smart meter issues

This sounds not only uncomfortable, but also unlikely. Is this for electricity, gas or both? Can you show us evidence of what you mean, e.g. meter reading history from your online account? Or extracts of bills before and after the meter exchange?

Is there any reason why your consumption might have increased at all - e.g. a newly-installed heat pump or EV charging point?

@Edney The answers to these questions should help us work out what may be going on:
What was your meter setup before you changed to a smart meter?
What tariff were you on you changed to a smart meter, and what is it now?
Do you have electric heating?, if so then what type of radiators do you have?

I’m wondering if it was a meter exchange because of the RTS shutdown and you previously had 2-meters with one of those old THTC ‘all day off-peak’ tariffs with electric heating?

With a smart meter running E7, E9, or E10 tariff the off-peak isn’t all day, those tariffs are meant  for running storage heaters and so you have to change how you time/use the heating.

I still wouldn’t have thought it could make 1000% difference though.
(Although I suppose it might just be possible if electric panel heating, or wet electric heating, is constantly on 24/7).

Or is it possible that you were on estimated bills previously by any chance? We have seen that one before.

Hey ​@Edney 

I’m sorry for the issues you’re having. It sounds like a stressful situation to be in. 

My first thought is that this may be due to an estimated bill. It could be that the removal reading from the old meter was a lot higher that our previous estimates. This happens sometimes when we don’t get regular meter readings. Or it could be the install reading from the new meter is incorrect.

The following topics might be helpful:
 

• Questions about your energy use? Check out our handy FAQ F.A.Q.

• Meter Reading Disputes - What are they? F.A.Q.

The final reading of the previous meter was less than 10kwh above the estimated reading.

It's my 97 year old mums account which I look after.

She has lived there alone for 22 years, with the same storage radiators, no gas or other form of heating. No cooker, just a microwave.

It is a small 2 bed semi-detached bungalow.

I have tracked her consumption back 2 years from when the smart meter was fitted and it is evident that the problem started the day after the new meter was fitted.

Mum has been in hospital since 25th January so I  turned off every appliance, immersion tank and heating and just left a 5 watt light on, yet she has been billed 200kwh up to 5th March.

Can't see it's  a dodgy light bulb causing this.

The old system was economy7 there were no time controls.

I believe the new smart meter controls times?

From when? It’s difficult to visualize the situation when there are no fixed points. If you have access to the online account, you should be able to see (a) the meter readings that have been recorded by the smart meter since last October, and (b) details of each billing period since then, with figures for consumption and costs. A typical all-electric household uses 6-18 kWh each day on average over the year, so 200 kWh is not alarmingly high for a winter month’s usage. However, if the property was empty for the period concerned, you’re right to be alarmed, and the situation needs investigating. Perhaps you could share some of the details from the online account, taking care of course to obscure any personally identifiable information. It’s difficult to say where to start looking without a better idea of the problem.

Hey ​@Edney 

I still think this may be a billing issue. We don’t have access to customer accounts on the forum so you’ll have to get the support team to investigate this.
 

• How to contact OVO - best practices and Data Protection Tutorial

Although it’s unlikely for a new smart meter to be clocking too much consumption it is possible. This topic might be helpful:
 

• I think my meter is clocking too fast - How can I test if my high usage is due to a faulty meter?

Please keep us posted with how you get on. 

Thanks,

OVO has now arranged an engineer to come and check the wiring, they suspect it may have been wired Incorrectly? 

Unfortunately, they can't come until mid May.

The meter records the electricity that passes through it. If it is recording usage, then that electricity must be going somewhere. 

You wrote: “I  turned off every appliance, immersion tank and heating and just left a 5 watt light on.” Storage heaters and immersion heaters often have two feeds, one controlled by a switch nearby, while the other is hard-wired (no switch) and controlled by the meter, which turns the power on only during offpeak periods. If you want to make sure that the heating equipment is turned off, you should do it in the consumer unit (‘fuse box’). If you visit during the day, none of the heating equipment will be running.

I don’t know how easy it is for you to visit the property and check on things, but excessive usage like that you’re complaining of needs to be investigated now, not in two months’ time. I asked if you had access to your mother’s online account so you could check the reported readings and usage data. For an Economy 7 arrangement, there would normally be two meter readings each day, one for peak and the other for offpeak usage. If the offpeak reading is increasing by several units each day but the peak one isn’t changing much, the storage heaters and perhaps the water tank are most probably being charged every night. 

If you can’t see this on the account, you can also check on the meter itself; you know what the readings were on or just before 5 March. Check what they are now and compare the peak and offpeak readings with those on the bill you have seen. You haven’t told us anything about the meter, but usually it’s a question of pressing the first button a few times to see the peak/offpeak readings; you’re looking for Rate 1 and Rate 2, or perhaps R1 and R2. 

If you can’t work out how to do this, please take a photo of the meter and post it in your reply. Be sure to touch a button to light up the display before taking the picture, and make sure it’s clear enough for us to be able to read the display and all the markings on the meter itself. It would also help to see a photo of the whole meter backboard so we can see where the cables around the meter come from and go to. Please do this as soon as you can to save any further expense and perhaps an unnecessary engineer visit.

The more information you give us, the more likely it is that we’ll be able to work out what’s going on. 

Hi,

Thanks for this,

OVO have now changed the engineers visit to the 24th March.

Unfortunatly, when I try to see the usage online, it says “ Right now, we can't show a usage graph for your meter setup. We're working on improving this, but in the meantime you can see your energy consumption “

Lets hope the engineer can find the problem??

That’s encouraging, but I’m still not convinced it’s necessary or indeed whether it will help ...

OK, but that’s not the end of the world. The most important set of information is the meter readings themselves. They are the basis for billing, and the definitive guide to usage over a period. I would expect OVO to be retrieving readings every day from the meter; can you confirm this? If so, would you mind sharing the latest with us? A screenshot of the table on the page https://account.ovoenergy.com/meter-readings/history/electricity would be fine.

Looking at the billing history, the reading is taken every 10 days.

What about the readings themselves? 

You could check on the Profile page: Set how often meter readings send. For the greatest control, I’d select both half-hourly options. This should ensure a daily reading. I don’t think there’s any automated method of taking readings every 10 days, so they may have been taken manually to help with billing.

Each figure on the readings history page should have a label giving its origin. That’s one of the reasons why a screenshot of the page would be helpful.   

1st bill is Dec 23 to Jan 24, second is Dec 24 to Jan 25

Thank you.  There can be no sensible comparison with the figures from December 2023 to January 2024, partly because the system was completely different then with three rates, and partly because there were no readings to compare with, only estimates. 

For the period December 2024 - January 2025, billing shows only the readings for significant days - the start and end of the period, and the start of the new quarter with a new tariff. So I expect there to be many more readings available than the few used for billing. Please visit the readings history page and take a screenshot of at least the latest pageful.

That said, the consumption shown for December 2024 - January 2025 is almost all at night, which suggests to me that the storage heaters and probably the water heater as well are heating up every night. Have you been able to check whether this is still happening? The daily meter readings will give a clue ...

Hey ​@Edney 

I’m glad you have an engineer appointment booked. Firedog has given some helpful suggestions here.

Just wanted to pop by to reassure you that if the meter is found to be clocking too much consumption the billing period on the faulty meter will be recalculated based on the actual usage from the new, non faulty meter. If there is not currently a billing hold on the account, I’d advise requesting one until the engineer has visited.