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

The way this works is that all usage - not just heating - in the offpeak period is charged at the offpeak rate. So when they see both meter registers - peak and offpeak - incrementing, they can say that ‘offpeak is working’. 

That is a completely separate issue from whether the offpeak CU is getting power or not. That is controlled by the ALCS in the meter, and you’ll stay cold until EDF understand what they’re supposed to do. Don’t let them fob you off with another engineer visit - he can’t change the ALCS calendar.   

How many ALCS switches will there be on my meter.  The Economy 7 times have been set on the meter and operate correctly. Will there be a separate ALCS switch for the off peak supply?

Yes. They’re quite separate ‘objects’ in the meter. There’s only one ALCS - for the Auxiliary Load, i.e. the offpeak heating circuits - and it will normally be set to match the tariff, but we’ve seen dozens of cases where it’s not. In many cases, it’s just not set at all - like yours. So although you see the rate changing at the right time, and you see the peak register incrementing only during peak hours, there will still be no power to the heating equipment until you’ve managed to persuade EDF to use ECAUL commands to set the ALCS calendar* to match the plan timings. 
  

*  It’s called a calendar because it might have different timings for different days. That would be unusual in a domestic setting, so it only needs to be set to On overnight and Off during peak periods. 

Firedog, thank you for your very clear explanation. I suppose that the meter could actually be faulty. Before looking at the meter EDF want me to arrange an engineer check of our electrics. However, I am not sure if EDF have sent the required codes to the meter or not. If the meter turns out to be faulty, they will pay for the engineer visit. 

Oh dear. Whatever an engineer discovers, I’d be willing to bet that there’s nothing wrong with the meter at all, and it’s doing exactly what it’s been told to do. To check whether there’s power to the heaters, he would have to visit and test during the night.

Unless, of course, you can work out how to activate Boost on your meter if it’s capable of it. If you can, this would switch the heating circuits on for the period you specify by overriding whatever the ALCS is trying to do. You would then know whether there’s any wiring problem downstream of the meter. These instructions are from a different supplier, but it’s allegedly the same type of meter: smart-s2-boost-web2106.pdf 

Boost did not seem to be available on my meter although it did indeed seem to be the same type. (EDMI ES-12B) Going through the menu I noticed a screen where ALCS was denoted Off. 

My advice would be make sure you retain an engineering job report so that EDF can reimburse you if you do get a private engineer @hayvoe 

Hello,

I have been trying to get this problem sorted out since the second week of september when i moved into this property and have had no success and really just going round in circles. 

I have read a few posts on here with similiar issues and they have managed to get the problem fixed so i am wondering if anyone could help me.  I have 4 children and it's getting cold - i need to get this sorted out soon. 

Before i moved into this rental property it had all the gas heating removed and replaced with Quantum storage heaters. I believe the wiring was also done to accomodate the storage heaters being on economy 7. 

The storage heaters are not charging overnight. I've contacted ovo about this so many times asking for help to fix this. They keep telling me i need a new meter and will need to pay for this. They also have told me to contact the local DNO to sort the wiring for the meter but i am confident that the correct wiring and meter is already installed. 

My housing officer came over and called OVO on my behalf and seemed to get further than i did and after an hour of being transferred to different departments and being on hold, we were told a case had been opened with the billing team to activate the economy 7 on my meter. 

10 days passed and i got back in touch with OVO asking for an update (i also asked on day 5 and 7) and was told the feedback from the case states again that i need a new meter. 

The meter has two symbols on it o-o and o/o

Any advice would be most appreciated with this. 

Those symbols signify the state of the circuit switches for the different circuits. 
If you can post a picture of the meter and wiring close by, someone might be able to look at the set up and try to help