EDF Chameleon 3 In-House-Display

deanwarner

Hi. I've had a EDF Smart Meter for about a year. One day last November I noticed that the Chameleon in-house-display (IHD) said 855 kilowatts which is practically impossible in most domestic household settings. I then noticed a number of other things when toggling through the menus which didn't seem correct. I did a hard reset but nothing changed. The IHD has a full signal and only about 10 feet away from the smart meter. One thing that really was really strange was looking at energy usage. If I looked at it about 11pm just before going to bed it would say, for example, £5.00 but if I looked at it again the next morning and selected "yesterdays" energy usage it would be something like £3.80! Surely it would still be around £5.00? I kept a log of this for about 2 weeks and the same happened every day. In January I got an EDF engineer to came to the house and he said that because the IHD was not displaying the supplier details I would not be getting the correct usage. I'm pretty sure the IHD has never displayed the supplier details. The engineer cut the electricity from the house, allowed the smart meter to reset, and then powered up again. The IHD was reset and I was advised to wait 48 hours. Of course that didn't do anything and the supplier details is still not shown. I contacted EDF again and they sent me a new IHD so then I had two IHD's that would not display the supplier details! I contacted EDF again and they referred the fault through to their smart meter team. They must have done something in the background as there was a "welcome" message but it didn't fix the problem. So a few weeks ago I emailed a complaint and a very polite lady rang me back. She said they had tried everything they could but were unable to resolve the problem and would I accept £50 off my bill? Of course I said yes to that but I was surprised that they gave up so easy. She said they were getting all the correct information at their end and I know none of this will ultimately affect my bill but it would be good to have a smart meter / IHD that I could believe. Has anyone experienced a similar problem?

[Deleted User]

I have an IHD that doesn’t show/add the daily standing charge for gas. Over the last 3 years, I have had two sets of meters and a replacement IHD. The problem most likely sits within the gas proxy meter that is part of the communications hub. The IHD is only a display that connects to the Hone Area Network set up by the communications hub.

The ‘thing’ that happened in the background was a remote communications hub reset carried out by the DCC following a request from the supplier. The reset turns the power off to communications hub for 15 minutes. The next stage in the process is a pull of the main house fuse and, if this doesn’t work, a replacement communications hub.

deanwarner

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Yes, they did pull the fuse but it was only for a couple of minutes. Maybe it wasn't long enough? I'm guessing EDF decided giving me £50 was cheaper than supplying a new comms hub....

Shedman

Theres a device coming out soon from Chameleon called an Ivie Bud that is supposed to work with all suppliers and give you real time data which you can access on your phone/tablet as well.  I think price is going to £50 (so you could spend your compo on one).  You can register interest and priority access here https://ivie.co.uk/  From the email I had last week its supposed to be launched this week.  Just thought it might be of some interest to you (and possibly others).   

Being a bit of a nerd and liking gadgets I am quite interested so I can monitor real time usage from my phone as my IHD has to be so close to the meter its not in a very useful place.

rogerc446

Hildebrand have had a similar device out for a while, but unfortunately it's regularly sold out https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers

deanwarner

Thanks shedman and rogerc446. I wasn't aware there were 'after-market' type IHDs so I'll look into them. Thanks again.

[Deleted User]

deanwarner said:

Thanks shedman and rogerc446. I wasn't aware there were 'after-market' type IHDs so I'll look into them. Thanks again.

You cannot just buy an IHD and expect it to work. The provider of the device has to be a Registered DCC user and, as such, it will do what is needed to link any IHD or CAD securely to your communications hub. I have had a look at IVIE and I am not convinced that it offers anything more than can be obtained from BRIGHT app.

