Hi
has anyone had trouble after a smart meter was fitted with their charger ? I have as the meter was fitted correctly but a clamp that must be in place for the charger to work was omitted. Ovo refused to come out and help in spite of many requests and denied anything was wrong. Most irritating. Now fixes BT replacing clamp
Best answer by M.isterW
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+4
I assume you are talking about the CT clamp that would have been put round the "live" meter tail when the charger was installed? Just clamp it back round the new meter tail. You don't need an electrician to do it. It should have an arrow on it to show which way it goes. Make sure this points towards the load (i.e. the consumer unit).
Thanks for that and I have replaced it
For anyone reading this, we would always recommend seeking professional advice from an electrician for anything related to your home’s electrics.
Definition of CT meter: CT (Current Transformer) meters are installed on any connections with a load greater than 100 Amps. They measure a fraction of the amps (current) passing through the connection and a multiplier is applied to this reading to reflect the actual amps.
Thanks Tim and that’s very helpful. Much more helpful than the complaints resolution team who failed to properly address my problems at the time or recognised that the fitter had failed to refit my CT clamp.
+4
A CT clamp is a current transformer that clamps round a cable. They use the current flowing in the cable to generate a small current that is sent to whatever device they're connected to (car charger, solar battery etc). The device uses the current to determine how many amps are flowing in the cable. A car charger will use this measurement to make sure it isn't drawing too much current.
CT clamps are safe to fit yourself because they just go round the cable. They don't require you to do anything to the cable (cutting it or making any electrical connections).
I’ve just had a Smart meter fitted and we are experiencing some issues. We have gas for our heating and top up hot water when the sun isnt out. We have a 3kw solar panel system and an iboost that heats the water when needed and when the solar panels are working. If we need more water we can ‘boost’ through the immersion or heat on the gas.
Our Smart meter was fitted two days ago and initially we noticed and increase in water temperature. We thought all was well as the iboost kicked in during the day without electric charges - as expected.
We then notice that the iboost kicked in after dark and the display showed that we were heating off solar? But the Smart meter showed we were being charged?
We have consumption of gas supply to date but no costs showing?
We have now received an email requesting a meter reading when we thought that the general idea was that we would no longer have to provide that.
Something isnt right … ? it feels as if there is a fault when the meters were changed and that the solar meter wasnt been linked in properly.
Where do I start? I’ve had so called experts assess the system in the past but they tend to either have no knowledge of solar installations or are solar speciailyts with little knowledge of the domestic supply.
Please can someone help before we rack up a huge bill (or it may well work in our favour the other way?)
+4
I would check that the CT Clamp for your iboost is fitted correctly. It is likely to have been removed while the new meter was fitted and might not have been put back correctly. That could be causing the iboost to come on at odd times.
The meter will take some time to be registered properly on the system. I think it can take up to 6 weeks so until it's all working properly you will have to provide manual readings.
That makes sense. I never thought to check that but my meter shows no costs during the day when the sun is up. I'll go and check that straight away. Meanwhile... I'm trying to get advice from ovo. Thank you
well thanks for that and I thought you had cracked it but the CT clamp looks properly connected with the arrow pointing toward the new meter (consumer unit).
I’ve been in touch with OVO who suggest that its down to me to find a private engineer. I find this a bit outrageous as everything was working fine before they messed with it (and OVO kept pressuring me for a Smart meter - not me)
So if I cant resolve where should I start looking to find and engineer who knows all about solar, iboosts and domestic electric supplies? I seem to only find ‘experts’ on solar or ‘experts’ on domestic and not a person capable of working across the two.
I accept that meters may take 5 - 6 weeks to communicate properly and thats not my main problem but being charged for electric water heating water heating at night when it says its working on solar doesnt take and expert to work out that that cant be correct lol
+2
Hi
I am definitely no expert on these setups.
If you are at all concerned the smart meter installation caused the issues, then i would suggest putting in a complaint along with anything else you do with an independent engineer once you find one. It may just be a coincidence of course.
All the details on the complaint process is here. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask OVO to send someone to look at the meter install in the circumstances even if ultimately turns out to be unconnected, but that is obviously just my personal opinion.
https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback
OVO then have 8 weeks to resolve or issue a deadlock letter. Then the Energy Ombudsman can get involved.
+5
I think that’s the problem
Do you have 30 min readings or are you still waiting for this to connect? It would give another view of what’s happening to compare with what you can presumably see on your solar monitor.
You mention iboost after dark - forgive me, I’m not that familiar with the system but doesn’t it just divert excess generation? If so there wouldn’t be any after dark unless you also have battery storage .. or is it the timing and therefore the switch at that point that’s the problem?
Hi
I am definitely no expert on these setups.
If you are at all concerned the smart meter installation caused the issues, then i would suggest putting in a complaint along with anything else you do with an independent engineer once you find one. It may just be a coincidence of course.
