Hi @Wigwam66 

If it would help you feel better about the length of time it’s taken for your meter installation, I can offer you a gold star 

Before you go any further trying to get OVO Customer Services to sort this out, have a look at this other Topic where we’ve recently been discussing a suspiciously similar issue with one of OVO’s engineers, Ben.

We’d be interested to hear whether the fault you’re noticing only applies to the IHD, or whether you also have missing data when you look at the Usage on your MyOVO page.

I’m going to ask one of the Moderators to move this Topic over and merge it with the other one when they come online in the morning. Please @Tim_OVO or @Amy_OVO ?

In the meantime, please add any further comments either here or on the other one. It doesn’t matter which because the merge will sort it out!

Sorry to hear about your Smart meter journey - certainly not the smooth transition to smart that we aim for.

If you’re not seeing the information for both your gas and electricity usage on your In Home Display (IHD) this could indicate a communication issue either between the IHD and that meter or between your smart meter and OVO. If you think your smart meter may not be communicating with us, please check out the helpful guide below:

SMETS1 Secure Smart Meter Health Check

SMETS2 Smart Meter Health Check

Here’s some things which can cause communication issues between your IHD and your Smart Meter:

• Distance: make sure your In Home Display is near your electricity meter - ideally within 6 metres. If it’s not connected or isn't showing usage data, move it closer!
• Obstructions: Is there anything that could be blocking the signal between the IHD and the meters? (eg an exterior wall)
• Firmware: there might be a firmware issue with the IHD or smart meter, that’s causing connectivity issues (sometimes a device reboot can help with this - we’d recommend unplugging the device and allowing the IHD to run down it’s battery before restarting)

For more help see our Chameleon IHD trouble-shooting guide:

Hope you get these initial teething problems resolved quickly so you can start enjoying the benefits of your new Smart meters.

Ah, but @Nancy_OVO - the problem with this being an open Forum is that us customers can foil Moderators who only read the Topic Title and the first few posts.

It is true that the other Topic is called Is my In Home Display (IHD) displaying the wrong time? but we then expanded the discussion into anomalies found within the data collected from Smart Meters, including how missing data is accounted for!

Cunning eh?!

But may I just clarify what @Nancy_OVO has written…

Technically, the gas meter data is fed to OVO through the Communications Hub. This is bolted to the top of the electricity meter, and may appear to be the same device. But they are in fact separate.

It’s the Communications Hub which combines the raw meter readings with your Tariff information and sends this to your IHD

The Electricity Meter has two connections to the Comms Hub above it. One provides 12v DC power. The other is the Intimate Hub Connections Interface (IHCI) which transfers data.

If you are not seeing electricity data on your IHD, the two likely causes are:

• poor contacts on the physical IHCI
• software fault preventing IHCI data transfer

In either case you can confirm this by viewing your MyOVO page online to check if it too is missing the electricity data.

However, in your case @Wigwam66 you are seeing electricity usage data online, but not on your IHD.

This considerably narrows down the location of the error. It is most likely to be a software fault within the Comms Hub.

The refreshing of the relevant bit of software is precisely what we were discussing over on the other Topic… and where you will see that OVO Engineer @BenS_OVO did this for two other customers at the end of last week.

It is less likely to be software in the IHD itself because it is demonstrably able to receive gas data across the same ZigBee link from the Comms Hub and display it!

Now I’ve tagged Ben here, I’m hoping he’ll pop his head above the parapet and try the same remedy for you!

Thanks for expanding on that @Transparent

When other users search on the Forum the topic titles play a key role in what comes up in search results, so for that reason it's a good idea to keep them distinct when looking for one issue or the other 

Thanks @Transparent for picking this up and suggesting a line if enquiry.

Hi @Nancy_OVO, for the sake of clarity as to what the support team may have done I've pasted the relevant part of the email below:

"I have requested that your IHD's firmware be refreshed which can hopefully get your IHD fully smart operational. The firmware update should fix your IHD's display in the next 48 hours. After 48 hours can you please switch off your IHD and back on again."

I've restarted the IHD several times over the past 5 days without result.

Also, my IHD has been positioned between 8 and 15 feet away with 2 walls between it and the meter/communication hub. I've now moved  it directly next to these but have not see any electricity data yet.

