Howdy @nick100 !

Just so you’re aware, I’m one of the forum volunteers here, so what I’m writing isn’t the official view of OVO.

I’m afraid I’ll have to give you some bad news, but I’d much rather you know this upfront than make you find out the hard way later. And in fact, I know a lot of people would agree with me on that point.

OVO Energy is a domestic-only supplier and isn’t able to supply non-domestic customers right now, so if you try to switch a supply that’s currently registered as a business on the national databases, the switch will fail and you’ll remain with your existing supplier. There is a solution though.

If the property in question is no longer being used for business purposes - and you are not planning to restart anytime soon - then it may be possible to have the national databases updated to re-classify your supply as being for domestic use. Once that’s done correctly, OVO would be able to take you on as the system would identify your supply MPAN and MPRN as being for a domestic customer.

You’ll need to talk to your current supplier to make the arrangements to do this. If they don’t do domestic supplies, you may need to temporarily switch to a supplier that offers both domestic and non-domestic supplies, have them do the update and then jump to OVO from there.

Hope this helps!

Amazing. Thank you, up until now I have hit a brick wall . I have not been able to find a supplier that offers both but will speak to my existing supplier on Monday to se if my entry on the database can be reclassified as domestic. Do you know of any suppliers that offer domestic and commercial? Cheers

Just curious, but who is your current supplier? If you’re happy to name them, it would help me out. Don’t worry, you are allowed to talk about other suppliers here. :)

I can definitely try to put together a list of suppliers that might be able to help based on Ofgem data, but it’ll take me some time to do as there’s a LOT of data to crunch.

I will however, use one of my sneaky advantages. This forum has a lot of people from various places and I think I know someone who might be able to offer a bit of advice.

Hey @Beki_EONNext , is there any chance I can borrow you for a minute? In particular, do you think E.On Next would be capable of taking on a business customer and converting them to a domestic customer? I don’t know business stuff very well and I basically never answer these questions!

Oh, I should probably explain actually. Beki is the community manager for the E.On Next Community, but she’s also on here because there can be the odd occasion where one of their customers comes here. So it’s kinda helpful to have her around.

Oooh I know I’m a little sad but I was very excited to get a tag.  

Yes we do both small and medium business and of course domestic/residential. We would have a few questions that we would need to have answered first to understand the usage etc. 

Before changing an account from SME to Domestic and vice versa, we need to find out some information as to why this needs to be done so our Energy Specialists will usually ask some questions surrounding why you want to change from business use to domestic etc. (Don’t worry - they’re pros at this stuff!) I’m not 100% sure if you would have to brought over as a business then switched to residential though, but I’m super curious to find so I have asked the question. 

I would definitely recommend speaking to us in the business dept on Monday when the phone lines are open again (9am). The number is 0808 501 5699. Please keep me updated. 

Thank you Blastoise 186 and Beki_EONNext.

The business tariff was set up when we moved to the property some time ago (previous owners had used). We never really got going as a business (but thought we might at some time in the future) and have been meaning for some time to switch but just seemed so complicated. What has prompted this now is the end of current contract looming with new quote 4.5 times more than current kWh cost. 

If I can move to a domestic tariff I will still pay a lot more than current but not as much as a business tariff (if that makes sense).

Our property is a house with a couple of outbuildings.

I just have not found any provider to speak to me (all are saying ‘stay with your current supplier’ - but this does not work for me as our current supplier does not offer domestic).

So, will try that number you suggested on Monday.

Any other suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thanks again.

hi,

can OVO supply electricity for my small business ?

Hey @alimccoy16 ,

Unfortunately not I’m afraid. OVO can only supply domestic properties at this time. They don’t have support for businesses.

Hope you’re OK with being made aware upfront!

We’ve recently moved into a new house, and after trying to get a quote to change our boiler, we’ve been told that although now registered as domestic our meter is a commercial meter. It’s quite a big house with a separate (not much used) annex and 2 boilers. The technician who looked at it has advised that he can’t change the main older boiler and that it would be a lot more economical for us to get the meter changed to 2 domestic meters going forward. Our gas bills are horrific, even though we’re using the heating as sparingly as possible. Would it be more economical to change meter, or is the only benefit a slightly reduced daily standing charge? Surely the tariff and usage would be the same? Advice much appreciated!!!!

There might be some useful info in this thread re the commercial meter. Sorry I’m advance if you’ve already looked through it. 
Can’t help with rates unfortunately.

Nb ignore the email address suggested as OVO doesn’t respond to that these days.

Thanks for the reply. I have looked through it, just can’t find an answer to the main question, does the type of meter effect the usage and or overall cost if on a domestic tariff. Thx again though

Sorry, no it’s not there. Is your supply with OVO ? The current rates for new domestic customers are all the government EPG rates - depending on area it’s around 35p for elec and 10p for gas plus standing charges and vat. No idea of commercial rates. 

I could do with seeing the meter you’ve currently got. That usually helps us figure out these ones. :)

Perhaps they’re referring to a 3-phase supply, @Tenb1022 - often associated with a commercial supply (or a big user household). I would expect your prices to be the same per kWh and per day in standing charges, if it’s correctly listed as a domestic supply. But if you have any doubt, your energy supplier can confirm the rates. 