All the details on the complaint process is here. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask OVO to send someone to look at the meter install in the circumstances even if ultimately turns out to be unconnected, but that is obviously just my personal opinion.
https://www.ovoenergy.com/feedback
OVO then have 8 weeks to resolve or issue a deadlock letter. Then the Energy Ombudsman can get involved.
Thank you jeffus
If it comes to a complaint then this will be useful ;)
I think that’s the problem
Do you have 30 min readings or are you still waiting for this to connect? It would give another view of what’s happening to compare with what you can presumably see on your solar monitor.
You mention iboost after dark - forgive me, I’m not that familiar with the system but doesn’t it just divert excess generation? If so there wouldn’t be any after dark unless you also have battery storage .. or is it the timing and therefore the switch at that point that’s the problem?
I’m mystified and dont believe in coincidence. All was working well in the morning and since the new meters have been installed its gone pete tong.
I’m getting 30 min readings and a display of costs as its running (nothing for gas?)
You are correct in that iboost diverts energy created first to the hot water tank before sending residual to the grid. We dont have battery storage. The mystery then is that the hot water tank is now heated in the night as would an immersion heater if left on constant. But the iboost shows that the power is from the solar - which could not be the case at night? Its almost as if the immersion is on constant and being powered by the solar in the day when available and from the grid at night?
+2
Do you have one or two immersion heaters in your tank?
Just the single tank
Sorry , just one immersion in the top of the tank
+5
There is a useful guide here from Marlec - they include a bit on heating when no excess solar.
https://www.marlec.co.uk/troubleshootmysolariboost/
might be worth a check .. just in case
+2
Sorry , just one immersion in the top of the tank
A few random thoughts in no particular order.
1. Have you checked the Timed Boost function is turned off completely?
2. Am not sure if the iboost reverts to any factory settings regarding timed boost or anything else when it would have been turned off to fit the meter.
3. Am not sure if it is worth reversing the CT clamp for a short period when it is dark and see what happens.
4. You could try turning down the tank thermostat and monitoring what effect that has.
+2
well thanks for that and I thought you had cracked it but the CT clamp looks properly connected with the arrow pointing toward the new meter (consumer unit).
I’ve been in touch with OVO who suggest that its down to me to find a private engineer. I find this a bit outrageous as everything was working fine before they messed with it (and OVO kept pressuring me for a Smart meter - not me)
So if I cant resolve where should I start looking to find and engineer who knows all about solar, iboosts and domestic electric supplies? I seem to only find ‘experts’ on solar or ‘experts’ on domestic and not a person capable of working across the two.
I accept that meters may take 5 - 6 weeks to communicate properly and thats not my main problem but being charged for electric water heating water heating at night when it says its working on solar doesnt take and expert to work out that that cant be correct lol
So is there one arrow on the CT clamp?
Does it have any wording next to the arrow on the clamp?
I say that as you mention "new meter (consumer unit)"
But the consumer unit and meter are not the same thing. The consumer unit is where your trip switches are?
Am assuming the clamp is on a cable between the smart meter and the consumer unit?
Post a photo or 2 if you think it might help one of us have a look.
Has anyone had any problems with switching to a Smart-meter and finding that this disables your EV Charger? Thanks,
+1
That… Shouldn’t happen…
What do you mean by disables the charger?
The EV charger DID work and now, after the smart-meter has been fitted, it stopped working. From looking at another thread in this Forum it looks like the OVO Engineer may have forgotten to re-fit the “CT Clamp”? Like another member, I’m having a lot of difficulty in even speaking to someone in customer services (I’ve been trying for 5 days) who can resolve this problem without saying “I need to wait until the end of August for an appointment” (evidently there is a minimum 17, working days, before OVO will book an Engineer to visit, even thought it was and OVO Engineer who made the error.
#Tim_OVO. You were able to reply / help with the other customer thread, are you able to help me?
+1
Initially, I’d try putting that CT Clamp back on and have a word with the charger manufacturer. Fixing this may be out of OVO’s scope.
I don’t know what a “CT Clamp” is … there’s nothing (loose/unattached) remaining in the meter box … I can only assume that the OVO Engineer removed it and took it away. I’m not an electrician so I’m reluctant to try and fix this myself. It’s annoying because the OVO Engineer said that he thought the EV Charging cables (connected to the meter) were the “wrong colour” so he took it upon himself to change them (he didn’t ask my permission) and I didn’t think to ask him to check that the charger still worked. I assumed that he knew what he was doing. Do you think that my logic is wrong and that this, somehow, wasn’t an impact of what the Engineer did? Would there have been a “CT Clamp” on the *non* smart-meter, or would a “1984 dumb-meter” simply not need a “CT Clamp”? Thanks for your help, much appreciated. I spoke to Pop Point (who installed the Charger) and they wanted to help but they thought it would take OVO Energy returning to finish the job to resolve the issue. So I’m stuck without the Charger working at all and it was a pretty important part of my house.
+1
I’ll need to have a think about this. I’ll be back!
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