Morning ​@Bishop84,

Welcome to the OVO Forum! Thanks for posting 

There is no definitive yes or no answer to this I’m afraid. The signal might be strong enough for the meter to communicate properly, but it might not be. We’ve seen customers with working smart meters in basements but, a lot of the time, the signal won’t be strong enough at all. My advice would be to speak to our Support Team via webchat, and send photos to them of your current meters and their locations. They’ll then be able to assess whether it would be worth booking the appointment. 

It might be that we end up booking you the appointment with a chance of it going well or not working - we may not know until we try. If the worst comes to the worst and the appointment is aborted then you won’t be charged at all for this - the whole appointment is free. 

By all means let us know how you get on, and come back whenever you like with any questions, smart meter-related or anything else - we’ve got a really helpful community here.

I’m just going to link you some previous Forum topics which you might find helpful. Cheers!

Apart from ​@Ben_OVO’s response, the answer to this depends a lot on where you are in the country. North of an horizontal line about through Manchester, meters use a way of communicating with the smart meter network different from the one used south of that line. If you gave us the first part of your postcode, we should be able to say more about what the chances are.

Hi, the first part of my postcode is CF24.

Thanks - that puts you firmly in the Central and Southern CSP region, as it’s known. Smart meters in this region use a cellular network similar to the ones used by mobile phones, operated by O2. If you have a good O2 signal on your smart phone when standing near the meter, you may be in luck.

There are ways of helping a meter to communicate from, say, a basement if the signal is hampered by the location, but whether this is necessary or not will only become clear at the time of installation. The supplier will check before installation whether the signal at your address is likely to be strong enough, and assuming it is, it’s up to the installing engineer to make it work. There are a few hoops to jump through, but every effort will be made to get it working.

You could take photos of your current meter showing it in situ and how it’s placed with regard to the gas meter and the room (often the kitchen) where the In-House Display is likely to live. Then contact Support via webchat to book a smart meter installation; you’ll be able to upload the photos you’ve taken during the chat so they’re stored in your account notes for the techs to see. If you take the trouble to describe the situation in detail, the greater the chances will be that the engineers will know what’s likely to be needed to get your meter in communication.  

Thank you for the above answer. I did as you suggested and the answer was that they would see if it can be done when they arrive to do the swap. They have apparently added the photos and information to the notes for the call.

​@Bishop84 thanks for letting us know, and please do keep us updated as to how it goes