A guide to using your First Utility
Secure prepayment meter
Prepayment
meters
Contents
Introduction...
Your electricity and gas meters... Your in- home display unit (IHD)...Topping up...
Your top-up cards... Where and how to top up... How much can I top up?... How to top up manually...4 - 7 Your historic payments...Emergency and friendly credit...
What is emergency credit?... How do I activate emergency credit?...8 - 10 What is friendly credit?... When are emergency credit and friendly credit available?... How to check if I am in emergency credit or friendly credit mode... How do I repay any emergency or friendly credit used?...Using your in- home display unit...
Main menu... Account information – default screen... Usage – setting targets...14 - 16 Your historic usage... Your tariff information... Low credit warnings – setting your own... Your debt account information...19 - 20 Your messages... Settings...Loss of supply...
Electricity – how to restore supply... Gas – how to restore supply...Using the keypads on your gas or electricity meter...
How to manually enter top-ups... Functions of a meter keypad... Electricty meter keypad...26 - 27 Gas meter keypad...28 - 29Moving home...
FAQs...
Useful contacts...
Introduction
This booklet will provide you with a step-by-step guide to using your newly installed prepayment meter(s) and in -home display unit (IHD). We’ll only install prepayment meters where it is safe and practical to do so.
Your electricity and gas meters
Your electricity and/or gas prepayment meter will be installed in place of your current meter(s). The meter will need to be accessible in the event of power loss, when you may need to use the keypad on the meter to reconnect the supply.
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This property is fitted with a prepayment meter for:
electricity
gas
Your in- home display unit (IHD)
As a prepayment customer, you will be supplied with an in-home display unit (IHD), enabling you to manage how much energy you’re using. We’ll install your IHD at the same time we install your prepayment meter(s) and we will suggest some suitable locations for where it could be kept. We recommend you keep the IHD plugged in, although it will operate with two AAA batteries (not supplied).
This is your IHD. It includes a touchscreen function, allowing you to navigate and manage your energy usage and credit balance quickly and efficiently.
Topping up
Your top-up cards
Once your prepayment meter(s) has been installed, the engineer will provide you with a prepayment top-up card for your electricity meter and a separate card for your gas meter (if you have had a gas prepayment meter installed). This will enable you to top up your credit on each meter when you need to.
The cards belong to the meter so if you move home, please leave them behind. Your cards cannot work with any other meter.
If you lose or damage your top-up cards, please call us on 01926 320 775 and we will provide you with replacements. Please note that we may charge for
replacement cards.
When your meter(s) is installed, it will be preloaded with £5 credit. We do advise however, that you top up as soon as possible to make sure your credit does not run out and to make sure that everything is working properly.
You can top up your prepayment meter(s) at any PayPoint outlet. To find your nearest one, look out for the PayPoint logo or visit www.paypoint.co.uk/locator. If your top- up card doesn’t swipe at a PayPoint outlet, you can request the retailer do it manually for you.
Alternatively, you can call First Utility on 01926 320 775 to top up by credit or debit card over the phone. Lines are open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 4pm on Saturday.
We recommend that you make a note of the 19-digit number on your top -up cards in the boxes below - this is your Purchase ID. If you lose your top-up cards, you can still top up your meter with this number whilst you wait for replacements:
Electricity Purchase ID
Gas Purchase ID
Once paid for, your transaction will be processed and your top-up will be sent to your meter automatically.
Please note it may take up to 45 minutes for a top-up to show on your in -home
display unit and your meter.
How much can I top up?
Minimum single top-up
per meter Maximum single top-up per meter
At Paypoint £5 £49
By phone on 01926 320 775 £5 £150
How to top up manually
What if my credit doesn’t appear automatically?
After purchasing your credit at a PayPoint outlet, you will be issued a receipt with a unique 20, 40 or 60 digit vend code. You will need to use this vend code to
manually enter the payment onto your meter if the automatic top -up fails, so make sure you keep hold of it. Please wait at least 45 minutes for the top -up to be processed.
