Smart meters are working but not communicating with OVO - why?

Hi Jess. Thanks for the advice. She did send the details you mention to the support team yesterday but I was hoping that there was something else we could do in the meantime to speed things up a little as they mentioned 40 days to fix 🥴. It’s already been almost 2 months since the meter last sent readings to OVO and she wasn’t aware of that until I checked her usage on the OVO app. I’m surprised OVO didn’t inform her that something was wrong and ask her to send in manual readings before now. Incidentally, she also needs a new IHD. The one she’s got constantly turns itself off then reboots so there is something wrong with that too. 

40 days is the maximum target time to resolve these issues, but OVO aims to resolve them faster than that whenever possible - you could even end up with a fix within two weeks if you get lucky for example.

As for the IHD, that’s normal behaviour when it can’t get a connection. I have two Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID IHD’s that I call the Kecleon Brothers and they both do the exact same thing if I move them too far away from Raichu for too long - or if I fire them up and let them sit out of range so that they can’t get a link at all. This isn’t usually a fault as once they’re able to get a connection to my Home Area Network again (from the Comms Hub above Raichu), the reboots cease almost immediately. I think it’s normal behaviour for when the IHD is attempting to run a self-diagnostic and recovery from these issues.

MyOVO does normally alert you to a lack of recent readings if you log in regularly, but I think I’ve got a possible feature enhancement idea here. I think what would help would be if a Push Notification could be sent to the OVO Energy app if your meters miss more than say, five scheduled readings and ask for a manual one. That might help a bit - and is probably a bit less distracting than sending emails out. :)

Ah, well logging in regularly is something she never does - in fact, I doubt she’s logged in since the first time 😢 which is why she wasn’t aware that no readings were being sent. 

Good point regarding the IHD though. I’ll get her to check via the app now and then that readings are being sent and when they are, I’ll get her to turn the IHD on again 

We are customers of OVO and keep getting messages that our smart meter is not sending information. We moved into this property 6 months ago and took over the existing meters etc. A sticky label tells me that the meter was installed in 2019. I have applied for a replacement or repair, but I only get a message stating that they cannot install a meter. I am 87 years old and am recovering from a triple fracture in my neck, I am also diabetic and have heart and kidney problems. I therefore find it difficult to try and read the meter (I have no instructions on this) to send readings to Ovo. I assumed that this was the reason for using a smart meter. I have managed to take a picture of the meter, a L & GE470, but I cannot see how to attach it to this message. Can you help me please.

Thank you Roy Jones

You are eligible to be put on the priority services register.  Until the smart meters are made operable you are entitled to ask for a meter reader to come and do it for you.

the meters are probably OK but their communication with OVO is not.  OVO can try to send instructions to the meter to get it working again.  If eventually that fails you are entitled to a replacement.  It is possible that these meters are SMETS1 meters and they might not have been enrolled onto the DCC network (systems are in the course of change) the conversion is not due to be complete for another 3 months and OVO would not replace a meter that is potentially capable of working.

you can use this tool to check if some features of the meter are working and post the result back here.

https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk

our resident smart meter expert @Blastoise186  will pop by to give his more authoritative opinion in due course.

Ovo installed new gas and electric meters about a year ago and gave me a IHD6 smart meter. It’s never successfully sent meter readings to Ovo, I log in and send them manually on the website instead, which makes the smart meter pointless.
I don’t know why it doesn’t work. The IHD6 top left signal shows full 4 bars and I’ve connected it to my WIFI and that shows strong connection too. The smart meter itself is getting the readings but not then sending to Ovo.

Any ideas how to get it to work?

Please could you post photos for us @mrtomuk ? We can try to advise but photos are important. :)

Hi @mrtomuk

It is also worth a quick check to see if any of the free ofgem regulated 3rd party apps can see your meter readings.

This is one for example. 

https://www.glowmarkt.com/