Help needed with Ovo smart meter

atherlon

I’m having terrible trouble with OVO. I was with Npower paying £38 /month gas and electric combined . Ovo said they could supply a bit cheaper . Anyway I changed over to Ovo , they ripped out Npower smart meters to fit their own , that’s when the fun started , they put up the direct debit payments to £45 then I got an email around 2 months ago to say they thought it best if I upped dd to £100 /month . Now a bit of background I live alone in a one bedroom bungalow in a warden controlled housing scheme , as I go to my sisters for my meals , to do my washing , so I have no cooker or washing machine/tumble drier in my home and I’m not in during the day most days , I found this ridiculous. I phoned Ovo and said that the meters must be faulty , they suggested switching everything off in the bungalow and leave for an hour or two and see if meter reading went up , I used to be an electrical engineer, this would only show if meter was detecting a fault between meter and consumer unit but not if the meter was faulty or set at an incorrect tarif .

Today I got this email .

“Thank you for your email regarding your Smart meter.



I can see in the notes on your account that we advised to do a test with your meter by taking a meter reading in the morning and making sure that any none essential electrical equipment is turned off and then take a further reading when you get home so that we can see how much has been used in that time, once this has been done we can then work out if the meter is faulty.



There is also a what we call a MAT test this is where the meter is taken away for testing but this come at the cost of £149 but if the meter was to come back as faulty then this would be given back to you but 85% of the time the meters do not come back as faulty.



If you wanted the meter removed this would also be chargeable at £106 and then there would be the cost to have a new meter fitted, it is worth doing the tests before we would go down this route.”

Talk about scare tactics

Could anyone advice on the next step please

Robin9

When did you leave nPower and were you in credit or debit at that time. £38 for both gas and electric does sound low when you consider daily standing charges of about 25p each for has electric would amount to nearly half of te £38.

I presume the OVO meters read zero when installed ; what do they read today.

It would be worth checking that what you think is your meter actually is - compare the serial numbers and do a complete switch off test at the consumer unit

Grey_Critic

Yet another SMART meter problem. As Robin 9 says Do the meter serial numbers on your bills agree with the meter you are reading? Have YOU read the meters? How do the figures compare to what they are saying. A jump from £45 to £100 sounds excessive - How much are your bills, remember that the suggested changes in your DD is computer generated/driven and often is just a way to swell the coffers. My last supplier suggested a dramatic rise in DD payments even though I was well in credit. I just said no.

atherlon

I did I switched the main breaker of in the consumer unit

I was in credit with Npower , infact it took me about 5 weeks to get the money back of them

As I’ve said above I’m only home from around 6pm till 7.45 am when I go to my sisters for a cuppa and breakfast then I’m out till I go to my sisters @ 4pm and then go home at 6pm , I probably boil kettle twice and watch tv and add a bit for the lights

I just don’t see why it’s shot ip and my sister who is on solarplicitt is only paying stound £48/month and she’s cooking and washing/drying

atherlon

How do I find serial number

Btw the gas metre is fine I got no problem with it ��

[Deleted User]

The meter serial number on the Secure Liberty 100 meter is at the bottom on a sticker with a bar code. They always seem to have the character OP in the first few digits.. eg 14OP - - - - - - -
This is the serial number/letter which appears on our data collectors when we read these meters

silvercar

This is why I'm waiting before having a smart meter installed.

I am also with OVO and submit meter readings every month through their app; it's not very difficult.

PennineAcute

Your tariff is displayed on your IHD, so you can check if you are on the right tariff.

Robin9

Atherton if your meter is one of these ......................

Houbara wrote: »

Secure Liberty 100 meter is at the bottom on a sticker with a bar code.

you need to press button 9 on the small keypad to get the kwh reading. Take care it is difficult to read and has a decimal point before the last digit - ignore the numbers after the decimal point.

Does the reading agree with whats on your last bill?

atherlon

Will check tomorrow , sorry I'm disabled so takes me a bit longer

Mister_G

I'll put this comment in to move it back to Page 1.

Hopefully the OP will find it there and delete the duplicate post.