Storage heater not working tenant wasn't on economy 7 tariff- Is this why?

Hi ​@Ragga ,

I need to see photos of the meter to be sure, and to give the most accurate advice.

Thanks

Hi @Blastoise

This is the only one i have at the moment,  but it's not that clear on the display.  Cheers 

I see. That install appears to be a Four-Terminal SMETS2 Kaifa MA120 V1. It does support Economy 7 but does NOT do automatic load switching at all.

You are NOT responsible for the electricity bill if you’re not named on it - that’s for your tenant to pay. Likewise, wiring up the storage heater to run 24/7 without some kind of timer to switch it off somewhere is asking for trouble.

Let me grab ​@Lukepeniket_OVO for this. That weird 5th cable is confusing me…

Also… ​@Nukecad can I borrow you Re: billing matters?

Re the billing,  I've no intention of paying if he's at fault with the tariff, or if it's Ovo, he needs to fight with them. But if it's a fault on my side I think it's only fair to pay a share.

This is the timer that's installed at the moment.  But my electrician is going tomorrow to revert it back to original wiring now he's switched to a 7 tariff...just hoping it works

I think that’s where it gets a bit complicated. Nukecad has experience as a landlord so I think he’s more capable of tackling that question than I am!

BTW...I'm no electrician,  but is the weird wire the smaller one coming out of the bottom of the meter? Because I'm pretty sure that runs to the contactor for the heater in the consumer unit

t 

That is an unorthodox arrangement. It looks as if the ‘weird’ wire is an afterthought, probably fitted to deliver power to the storage heater if, as you say, it leads to the appropriate breaker in the CU. The heater itself is then controlled by a time switch, presumably so that it conforms to Economy 7 hours of charge.

I notice that there is no seal on the terminal cover at the bottom of the meter. A meter engineer wouldn’t have left it unsealed, so it certainly looks as if someone has removed the seal in order to fit the additional wire.
  

That is tampering; I’m not suggesting that this was done in an attempt to take power from the incoming supply - thus bypassing the meter itself - but it’s severely frowned upon by suppliers, not least on safety grounds. It’s their meter, after all. 

If this was done by your friendly neighbourhood electrician, he should have informed the supplier at least (ideally before doing the job), who will then have had to send a qualified meter engineer to reseal the meter. That’s not cheap (currently £106).

On top of that, there’s actually a variant of that exact meter which officially supports 5-Terminal setups. If that support was needed, then a request should have been made to swap it out for the 5-Terminal version...

That could be explained by  “At the moment I the electrician has wired it up to the normal rate and it's working fine”. If this electrician is happy wielding his screwdriver inside a sealed cover moving live cables around, he’d be just as happy ‘wiring it up to zero rate’.  I’m surprised that removing the terminal cover didn’t generate a tampering alarm ...

Hey ​@Ragga,

We've had to report this with RPS (Revenue Protection Services) due to suspected tampering and our duty of care. They'll send an engineer to the property in the next 20 working days. The engineer will be attending to ensure the safety of the meter.

​@Nukecad has already mentioned this above, but could you please ensure that an engineer is allowed to access the property to carry out the inspection? Normally it's a landlords responsibility to carry out annual EICR reports. This could prevent any future certificates from being issued! 

Our customers will be contacted shortly to arrange a visit but it would be useful for them to start this conversation with us directly so we can support them in getting this resolved. If you could ask them to get in touch with our Support Team that would be a huge help. I've linked a useful article below that might help with other meter tampering scenarios that we've came across:

 If you have any questions, please let us know so we can offer help where necessary. Please keep us updated on the outcome it helps others who may find themselves in your position.

Actually for a landlords Electrical Installation Condition Report - EICR - it’s a legal requirement to have a new one done every 5-years.
(Although not a legal requirement good practice is that a new EICR should also be done for each new letting to a new tenant).

It’s the landlords Gas Safety Certificate - GSC - that has a legal requirement to be renewed yearly.

Thanks for all your help, I will get in contact to get that resealed. I'm pretty sure my electrician has only broken the seal to make the meter cupboard safer as the installer made it it a right mess (as in these pictures taken a week apart) as I asked him to.  At the same time I got him to fit a new fire approved consumer unit which i dont have a pic of, rather than the one i pictured earlier. And do a new EICR cert.

I'll hopefully find out tomorrow whether the heater is working on the consumer unit E7 contactor rather than the hardwired timer.

I'll keep you all informed.  Thanks again

​@Ragga One more thing to add. The time switch in your screenshot is rated at 13A, allowing a nominal maximum load of 2.99kW. Many common storage heaters draw more than this - a Dimplex Quantum 15 takes 3.3kW, for example. That’s why modern meters controlling switched loads have switches rated at 100A. 

It’s worth noting that even if the previous installer left the meter cupboard looking like a rats nest (and the weird cable was also already present - previous tamper?), it still didn’t mean your own electrician was authorised to touch anything without permission from OVO first.

It’s crucial to obtain permission (and ideally assistance!) from the active Supplier before you snip meter seals for ANY reason. Likewise, if you need to work on DNO equipment like the Main Fuse, you must also obtain permission (and assistance!) from the DNO to do so before you snip those seals. When done correctly and with full authorisation, you eliminate the tampering issues because once you’re done, a Supplier/DNO Engineer can do their checks, sign it off and officially re-seal everything - as well as update the records to show that this was all done above board.

If you just go ahead and do it yourself without asking first, unfortunately it ends up triggering pretty much the same tampering investigations/response that actual meter tampering causes. In this particular case, I don’t think getting this all sorted out will be too tricky (although I can’t say for sure of course), but in future please make sure to follow the correct processes whenever possible - it definitely makes things easier for everyone! If you’re ever unsure, feel free to ask here for advice as we can usually point you in the right direction.

For anyone else who reads this, please be advised that ALL Forum Volunteers and Forum Moderators on the OVO Forum constantly monitor the Forum for signs of meter tampering and we will always flag it up if detected, not least because it’s in your best interests that we do so. Please don’t take the risk - it may have devastating consequences. We do this monitoring to ensure your safety more than anything else, so please understand our reasons for being cautious.

For more information or to report suspected meter tampering, head over to https://stayenergysafe.co.uk or call 0800 023 2777. Your report will be 100% anonymous and you won’t be asked for your contact details. If you need help with your energy bills, a (much!) safer option is to check out the free resources at https://www.stayenergysafe.co.uk/support .