We've just had confirmed don't have economy 7 any more after we switched to a smart meter.

Can I get our storage heaters redefined as an EV and get the electricity at 14p rather than 27p?

I know it doesn’t work like that but I am pretty upset.

Hmm…

Gonna grab ​@Lukepeniket_OVO for this… I feel it’s right up his street.

Can’t make any promises, but he might be able to jump on this.

For now, please show us photos of the meter so we can see the exact setup.

I don’t have an overall pic of the meter and it’s surroundings but here’s the best I’ve got. Sorry.

It’s not our permanent home and we’re not there all the time.

And according to another post on this forum the meter is capable of running economy7, or is it? I don’t understand these things.

SGM1416-B - S2 Single Phase 5 Terminal meter with a 2A Auxiliary Relay for controlling storage heaters

​@BeardySteve  That meter definitely supports economy 7 tariffs - you can see the manual here: PDF Meter Manual

Per the guidance here

“press the B button once and the screen will show TOU rate 1, which is the day rate. Then press the A button and the screen will display TOU rate 2, which is the night rate.”

That’s what I thought as I could scroll through the various readings and rates.

I’m beginning to wonder if the engineer felt he was running out of time as he spent over 3 hours with us on a saturday, leaving the house after 6pm. 

I forgot to mention the storage heaters are Dimplex Quantum (fitted about 2014).

​@BeardySteve I’m sorry to hear of what’s happened here - very frustrating.

We generally don’t change single rate smart meters to be dual rate, however I’m hoping we can make an exception to this rule on the basis that your meter was supposed to be dual rate. Please get in touch with your complaint handler and request this as resolution to the complaint.

I can see ​@Blastoise186 has tagged our Metering expert ​@Lukepeniket_OVO - I’m going to reach out to him internally to get his opinion of this. Hopefully he’ll be in touch soon, and please keep us updated as to how your get on when speaking to Complaints. 

Thanks for getting back to me. There have been developments but I don’t really understand what they mean. I’ve not yet spoken to complaints as I didn’t really understand what I’m seeing.

Overnight we’ve got a change to our plan and what the meter is returning. And we have a new contract date of 08dec2025.

Standing charge
65.98p per day
Peak unit rate
30.11p per Kilowatt hour
Off-peak unit rate
20.20p per Kilowatt hour

And the meter looks like this…

And the meter history looks like this…
Date              Register     Reading    Type
8 Dec 2025   Peak            00942   Other
8 Dec 2025   Off-peak      00000   Other
7 Dec 2025   Anytime       00917   Smart
6 Dec 2025   Anytime       00899   Smart

Since the meter went in (and we got it switched to 30min readings) we’ve only had  daily Smart readings so I don’t know what the Other type means. 

I’m going to see what it looks like tomorrow and take it from there.

I’m hoping it looks positive. Any feedback welcome.

SteveM

Morning ​@BeardySteve and thanks for sending in the meter read info.

By the looks and sounds of things, the Metering team are still in the process of getting everything updated on your account. If you had two meters previously, and have now moved to one meter, this is a more complex piece of work for the back office to do following the meter exchange. We also need to get the District Network Operator  to update the National Database with the new meter details, as well as closing down the disconnected supply.

All in all, it can take up to six weeks for new meter details to be fully updated in all areas they need to be, but this process can be longer when a disconnected meter is involved too. 

With regards to meter reads you’ve sent in, it looks positive. From the looks of things the meter has now been reconfigured to be Economy 7 as of yesterday, but the off-peak register has only just started clocking from ‘00000’. You should hopefully start being billed accordingly soon. Please, note, I am only speculating based on what you’ve told us, and we don’t have access to your account on the Forum, so our Support Team will be there if you need any further information.

That does sound positive.

Just checked the meter readings and the off-peak meter is still 0 but it’s also the lowest daily peak reading increase we’ve ever had.

The overview suggests it’s taking peak and off-peak at the same time so I’m assuming they’ll both be on a 30 minute interval.

And the reading details now say smart.

Date              Register   Reading     Type
9 Dec 2025        Peak     00947    Smart
9 Dec 2025  Off-peak     00000    Smart
8 Dec 2025        Peak     00942    Other
8 Dec 2025  Off-peak     00000    Other

So it looks much more positive and I’ll just have to be a bit more patient.

You’re right about the old Economy7 still being on the account as an unknown meter.

I’ve been thinking things over and I suspect the support agent and I must have been talking at cross-purposes while we were both trying to be accurate and fair. They said I was on a single rate and that the engineer will have told us that. Since it was 10 weeks in I thought they were describing a permanent single-rate but after some thought I think they were just confirming the transition between the old meters and the new smart meter.

I’ll keep an eye on the off-peak as I know it should be consuming electricity. If our storage heaters were working after the smart meter went in I hope they’ll continue now they’re on the off-peak rate.

Fingers crossed and thanks for helping an old man understand his new smart meter.

Called the support desk to check on the frequency of readings but they had systems issues so they couldn’t see how the meter was configured. I’ll leave it a week rather than chase every day which is what I’d be likely to do as I’m impatient.

You may be able to see it in your online account.

1. Visit account.ovoenergy.com and sign in;
2. In the top right-hand corner, click on Account and select Profile:
     

   

3. Lower down the page, click on View settings here:
     

   

4. I’d recommend selecting Every half hour for both, but you might want to read this article before choosing: There’s an industry wide change coming to meter reading consent, and we want to share the details with you | The OVO Forum. The change is underway.

NB: Phrases like how often meter readings send are a bit misleading. A smart meter records details of how much electricity you use every half hour and and stores them for 400 days. OVO only polls the meter once a day for the previous day’s usage data, 48 figures at once. Your meter only sends data when it’s asked to.

Thanks Firedog, sadly the web-based profile doesn’t include the “view settings” and when I try to login to the Ovo app I get told it doesn’t handle complex accounts.

Maybe once the old meter config disappears and there’s only the smart meter the “view settings” might become available.

I’ll give the support desk a call on thursday so they don’t think I’m stalking them and to let their link to the billing/metering systems recover (they had problems today).

SteveM

That’s sad. After 10 weeks, I’d have expected your account to be fully up and running. It may be time to submit a formal complaint - in writing, e.g. by email to complaints@ovoenergy.com, with a big heading COMPLAINT. Explain what’s wrong - everything that’s not right about your account, your tariff, your meter and anything else. Keep it simple and succinct, but point out how long it is since your meter exchange.

Yep, I was drafting a complaint letter on monday morning when I noticed the change of contract etc while I was gathering evidence. It seemed like a positive change at the time.

I feel really sorry for the folk on the support desks as I’ve been there in the past, thankfully not for long.

There seems to be a fragility to the systems they use and from my background in IT over several decades I’d have expected most of this to be automated and fairly seamless. 

I find it frankly depressing that something they actually want people to do to make the suppliers life easier is so flakey. And painful. And while our previous meters were probably 20+ years old and still functioning they’re saying the new one will have to be replaced in 2035 which doesn’t seem that far away.

Most of my worry seems to come from the ever-changing communication and a lack of clarity.

A roadmap would help (probably both OVO and customers).

The worrying thing is I suspect most of the power companies work in a very similar hand-to-mouth existence.

But back to the letter, I’ll have some time on Thursday and I’ll make a start then.

Thanks for the support, it’s appreciated.

SteveM