Great post, @William1066 

As you mention there‘s a known issue with the information shown on your In-Home Display (IHD) affecting multiple customers and suppliers following the upgrade of your meters onto the Data Communication Company (DCC) network. Now we have a main topic thread (this one) to keep up to date with the latest. 

Let me see what the latest is with this issue, and I’ll get back to you with an update. In the meantime, if anyone seeing this thinks they might be affected, please be advised there’s several reasons for why your smart meter or in home display may be out of communication or not showing the info you expect. 

See this smart meter health check for SMETS1, this one for SMETS2, and these In Home Display model guides for you to confirm what’s happened with your device:

SMETS1 Pipit In Home Display (IHD) guide - here

SMETS1 Chameleon In Home Display (IHD) guide - here

SMETS2 In Home Display (IHD) guide - here

In most cases you can work out the cause of the issue yourself or via our Support Team - if you are affected by this issue, keep an eye on this thread for the latest! 

Thanks Tim

We’ve checked this one with the team and updated the advice given on our enrolment FAQS here:

Will I notice any changes to the information shown on my In Home Display (IHD) once my meters have been updated?

An issue has been identified with Secure SMETS1 electric smart meters and Chameleon IHDs where the IHD will show either blank tariff and price information or a series of garbled pixels on the screen. If you’re seeing this and your Secure smart meter have recently been enrolled on the systems of the DCC, please be advised that the tariff is correct on the meter and you’ll be charged the correct amount on your monthly summaries. 

The problem has been fixed for all future migrations and the team are working on a fix for any members experiencing this who have already been migrated. They are expecting all devices and meters that have sufficient signal and communication with us to have this fix put in place by the 8th September. In the meantime we’d recommend checking the usage pages of your online account which will show the accurate usage costs.

Occasionally you may notice the information for one fuel (ie either the gas or electricity) may be incorrect or not available - this may indicate that one of your meters has gone through the enrolment process but we’re still waiting on updating the other meter. In this case it’s worth checking the ‘meter readings’ page of your online account - you’ll still be able to provide meter readings manually for the meter which is yet to be updated.

If your issue isn’t the same as what’s been described above, see our smart meter health check guide and the Chameleon IHD guide for more trouble-shooting advice.

Back on 17  April OVO upgraded my SMT1 to SMT2 without telling me. When I lost the use of my IHD I called OVO on 2¾ who told me I would get a new IHD, but no stock so I would have to wait a while. Now after more time following this up, I’m told there is no IHD which will now work with my meter “but I can always check my account online” very helpful…

Anyone found a solution, or know when this will get fixed?

Hey @jondoh ,

I can help with this but I need you to do one quick check for me. Please can you run your meters through this tool and tell me the results? https://smartmetercheck.citizensadvice.org.uk/

Once I’ve got that, I’ll be able to recommend options.

thanks. It confirms my meter’s working in Smart Mode

Perfecto! That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear. :)

In that case, I’ve got all your options documented in one of my guides. :D

@Blastoise186 

But surely OVO are under an obligation to supply an in home display.  

its one of the requirements of the retail energy code.: from their quarterly reports

QUESTION 2: WERE YOU OFFERED AN IN-HOME DISPLAY? Your energy supplier should offer you an In-Home Display (IHD) when your smart meter is installed. IHDs are hand-held devices which show near real-time information about how much energy is being used, and what it costs in pounds and pence. IHDs also have other helpful features, like showing how much energy was used in the recent past. With this information, you can easily understand what energy you are using, and how you might make changes to use less and save money on your bills.

I suggest a formal complaint.

That’s true for when the meters are first installed, but not as a result of Enrolment & Adoption to DCC, which is what this situation sounds like.

Most IHDs are supposed to keep working post migration, but some just flatline choke and break.

@Blastoise186 

I still think its worthy of a complaint.  Its also a breach of the retail energy code to change a meter without telling the customer first.  And we’ve gone from a working system to a non-working one.  also the engineer promised one.

Well, one way to find out. @jondoh could you post photos of your current meters please? I can double check what you’ve got and make sure my advice is accurate.

SMETS1 Secure Liberty 100

Thanks for taking this up Blastoise, and also Meldrewreborn for his input. Not sure why no-ones talking about this, but I’ve raised a formal in-house complaint with OVO, and given them a week to come up with an answer  before it gets escalated. This is unreal at a time of energy hikes that everyone with my meter has lost use of their IHD without any explanation.

I wonder how many that is?

Yup, still SMETS1 hardware. Your meter is now running as what I like to call SMETS1+ because it’s ultimately still a SMETS1 unit, but it runs like a SMETS2 would.

The problem is that the Secure Pipit 500 IHD has a nasty habit of breaking following a migration of your Site to DCC. As it’s been more than 12 months since the meter was installed, the warranty will already have expired on the IHD, meaning you don’t qualify for a free replacement - but the Hildebrand Glow IHD works great with S1+ Secure Liberty meters. :)

Thanks Blastoise, but if, as you say, the problem was caused by the upgrade or migration, I don’t except to pay another £60 for a replacement on top of my bill. OVO had already agreed to send me a replacement IHD six months ago, before they realised they don’t have a post migration solution.

The idea is to use an IHD to help control my soaring electricity costs, not spend more money on a replacement that OVO broke. I’ll wait and see what happens in response to my complaint.

Someone did phone me this morning, but wanted all my personal ID details before he could talk to me, so that didn’t go well. Is there no one left at OVO to think things through?

But at least I know what device I need now, thanks to you, which I’ll pass on to them.

Hey @jondoh,

If someone outbound called you they would need to pass data protection before they could discuss your account with you. 

They may have been calling about your complaint and getting your IHD replaced.

I’d advise checking if they’ve sent you a follow up email to reply to following the call. 

Hi Emmanualle

If someone were fishing for data info, they’d call you from an 0300 (or any other number they can create), say “hi, I’m from (insert financial service, energy supplier, phone etc) to talk about your account.” If lucky and they guess the supplier right, then they ask for as much personal data as possible, (for data protection) which can be used on a number of other providers, including you. Simple.

Thing is, you’re asking me for my data, but don’t give out any of my data. How is this data protection? 

How can I check if you’re genuine I asked? Oh yeh call us back and wait in a q for an hour.

Really?

OVO needs to find a better way to do this. In the meantime, I did ask the caller to send me an e mail instead, but I haven’t seen one yet. Perhaps it actually was a scam caller?

OVO ART have now responded and resolved the issue promptly and amicably. Thank you for all your help!