OVO/E.ON Smart Meters Info

TheBro72

I'm currently in day 1 of the 14 day cooling off period to join OVO from E.ON. Upon switching I was asked if I already had a smart meter upon which I replied that I did. I currently have E.ON smart meters and in particular my gas smart meter is a god send because it's very difficult to get to and I wouldnt be without it.

Up until this point the smart meter itself was something that I didnt really think about, however after doing a bit of reading on the forums today I've read a lot of bad press about the OVO smart meters and would prefer to avoid them. I thought I'd look on OVO's website to see if my E.ON meters would work with OVO I found this on their website:-

"At OVO we use Secure Smart meters. The only other suppliers currently using the same kind of Secure Smart meters are E.ON, First Utility and Utilita. So if you decide to move to one of those suppliers, they’ll be able to communicate with your OVO Smart meter. And, of course, if you want to switch away from E.ON, First Utility or Utilita and join us at OVO, your Smart meter should still work with us. However, it might not work if you’ve had a Smart meter for a long time, and your supplier was using a different meter model or manufacturer at that stage. "

So I've had my meters approx 3/4 years so there might be a chance they will work. Great, no need to have new meters... Or so I thought, I called OVO to double check. The lady I spoke to told me that my meters would not be able to communicate and that the smart meters would become a dumb meter. She did this without a) asking for a serial number of existing meters, b) asking how old my current meters are and c) despite me telling her that their website says different???

Im quite happy to send in readings, I just need the meter to send the reading to the monitor I have, so I don't have to pull the freezer, ironing board, maiden etc out of the cupboard to get to the gas meter.

It's all confusing - Have any of you moved from E.ON to OVO and been able to use you E.ON smart meters as you did prior to moving?


Cheers

Sterlingtimes

The Ovo clause only applies if current your E.ON smart meter is branded "Secure".

TheBro72

Thanks for that Sterlingtimes

Ok so if my meters are not Secure meters, what use would I get from them? I appreciate they wont send the readings automatically, thats not a problem. However, would I still be able to use them to see the readings using the monitor provided with the smart meter so I wouldnt have to break my back getting to the meter in the cupboard??

[Deleted User]

I occasionally work for Eon up in the York area and so far I have nt seen any Secure smart meters, only Landys and Gyr the same ones which BG and First Utility use. its a bit confusing why Eon should start off their smart meter roll out using Landys Gyrs then switch to Secure. I only see the Secure Liberty smart prepayment meter with a few I read for Ovo. The only supplier who definitely use Secure other than Ovo are Utilita.You will be able to see the reading on your monitor even if its a dumb meter

TheBro72

sacsquacco wrote: »

I occasionally work for Eon up in the York area and so far I have nt seen any Secure smart meters, only Landys and Gyr the same ones which BG and First Utility use. its a bit confusing why Eon should start off their smart meter roll out using Landys Gyrs then switch to Secure. I only see the Secure Liberty smart prepayment meter with a few I read for Ovo. The only supplier who definitely use Secure other than Ovo are Utilita.You will be able to see the reading on your monitor even if its a dumb meter

Excellent!

This is all I was concerned about. The customer service advisor I spoke to at OVO should have more knowledge on what can and can't be done with a dumb meter and she really missed the point here. If I'd of taken her advice as gospel then I probably would have cancelled the switch.

Thanks for your help.

Thanks

Twan

Even if you do move to the OVO Smart meters, they work fine. The problems people have raised in the past were due to their original setting up where they had some teething issues as they were building their apps and site at the same time and there were times where there were communication issues between the meter and the site.

That was all sorted earlier in the summer - everything has run fine since.

TheBro72

OK fair enough. OVO have not mentioned anything about changing the meters so I guess I'll just use what I have. If (as mentioned in a previous thread) I can still get the meter readings from monitor I have then there's really no need to change them.