Smart meter displays wrong readings - Ovo seem fine with it as it sends them correct readings?

More questions, I’m afraid.

Which register is for peak usage and which for offpeak can be changed, so what you read isn’t necessarily true. You say that R02 hasn’t changed since you moved in. That would suggest that all consumption is being registered on R01, because we all have some usage during the night (fridge and freezer, for example) and that should be recorded on register R02. You should see the different register readings by repeatedly pressing 6 on the meter’s keypad. Pressing 9 should show you the total of both registers. If this isn’t what you see, then it looks like something’s wrong. 

You say that the readings you can see on the account pages are different from the ones on your meter. One possible reason is that the readings are from a different meter (yes, that has been known to happen). 

Your meter has serial number (MSN, labelled Sr. No. above the barcode in your photo) 16P10***29. Please check on page 2 of the bill that this is the same as the one shown below the supply address. If it isn’t, contact Support and tell them. 

Do the readings on the bill you have received match the ones on your meter?  

You can see whether your tariff is Economy 7 on the Plan page. This should also be apparent from page 2 of the bill, where there should be sections for offpeak and peak readings and charges. Is this what you see?

Last, the half-hourly usage data. Can you see these on the Day tab on the account Usage page? Are there any days missing? If you don’t see any at all, could it be that your account isn’t set up for half-hourly readings? Please check on your Profile page that you’re properly set up there. âThe ‘serial’ number you may see on that page isn’t in fact the Meter Serial Number - it’s the supply number, MPAN, which should also match what you see below the MSN on your bill.]
  

I’m sorry if what I’ve written doesn’t exactly match what you’re seeing - I lost my much-loved Secure Liberty 110 (MSN 16P0901747 - a bit older than yours) last year when I was upgraded to a shiny SMETS2 meter, so I’m largely going from memory.

Hi @NikL,

 

I’m sorry to hear this.

 

It seems our forum volunteer has given some good advice here already.

 

These threads may also be helpful:

 

Please keep us updated.

@Firedog thank you for the reply.

If I press 9 it cycles through the 2 readings. I tried pressing 6 multiple times but it just goes through various options none of which provides a reading.

The serial number on the meter is the same as on my bills and the Ovo staff member I spoke to entered the same serial number to connect to the meter so we can rule out readings coming from a different meter.

No the readings on my bills do not match what is on the meter, as an example last months bill says:

Opening read on 20th July Smart meter 1131.250

Closing read as of 19th August Smart meter 1205.400

 

Clearly neither of the above match up with the R01 reading.

I am seeing daily reading history on the Ovo website which tally up with the readings on the bill and not the meter, e.g today's reading says 1247.8.

My landlord has told me the only thing on Economy 7 in this property is the electric heater.

There is nothing on the Ovo Plan page that says my tariff is Economy 7 and there is no mention on my bills of offpeak and peak readings and charges.

I guess I am stuck with a meter that doesn’t read correctly then?

Also I checked my Ovo profile and the “Data used for billing� had nothing selected so I have now selected “Every half hour�. Thanks for letting me know about this, maybe it will allow me to get Power Move credits.

Thank you. There is clearly something wrong somewhere.

Do you have an IHD connecting to this meter? Secure meters usually came with a Secure Pipit 500 IHD, which unlike some more modern ones is able to show the readings on both registers. I can’t find this documented anywhere, but I assure you it is there somewhere. I’m just wondering whether your keypresses on the meter aren’t doing what they should.

There is a meter health check wizard that may still work - I haven’t tried it for a few years. It’s worth going through it in case it helps: the results are allegedly sent direct to the smart people at OVO HQ. You might have to wait a long time for a response, though. See here: OVO Energy - Smart meter help .

Where does your hot water come from? E.g. you have a tank in an airing cupboard with immersion heaters, or instant on-demand hot water in the kitchen and an electric shower, or it’s centralized somewhere else in the property and not your responsibility.

It’s fairly obvious to me that this meter has not been correctly configured, and it’s getting a bit urgent to get it fixed so you’re not left with no heating once it starts getting colder. Could I trouble you to take another picture of your meter cupboard, so we can see the meter and everything else around it, including the cables to and from it and any other boxes fixed to the backboard? 

Once we can see what’s what, we’ll have a better idea what you’ll have to say when you contact Support again. I’d recommend using the webchat option, because then you can prepare some text in advance and you’re also able to send images. You can also get a transcript of the chat so everyone knows what was said.

 

Usage data: it may take a day or two for your half-hourly data to start turning up in your online account after you opted in. Keep an eye on the usage pages.

 

@Firedog thank you Unfortunately a IHD is yet another problem as there is not one in the property. I mentioned this when I phoned Ovo and was told they had plenty in stock and would send one to me and explained I would then need to call them to get it paired with the meter once it arrived. However it never arrived and when I phoned to query this I was then told the IHD for the type of meter I have is out of stock. I am on a waiting list for one apparently…

I tried the link you mentioned above for the meter health check wizard however after entering my account number, post code and then confirming my meter serial number is correct it just says “Your smart meters are talking to us. You don't need to fill in this form as we're getting updates from your meters. If you need help, please get in touch or use our Help Centre.�

My hot water comes from a brand new very small Hyco water heater and an electric shower that’s interdependent of the water heater (the whole place has just been refurbished).

