Why is the tariff rate on my smart meter and Chameleon In Home Display (IHD) wrong?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
October 7, 2018
69 replies
13195 views

The standing charge and kWh rate on my Chameleon IHD are higher than my account tariffs . My Account tariffs are correct, any way to correct the IHD display? Thanks.

Best answer by NinjaGeek

Updated on 25/08/26 by Abby_OVO

Good spot on the mis-match between your unit rates on your online account and Chameleon In Home Display (IHD).

It’s worth checking whether the discrepancy is just due to the VAT*. Your OVO online account will usually show your unit prices excluding VAT whereas your IHD may show the same prices including VAT - if the difference between prices is 5% this will explain things.

*The government is cutting VAT on household electricity prices from 1 October 2026 to help with the cost of living. So this issue should be irradicated in regards to VAT causing such a discrepancy, so if you spot one, please do reach out to the Support Team.

The tariff information on your device may need to be updated. It may be that you’ve recently had the meters installed or your prices have recently changed and the rates loaded on to your meter haven’t quite been updated. In this case reach out to our Support Team to get that corrected. It is worth bearing in mind the following:

Usage costs on your IHD may not 100% match your daily charges

As the prices loaded on to your smart meter and IHD aren’t automatically linked to the rates on your account, inaccurate prices seen here won’t affect the accuracy of your bills. For this reason we’d always advise checking the actual usage charges on the ‘Billing’ page of your online account, if you’re worried that your IHD is showing incorrect information.

If you’ve got a Pipit IHD but are seeing the same issue - check out this topic for more advice.

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Show previous replies

LynneEliz1

Newcomer

Hi there, does anyone else have an issue with the amount shown on their smart meter i.e. it’s apparently not the correct usage at all? I have been tracking my usage in money over the pst 3 months and thought I was doing so well by keeping my bill low, only to discover that the monetary value shown on the smart meter is wrong?

I’m completely confused by all of this. I thought that by getting a smart meter I would know exactly how much energy I am using in pounds and pence, but that doesn’t seem to be the case?

Has anyone else recently discovered this?

Tim_OVO

OVO Forum Legend

Hi @LynneEliz1 and thanks for the question.

Your in home display (IHD) is connected to the actual meter(s), and get sent your meter readings. It uses this and the unit rates sent to it (also from the smart meter), to display costs.

If the IHD gets readings, and has the correct prices on it, you can use the IHD as a pretty good guide to your costs. The actual charges in your bill, are based on the daily meter reading sent from the meter(s) to OVO. You can see this here:

https://account.ovoenergy.com/billing-history

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LynneEliz1

Newcomer

Thank you for your reply.

So does this mean that the costs showing have not been updated to the new price cap introduced this year? i.e. for example if I look at my smart meter it tells me I have spent £3 today but in actual fact I’ve spent £6 today? So the usage is correct, it’s just the price has not been amended to show this?

I have been told by several OVO operators to disregard the smart meters as they are incorrect, which is just awful as I have been checking my usage daily (in pounds and pence), but this is giving me false information!

Hope that makes sense.

M.isterW

Rank 6

It's possible that the tariff held in your IHD (the display unit) is incorrect. You can check it by pressing the bottom right corner of the screen (this assumes you have the same IHD as me) then selecting "account". If you press the right arrow it will step through to the tariff information.

If it's incorrect (doesn't match the tariff you're paying) you can ask OVO customer service to reset it.

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Sgroves

Newcomer

Hi I’m having issues with the smart meter not sending information back. On investigation of the rates they’re different to what’s in my contract how do I tell if I’m being over charged for electricity or if my bills are being generated off my contract rate.