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How can my In-Home Display (IHD) and smart meter help if I run out of credit?

Your IHD and smart meter work as a team to help you manage your energy use and keep an eye on your credit.


Your IHD can keep a beady eye on your credit balance

So you know when credit is getting low, your In-Home Display lets you set handy low credit alerts. To find it, go to your IHD main menu and tap on the ‘Settings’ button and then ‘Credit alert’. You can choose when the alerts are shown – for example, when your gas credit has fallen to £5 and your electricity credit is down to £4.

Once the alerts are set up, if your credit falls to either of those levels your IHD will make a noise, a red light will come on and a warning screen will appear.

The next thing you should do is add some more credit, whichever way you usually top up. However, if you can’t top up right now, you can access your emergency credit – £5 for each fuel – which you simply pay back when you next top up.

How do I access my emergency credit?

OVO Energy Low Credit E-Credit IHD screen

Tap the ‘E-Credit’ button in the bottom left corner of the warning screen. This releases your emergency credit.

OVO Energy IHD screen main menu

Go to the IHD main menu and tap the ‘Dual’ button (or the ‘Electricity’ or ‘Gas’ button if you only want to look at one fuel balance). There you’ll see that £5 has been added to your credit balance for each fuel. Your balance will continue reducing again until it gets down to zero, but in the meantime you’ve got some extra time to get to a PayPoint and top up before it runs out.

IHD Emergency credit OVO Energy

You’ll get another alert before your credit reaches zero, giving you one more chance to top up.

IHD No emergency credit Ignore OVO Energy

If you don’t manage to top up, your credit will run out and your supply will cut off. You’ll then see this NO EMERGENCY CREDIT screen.

Don’t worry – even if your energy supply does disconnect, once you’ve topped up your credit it’s very simple to reconnect your supply.

Can I use my smart meter to access my emergency credit?

Yes, you can also dip into your emergency credit by using your meter keypad and display.

It’s much easier to use your IHD, but if for some reason you can’t do it that way, here’s how to do it on your smart meter.

Smart meter keypad OVO Energy

Press 7 on your keypad. If emergency credit is available, the meter screen will look like this:

OVO Energy Smart meter screen EC offer

You then decide whether to accept or ignore the emergency credit offer.

To accept the offer, press A on the keypad and then B.

A Accept OVO Energy Smart meter screen

Press B Smart meter screen OVO Energy

If you’ve changed your mind and don’t want to activate your emergency credit, DO NOT PRESS A, just press B.

Smart meter B-Ignore OVO Energy

Once you’ve activated your emergency credit, you can check up on it by pressing 7 on your smart meter keypad.

If you’ve still got some credit left, the screen will first display ‘E-CREDIT’ and then ‘IN USE’.

E-Credit Smart meter screen OVO Energy

If you’ve used up all your emergency credit, the screen will first display ‘E-CREDIT’ and then ‘USED UP’.

OVO Energy E-Credit Smart meter screen

If you want to know how much you need to repay (including the emergency credit you’ve used) to reconnect your supply, press 7 again.

Repay OVO Energy smart meter screen

How do I start the supply again if I’ve been disconnected?

First things first – switch off any appliances in your home that use electricity or gas. Otherwise they could get damaged by a power surge if they’re electric, or leak gas when your gas supply is restored.

Restarting your electricity

Once you’ve topped up your credit, check your ‘Account Info’ screen by tapping the ‘Dual’, ‘Gas’ or ‘Electricity’ button on your IHD main menu. If it’s ready for reconnection, it will look like this:

Restore supply IHD screen OVO Energy

Tap the ‘ON’ button and this screen will appear:

OVO Energy IHD screen Appliances off

Tap ‘Restore’ and then ‘Confirm’ to reconnect your electricity supply.

You can now switch your electrical appliances back on.

Restarting your gas supply

You can’t switch your gas back on with your IHD – so you have to use your smart meter display screen.

Once you’ve topped up, the supply icon on your meter display will change from ‘OFF’ to ‘READY’, just like this:

Off Ready Smart meter screen OVO Energy

Smart meter keypad OVO Energy

Follow the instructions on the screen. First, it will then tell you to press A (in the bottom left corner of your keypad) to connect.

Smart meter screen Press A OVO Energy

Connect Smart meter screen OVO Energy

It will then ask you to press B (in the bottom left corner of your keypad) to confirm your instruction.

Press B Smart meter screen OVO Energy

When ‘CONFIRM’ appears on the screen, your gas supply should be on again.

For your safety, make sure your boiler pilot light is relit and there’s no gas escaping from any fires, hobs or gas ovens that were in use when your gas was disconnected.

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