EON Smart IHD Battery Life

AndyCF

Obviously, this is not supplier specific, I merely say EON as that's who supply me. Its going to apply to all who use this IHD or similar.

I realise they do like to be plugged in however how long is reasonable to expect it to remain "alive" ?

Its about 15 to 30 minutes with mine. I have tried a few 'deep cycle' charge/discharge with it to remove any memory effects caused by cheap cells. Given its manufacturing origin that could be possible I suppose. I daresay it will have a ultra-low mA capacity cell within which is OK for items designed to have permanent supplies. I can't do this as its not my 'property' as I understand it said IHD belongs to the supplier.

I'm not there to check it at the moment pretty sure its the Chameleon (not sure which revision) mono display one.

Previous meter had a colour display, it looked almost identical to this model, shame they went mono actually but no matter.

Anyway what is reasonable to expect time-wise without said IHD being 'fed' please ? Assuming it is obviously fully charged before. It should be as its permanently plugged in anyway unless I am vacuuming as I borrow its socket for a few minutes for that.

I could not find this information readily online, I daresay it is there if I carried on digging though. I'd take a sensible and sane 'guestimate' here it is designed to last for 2 to 4 hours, that is not unreasonable for the 'ping' to the meter eating the most power as powering the LCD is nothing as is the LED (I assume) backlit display.

EDIT... I did have a thought of obtaining one of the other types of IHD and pairing it but I suspect I would be wasting my time attempting this unless I brought one of the (expensive) generic ones that are now appearing, at least not without some research first.

Tried not to get too boring/tech with my reply.

Robin9

You must be one of the few people who actually use the IHD.

The novelty of mine - which plugged into the mains - ran out in a week. Now fild at the back of a drawer.

AndyCF

Robin9 wrote: »

You must be one of the few people who actually use the IHD.

The novelty of mine - which plugged into the mains - ran out in a week. Now fild at the back of a drawer.

The only reason its plugged in is because its prepay and I like to see the balance occasionally at a glance without going online or looking at the meter itself. The rest of the 'infotainment' aka daily/weekly and other bits I found out with some research ( ) , I use the meter directly to look at. You have to wait about 10 seconds anyway regardless of which choice you pick as it display "whatever you picked" first then goes eventually to show credit balance etc along with other things.

I can't just plug it in when I want to see it as it takes a few minutes to resync and then its not set to display said 'figures of interest' by default, its far quicker to look at the meter in that case.

This is one thing actually that lets them down compared to a legacy pre-pay (the meter display this time not the IHD) when its in prepay mode it should always display the credit remaining as regardless of usage factors etc, this is all that really immediately matters. A programming oversight imo. But this paragraph is off topic.

matelodave

Mine probably only last 30 minutes or so when not plugged in.

The meter stopped sending data back to the supplier (SSE) about three years and three or four suppliers ago but that's not a problem.

I read the meter once a week and send readings to the supplier once a month however it's useful to use the IHD as it saves me the effort of going outside to do it.

It also allows me to read history info if I want to

AndyCF

Thanks @matelodave

By the sounds of it then the battery is merely to "keep the settings" for short periods such as moving it about the house etc.

Question answered then I think. Well enough.

You do raise a good point about those with an outside meter too, my gas is outside but electric is not. Friends house has both outside (built like that new in the 80's iirc) , I'd hate to have elec prepay if it involved going outside all the time to check the credit level, gas I can cope with easily enough.

Michaelw

Robin9 wrote: »

You must be one of the few people who actually use the IHD.

The novelty of mine - which plugged into the mains - ran out in a week. Now fild at the back of a drawer.

I never use mine either and its reboxed and I'm on prepayment I check the meter to see if the top ups' gone on.Theres little point gas usage isn't realtime,weekly/monthly data is in accurate and the rest of the information is irrelevant for day to day use for the average customer.

When there were problems' British Gas told me to read the meter not the in home display.The HAN light is back flashing red now all the time but the credit update is fine.

I wouldn't worry about the battery but I have found poundland "Kodak" batteries do tend to leak unnoticed causing powdery corrosion.

FreeBear

AndyCF wrote: »

EDIT... I did have a thought of obtaining one of the other types of IHD and pairing it but I suspect I would be wasting my time attempting this unless I brought one of the (expensive) generic ones that are now appearing, at least not without some research first.

I stumbled across this thread a few days back - https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/a-taste-of-things-to-come-uk-smart-meter-data-access
It would appear that unless your IHD or CAD is certified and on the supplier's approved list, you have no chance of getting it paired up with your meter. In addition, most suppliers will be totally clueless about the process unless you are lucky enough to find the right person in the tech support department. Even then, you may need to complain to OFGEM, ICO, and BEIS to get things moving.


I had briefly looked at getting a CAD so that I could access the meter data in real time as part of a home automation & monitoring project. Decided it was going to be way too much trouble trying to explain the basics to a typical customer services rep.

AndyCF

Thanks @Michaelw and @FreeBear

Regarding pairing, well I'd probably not bother until it was the later S2 meter, I do have the idea of having the meter replaced when eventually this is rolled out *and* works properly, rather than upgraded. There are ways and means to ensure this happens rather than a firmware upgrade, easy way is to jump suppliers and back again I suppose if you pick one that has a different meter type.

Regarding the IHD I might see if I can get a used different type of one for a few pennies from 'the bay' and see if anything can be done with it perhaps, as that one is 'my' property I can dismantle it without any concerns. What would be useful would be to connect (not via internet but directly via 'wireless' to read the data on my computer) however I fear that would be a bit too involved.

Michaelw

FreeBear wrote: »

I stumbled across this thread a few days back - https://community.openenergymonitor.org/t/a-taste-of-things-to-come-uk-smart-meter-data-access
It would appear that unless your IHD or CAD is certified and on the supplier's approved list, you have no chance of getting it paired up with your meter.

The end user cannot pair an in home display without an installer pin.I purchased a second inhome display from an Ebay seller with several units but there isn't a chance.The supplier is supposed to be notified if the display is faulty and it involves a call out.

AndyCF

That's a good point actually, I can't see that being handed over on the phone either! not that it would really matter that much tbh given its remote.

Do need a visit at some point anyway for something else with it.

EDIT... Actually it might be (the pin) as one other supplier does for some remote troubleshooting/diagnosis but that is afaik a different meter type.

Bark01

IHD pairing can be done over the phone as long as the customer has safe access to the meter and the CSA has comms with the meter.

You are incredibly unlikely to get a non supplier supplied IHD to work.

IHD are ultimately going to be replaced with web apps at some point.