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

​@CuriousFairy 

Before you get an OVO engineer and/or call an electrical contractor which makes the issue more complex I suggest you need to take three photos of the display unit on your meter as follows.

1. First one  just before 23:00
2. Second one immediately after Off-Peak has come on (after 23:30) when Dimplex Quantum lights turn on
3. and the 3rd photo as soon as Dimplex Quantum lights turn off

I would expect to see these photos to be similar to the ones I have attached here in the same order i.e. 1) Off Peak off, 2) Off-Peak comes On and then 3) Off-Peak goes off.  If this is the case then the issue is with the Smart Meter and shows it is not correctly programmed for your E7 tariff.

If your meter has communication with DCC and OVO then the solution is very simple and OVO can send a remote ECAUL command to set the ALCS of your meter for E7.  

If there is no communication between your meter and DCC/OVO then I guess OVO needs to physically change your meter with a new one which is pre-configured for E7 as a default.

For sake of completeness if on the other hand the 3rd photo looks like the 2nd then I believe the problem could be with your heating system as this shows the meter is providing you with the off-peak power.

So, another sleepless night is coming up! But, then these photos would help to get the right advice from the forum.

1st Photo

So at 23:30 the meter changes to off peak and the off peak light for my quantum storage heater comes on and the meter symbols say LC1 LC2

30 minutes later at midnight the off peak light on the heater goes off and the meter symbols are back to how it looks during the day. 

Does this seem like an ovo issue? It took me 2.5 months of almost daily back and forth and being told all sorts of false information and getting no where and a complaint (and lots of help from the lovely people on this forum) before they finally reconfigured my meter and closed my complaint saying they could see from their end that it was indeed functioning correctly now. Now it's nearly December and i still have my children in a cold house. It's infuriating now.  If it looks like its not been set up properly then i'll re-open my complaint and go from there i guess. 

First picture is just after 23:30

second picture is 30 minutes later at 00:02

​@CuriousFairy 

Good job. Now, we can all see, without any doubt, that the meter cuts off the dedicated Off-Peak Power after approximately 30 minutes.  For E7, it should stay on until 06:30 (mine works between 23:30 to 06:30). I believe this is to do with the meter and nothing to do with your Dimplex Quantum Heaters. 
 

I am sure with these photos the OVO TEAM on this forum can see the root cause of the problem is the meter, hopefully, they will now reach out to expedite the solution suggested in my earlier note above. 
 

You have not confirmed if the meter is able to communicate with OVO System. Can you establish this? If you cannot figure this out yourself maybe if you call OVO they can tell you if they are able to read your consumption remotely (or you have to provide readings to them). 
 

Let’s hope OVO will reach out. 
 

The earlier photo of the meter you sent is not very clear but it seems you have EDMI Standard 420 Communication Hub (CH).  Please add a clear photo of the CH. How often the Green LED Light for WAN flashes? About every 5 seconds? 

Hey ​@CuriousFairy 

I’m sorry to hear you’re still having issues.

Have you spoken to your complaints handler? It might be worth emailing them a link of this topic thread.

Let me know via private message if you’d like me to reach out to them again as well. 

​@Siberia Eagerly waiting to hear how it went yesterday …
 

​@Firedog - My apology for not posting an update.

After ​@Emmanuelle_OVO reached out last week (ref. the extract below) and asked to private message her so she can get someone to look into this for me I called OVO RTS Meter Replacement Team and postponed the appointment to 16th Dec to give OVO SMETS Team a bit more time to investigate this issue.  

Sadly, since then the trail has gone cold, I have heard nothing from OVO Meter Expert :-(  And this is after I sent a chaser to ​@Emmanuelle_OVO two days ago. 

To be honest with you I am really nervous to change the meter unless there is a guarantee from OVO SMETS Team that the new Smart Meter they will install for me is pre-programmed to switch by default at E7 times (approx 00:00 to 07:00 +/- 30 minutes) and can turn the Off-Peak Power On and Off without having to wirelessly communicate through DCC with OVO System. 

I know the meters designated for “RTS Meter Replacement” are supposed to be pre-programmed but then I have read in various forums (EDF, NextOn, OVO, etc.) a lot of people having issues!

It is very cold right now, and if I do not get any positive response from OVO SMETS Expert I have to postpone the replacement to May next year - at least we do not need the heating at that time.

Let’s hope I hear something positive from OVO Expert within the next few days, I am sure that would provide assurance to a lot of customers with the old RTS meters.

Fingers cross!

I’ve been reliably informed by one of OVO’s Engineers that they have started to get exactly those meters in. It will still re-program itself once Comms are established to get the full setup, but these ones will at very least do E7 even if Comms don’t work during install.

Hey ​@Siberia 

Great news the RTS team have booked in a meter exchange for you. The above advice is the latest information I have. Are you able to contact the RTS team directly with your concerns? I have forwarded on your concerns to the previous expert who advised the above but heard nothing back yet & they aren’t in a customer facing team.

​@Blastoise186

Thank you - much appreciated. I am almost 100% sure that where our meters are located there will be no cellular signal (I have checked all 5 Electrical Utility Rooms and there is ZERO signal).  So, unless DCC or our Estate Management Company work out an External Aerial I very much doubt if we get any signal.  I would be glad if I am proven wrong :-).

