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Switched supplier: Economy 7 smart meter not sending reads and IHD needs re-configuring?

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M
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Yes there are some very helpful people on these forums. When I was with SEB I had hell of a job getting them to admit I was stuck on an obsolete, overpriced tariff. (Standard Superdeal…..sounds so normal doesnt it?) A very helpful guy on the Martin Lews forums who works in the electricity industry helped me draft a complaint letter using all the correct technical niceities which resulted them eventually caving in.

Anyway……

My SMETS2 meter has “WNC” on the top left of the bit with flashing lights, and “Aclara” to the left of the readings window.

My little black IHD only has “GEO” stamped into the rear of the plastic case. No other branding that I can see

Hope this helps

Mike

 

J
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My smart meter is an Aclara SGM1416-B and IHD is a Chameleon IHD3.

I tired calling up my meter c config using the link in an earlier comment but it just times out and I can't retrieve anything.

Surely this was caused by SSE / OVO pushing out a faulty config file when the meter was initialised during the switch?  I would hope they can just push a new config file with the error corrected, cover all the meters in one go.  I’m not a smart meter technician but I am a computer tech so I have a rough understanding of the config files and ability to push OTA updates, surely that would be the best solution here?

M
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Jessica

You are waaayyyy more savvy with the real nitty gritty of tech than me, however I managed to get that config data ONLY once I realised I had to be logged into my online account at the same time

ie two tabs open

You are probably chuckling at my suggestion, but it was the difference to me. Difference is…..you understand the end product lol

As for the config file, lets hope its something like that which can be corrected without the need for lots and lots of engineer site visits

 

J
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@MikeMilf , I’ll be honest I hadnt spotted that in the original reply so thanks for pointing that out.  Sadly it change the error that I get (attached).  I’m not going to get too wound up over it but would have been interesting to look at my meter config and confirm that it shows that error.

I’ll be putting my test results in to OVO on Monday so hopefully that will get some action, especially if I can explain the technical side of the issues in a way that they can understand it

M
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Ive just seem Firedog’s post from a little earlier and yes it does seem that my Tier 1 register has been mis-labelled “off peak” if DCC push it as “peak”

Here’s the dumb question…..who are what are DCC? 🤣 Edit….Google is my friend lol

Jessica, best of luck with CS and please do keep me updated. It certainly looks like I will be treading the same path as you

Blastoise186
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Just thought I’d stop by real quick. SMETS1 and SMETS2 Smart Meters are not configured via a Config File. They use SMETS Commands instead that deliver each setting as a separate “message”, so to speak.

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Firedog
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My smart meter is an Aclara SGM1416-B and IHD is a Chameleon IHD3.

 

  Thanks. That looks about right. Mike could compare his with this:
  

  
The WNC bit is the communications hub. This one looks as if it has all the bells and whistles.
 

I would hope they can just push a new config file with the error corrected, cover all the meters in one go.

  

We can hope! 

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
M
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Yes thats exactly the one I have too 👍

J
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Quick update for anyone interested - I called OVO with the load test readings and they agreed that they can see the problem.

 

The have escalated it to their Smart Meter team to investigate which may take (🙄) 45 days!  Since then I’ve been contacted by email and asked to conduct another load test and again been told that it will be escalated.  

Doesn't seem like too much is happening with this right now, maybe giving customers correct bills isn't a priority?  Anyway, I’ll update further if this makes any progress.

Firedog
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Progress of sorts, I suppose.

Just going back a few days: @MikeMilf  was happy to confirm that his meter matched the one in my picture, which is an SGM 1411-B. Jessica OTOH reported that hers is an SGM 1416-B. 

There are several varieties of meter like this, so it’s important to be sure which one we’re talking about. One big difference is that some of them used for properties with electric (storage) heating have an extra conductor to supply the heating equipment - what Mike referred to as his off-peak circuits. This made me think that perhaps he, too, has an SGM 1416-B. The extra conductor is between the third and fourth from the left in the earlier screenshot, offset a bit towards the front of the meter.

