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Montego77
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June 30, 2021
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Can a Smart meter provide 2 off-peak time periods for an Economy 10 setup?

  • June 30, 2021
  • 19 replies
  • 4873 views

I have storage radiators which are powered by two separate off-peak periods. One during the night and a second 2-hour period each afternoon. Would a 5-port Smets2 Smart meter be able to provide 2 charge periods as I now have?

    Best answer by Jess_OVO

    Updated on 18/07/24 by Shads_OVO

    Welcome to the OVO online community, @Montego77  - great first question in relation to the compatibility of smart meters with an Economy 10 set-up.

     

    As of Monday 17th June 2024, Economy 10 smart meters are now available for customers who already have Economy 10 traditional meters. If a customer would like to go from traditional Eco 10 to smart Eco 10, they can book a smart meter install or we can book them one.

     

    Currently, customers who are not already trad Eco 10 cannot switch to having an Eco 10 smart meter, though this will hopefully be coming very soon - for example, if a customer has a traditional single rate meter or an Economy 7 smart meter, we can’t currently switch them to E10 at the moment. We can only change trad E10 to smart E10.

     

    You can find out the exact peak/off peak times you’d be offered depending on your area here.

     

     

    By the sounds of things, you currently have some kind of Complex Meter, which are sometimes known as RTS or DTS Meters if they’re controlled remotely. If you’re happy to show me some photos of your meters, this might help to make sure I’m on the right track.

    Unfortunately, these meters are no longer installed by any suppliers and the support for them is being phased out soon - especially because the Radio Teleswitch Service is shutting down. This doesn’t affect any meters where a local timeswitch controls the switching, but it will effectively brick pretty much all meters that are managed remotely via the legacy RTS Service.

     

    Not sure if your set-up is a Radio-Teleswitch (RTS) meter as @Blastoise186 suspects, but this is our latest update on the RTS shutdown:

     

    As part of the RTS Project development, we are really happy to share with you our progress:

     

    As you may be aware, the RTS signal that instructs some of our meters when to move to the “Off Peak Period”  will be closing down soon and we need to arrange for all of our RTS customers to have a meter exchange so they don’t lose any of their meter functionality.

     

    The RTS signal will end for our customers on 30 June 2025. The period between 1 July - 30 September 2025 will then be used to close-down the RTS signal and allow us to manage any unexpected customers impacted.

     

    After a very successful pilot, from the 17th June 2024 we will begin writing to our Economy 10 RTS customers to invite them to call us to arrange for their meter exchange. 

     

    We are continuing to work at pace to enable the same solution for the majority of our other RTS customers and our aim is to begin writing to these customers in Aug 2024. 

     

    We will continue to update you on our progress.

     

    Be interesting to see how this affects your exact set-up...

    19 replies

    Show previous replies
    Jess_OVO
    OVO Staff
    Jess_OVO
    OVO Staff
    April 4, 2022

    Hi @Old Timer,

     

    Sounds like you’ve recently joined us, Welcome. You’re joining the growing number of Air-Source Heat Pump owners, we’ve got here, so I understand the importance of making sure your energy is being charged on the correct register. 

     

    Just to clarify @Blastoise186 is a fellow OVO member like yourself and whilst @Lukepeniket_OVO is our on-hand OVO engineer, this sounds to me like it could be a more account-specific issue. Whilst the registers on your meter could be set-up with either the register 1 or register 2 as the peak time register, a load test can help confirm which register is clocking for each time-period. A load test would involve checking the readings on both registers around midday and an hour or two later, only one reading should change during this time which confirms this is clocking your daytime usage. There are times when your registers may be accidently reversed on your account, meaning this register is being charged as the off-peak register in error. 

     

    If so, and your account has now moved to OVO our Support Team will need to make sure a correction is made to both your old supplier and new OVO accounts so we’d recommend getting in touch with them, if you haven’t already.

     

    Do let us know if this information is helpful in getting things back on track. 🙂

     

     

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    O
    Rank 2
    Old Timer
    Rank 2
    April 4, 2022

    Hi again,
    I’m still with SSE - but trying to clarify my Smart Meter status.

    As a long retired engineer - I attempted my own load test and my of-peak usage (4:30 - 7:30), when only my heat pump is operating, is recorded as Rate-1, but listed in my Bill as Standard Rate. This is the area of confusion which needs “Tidying up” by SSE

    Made a bit of progress yesterday…………. Maybe!!     Read on, if till awake.
    Have been monitoring the display on the Landis Gyr E470 – and find that the  2 Economy 10 daytime off-peak times are both recorded as what the meter calls Rate 2 ALONG WITH ALL OTHER DAYLIGHT USAGE.   Thinks! ……. This is surely wrong.
    BUT
    Wait a minute!.... Do Economy 7 times not include an only-overnight off-peak Rate
    Checking with Dr Google this morning – the fount of all knowledge:-

    Directing me to SSE’s website, I find …….the eight hour off-peak period runs between 11:30pm and 7:30am during the winter and 12:30am and 8:30am during BST Summer Time.

    Have now checked the Meter hourly for 24 hrs (tiring),  it seems to be on Rate1 all night, and Rate-2 all day.

    I think my Smart Meter has been set-up for SSE’s Economy-7 Tariff.

    My family can confirm that I’m walking around, still like an old man, but with a big smile on my face.

    Old-Timer
    (I used to be indecisive, but now – well, I’m not so sure)

      O
      Rank 2
      Old Timer
      Rank 2
      April 11, 2022

      SSE now assure me that their smart meter team will be in touch “within a few days” to sort out my Economy 10 problems. Must remain positive.
       

      O
      Rank 2
      Old Timer
      Rank 2
      March 5, 2023

      I have OVO engineers currently attending my home, attempting to get my SSE installed Smart Meter working on the Economy 10 Tariff, - a tariff I’ve been happy with since 2009.
      Of particular confusion is the  OVO “Ultimate Guide to Economy 10”  website guidance pages clearly stating that “ There’s no such thing as an Economy 10 smart meter”
      Does this explain why the first one fitted in 2021, the second in 2022  and now the third in 2022 all exhibit identical symptoms - that being the inability to record 3 reduced rate periods in every 24 hrs (Totalling 10 hours) All 3 smart meters - and Display units are of identical make,
      As I await my transfer across from SSE to OVO, may I ask, on behalf of the many Ground Source Heat Pump users who find the Economy 10 tariff absolutely ideal - Does OVO offer a choice of tariffs for those requiring 3 ‘reduced rate’ periods.
      Regards
       

        Blastoise186
        Super User
        Blastoise186Super User
        Super User
        March 5, 2023

        Economy 10 Support… Coming Soon!(TM)

        Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!
        O
        Rank 2
        Old Timer
        Rank 2
        March 5, 2023

        Excellent news. I’ll try and be a little more patient.

        G
        Newcomer
        Glyndwr
        Newcomer
        April 21, 2023

        What is the low and high energy times with OVO on E10 

        Blastoise186
        Super User
        Blastoise186Super User
        Super User
        April 21, 2023

        Hi,

        I’m afraid they vary a lot, so you’re probably best off asking Support via https://help.ovoenergy.com .

        Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!
        BPLightlog
        Super User
        BPLightlogSuper User
        Super User
        April 21, 2023

        Hi @Glyndwr there’s a guide here which might give you a clue but it is down to where you are. https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/economy-10
        and

        https://www.ovoenergy.com/help/electric-heating/economy-10

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