1) From the main menu select ‘Account’:
2) Select the appropriate supply required (electricity or gas):
4) While the top-up is being processed, you will see this screen:
5) If the top-up is not processed, you will see one of the screens below:
If you see the screen above, it may be that you are using the wrong reciept
Or this:
6) If your top-up has been successful you will see this:
Your historic payments
Here, you are able to view your last five top-ups using your IHD. In order to do this:
1) From the Main Menu, select either electricity or gas. 2) Your last five gas top-ups will be displayed as follows:
Emergency and friendly
credit
What is emergency credit?
Emergency credit is a function on your prepayment meter(s) that you can use when you are running low on credit and cannot top up for a short period of time. Your meter(s) will be preloaded with £10 emergency credit once installed.
Any emergency credit used will need to be repaid. The amount used will be deducted from your credit next time you top up, so you must make sure you buy enough credit to cover: the emergency credit used, plus your debt payments plus enough to be in at least £1 of positive credit.
For more information please refer to the section ‘How do I repay any emergency or friendly credit used?’ on page 11.
Please note, emergency credit is not activated automatically.
How to activate your emergency credit
If you run low on credit, your meter will make an alarm sound to let you know and the LED will turn red. The screen above will be displayed. In order to accept the use of £10 emergency credit, you will need to press ‘E- credit’. If you press ‘Ignore’, the alarm will stop, leaving enough time for you to put money on your meter.
However, if you do not top up you will be alerted again, giving you another option to select emergency credit. If you keep pressing ‘Ignore’ without making a
payment, your supply will eventually disconnect.
You can also activate emergency credit via the payment screen by pressing ‘E- Credit’ (see image on nexr page).
This screen is accessed from the main menu by pressing the ‘Account’ button, then by pressing the ‘Gas’ or ‘Elec’ button.
When your emergency credit is running low, your meter will make an alarm sound to let you know for both gas and electricity and the screen(s) below will be displayed.
If your emergency credit runs out you will also be prompted to top up by a minimum amount.
Please note: your emergency credit will only be available for activation once
your meter falls below £4 credit. By pressing the ‘E- credit’ button when your meter has between £0 and £4 left, you are permitting emergency credit to be used once your credit balance falls to £0.
To check whether emergency credit has been activated go to the default screen (see page 13) via the ‘Main Menu’ then select ‘Electricity’ and there will be an ‘E’ in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
If you have more than £4 credit on your meter you will not be able to activate emergency credit.
What is friendly credit?
If your credit runs out during the week after 8pm*, the supply will NOT disconnect until 9am* the following day. During this time, the credit is known as friendly credit.
This will give you enough time to buy more electricity or gas. If your credit runs out after 8pm* on a Friday, the supply will NOT go off until 9am* the following Monday (or the day after, if it’s a UK Bank Holiday).
This will give you enough time to buy more electricity or gas. Please note, you will still be able to select emergency credit during this period if it has not already been used.
When are emergency and friendly credit available?
Emergency credit available Friendly credit available Mon - Fri 9am - 8pm Yes No
Mon - Fri 8pm*- 9am* Yes Yes
Sat & Sun & Bank Hols Yes Yes
* This may be subject to change
How to check if you are in emergency credit or friendly credit
mode
If you are in emergency credit mode, an ‘E’ will show on the default screen (see page 13). If you are in friendly credit mode, an ’F’ will show. When this screen shows a ‘P’ it means the meter is in normal prepayment mode with a positive credit balance.
To find out how much you need to repay to get back into credit, you can check the screen below. If you owe anything, it will appear on your balance as a negative figure.
How do I repay any emergency or friendly credit used?
You must repay any emergency or friendly credit used PLUS have at least £1 of positive credit, in order to return to normal prepayment mode and/or restore your power. For example, if you have run out of credit and used all your £10
emergency credit you will need to make a payment of £11. This will replenish your £10 emergency credit and provide you with £1 positive credit.
If you have used any friendly credit during the period where you used all your emergency credit, this will need to be repaid as well. For example, if you have used all your emergency credit at 9pm on a weekday and utilised £2 of friendly credit throughout the evening until 9am on Monday you would then need to make a payment of £13. This will repay the £2 friendly credit used, replenish the £10 emergency credit and provide you with £1 positive credit.
If you are repaying debt through your meter, it will continue to deduct from your credit balance at a time in the day to repay this debt irrelevant of whether you are using positive, emergency or friendly credit at that time.