If there is a separate off-peak circuit for heating, then there should be an indicator on the meter itself to show when this circuit is live. This should of course coincide (more or less*) with the off-peak hours as laid down in the meter configuration. So it might help if you (plural) could spot this indicator and see whether its state is what you’d expect. There should be two icons: one for the main circuit, which is closed all the time unless the power is off, and the other for the off-peak circuit, which should be open except in off-peak periods. This is what you’re looking for, in the bottom right-hand corner of the meter window:
  

 

There’s bags of detailed information about these meters in the technical manual. Most of it goes over my head, but it can really help when something’s not right. I got it safely and for free from here: Download Aclara SGM1400 Series User Manual | ManualsLib 

 

*  More-or-less, because there is a brief random delay to switching on heating circuits. This is because if every storage heater in town switched on at the stroke of midnight, say, the sudden increase in load might cause the substation to go into meltdown (well, blow a fuse, anyway).

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
J
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Can confirm mine is definitely a 1416-B. 

it is a 5 pole with a dedicated off peak circuit. This circuit is switched as per the peak / off peak times as listed by OVO so it is actives correctly but the billing is using the inverse tariff (ie. Off peak is billed at peak rate and visa versa). 

This would lend support to the theory that the tariffs are referenced in the meter configuration or a similar issue - the meter doesn’t seem to be ‘faulty’ per se, just misconfigured in the linking of the tariffs. 

M
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The return of Jessica makes me hopeful of Progress as does Firedog’s explanatory help.

However…….

Ive just taken a picture at 5am when it should be off peak (next change at 6am). The tariff is showing peak rate and the display bottom right is different to Jessica’s. My meter does appear to say its a SGM 1416-B the same as hers and from what I can see, the other exterior numbers are the same as hers

Will take another later when it should be peak rate - should I set it to show a different reading?

I think this confirms my meter is also set to the inverse of what it should be. Im not frothing at the mouth currently but as I said before, when the night storage heaters are needed, I think I will get hammered

Sorry about pic quality. Meter is in a dark cupboard and stupid phone flash wont co-operate lol

 

 

M
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Panic over…..just taken another picture, and the bottom right of the display now has the same symbols as Jessica’s

No idea why the earlier one was different

This second picture was taken at 11am which should be a peak rate time (says so on the “Your Plan” page of my online account). Instead its being charged off-peak.

I think this confirms I have the same circumstances/issue as Jessica. I notified Ovo via a webform a while back that I believ there is a problem, so I know about the 45 day wait. Trouble is they dont give you a support ticket number, so following up could be…..interesting

 

 

Firedog
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Thanks, @MikeMilf  and @JessicaRose. It’s all becoming a bit clearer. While you’re grovelling in the meter cupboards and staring at impenetrable displays, there just seems to be one set of information missing to confirm that you’re both in the same boat, so to speak.

Jessica showed the screen while it was displaying the name of the rate the meter was using at the time: TOU Rate 2. Mike showed rather the price being charged. A few presses on the ‘A’ button should make it possible for you to correlate these two factors, which will of course be different when the off-peak circuit is live/dead. 

It doesn’t help that Aclara refers to ‘rate’ numbers when in other places we see terms like ‘tier’ and ‘register’ to tell us which counter is which. Mike’s prices, coupled with the indicators for active circuits, do seem to show that the meter thinks the lower price is for peak usage and vice versa. Whether DCC and OVO agree with this or not hasn’t yet come to light, but it seems likely that whatever the meter thinks, DCC takes the first/lowest tier/register as the one for peak usage, even though the meter thinks the opposite. 

