

It seems a bit excessive (up to 5 months) if I'm honest,if it cannot be completed by remote means I'll have to wait for another engineer visit.

God knows what that will bring.

The saga continues....…

P.S wish I hadn't bothered with the 'smart' meters!!

Gooner1511 🤔

Gooner1511

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gooner1511Author

Rank 2

June 2nd still no working smart meters

Received an email (15th May) telling me that I would need an engineer visit but they couldn't give a timeframe for when this visit will occur.

Someone is going to contact me to book it in and the wait continues no contact so far.......

Really starting to get annoyed that this issue cannot be sorted within a reasonable timeframe,Jan 19th meters were installed and they aren't even the correct meters on my account

Very very frustrating 🤬

I'm a patient person but nearly six months (and counting) to resolve this issue and still no end in sight.

Gooner1511

Blastoise186

Super User

Oh no! That’s not what you should have experienced. Sorry about that.

I’d definitely recommend letting the Support Team know that you’re still waiting and provide a link to this thread. Live Chat is the fastest way for this and you can get to it from over here.

I’ve also alerted @Tim_OVO about this as well, just in case he knows anything.

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gooner1511Author

Rank 2

Thanks will try live chat a bit later

Any help is appreciated thanks Blastoise186 👍

Gooner1511

Blastoise186

Super User

Anytime! :)

It sounds like what might need to happen is either forcing the meters to be commissioned again, or more likely a Meter Exchange (MEX) to swap them out completely with brand new SMETS2 smart meters. If it’s the latter, you’ll also be offered a new In-Home Display too. You can decline the IHD if you’d rather not have one, but it’s probably worth having. You won’t be charged for any of this as it sounds like a possible fault.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!

Jess_OVO

OVO Staff

Really sorry to hear you’re still not fully up and running with those Smart Meters, @gooner1511.

As @Blastoise186 suggested it’s worth raising this to the team on webchat.

Hope they can get things sorted soon.

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gooner1511Author

Rank 2

Thanks Jess_OVO

I did as you suggested and there is no engineer availability in my area (Essex)

So no appointment could be made and have to wait for the back office to contact me with an appointment date.

Not holding my breath though

Gooner1511

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gooner1511Author

Rank 2

Another 8 days still no contact....…

This is appalling customer service,but in my position you'd have thought that someone would have called to apologize but nothing from OVO not a whisper.

What would happen if I were to move energy supplier ?

Frustrated

Gooner1511 🤬

Gooner1511

Blastoise186

Super User

It’s possible that the case is still open, but there is a 45 day turnaround time from the date that the case was opened. Someone will be in touch when they can. It might be worth checking your emails (including the spam folder!) as OVO prefers to get back to members via email rather than phone where possible.

Moving energy supplier probably wouldn’t be any faster to be honest. From memory, it’d be at least six to eight weeks post switch before the new supplier would even be able to try to schedule a Meter Exchange due to the processes that have to take place first.

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gooner1511Author

Rank 2

It’s possible that the case is still open, but there is a 45 day turnaround time from the date that the case was opened. Someone will be in touch when they can. It might be worth checking your emails (including the spam folder!) as OVO prefers to get back to members via email rather than phone where possible.

Moving energy supplier probably wouldn’t be any faster to be honest. From memory, it’d be at least six to eight weeks post switch before the new supplier would even be able to try to schedule a Meter Exchange due to the processes that have to take place first.

Blastoise186,

I can't appreciate the 45 day timeframe I'm afraid,I raised the issue then did smart meter health check was told within 45 days I'd be contacted didn't happen.

Now you're saying because they said they'd contact me this will be another 45 day wait just to book an appointment, seems you go to the bottom of the pile every time you contact OVO.

Then will be waiting however long that will take for the engineer visit probably 45 days as well 🤔

Not having a go at you just venting a bit of steam because this situation in my opinion is completely unacceptable.

Gooner1511

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