Using your in- home display
unit
Main menu
This is your in -home display (IHD). It includes a touchscreen function, allowing you to navigate and manage your energy usage and credit balance quickly and efficiently.
Account information – default screen
Your IHD will display the above screen as a default screen after 60 seconds or after power down. This shows the status of your account, including your balance and how many days’ supply you have remaining.
Please note when your prepayment meter is first installed the remaining supply
feature may take around a week to calculate so please do not expect to see it straight away. It is also an approximate figure and will depend on your individual usage.
When on the default screen, the LED lights on the top of the IHD relates to your remaining credit:
Green = no urgent requirement to top up,
Orange = running low on credit, you may wish to top up,
Red = low credit, top-up is now required.
The default screen also indicates what mode you are currently in, indicated by the letter in the bottom left and right corners of the screen
P = prepayment mode, E = emergency credit mode, F = friendly credit mode, C = credit mode.
We recommend you keep your in- home device plugged into the mains at all times. Don’t worry about leaving it on constantly, it will only cost approximately 20p per year (depending on your tariff charges).
Meter mode Meter mode LED status light
Usage - setting targets
With this feature you will be able to set targets for your usage using a
monetary value, a kWh value or by an ‘eco target’ value, which you could use to help with budgeting weekly or monthly usage.
1) From the main menu, select ‘Settings’:
2) Press the ‘Target’ button:
3) Select how you want to set your target by pressing the ‘£’ button to scroll between ‘£’, ‘kWh’ and ‘CO2kg’.
4) Enter the amount you want to set your target as then press ‘OK’:
5) You will then see a confirmation screen press ‘Confirm’ if you are happy with this target, or ‘Edit’ to change it:
Once you have set a usage target you can monitor it in several ways.
1) From the default screen below, press the ‘A/C’ button (bottom centre):
Press to change
2) The graph is real time and will increase/decrease depending on your current usage.
Your IHD will also advise you of how you are doing against your target by the LEDs on the top of the monitor. Note, when on these ‘Usage’ screens, the LED light will only relate to your rate of usage and is as follows:
Green = low rate of usage,
Orange = medium rate of usage,
Red = high rate of usage.
Your historic usage
To keep track of how much energy you are using, you can click on the ‘History’ button from the main menu. Here there will be a range of graphs displaying your usage over various times, whether it’s hour, day, week or month. You can also change between ‘kWh’ and ‘£’ and ‘Co2’ by clicking on the corresponding button (see images on page 17):
You can press the button at the top right hand corner of the screen to scroll between Hour, Day, Week and Monthly usage data.
You can also press the ‘Electricity’ button to flick between electricity history and gas history screens. To set a usage target, please see page 14 for details.
Your tariff information
2) To switch between gas and electricity, press the ‘Electricity’ button. This will toggle the display between the gas and
electricity screens. Press the ‘Gas’ button to return to the electricity tariff screen.
Low credit warnings – setting your own
When you only have £4 of positive credit remaining on your meter, an alarm will sound on your in- home display, and it will give you the option to select emergency credit. However, you can also set your own low credit alert instead.
1) From the main menu select ‘Settings’:
2) Press the ‘Credit Alert’ button:
3) Select the alert amount required and press ‘OK’:
Please note we would advise you not to set your ‘low credit alert’ lower
than £1 as this may not leave you enough time to top up.
Your debt account information
Your prepayment meter(s) has the ability to repay any debt that may be
owed on your account with First Utility. Should you have any outstanding
debt on your account, you will receive correspondence from First Utility’s
Credit Control Team on how this debt will be managed.
If you have any debt loaded onto your prepayment meter(s), you can access
your debt information using the following:
2) Select which supply - gas or electricity:
3) Press the ‘debt’ button:
4) You will then see any outstanding debt and the recovery rates set:
Your messages
The IHD display includes a message function so you can receive our updates and notifications instantly. The messages, which can be anything from an alteration to your tariff charges or top-up card, will appear here. The message icon will flash on the screen so it’s easy to spot when you have any unread messages.