There’s a lot of information to be gleaned from the online account pages, if they’re being updated. It’s likely that there won’t be any billing data; this will probably have been put on hold until the meter people have worked out what’s happening. But half-hourly usage data and daily readings should give clues to what is being recorded on the peak/off-peak registers. These are separate, largely unconnected, data sets, although you’d expect the daily figures for the various time slots to add up to something quite close to the differences between daily peak/off-peak readings. It looks like Jessica is seeing some half-hourly data; what about Mike? And can you see the reading history?

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
M
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Thanks for the swift reply Firedog….I will take two more pictures after the rate changes, making sure to display the name of the rate. To be continued……

On my online account I have got readings from the day I switched - but only 1 per day

My (not very scientific) calculations suggest that what they show as “Off-Peak” is a pretty constant 5.5 to 6 units a day

“Peak“ readings show a pretty constant 3.5 to 4 units a day EXCEPT on days when I do a load test when it jumps to 8.5 to 9

By my expectations this is reversed. My peak usage is indeed pretty constant : I work from home so its mainly my domestic items plus 2 PCs and a printer. Its my off-peak usage that should be varying as I switch the immersion switch on and off on certain nights to conduct load tests

As I said before, its probably not affecting me that greatly at the moment as Im effectively getting Economy 14, but come the winter……

Let me know if you want any other pics in crappy quality lol

….and thanks once again 👍

 

 

 

 

M
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Okay probably last photo from me today (you’ll be happy to hear) as my head is starting to spin lol

Picture was taken at 2:05pm which should be off-peak, as per my “Your Plan” on website and previous experience at SEB

I have photographed the same TOU Rate 2 as Jessica, but to be honest I dont think it makes a difference as TOU 1 is exactly the same in terms of what is displayed bottom right

The change from peak to off peak has brought back “LC2” bottom right…..I have no clue what that is about

Finally the Active Tariff Price is showing 34.986p which is the rate for peak time so….wrong!

Thanks for whatever transpires :)

 

 

 

Firedog
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On my online account I have got readings from the day I switched - but only 1 per day

 

Readings are only taken once a day, at midnight (GMT). Half-hourly usage data are taken every … errr ,,, half-hour and transmitted to OVO as a daily batch sometime during the night. Readings are stored in the meter for the last 400 days, while usage data stay there for a month or so. That’s why you might see a slight discrepancy between daily usage figures on the Month usage chart, which are worked out from the meter readings, and the ones you see on a Day chart, which are derived from the half-hourly data. It’s the readings that matter, though, when it comes to working out how much you have to pay.

  


My (not very scientific) calculations suggest that what they show as “Off-Peak” is a pretty constant 5.5 to 6 units a day

“Peak“ readings show a pretty constant 3.5 to 4 units a day EXCEPT on days when I do a load test when it jumps to 8.5 to 9

… Im effectively getting Economy 14, but come the winter……

 

Perhaps you should (a) keep your head down, and (b) use the boost function (if there is one) to heat up your hot water in the period when the rate is lowest, which looks as if it’s during peak hours.

They’ll be very keen to get this right before users like you switch the heating on.

 

BTW, I couldn’t find any current OVO tariff that matches the rates you’re seeing. You must still be on your old SSE plan. You should be able to see the current OVO rates available to you on the Plans page.

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
Firedog
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The change from peak to off peak has brought back “LC2” bottom right…..I have no clue what that is about

 

LC is Load Control. The two switches whose representations you sometimes see control which circuits are live, so I suppose LC2 just means that the second switch is live. I haven’t worked out why the graphic isn’t a clear enough indication, so there must be some deeper meaning. Ours not to reason why …

 

Your meter is just about identical to Jessica’s, with a serial number only a couple of hundred different. The dates on the comms hubs are a few months apart. I wonder how many of these were fitted and - apparently - wrongly configured for E10 after the migration from SSE. We’ll see …

 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
M
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Thank you so much for the heads up on my tariff not being listed

Why do they have to make everything so complicated? Ive only been on the SEB Economy 10 one for a few months after a long complaint process to get off an old obsolete “Superdeal” tariff

As Ovo and SEB are part of the same group now I stupidly thougt their tariffs would be shared. I can see a load of tariffs in my area but no Economy 10….Economy 9 yes

Edit - thats wrong….i found my tariff listed as “Simpler Energy - Economy 10 - 01/07/2023”  (you have to adjust for 5% VAT and it then matches.