Shedman

From my reading it would appear that the Ivie Bud connects using wifi and from installation instructions looks straightforward p and it doesn't appear to piggyback off an existing IHD as it says it doesn't matter if IHD is lost or broken.  Chameleon claim it should work with any Smets 2 meter regardless of provider so not sure about the Registered DCC bit...no mention of it.

https://ivie.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ivie-Bud-quick-start-guide.pdf

Its advantages over the Bright app are that its real or near real time whereas Bright app isn't and, in my experience, reports data from up to several hours ago even when refreshed multiple times.  Bright is useful for historic data and graphs but I actually find Guy Lipmans program more useful for the same purpose.

The other advantage I see for the Ivie is that by connecting over wifi it can be moved around the house and be much further away from the meter so can be put somewhere more convenient  (my current Trio II IHD needs to be within 2 metres).  There also appears to be (or going to be) the ability to link to Smartthings app and access the data on mobile or tablet and presumably remotely as well.

https://chameleontechnology.co.uk/2021/10/18/samsung-launches-smartthings-energy-powered-by-chameleon-technology/

I'm not plugging it but just raising awareness in case it's of interest to anyone. Its possibly a bit of an unnecessary boys toy (am I allowed to say that these days?) and not very MSE but who doesn't like a gadget..  Like I've said I'm tempted so might get one and, if so, will report back.

MWT

Shedman said:

The other advantage I see for the Ivie is that by connecting over wifi it can be moved around the house and be much further away from the meter so can be put somewhere more convenient  (my current Trio II IHD needs to be within 2 metres).

It cannot connect to the meter via WiFi, that part is still going to have to use the same Zigbee network as the current IHD, so range from the meter will still be an issue.

This appears to be a slight modification from the existing IHD6-CAD-PPMID that many have already. 

The WiFi connection is just for firmware updates to the IHD and for the Smartthings integration.

Also, having read the FAQ, it is still dependent on the energy supplier updating the tariff information on the meter, which is a weak point for many suppliers, it would have been a useful feature to allow the user to enter the tariff information, but that doesn't appear to be an option...

[Deleted User]

Shedman :

 Like I've said I'm tempted so might get one and, if so, will report back.

As stated above, all IHDs and CADs have to be connected by a Registered DCC User to your secure communications hub. The whole of the UK smart meter system runs using GCHQ-layered security. 

The IVIE Bud looks to be a modified Chameleon IHD/CAD 6. The IHD side connects to the HAN (look at the icon in the top left corner of the display) and the CAD connects to your home wifi (fan symbol in the top right corner of the display). The CAD then connects to SmartThings. Clearly, for the device to work it has to remain with the range of the Zigbee HAN network.

FWiW, I have an IHD/CAD 6 and it will connect via the Bulb App in SmartThings and, yes, I can see real-time usage but not in a particularly useful form. I find that a manual refresh of BRIGHT App gives me all the information that I need. That said, all Apps and devices will show incorrect cost information in the supplier hasn’t updated the correct tariff information in the ESME and GSME.

Shedman

MWT said:

Shedman said:

The other advantage I see for the Ivie is that by connecting over wifi it can be moved around the house and be much further away from the meter so can be put somewhere more convenient  (my current Trio II IHD needs to be within 2 metres).

It cannot connect to the meter via WiFi, that part is still going to have to use the same Zigbee network as the current IHD, so range from the meter will still be an issue.

This appears to be a slight modification from the existing IHD6-CAD-PPMID that many have already. 

The WiFi connection is just for firmware updates to the IHD and for the Smartthings integration.

That was the bit thats somewhat confusing to me as I couldn't really see how just connecting via wifi would work without getting something done behind the scenes by the energy provider(s) (or piggybacking off an IHD) as you rightly say the HAN requires zigbee.  Of course when they say wifi they could be referring to zigbee (tends to get used interchangeably).

As to zigbee range I don't see why the range should be so limited as my Hive thermometer, which I believe uses zigbee to communicate to the hub, can be several rooms away and link ok and I believe zigbee should have a range of up to 15m, so I would have at least expected more than 2m I currently get (even if through say an external wall and a couple of stud interior walls which will clearly reduce range).

Might shoot off some clarification questions to them out of curiousity.