I am now seeing half hourly readings on the usage page

Here are 2 photos I took today of the meter and it’s surroundings hope this helps:

 

That’s brilliant, thanks! It all looks fine. The fat grey cable coming from the foremost port at the bottom of the meter is labelled L S, which means Line Switched. This is the one to your heaters, controlled by a switch inside the meter called ALCS, Auxiliary Load Control Switch. Whether it is operative or not depends not least on whether it’s been properly configured or not. I’m a bit doubtful that it has, since you say there’s no mention of Economy 7 or anything similar on your plan page, and your meter is only sending one reading a day as opposed to two - peak and offpeak. 

I’m glad the health check wizard is still working, even though it didn’t uncover any fault. It’s a pity about the IHD - they went out of production many years ago, so it’s not surprising OVO couldn’t supply one. Your meter’s got a couple of years of life left, so I doubt it will be replaced soon unless they can’t get it to do what it’s supposed to be doing. I’m still wondering about the readings you’re seeing on it, though - you have to be able to check that it’s sending the right ones to OVO, because that’s what is used to calculate your bill. 

If the ALCS is properly set, the heating circuit should be live between 01:00 and 08:00 (during British Summertime). You could try turning the heater on shortly after 07:00 one morning to see if it shows any sign of life; there may be an indicator light to show that the power is on, but if not, you should be able to feel it getting warmer and (in my experience) hear it clicking and creaking and possibly smelling as it heats up. If there’s no sign of life, then the ALCS is probably not working. It would be as well to check this before contacting support so you can say that there is or isn’t power to the heaters.

Since you only appear to have one heater on the offpeak circuit, it would be worth finding out whether Economy 7 (E7) would be the best tariff for you. For it to be economical, you would have to consume something like at least 28% of electricity at night. Since you’ve only recently moved in, I don’t suppose you have any idea what your annual consumption is likely to be, so there’s a lot of guesswork involved.  Here goes:

Your consumption July-August was 74 kWh. That happens to be almost exactly the same as my own, so it could be that our usage patterns are similar, in which case your annual consumption exclusive of heating might be around 1050 kWh, of which perhaps 150 kWh is at night.  

A single storage heater will probably be rated at 3 kW. Let’s assume that this is switched on on 1 October and stays on until 31 March, and it takes 3 hours to charge each night. That’s 9 kWh per day x 182 days =  1638 kWh. That gives a total annual consumption of 1638 + 1050 = 2688 kWh, of which 66% is used at night - well within the E7 comfort zone.

The annual cost at single-rate on OVO’s current standard variable tariff for the Northern Powergrid regions, paid by Direct Debit, would be something like
2688 x £0.2020 + 365 x £0.6422 =  £777.38. VAT at 5% would bring that up to £816.25. 

At E7 rates (day £0.2245, night £0.1440, SC £0.6416), this would work out at
(900 x 0.2245 + 1788 x 0.1440 + 365 x 0.6416) + 5% = £728.40.

So, if your consumption was anything like this, E7 would be £88 a year cheaper. You can’t possibly know whether you’ll need to run a 3 kW heater for three hours each night to keep you warm, or whether you could get away with less or possibly have to supplement with other heaters. 

I would suggest that you try switch to the E7 tariff until you have some idea of how well it works for you. If you end up using much less overnight power, you could then ask to be switched back to single-rate.  

 

With all that in mind, I’d say you should ask support:

1. to switch your account to the Economy 7 tariff you assumed you’d be on if that’s what they said in their welcome letter of 20 June;
2. to ask the smart team to ensure that your meter is set to record peak and offpeak usage separately, with day usage recorded on R01 and night on R02;
3. (depending on the result of your early-morning check on the heater) to ask the smart team to ensure that your offpeak circuit is turned on for the offpeak period. 

It may be that they work out that it would be simpler just to install a new SMETS2 meter instead of trying to get this old one to work properly. If they do send an engineer to check your meter, that would be a quick and easy solution - the one I ended up with last year. If they did that, and got it right, you wouldn’t have to worry about the strange readings you’re seeing at the moment, and you’d get a shiny new IHD to boot. If they say that that can’t be done quickly, we’ll have another look at the meter display problem. Meanwhile, you’ll have to rely on the online readings to keep track of your usage.

Phew!

 

Just a heads up by the way while I’m swinging by.

The Secure Pipit 500 IHD that used to come with that meter was discontinued a few years ago. OVO - and basically all other suppliers - are struggling to get S1 capable IHDs in so you could be waiting for a while.

I’d suggest checking this guide out if you want one sooner rather than later.

 

Thank you @Firedog I will attempt to contact Ovo again. There is power to the heater as I can get the display to turn on etc so I am not worried the heater has no power.

Beware! There are probably two feeds to the heater. One of them is the high-power one, live only at night to heat up the bricks inside the heater. The other is always live, needed to power the display, the heater controls and probably a fan to pump air across the hot bricks so hot air comes out. So seeing the display lit up doesn’t necessarily indicate that the heater will actually heat. That’s why I suggested you have a look either early in the morning or very late at night to see whether it actually does heat up or not.

 

@Firedog thank you I checked it this morning and it started heating up so that is fine.