To view your messages, you simply press the ‘Message’ button on your the main menu page:
Your messages will then be displayed in a list where you can click to view, with unread appearing at the top:
If a notification comes through that is vital, it will need to be acknowledged, meaning you must click the OK button to close the notification.
Less important notifications will also pop up, but will disappear if ignored and show as an unread envelope icon in the top right hand corner.
Settings
Using your ‘Settings’ button you can change your in- home display’s features including sounds, alerts and the way you budget.
1. Under ‘Info’ you can view the meter serial number, in home display serial numbers, electricity MPAN and gas MPRN supply point numbers.
2. Using the Backlight button to select whether you want the display lit up all the time or if you prefer it to switch off after one minute. The light will come back on if you tap the screen. (Remember the light uses such little energy to run, it would cost you approximately 20p a year if it was on all the time!).
3. Network you cannot alter this.
4. The Contrast can be pressed to lighten or darken the screen. 5. Erase - you cannot alter this.
6. Credit alert click here to set a low credit alert. See page 18 for more information.
7. The LEDs can only be switched on/off. 8. The Sound can only be switched on/off. 9. For Targets see page 14.
Loss of supply
In the event of a power loss
The in- home display can run on two AAA batteries but it will ‘power down’ after one minute to preserve the battery life. To get the screen back, simply press the on button.
Electricity – how to restore supply
If you run out of credit and lose supply you will need to top up so that you are in credit by at least £1. It will require someone (such as yourself or a responsible friend or family member) to be at the property to switch the electricity back on. Please make sure you switch off all sensitive electrical equipment prior to reconnecting the electricity supply. To restore supply using your electricity meter, Press ‘A’ to activate, then press ‘B’ (as per the below screen) and your electricity will come back on.
You can also restore your electricity supply using the in- home display. Once you have topped up, switch on your in -home display device using the power on button, providing you have working AAA batteries in, you will see screen on next page. Press the restore button to reconnect your electricity supply.
9 8 7 6 2 3 4 5
A B
1Gas – how to restore supply
If you run out of credit and lose supply you will need to top up so that you are in credit by at least £1. It will require someone (such as yourself or a responsible family member) to be at the property to switch the gas back on. Please make sure that all gas appliances e.g. your cooker or gas fire, are turned off before you restore your supply.
Whether your in- home display device is on or not, you MUST turn your gas supply back on via the gas meter keypad. This is because of a safety feature built into the gas meter. To connect the gas meter supply, the display will prompt you to press the ‘A’ button.
The display will show the above, and will prompt you to press the ‘B’ button to confirm.
Your in-home display will also ask you to restore your supply, and ask that all appliances are turned off before again pressing the confirm button.
Please note sometimes, because the gas meter has been off it will be asleep so
your top -up will not register. In this case when you press ‘A’ it will go to vend mode instead. In order to get your gas back on, enter your 20, 40 or 60 digit vend code and send by pressing ‘B’. Then press ‘A’ to connect the gas meter again and ‘B’ to restore your supply.
Using the keypads on your
gas or electricity meter
How to manually enter top-ups
If you are unable to use your in- home display, or the remote connection to your meter is lost and you have to top up manually at the meter, you can use the keypad to do so.
Press A on the keypad and the display should show ‘vend mode’. Enter the 20, 40 or 60 digit code located on your receipt and press B to confirm. If you have entered an incorrect digit you can press the A button to delete the last digit entered.
Functions of the meter keypad
You should use your in-home display device to monitor and top up your electricity/ gas, but sometimes you may be required to use the meter keypads themselves. Your meter will always be connected to power, unless there is a grid power cut. To activate the meter screen simply press any button on the meter’s keypad and the screen will light up. You can access the same data here as on your in- home display device, so if you have any issues with your device you can use the meter to retrieve the same information.
Information will scroll here on the gas or electricity meter screen. Each number brings up different information, detailed on the next page.
Electricity meter keypad
By pressing the buttons on the electricity meter you can obtain all sorts of useful information about your electricity usage. Repeated pressing of each button gives many levels of detailed information as explained below:
Press 1 Daily Energy Cost
x1
Cost of energy used so far today
x2
Cost of energy used yesterday
Press 2 Weekly Energy Cost
x1
Cost of energy used so far this week
x2
Cost of energy used last week
Press 3 Monthly Cost
x1
Cost of energy used so far this month
x2
Cost of energy used last month
Press 4 Monthly kWh
x1
kWh usage last month
x2
kWh usage 2 months ago
x3
kWh usage 3 months ago
...