Send over a photo of the meter if you fancied some advice of the hardware! 

Hi. Thx for the reply and apologies for the belated photo of the meter. Any advice is much appreciated! 

Sorry for the delay, photo of meter! 

That looks like a U16 Gas Meter with some kind of AMR (Automatic Meter Reader) device attached to it. You never usually see an AMR on a Domestic supply.

You are better off just having one meter for each supply type, otherwise you have to have two supplies, two accounts and two standing charges.

Yup, that black device is an Elster IN-Z61 Pulse Transmitter is definitely used as part of an AMR alright. As I suspected. :)

Thanks, so I do seem to be on a domestic tarif (approx 10p per KWh) plus standing charge, so I guess my only issue is that to change out my boiler will require a commercial heating engineer, however it sounds as though I should stay with the commercial meter, rather than 2 smaller domestic ones? 

Those U16 Meters can be used for domestic supplies as well. There’s just not really many options for a U16 SMETS2 Gas Meter yet, outside the ones I’ve seen in person in OVO’s Smart Meter Lab.

They are coming though as I’ve seen them under test with my own eyes. I’d upgrade to one of those when they come out and look at replacing the heating system.

While it does appear you have an AMR device attached, I can’t say if anyone is actually listening to it or not.

Thx and apologies for my ignorance. Do you know what type of heating engineer I’d need to look for to replace my boiler? Does It have to be a commercial engineer ? I understand that the certification is different for the ‘high flow’ meters.

Guess I’ll have to assume no one is listening to the AMR, or if they are, it’s really not that interesting…! 

Erm… I don’t actually. But you’re in luck. @M.isterW can I borrow your knowledge?

Hi everyone,

Apologies for a long post. We have recently received a bill from Opus for over £800 for electricity only for about 2 months for a studio flat which was empty for almost a month and has a gas heating. They charge between £2.5-£4 for standing charge per day and £0.68 per kwh for deemed out of contract bussiness rates which is extremely high and causes me a huge headache.

Anyway, we purchased the property at the end of November 2022. It is a house that was split into 4 studio flats that my husband is renovating. The property was empty for over a year. Usually I look after bills and paperwork but I had serious health issues in December and I left it until Jan to switch to a new supplier. I wasn't aware that the property has bussiness supply and I saw a bill from Edf on one of the flats so assumed they supply other flats as well and currently the rates are pretty much the same for all suppliers so thought it wouldn't matter. The edf bill later appeared to had a wrong address and meant to be for our neighbour. 

In January I emailed Opus to ask if they supply energy. I had no reply for several days so I called and they said it is commercial supply as the previous owner was a Housing Association so they had a bussiness account with them. However, they said they cannot offer a contract to us as the property has domestic meters so we now have to pay their out of contract rates and it would be better to switch to a domestic supplier. I asked how much were the out of contract rates and they said they will advise once the accounts are switched to our names which can take up to 10 working days. But I insisted to switch before feeling they are not really honest and we did the switch in the middle of January for 3 flats and 20th for one flat which the tenants did. Opus also responded to my email asking to switch accounts to our names and I said we had already dine it over the phone. I asked again what were their out of contract rates if we have to pay to them as I saw their rates on their website were crazy and they replied to give meter readings and move in date to a new supplier and that we will not have a bill from them.

Yesterday they sent us a letter advising about their oit of contract rates and to contact their sales team in order to get better rates. And today we received a bill for over £800 based on estimates not meter readings. Also, the meter number actually relates to another flat, according to what is written on the meter and we checked which meter is moving when the heating is on. To make it more confusing, the tenants who occupy that flat emailed Opus some time ago and they were advised Opus did not supply energy to that address. What is more, if they send us a bill for similar amount for 3 other flats then it would really kill me. The usage is minimal but the standing charge is outrgeous.

I emailed Opus saying they agreed not to charge us since the property is domestic and should never had a bussiness supply which we did not agree to. They responded that the new supplier only contacted them on the 20th and so before that we have to pay to them.

Accidentally Opus also emailed me instead of the previous owner asking for meter readings as they lost the track for over a year and have no accurate meter readings. There are no smart meters there.

What can we do, is there a chance we can pay the new domestic supplier from the move in date. Or can we challenge the bill somehow.

Another question, one of the meters is not moving at all, how would they charge us for usage on that and how to identify which meter belongs to which flat. They seem to have different data to what is written on the meter.

If someone could help it would be much appreciated.

sounds to me that the commercial was connected to the domestic supply.

Hey @Gaudencja,

I’m really sorry to hear this, 

That sounds like a really complex, frustrating issue. My suggestion would be to speak to Citizens Advice, they may be able to offer some helpful advice in this case.

Keep us posted with how you get on. 

In your situation i think I would phone one of the Energy suppliers that have both domestic and business customers and see what they can offer. 

Octopus Energy are well respected and i think get good feedback for the time it takes to get through on the phones when so many suppliers are busy at the moment.