I know there has been relative tariff chaos in the market for a while, but do we have access to a good tariff comparison tool? Most of what im seeing are higher on one rate and lower on another.

At the moment I wont pay by direct debit due to a hideous experience with SEB. I had no choice but to cancel my mandate when they wanted to put my DD up to £290 a month! (single saddo living in a 2 bed flat). All based on a laughable annual usage estimate that they refused to alter!

I would have given Ovo the benefit of the doubt save for the fact they wanted to do the same to my old mum. Apparently £245 a month for a little old lady in sheltered housing is perfectly reasonable! In the 12 months following, her monthly bill has never exceeded £140 and in summer is less than £100. Oh yeah…..and she was £650 in credit!!

I thought my work as an accountant could get complicated by the electricity business…...jeez!

 

Perhaps they could make a mini series on TV of all this and we could get rich lol…...thanks again for your help

 

 

Firedog
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Check your PMs: https://forum.ovoenergy.com/inbox/overview 

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA
Jeffus
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Quick update for anyone interested - I called OVO with the load test readings and they agreed that they can see the problem.

 

The have escalated it to their Smart Meter team to investigate which may take (🙄) 45 days!  Since then I’ve been contacted by email and asked to conduct another load test and again been told that it will be escalated.  

Doesn't seem like too much is happening with this right now, maybe giving customers correct bills isn't a priority?  Anyway, I’ll update further if this makes any progress.

Have you made any progress @JessicaRose 

M
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Well in my case the wheels at Ovo seem to grind very slowly

No response yet to the online report of my meter problems, and no sign of my online account being updated with usage figures.

Whats really ticked me off today is that when I rang and told them its now seven weeks (they said six) and no sign of this mystical ‘verification’ being completed. The woman on the phone said it “would be updated when it is ready” and sounded like I should be grateful for that answer…...grrrrr

To be honest, I had to hang up else I may have blown a gasket after 40 mins on hold

 

J
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@MikeMilf - same no progress here until I did some digging for some email addresses and started sending some emails requesting it to be dealt with as a formal Complaint, rather than a fault report and stating that I would escalate to  the Ombudsman Service if it wasn’t resolved (I’ve sadly had cause to take SSE to the ombudsman previously so the nots on my account probably show this.)

 

lo and behold, we have some movement. I’ve been offered a bill credit and they say they have resolved my account issue and corrected the problem. I’m at work at the moment so can’t  check my meter to see if the billing is now right until later today. 
 

you may find the following details useful:

 

Complaints dept (with real humans!) 0330 102 7400 or feedback@ovoenergy.com

*edited by moderator*
 

hope this helps. 

M
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Thank you so much Jessica…..I will certainly get on to this tomorrow, and if you could confirm your peak/off-peak issue has indeed been resolved I would be so grateful.

Also is there any person in partricular who handled your case, as our problem (and indeed our meters were identical)?

Cant believe it may come down to another formal complaint. I came to Ovo having just successfully resolved a formal complaint with SSE, who refused to accept I had unknowingly been left on an obsolete tariff for years. I am aware that submitting a formal complaint sets a six week timer running, by which time it must be resolved or you can go to the ombudsman. Has customer service really come to this? Or perhaps being part of the Ovo group means the standards apply?

(Not counting these forums, who have good helpful people contributing)

 

Thanks again

Blastoise186
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Hey guys… Just a reminder. Please DO NOT post employee email addresses to this forum. The moderators don’t like that and I’ve had to report your post.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way!

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