OVO Smart Meter fitted- Off-peak circuit always OFF?

Just a suggestion - my system kicks off at 06:25. So if not too much of a trouble I suggest the photo is taken at 6am to be on the safe side. 

Brian’s was clearly still in the offpeak period when he took the first photos at 06:50 (“Active TOU Number 2”). 

Is yours functioning as expected, apart from the lack of communication? 
 

​@Firedog 

Thanks for the note above.

I was advised by my better half to not change the meter before Christmas/New Year. Currently, installation is booked for early Jan, we would like to do this provided we don’t get the cold weather from the east!
 

As you know there is always a chance that the meter we get is NOT preprogrammed :-( Then we have to spend a lot of time on the phone and chat line to get OVO TEAM to replace the meter with one correctly preprogrammed. 

It’s up to you when you get the meter exchanged ​@Siberia. But if you’re off supply I'd recommend getting an emergency appointment booked. Especially at this time of year.

Hi,

long story…

We have a property which we rent out (through a leasing company).

The tenant changed electricity supplier (as they are entitled to do) to OVO since which time the off-peak devices (storage heater & water heater) have not worked overnight.

We have informed the tenant & leasing agent that there is a known issue OVO forum topic and asked the tenant to contact OVO asking for them to resend the configuration as per the instructions given on the forum.

Is there a way in which I can check the programming of the meter to see what times are set for it to switch to off-peak? I’m sure I saw a mention in one of the forum posts that this could be done but “isn’t straightforward”.

The meter is an Aclara SGM 1416B, I’ve had a look in the online docs which I can find for the meter but they are fairly basic.  

Thanks.

It seems to be a bit hit-and-miss whether the support agent a customer talks to understands both the problem and the solution. In most cases, if the fault is in the configuration of the load control switch, the ECAUL request will do the trick almost instantaneously. There is no way I know of for the customer to extract the ALCS calendar from the meter, but a member of OVO’s smart team should be able to. 

You didn’t give many details to help us help you, for example:

• where the property is located (the first part of the postcode will do);
• what plan the customer is signed up for (specified in the welcome package or other confirmation after switching to OVO);
• what times the heaters were turning on and off before the switch to OVO;
• who the previous supplier was.  

There’s a detailed downloadable user manual for this type of meter here (PDF, 4.5MB)

PS I almost forgot: we had a similar case not long ago, taking several days’ to-and-fro troubleshooting. We came to the conclusion that the fault was somewhere in the house’s electrical installation and suggested calling in an electrician. When he came, he found that the circuit breaker for the heaters in the consumer unit had tripped. 

Step 1 should be: check the fuse!  

Thanks for the replies,

Previous supplier was SSE

We’ve checked the breakers etc all ok.

Advised customer of Ecaul issue - they contact helpline OVO couldn’t help 🤷🏼‍♂️ “as they are getting info from meter the system is working”

Paid for an electrician & checked the system - no fault found 

OVO engineer came out, did something (we think connected the off-peak supply to standard) and the panel heater came on.

We are vey limited in what we can do as the account (the only info we have is it is OVO and it’s dual tarif) is in the tenants name and we need their permission to access the property.

We have passed all relevant info (from this forum) to tenant & leasing agent

Not sure the relevance of the Location/Postcode

Thanks again

I’m glad ​@Firedog was able to advise here. Please keep us posted with how this situation unfolds ​@FMilne. 

Thank you.

All former SSE customers became OVO customers a couple of years ago following OVO’s takeover of SSE’s retail arm. If the tenant recently switched to OVO, it was from a different supplier. 
  

Good thinking!
  

Oh dear. I did warn you - “It seems to be a bit hit-and-miss whether the support agent a customer talks to understands both the problem and the solution.” There seems to be a default reaction - send an engineer, which is costly, wasteful and often not likely to help.

I’m not sure what the OVO engineer might have done. If the storage heaters and water heater aren’t charging up overnight, the most likely explanation is that the time switch that turns them on and off hasn’t been configured, or perhaps not configured properly to match the tariff. A visiting engineer can’t remedy this; he can only call OVO and ask for the configuration to be updated just as the customer can. Please ask the tenant to try this again: ask the support agent to get the smart team to ‘update the ALCS’ via the ECAUL request. It only takes a moment for someone who knows what he’s doing.  

Panel heaters (which will be very costly to run at peak rate) shouldn’t be wired to the offpeak (switched) circuit. If they were, they wouldn’t be able to run during the day when they’re needed. I find it very unlikely that the engineer connected the equipment designed to run during the night to the constant circuit. 

I wonder if you can persuade the tenant to add your name to the account; this would require you both to be present during a call to Support, and it requires a good deal of trust on the tenant’s part. It would make it possible for you to talk to support and find out just what has happened with the installation, including engineers’ reports. You would also be able to find out just what tariff the customer is on.
  

The timings and charges for offpeak electricity vary considerably across the country, depending on the terms of the contract between the supplier and the distributor. Knowing the location makes it possible to identify who the distributor is; Sussex (E&W) is a big area, with some parts of it served by SSEN and others by UK Power Networks. If you have an electricity bill for the property (e.g. from the period before the latest tenant moved in), you could find the supply’s MPAN. The first two digits on the MPAN’s bottom line specify the distributor. 

Since the meter is clearly in communication with OVO, it should be a simple matter for the appropriate commands to be transmitted from OVO HQ to the meter to get the system working as it should.