There’s an industry wide change coming to meter reading consent, and we want to share the details with you

Thanks @Nukecad for the heads-up as I always run with Browser Privacy set to Strict

Engaged brain and went to this site https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop?as=u&utm_source=inproduct#w_what-to-do-if-a-site-seems-broken

Followed the instructions under the heading “What to do if a siite seems broken” and all is now well.

Been using Firefox for 10+ years and this is the first time needed to do this

Amazing to hear that this has been sorted with the help of @Nukecad! 

Hi,

I wish to have the option of opting out of the half hourly meter reading frequency. I was given a link via your automated email system in order to do so, however the link does not work ?

https://account.ovoenergy.com/profile/meter-read-frequency

The page is not found ?

Is there a way to opt out of this other than the non existent web link ? Why even give an opt out if the web page does not exist in order to do so 🤔  strange.

Thanks in advance 👍🏿

Hi @wetandwindy ,

You can also do it via Live Chat at https://ovoenergy.com/help or in the app.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Perhaps then it would be good to amend the outdated or incorrect automated email which points to a non existent link so others like me don’t hit the same issue.

Thanks again

That link works fine for me. It may be that your browser’s privacy or security settings are getting in the way. 

If you have the OVO Energy app on your smart phone, the same options are available there.

I’m really curious to know why you’d want to opt out of half-hourly readings - your meter will still record them and save them for a year. Which option will you go for, and - if you’re willing to say so - why?

Works for me as well.

I worry if you opt out of half hourly readings it simply makes all ovo customer bills a bit more expensive as it limits OVOs ability to buy the right amount of electricity every half an hour.

Longer term it also makes it more difficult to balance the electricity grid which isn't great for anyone if we end up burning more fossil fuels or importing more electricity.

Also it won't be long before all the good value tariff are "time of use" and will need half hourly readings.

Of courses it is up to you if you don't mind about these sort of things.

Should it be normalized that an “Individuals” home’s usage is recorded for every half an hour ?  I think by now the electricity companies with decades of  data sets / trends and understanding network grid load ,  leveraged against millions of customers can work out when people put the kettle on.

 

Works for me as well.

I worry if you opt out of half hourly readings it simply makes all ovo customer bills a bit more expensive as it limits OVOs ability to buy the right amount of electricity every half an hour.

Longer term it also makes it more difficult to balance the electricity grid which isn't great for anyone if we end up burning more fossil fuels or importing more electricity.

Also it won't be long before all the good value tariff are "time of use" and will need half hourly readings.

Of courses it is up to you if you don't mind about these sort of things.

Yes i have tried again on a different setup and it does work 👍🏿 i had to disable all of the ad tracker blocking software and run the browser with everything switched off.

You can read the other point above Jeffus. But to answer your ‘good value tariff’ does that mean “how long you use it for” or “when you used it” or both ? How can one, choose a good tariff ? Every person has a different requirement. And could we see people being penalized for using ‘too much’ at the wrong time ? The carbon footprint idea is not as simple as how much electricity you can use. How would a single person ever be able to match that of a large family. They could literally buy a V8 sports car and do donuts in it all day and not match that in an entire lifetime 😄 .. but i get the concept, it’s a worthy goal i guess 🤷🏿

Which comes to the final point. Is there such a thing as a carbon footprint for the actual network Grid ? As someone who has worked in telecomms sector i can assure you there is more electricity being used if you are ‘polling’ millions of devices every half an hour vs 1 day. The raw data the servers are processing, the network relays, the antenna stations etc..

And so my question is why not poll every 5 seconds ? besides the potential health ramifications as that would be like having a mobile phone constantly broadcasting continuously in close proximity for hours on end everyday. Considering people get bad headaches on mobiles after just short usage. Presumably the 30minuets is deemed a low enough amount for the correct usage metrics.

But it’s great you still have the option.

Thanks for your time.

The meter transmits a heartbeat every 10 seconds anyway regardless of those settings, so you’re not actually reducing the radio emissions by doing that - it makes no difference to electricity consumption either. While the readings are taken every 30 minutes, they are only sent back to the Supplier once a day.

The market trades on a half-hourly basis, so it makes sense the data matches this too.

As for health effects? They have never been proven. Every study has basically come back negative despite throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it.

In fact, I sleep less than 1m from a Ubiquiti UniFi nanoHD every night and have done so for about two years now - I’ve not suffered at all. Even with ALL of this kit running 24/7/365 in my flat!

And all of my Access Points are running at almost the maximum Transmission Power legally permitted in the UK by Ofcom - 30dBm - and is double the power of basically any ISP router ever dished out. Yet I’m still totally fine despite all the Wi-Fi being blasted at me from close proximity as I’m never more than 5m from an AP. If my Ubiquiti UniFi kit can’t kill me, then neither can Smart Meters nor mobile phones.

Good to hear.

If you read the FAQ that page refers to, you’ll see that knowing how much electricity customers consume each half-hour will help suppliers work out how much to buy in advance, ultimately saving everyone cash. As regards an individual’s usage, read how his privacy is protected on this page: Protecting data on Britain's smart meter network.

I wondered if this might not figure in your reasoning. Suppliers don’t poll meters every half-hour (Hh). It’s usually twice a day, in the early morning. One request is for the midnight meter register reading(s), which you would be able to see on your readings page. The other is for the previous day’s 48 packets of Hh usage data. It’s a tiny amount of data, compressed and encrypted and sent in a single burst. It would amount to a few MB of data for all  32 million smart meters, if they were all set to send Hh data. 

You can see all sorts of statistics about the smart meter network on the DCC’s site.