Smart Meters

joineduptech

Thanks both, but my question is - if you have Economy 7 and a smart meter, should (can) the IHD show the peak & off-peak meter readings and consumption?

I live in a flat and the meter is not easily accessible. The IHD is. I have previously experienced the problem with R1 & R2 and which is off-peak and peak.

[Deleted User]

joineduptech said:

Thanks both, but my question is - if you have Economy 7 and a smart meter, should (can) the IHD show the peak & off-peak meter readings and consumption?

I live in a flat and the meter is not easily accessible. The IHD is. I have previously experienced the problem with R1 & R2 and which is off-peak and peak.

No. It shows a single index reading which is a TOTAL of all the 4 registers that have been used since the meter was first installed. If the meter shows R1 02500 and R2 10000 then the IHD will give an index reading of 12500. This cannot be changed. To do so, would require 4 index readings on the IHD. 

Electricity use is displayed in 2 ways: one, instant power in kW and, two, total consumption so far today in kWH IRRESPECTIVE of the in use register. There is no industry convention on register use: my offpeak is recorded on register R1.

joineduptech

Thanks Dolor.

This is the reply from EDF - "The smart In Home Display(IHD) is a device to reflect the usage only. Hence, the smart original meter reflects readings. However, this device won't reflect the readings. It will only reflect the total usage and the consumption graph only."

Therefore, for Economy 7 and other non-standard supplies, the IHD is useless for the user. Pretty much like the whole smart meter project.

carl.waring

joineduptech said:

Therefore, for Economy 7 and other non-standard supplies, the IHD is useless for the user. Pretty much like the whole smart meter project.

Nice sweeping generlisation there. They are useful in a lot of ways for various reasons. Though I agree the IHD could be more useful; ie configured to show more useful information.

[Deleted User]

We all tend to look at things though a lens coloured by our individual perceived needs. The IHD is just a display that gets its information from the communications hub. I doubt when SMETS2 was written that it was ever envisaged that consumers would need to provide manual meter readings. There are a number of 3rd party apps that provide much of the detail that @joineduptech is seeking.

I am great fan of Hildebrand’s Bright App but the data that Hildebrand can retrieve from the meters is limited: for example, I was told that only the nominated supplier can access meter index readings.

@joineduptech may not be aware that for its time-of-use tariffs (Go; Intelligent and Agile) Octopus does not use index readings for billing. It uses 30 minute usage data: index readings are not shown on the bill. Agile, for example, has 48 tariff rates per day. For simplicity, Octopus has chosen to set an average unit price in the meter so all IHD costs are indicative. Some Apps, such as Octopus Watch, can show accurate costs as they retrieve the actual usage and tariff data via an API from the consumer’s account. I believe that this will become the norm and IHDs will quietly be withdrawn.

carl.waring

Dolor said:

We all tend to look at things though a lens coloured by our individual perceived needs. The IHD is just a display that gets its information from the communications hub. I doubt when SMETS2 was written that it was ever envisaged that consumers would need to provide manual meter readings. There are a number of 3rd party apps that provide much of the detail that @joineduptech is seeking.

Anyone using this one?
https://data.n3rgy.com/consumer/home

PS. Still not got my own IHD after more than a year with Smart Meters 🤷‍♂️

EssexHebridean

I’m on E7 - don’t yet have a smart meter but do have - and have had for years - a monitor that shows me my energy use in the same way that a SM IHD would - ie in total kWh for the day. It doesn’t show me my split use (peak/off peak) but I can look at it when I get up - which gives me the off peak use - and then later in the day it continues to show me the total use, so still easy to see what I’ve used. Not really sure why an IHD which operates in the same way is in any way “useless for the user” ! 

carl.waring

Well, as @[Deleted User] said...

We all tend to look at things though a lens coloured by our individual perceived needs.

I assume that @joineduptech has reasons for their opinon; and they are welcome to it. However, as I said, in reality they are useful for a few reasons. (That's not opinion, that's fact.)

Zaul22

I am on E7 and my IHD shows the current cost per hour using the 2 rates, but the total reading on both IHD  and the actual meter only show one rate. Did the contractors install the wrong type of meter? 

[Deleted User]

Zaul22 said:

I am on E7 and my IHD shows the current cost per hour using the 2 rates, but the total reading on both IHD  and the actual meter only show one rate. Did the contractors install the wrong type of meter? 

No - all smart meters have 4 registers. The supplier SHOULD have sent the correct tariff to your meters. You should be able to access the tariffs in the meter Tariff Matrix in one of your meter sub menus. The IHD usually shows the rate in use - not both rates.

The meter reading shown on the IHD is the total of all the meter registers.