Continue pressing up to 12 months
Press 5 CO2Kg Data
x1
CO2Kg current rate
x2
CO2Kg rate per hour
x3
CO2Kg today
x4
CO2Kg yesterday
x5
CO2Kg last week
x6
CO2Kg last month
Press 6 Tariff Data
x1
Tariff
x2
Standing Charge
x3
Tariff Rate 1
x4
Tariff Rate 2
Press 7 Emergency Credit/Debt
x1
Emergency Credit Status
x2
Amount to repay
Press 8 Friendly Credit Status
x1
Friendly Credit Status
Press 9 Import/Export Data
x1
Import kWh (Meter Read)
x2
Export kWh
x3
Import KVARH
x4
Export KVARH
‘A’ button will enable you to manually enter an electricity vend code. When in
vend code mode, the ‘A’ button can be used to delete a number entered and the
‘B’ button will send the code.
‘B’ button will show you your electricity account balance. You must wait for at
least 10 seconds after pressing any other button before you press this in order to retrieve this information.
Gas meter keypad
By pressing the buttons on the gas meter you can obtain all sorts of useful information about your gas usage. Repeated pressing of each button gives many levels of detailed information as explained below:
Press 1 Daily Energy Cost
x1
Cost of energy used so far today
x2
Cost of energy used yesterday
Press 2 Weekly Energy Cost
x1
Cost of energy used so far this week
x2
Cost of energy used last week
Press 3 Monthly Cost
x1
Cost of energy used so far this month
x2
Cost of energy used last month
Press 4 Monthly kWh
x1
kWh usage last month
x2
kWh usage 2 months ago
x3
kWh usage 3 months ago
...
Continue pressing up to 12 months
Press 5 CO2Kg Data
x1
CO2Kg current rate
x2
CO2Kg rate per hour
x3
CO2Kg today
x4
CO2Kg yesterday
x5
CO2Kg last week
x6
CO2Kg last month
Press 6 Tariff Data
x1
Tariff
x2
Standing Charge
x3
Tariff Rate 1
x4
Tariff Rate 2
Press 7 Emergency Credit/Debt
x1
Emergency Credit Status
x2
Amount to repay
Press 8 Friendly Credit Status
x1
Friendly Credit Status
Press 9 Import/Export Data
x1
Gas volume
x2
Import kWh
‘A’ button will enable you to manually enter a gas vend code. When in vend code
mode, the ‘A’ button can be used to delete a number entered and the ‘B’ button will send the code.
‘B’ button will show you your gas account balance. You must wait for at least 10
seconds after pressing any other button before you press this in order to retrieve this information.
Moving home
If you’re planning to move house, please visit our website www.first utility.com and select the Moving Home link - from there you will be able to tell us the details of your move using an online form. We will use the details provided to manage your move and if required send a final bill.
Alternatively you can contact us on 01926 320775 to advise us of your plans and arrange for any credit to be refunded.
Please leave this booklet and your top- up card(s) for the next occupier, so they can contact First Utility about topping up their meter.
FAQs
1. My top -up isn’t showing up on my IHD, what should I do?
If you’ve topped up, been issued with a receipt, and your in- home display is not showing the credit on your balance, but your gas and/or electricity meter is, the signal icon in the top left hand corner may have a strike through it. This means you do not have signal and you should move it until you can find signal.
2. My top- up isn’t crediting my meter, what should I do?
If you have topped up and been issued with a receipt, but neither your in- home display or your meter is showing the credit on your balance, there may be insufficient signal, or ‘WAN’ (Wide Area Network issue), for your in- home display and meter to receive the credit. If you do have this issue, you will need to continue topping up your meter manually using the keypad on the meter itself, and wait for the signal to be re- established.
3. Loss of supply: I’ve topped up but my electricity power supply hasn’t been restored
If you have topped up but the electricity power has not come back on and your balance is not in credit you most likely have debt. You should check
your balance by pressing the ‘Electricity’ or ‘Gas’ box on the ‘Main Menu’ screen. In order for power to be restored you must be in credit by at least £1. It is possible there may be a power cut in your area.