Hoping the above helps.

I’m not sure what the agent is referring to when they say they’ll “refresh the firmware”, @Wigwam66, can you send us a message on Facebook or Twitter so we can look into this further please? In your message please confirm your name, DoB and account number 

If you look here @Eva_OVO you’ll see that @BenS_OVO is effectively re-syncing the four on-site parts of a Smart Meter set up by sending an XRITM command.

The CS staffer may not know exactly what the techies do, but referring to the process as “refreshing the firmware” isn’t far off the truth.

Sometimes I feel I could do with my firmware being refreshed!

Had a smart meter fitted last August all was fine untill January when no electricity consumption was being sent but gas has been sent.  Not been charged for electricity consumption since the middle of January, so sent a meter reading to Ovo the end of March and still not had an electricity bill or charge sent Ovo about 4 e mails but still no electricity charge. Where do I go from here.

Paul.

Hi @pauleywauley - What you report is uncommon, but there are a few customers who have similar issues. It’s odd that it affects readings from one meter and not the other because both use the same Communications Hub.

Sometimes both readings get sent to OVO but not to the customer’s IHD. Others have found it to be the other way around. All very odd.

Have a look at this other Topic where it’s also the electricity meter not sending data to the IHD.

And let’s tag @BenS_OVO to see if he can pick this up.

Ok thank you just need to see if Ovo can actually charge my account for electricity used up to date.

I had 8 months where OVO wasn’t taking anything for my new SMETS2 gas meter. I kept the Direct Debits static and earned myself a healthy wack of interest on the increasing credit!

Hi Transparent thanks just to be clear the online ovo portal is not showing any electric consumption usage just gas and not had the ihd on for ages but being charged ok for gas usage and standing charge and just charged for electric standing charge.

My smartmeter2 has not shown electricity usage for a few days, and now it has frozen completely. I tried turning it off and on again, but the off switch isn’t working either. Please advise.

Hi @Tiamun 

Have you tried turning it off and leaving it off for 10 minutes then turning it back on? If the power switch doesn’t work. You could try turning the electric off and on again from your RCD to see if this helps?

Tbh no  idea what an RCD is! I’ve unplugged the thing, and now can only wait for the battery to run out as I can’t turn it off…  thank you for your answer though 

Hi @Tiamun 

Oh sorry I read your post wrong. You mean the display monitor which you plug in to view your usage. 

Yeah, sorry, I didn’t explain myself well. Yes, the display monitor has frozen completely. I doubt this affects the meters talking to Ovo, but as it’s supposed to be providing me with timely information and as it’s not the first time it has gone wrong (not in the same way, obvs, or I would know what to do) it’s worse than useless atm.

any ideas?

Thanks for clarifying @Tiamun . The “display monitor” is normally called the In Home Device or IHD for short.

You have to hold in the button on the back for 5 secs to power off.

Ah. I held it for 5+ seconds - still frozen I’m afraid. 

I’d contact OVO but in present circumstances I can hardly call this an emergency! Thanks all for help. Any other suggestions gratefully received.

There are a number of other customers on the Forum this week stating that they have incorrect data being sent to their IHD. From what you describe, this is not the case with your unit. If the display is static, none of the 3 buttons makes any change, and it won’t power off, then I think this must be a fault within the IHD itself.

What about unplugging it from the mains transformer-plug and letting its internal battery run down?

That might be worth trying, because the internal processor would then be forced to restart when you next apply power.

Have you succeeded in regaining control of your IHD @Tiamun ?

If not, then we need to ask @BenS_OVO  for his advice.

Hi, no luck. The IHD finally turned off, and at least now is telling the time and giving gas usage. However, going online I can see that OVO are not getting electricity info either.

Normally I’d suggest a call, @Tiamun - but as we’re only accepting calls for emergency situations, for this please reach out to our social media teams:

We’re on Facebook, Twitter and our Help centre has online chat!

Thanks for the feedback @Tiamun 

I’m neither surprised nor disappointed that you have now observed no electricity readings being reported online.

This is still “early days” for SMETS2 Smart Meter technology and OVO will require these snippets of information in order to understand the wider picture. Have a look what I said over here on a similar Topic yesterday.