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Octopus Tracker

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  • pete-20-11
    pete-20-11 Posts: 1,396 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Debt-free and Proud!
    I’m with octopus and my IHD shows live usage including export.

    it’s on the screen called “usage now”

    wasn’t immediately obvious what export vs import was, but after a little while, I realised if there was a picture of an electric pylon on the screen it meant it was exporting and the numbers e.g. 420w meant it was exporting 420w not importing 420w.
    PPI success. Banding success. Double Dip PCN cancelled! South facing solar (Midlands) and battery. Savings Session supporter (is it worth it now!?)
  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 11,012 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Slinky said:
    More use / relevant for Agile people than for Trackers??  For the latter all we are concerned with, if we take the time to check, is having a quick and easy check that the values invoiced on a given day are or were accurate without this necessarily being in real time.
    I have found it useful to able to see usage of certain appliances in real time without having to be physically near the IHD (which since I've been confined to my bedroom for the past 2½ months is not even possible right now) and it's useful to see usage in the app at the end of a day rather then being to wait for Octopus to pull it, by which time I'll have forgotten what happened the previous day to tally up with the usage.

    It's not been life-changing because we'd already made all the major energy saving changes long before it arrived, but I do like it.
    Sorry to hear you've been confined to your bedroom, but can't you get the IHD moved there if you want to check it?
    I was under the impression they only work if they're close to the meter.  We need a wifi extender up here and I thought the range for zigbee on the IHD was smaller than wifi?

    Regardless, we got the Home Mini before my unexpected health crash (just as well, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to set it up).  It's simply proved itself more useful in that regard than anticipated :)

    I think it's a case of try it and see what happens. Ours is about 25 feet from the meter and works fine.
    Make £2025 in 2025
    Prolific £229.82, Octopoints £4.27, Topcashback £290.85, Tesco Clubcard challenges £60, Misc Sales £321, Airtime £10.
    Total £915.94/£2025 45.2%

    Make £2024 in 2024
    Prolific £907.37, Chase Intt £59.97, Chase roundup int £3.55, Chase CB £122.88, Roadkill £1.30, Octopus referral reward £50, Octopoints £70.46, Topcashback £112.03, Shopmium referral £3, Iceland bonus £4, Ipsos survey £20, Misc Sales £55.44
    Total £1410/£2024  70%

    Make £2023 in 2023  Total: £2606.33/£2023  128.8%



  • Telegraph_Sam
    Telegraph_Sam Posts: 2,552 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Mine appears to work OK once it gets woken up and it must be a good 25 ft from the main meter. However the "useful" info is limited to the current meter reading, and the cost of the consumption over various time periods. Plenty of lightning symbols but no pylons and nothing I can see to indicate export. I've a feeling that you can fiddle about with the smart meter to show import and export, but doing this would be a pain.
    Telegraph Sam

    There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know
  • Telegraph_Sam
    Telegraph_Sam Posts: 2,552 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Correction to my previous post. I have now unearthed a "usage now'" screen showing £/hr and w. But no sign of pylons or export. This is a 100% Octopus IHD.
    Telegraph Sam

    There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know
  • Alnat1
    Alnat1 Posts: 3,846 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Correction to my previous post. I have now unearthed a "usage now'" screen showing £/hr and w. But no sign of pylons or export. This is a 100% Octopus IHD.
    The model I have is IHD7-PPMID and this does show export. Did you check that screen when you knew for sure you were exporting at that time? Only your post was at 9.15pm and it was dark then.
    Barnsley, South Yorkshire
    Solar PV 5.25kWp SW facing (14 x 375) Lux 3.6kw hybrid inverter installed Mar 22 and 9.6kw Pylontech battery 
    Daikin 8kW ASHP installed Jan 25
    Octopus Cosy/Fixed Outgoing 
  • Telegraph_Sam
    Telegraph_Sam Posts: 2,552 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Fair point. It looks like my meter is an IHD6-CAD-PPMID 2.0.2 according to the software designation. The point is that nowhere on the screen is there a "location" earmarked "Export" even if the figure is zero. I have never seen this in daylight either.It is all geared around current and past consumption. If I use the electric lawnmower, which is not a mickey mouse, on a sunny afternoon I can't tell to what extent the power drain is being covered by my solar panels. 
    Telegraph Sam

    There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know
  • Qyburn
    Qyburn Posts: 3,583 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If I use the electric lawnmower, which is not a mickey mouse, on a sunny afternoon I can't tell to what extent the power drain is being covered by my solar panels. 
    If it's all covered by solar then consumption will be zero. I assume your solar installation doesn’t have a generation meter, although even that wouldn't tell the whole story.

    I wonder how easy it is to get a third party gadget with two CTs to read generation and overall import/export. There must be a market. 

    But not really related to Tracker so might get more input on a separate thread.
  • Alnat1
    Alnat1 Posts: 3,846 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    When my IHD is showing the "usage now" page you described, the pic where the lightning symbol is switches between just a lightning symbol and a lightning/arrow/pylon symbol.

    I think you have the older IHD6 version and mine is a newer IHD7. Try chasing Octopus up for a Home Mini which hopefully would show the info you want.
    Barnsley, South Yorkshire
    Solar PV 5.25kWp SW facing (14 x 375) Lux 3.6kw hybrid inverter installed Mar 22 and 9.6kw Pylontech battery 
    Daikin 8kW ASHP installed Jan 25
    Octopus Cosy/Fixed Outgoing 
  • pete-20-11
    pete-20-11 Posts: 1,396 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Debt-free and Proud!
    This is what I see on the usage now screen when exporting

    You might notice the colour circle thing is missing too (the bit that is green when consumption is low and orange/red when high).


    PPI success. Banding success. Double Dip PCN cancelled! South facing solar (Midlands) and battery. Savings Session supporter (is it worth it now!?)
  • Telegraph_Sam
    Telegraph_Sam Posts: 2,552 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Yes that is different from mine (my export goes through underground power cables).  Is this what you get from the Home Mini?
    Telegraph Sam

    There are also unknown unknowns - the one's we don't know we don't know
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