So, unless I am lucky and get a fully pre-programmed meter on the day of installation the only other option would be to have the SMART Meter physically replaced as the Installation Engineer won’t be able to fix it locally. I am worried that it would be very difficult and may take a long time to get OVO guys to come back and change the meter. 

I also note that ​@CuriousFairy Smart Meter which is Aclara SGM1416B 5 terminal (the one OVO uses to replace the RTS ones) and was installed a couple of months ago does not work as evidenced by the photos she sent.  From what I have been reading I can see ​@CuriousFairy has been trying to sort this out for a couple of months!

​@Emmanuelle_OVO 

I have called the RTS Team a few times - but they are not able to discuss the technical issues nor would they pass me to any of your SMETS Expert! The same goes for the chatline. Honestly, their main interest is to book customers up for a smart meter installation (which I acknowldge is their job). 

That is why I joined this forum.  Thank you. 

No need - I’m only being nosy!

Fair enough. I suppose that all this pre-configuration takes a lot of workshop time, and I can imagine that OVO are making these specially-doctored meters available primarily to installation teams operating where it’s most likely that they’ll be needed, i.e. the Scottish Highlands rather than leafy Richmond! 

One question you might ask when you do get back in touch with someone on the RTS team is whether you’ll get a mesh-enabled comms hub like the Toshiba SKU2. There must be a meter somewhere close by that you and the other occupants of your building could piggyback on to get a mesh connection,  so it would be a good pre-emptive step for the future. This has to be, I think, a DCC decision, but at least OVO now have a couple of weeks to request it if they agree that it would be a wise move. 

​@Firedog 

I wrote to OVO about this + when I booked the appointment with RTS Team I asked them to ensure they use SKU2+MESH+DB with T2 Internal Aerial.  But, I have seen a number of similar installations here with the same specifications.  While the MESH LED shows connection (flashes green every 5 seconds) from what I understand this just shows the meters in the vicinity of each other are connected to the MESH, and since none of them seems connected to WAN there is no gateway to DCC/OVO. 

In cases where MESH is being used, the WAN LED won’t light up on any Comms Hub which isn’t acting as a WAN uplink - this is expected behaviour.

SKU2 Comms Hubs are used where needed and Engineers usually carry them in the van. Dual-Band however, is only fitted if long-range HAN is needed - you don’t always need it.

There are a few layers of concrete between the meter and IHD. So, I would be surprised if anyone except those on ground floor can have their IHD connected to the meter through HAN. 

Please correct me if I misunderstood the MESH system. I thought it is used to piggyback from meter to meter hopping at least one of the meters in these meters group (neighbourhood) is connected to DCC network via WAN. 

That’s exactly how it works :)

​@Blastoise186 

Thank you. I spoke to a few people in our development who have SKU2+MESH, and MESH LED shows connection but they still have to read their meters manually and provide it to their provider. As there is no connection to outside world through DCC. 
 

There seems to be a higher spec SMETS2 SKU3 SIMCH.  But, I am not sure if it is available right now for our area.  

SKU3 is only available on special request to DCC - and DCC really doesn’t like giving those out. All else must fail first before they’ll even consider it.

Noted. I don’t mind to be a guinea pig and try all the various options as long as we do it in the warmer climate.

I’ve responded to your private message ​@Siberia 🙂

Hello everyone.

About a couple of months ago OVO installed a new smart meter outside my flat.

I am on a multi-rate tariff as I have 2 storage heaters and a boiler running on economy 7.

Since I have a new smart meter I called British Gas for a quote which was given over the phone. But they then automatically transferred my account onto their supply! On top of that they changed me from a multi-rate to a single standard rate! And then my storage heaters stopped working too.

After speaking with OVO about this - they said they could change me back onto their supply. So I asked to be changed to a credit meter (not prepayment) with a direct debit because it was cheaper.

My problem is my storage heaters are still not working.

About a month ago OVO advised an engineer was needed to check the meter. A fortnight later the engineer advised my tariff would be changed remotely by OVO and not him. All he could do was confirm I had an OVO installed smart meter.

OVO customer service passed me to ‘Squad 70’ department to deal with this. One OVO agent was able to change my smart meter from single rate to multi-rate. But for the past 2 weeks my storage heaters still aren’t working. The agent advised the smart meter may be defective or he can send another signal to the meter. But after 4 days of him calling me with updates - he is now no longer calling.

Does anyone know what could be the problem?

Hi ​@brian563 ,

Bear with me and I’ll ask ​@Abby_OVO to swing by. She’s been able to get some of these solved recently and I think it’s just a case of getting ECAUL done to reconfigure the ALCS Calendar. But it may depend on how badly British Gas messed things up...

Hang in there for a bit and I’ll ask the question.

It's difficult to see in the 2nd photo because of the flash reflection, but looking at the first and 3rd photos the same “switch” (II) is showing as being open on both rates. With  (I) always being closed.

Shouldn't that be changing if the storage heaters are on a different circuit?

I think you’ll need to speak to squad 70 again & potentially ask the team to send the ECAUL command to update the ALCS configuration. We’ve seen similar topics on the forum ​@brian563 & this is usually the issue. 

But it might also be this? I’m afraid I’m not a metering expert. ​@Lukepeniket_OVO might have some advice?

I’ve checked the manual for the Aclara meters - the II indicator will show as closed when that circuit is energised by the meter and open when it’s not.

Same for the I indicator, except that it will always show as closed when in Credit Mode (as it should!).