Smart Meter Economy 7

[OVO-user]

I have an OVO Smart Meter with E7.

I am trying to ascertain the times of the cheap night time rate change-overs. The previous meter was sent the time from an electro-mechanical timer: which had no idea as to whether the time was GMT or BST. So of course the cheap rate timings moved by an hour as GMT changed to BST and vice versa. Does anyone know whether the time in the OVO Smart meter changes as BST and GMT come and go with the result that the cheap rate time is always mid-night to

0700 - or does it become 0100 to 0800 as the clocks are changed. I am currently finding it impossible to get a definitive answer from OVO - but they are "working on it". Hopefully they will let me know before the clocks next change ! but I would be interested to know if any one else knows. Given that it is a Smart Meter - then I would have thought the time in the meter would change as the clocks change and hence the time periods would always be at the same constant times.

[Tim+]

Are OVO also your power supplier? If not, the timings are set by your supplier, not OVO (according to their website).

Tim

[Chris Hogg]

You'll have to wait for BST to kick in before you can do this, but sit up on change-over night and watch the meter while some high power item, like a kettle or fan heater is running. ATM it's not important, because E7 was always midnight to 7AM, GMT.

The fact that old E7 meters like ours and your old one weren't designed to be changed for BST suggests that the grid isn't really that sensitive to precisely when E7 switches in and out.

Our meter was changed last year to a digital one, but still relies on the mechanical clock to tell it when to change to E7. I asked the guy installing it if it was smart; he said it was as stupid as the one he'd just replaced.

[Chris J Dixon]

Does the meter not indicate which rate it is currently incrementing?

Chris

[Dave Liquorice]

How is having a load or not on the normal supply going to show anything(*)? The meter measures kWhrs they don't change only the cost. The meter should have flag of some sort to indicate which register is being incremented but that'll change at zero or full load.

(*) One would assume that those with E7 also make best use of what is otherwise expensive electricity by haveing storage heaters. They'll be on the switched supply and them coming in will make the meter spin somewhat quicker or make the LED flicker...

The only thing that E7 gives you is 7 hours out of every 24 at cheap rate. An individual supply will (should...) be fixed but across all E7 supplies tere is a spread from about midnight to 0200 for the start. The grid would have a problem if all E7's switched on at precisely 00:03:42... it doesn't have problem with E7 switching over a period of time.

I say should as our mechancial time switch stops during power cuts so the off peak period slowly slides through the day depending on power cuts.

[DerbyBorn]

Surely there is an indicator on the display. The switching is usually by a dadio signal.

[Adrian]

Jazz-hands?

[Brian Gaff]

Strangely, the one dumb meter I have actually claims to have a radio code clock inside it, which one assumes will be changed when required. I'm not up in how much control these meters allow from the companies.

They told me that when they eventually fit a smart meter they will also supply some lcd screenthing to give me more info etc, but of course being blind this is going to be as useful as a chocolate fireguard! Brian

[Adam Funk]

Our digital (not "smart") meter has a "^" symbol blinking under the rate in effect, but you'd have to pay attention to know that "1" is night & "2" is day.

I'm not sure about that. We use over 30% of our electricity at night, just from the "background" stuff (fridge-freezer, spare fridge, spare freezer), a dehumidifier on a timer in the cellar, & doing most of the laundry & dishwasher use overnight.

[ezyt831]

Im an Ovo customer using a smart meter apparently the meters fitted are gmt not bst and it would appears that the smart meter cannot change between wi nter and summer time , hence during bst the economy comes in at 1.15am in m y case until 8.15 although the later time I?ve not checked as spent the beginning of the night checking.so was asleep at 8.15 . The meter was only fitted on the 5 th April so I?ve to wait until the 17th May f or it to settle, so I?m told , quite honestly for me I don? t consider this SMART meter meter very smart

[Max Demian]

Traditional Economy 7 using electromechanical time-switches doesn't adjust between GMT and BST as there's no point, though your times do seem to be a bit off. When I had Economy 7 it was from 2330 to 0630 GMT or so, and 0030 to 0730 BST, though they're not supposed to switch everyone at the same time as that would upset the loading as people's storage heaters and off-peak immersion heaters cut in and out. I don't know whether they did this deliberately or just allowed the times to drift.

I suggest you make use of the odd times by using your washing machine or cooking stuff in the oven before 0815, getting stuff ready the night before.

[Andrew]

Hope your neighbours are deaf, night workers or heavy sleepers !

[Max Demian]

I was suggesting starting the activity at 7am or so, so there would be an hour and a quarter at the economy rate.

[Brian Gaff]

I have been told that economy 7 on smart meters is not currently supported due to a software issue. I thought how unsurprising that is, considering the ineptitude thus far over smart meter design and lack of communication. I spoke to a person about 9 months ago at the regulators, whatever they are called this week, and (Ofgen?) who told me categorically that there were now talking remote units in stock for the energy companies and there should be no problem with Economy 7. Spool on a couple of months and EDF categorically told me exactly the opposite, ie no talking remote units, and economy 7 was still not being supported. There have been items over the last few years on BBC You and yours on these problems but it seems that still, the regulators and the companies are not actually talking to each other on these issues. Brian

[Andy Burns]

I though someone here mentioned an E7 smartmeter some time ago? I forget which supplier ...

[Brian Gaff]

OK EDF was my one, now tell me which has one? Brian

[Andy Burns]

Google says that it was Ovo Energy, as reported by Peter Johnson.

[alan_m]

The "government minister" was on BBC Watchdog last night. There is nothing wrong with the roll out program and these smart meters are saving people money! The meter fitters are finding lots of safety issues in customers premises. Unfortunately the BBC interviewer was equally as clueless and didn't question how people were saving money and how much nor possible problems of incompatibility and battery life for gas meters etc.

[Steve Walker]

I am probably being overly suspicious here, but having not got round to giving my readings for a while, the estimated ones were a bit out - overestimated electricity usage and underestimated gas usage. I put in the readings a couple of days ago and their system has now updated. If I go to my usage graph online, I can no longer compare my electricity month by month to last year's, as it has miscalculated my usage. Instead of realising that the estimate was too high and adjusting the previous estimates a bit, it has assumed that I have run off the end of the meter reading limit and wrapped around, so it displays as over 99,000KWh for April! This scales every other month down to the zero line, so I can't see any difference. Now to the suspicion bit - they told me that there is nothing they can do about it and that feature will remain useless to me ... unless I let them fit a Smart meter!

They have confirmed that it is only the usage graph and my usage for billing has calculated correctly and I am now in credit.

SteveW