The electricity meter will always show a display so if this is off, you are most likely experiencing a grid power cut. If this is the case there is nothing you can do, power is usually restored quickly by the electricity grid. It could be that you have not confirmed the in-home display device ‘Restore Power’ screen. When you top up after your supply has gone off it will not automatically come back on; it requires someone to be in the property to switch the gas and/or electricity back on. If this is the case, you can restore your power via the in- home display or the electricity meter itself. To restore it via your in- home display, ensure it has working AAA batteries inside and switch it on (see page 12). You cannot restore your gas via the in- home display once it has been switched off. Instead you will need to restore the gas via the gas meter keypad.
4. Loss of supply: I’ve topped up my gas meter but it hasn’t come back on
If you have lost supply to your gas meter and have topped up to get it back on, you have pressed ‘A’ on the gas meter keypad to restore the supply but instead of asking you to ‘Restore Power’ it has gone into vend mode and the supply cannot be restored. If the gas meter has been off it has gone into sleep mode and may take a while to pick up a signal again. This means that the top-up that you have made may not yet have registered on the gas meter. Check your in- home display. If you have topped up this should show on your gas balance. In order to get the top-up to register on your gas meter press ‘A’, it will go to vend mode. In order to get your gas back on, enter your 20, 40 or 60 digit vend code and send by pressing ‘B’. The press ‘A’ to connect the gas meter again and ‘B’ to restore your supply.
5. My manually entered vend code is not being accepted, what should I do?
If you have entered your 20, 40 or 60 digit vend code but when you press ‘Enter’ the screen shows an error, you may have:
-
Entered the incorrect code maybe missed off a digit or mistyped a number. - Re -enter the correct code.-
The code may have already been used. You may be referring to an old receipt or entered the code again believing it has not gone on the first time.- Check if your top- up has already credited and shows up as a previous vend. If it hasn’t, ensure you have the correct vend code and try again.
Useful contacts
Age UK England:
207 221 Pentonville Road London N1 9UZ
Telephone: 0800 169 8787 Email: contact@ageuk.org.uk Website: www.ageuk.org.uk
Age UK Scotland
Call Silver Line Scotland Telephone: 0800 4 70 80 90 Website: www.ageuk.org.uk/scotland Age UK Wales Ty John Pathy 13/14 Neptune Court Vanguard Way Cardiff CF24 5PJ Telephone: 08000 223 444 Website: www.ageuk.org.uk/cymru Energy Ombudsman PO Box 966 Warrington WA4 9DF Tel. 0330 440 1624 or 01925 530 263 Textphone: 18001 0845 0511 513 or 018001 01925 430 886 Email: enquiries@energy ombudsman.org.uk
Website: www.energy ombudsman.org.uk
National Debtline
Telephone: 0808 808 4000
Website: www.nationaldebtline.co.uk
Energy Saving Trust
England:
21 Dartmouth Street London SW1H 9BP
Scotland:
2nd Floor Ocean Point 1 94 Ocean Drive Edinburgh EH6 6JH
Wales:
1 Caspian Point Caspian Way Cardiff Bay Cardiff CF10 4DQ
Telephone: 0800 512 012
Website: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
Citizens Advice
Post Point 24, Town Hall, Walliscote Grove Road, Weston super Mare, North Somerset,BS23 1UJ
Citizens Advice consumer service: 03454 04 05 06 Website: www.citizensadvice.org.uk/energy
The Disabled Living Foundation
Disabled Living Foundation Ground Floor Landmark House Hammersmith Bridge Road London, W6 9EJ
Telephone: 0300 999 0004 Email: info@dlf.org.uk Website: www.dlf.org.uk
Step Change Debt Charity
Wade House, Merrion Centre, Leeds, LS2 8NG Freephone: 0800 138 1111
Website: www.stepchange.org
Payplan
Payplan, Kempton House Dysart Road, PO Box 9562 Grantham,Lincolnshire, NG31 7LE
Freephone: 0800 280 2816 Telephone: 0207 760 8980 Website: www.payplan.com
