Smart Energy In House Monitor - no support

SBEE400

Hi,

due to the rising costs of Energy I am even more reliant on the In House Monitor (IHM) I received, when I had Smart Meters installed, to keep a watch on my real-time energy use.

Recently, the IHM failed to show my energy usage accurately.
I contacted British Gas, my current Energy provider, to discuss the issue.

After many calls and broken promises to resolve the matter, I used their on-line complaints process to try to get the issue sorted..

They contacted me the next day and informed me that the IHM is deemed a "freebie" and is not supported after 12months (neither repair nor replacement) so if it fails you are basically stuffed. In my case it was even worse as the IHM had been supplied by Shell Energy - British Gas told me I had no cover what-so-ever as they did not supply it.

Their suggestion, should the IHM fail, was to use either the British Gas App or to login to my account via their Website, to look at my usage records.
These records are historical and at best at least a day out of date - absolutely no use to monitor your real time energy usage.

I could not believe this, with Energy prices rocketing that Monitor gives me the opportunity to switch off high usage appliances immediately thus managing my energy usage and the subsequent charges.

I took this concern to the Energy Ombudsman who unfortunately (and somewhat amazingly) sided with British Gas.

I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.
You'll just get the shock when you look at the historical data via their App or website account.

Fingers crossed that my IHM continues to work as I don't what to do should it fail.

regards

FreeBear

SBEE400 said: I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.

Not just BG - I would imagine all the suppliers will decline to support the IHD after 12 months. Fortunately, it is now possible to get replacements (for example, Glow) and get them "paired" with your meter.

For electricity, there are a number of cheaper solutions - A whole house monitor (e.g. Owl) will give you instantaneous indication of a high consumption device being turned on. With careful selection and the right choice of software, you can even log the data and build up an accurate picture of your usage.

[Deleted User]

FreeBear said:

SBEE400 said: I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.

Not just BG - I would imagine all the suppliers will decline to support the IHD after 12 months. Fortunately, it is now possible to get replacements (for example, Glow) and get them "paired" with your meter.

For electricity, there are a number of cheaper solutions - A whole house monitor (e.g. Owl) will give you instantaneous indication of a high consumption device being turned on. With careful selection and the right choice of software, you can even log the data and build up an accurate picture of your usage.

It was never Ofgem’s intention that consumers should get free IHDs for life. Some suppliers will provide a new paired IHD for a small charge. The advantage of a third-party IHD from Chameleon (IVIE Bud) or Hildebrand (Glow) is that both companies are Registered DCC Other Users so they are able to pair/unpair their devices which makes them portable between properties.

Astria

For electricity monitoring there are far better products on the market than the cheap IHDs, plus you can get support for them and do things like connect them to a PC. The other benefit is that you can measure devices independently, so you can see exactly what your washing machine, dryer, oven uses etc over a period of use, which helps you to decide which appliances are better to use than others.

SBEE400

Hi - I wasn't aware of independant IHD's so thanks for pointing that out - just have to save up now...

Ultrasonic

SBEE400 said:

Hi - I wasn't aware of independant IHD's so thanks for pointing that out - just have to save up now...

Bear in mind you could just monitor your usage by checking the smart meters themselves. No, it's not as convenient as an IHD, and won't give you instantaneous electricity usage, but if money-saving is the goal then paying a fair amount for a new IHD may not stack up. 

MattMattMattUK

SBEE400 said:

Hi,

due to the rising costs of Energy I am even more reliant on the In House Monitor (IHM) I received, when I had Smart Meters installed, to keep a watch on my real-time energy use.

Recently, the IHM failed to show my energy usage accurately.
I contacted British Gas, my current Energy provider, to discuss the issue.

After many calls and broken promises to resolve the matter, I used their on-line complaints process to try to get the issue sorted..

They contacted me the next day and informed me that the IHM is deemed a "freebie" and is not supported after 12months (neither repair nor replacement) so if it fails you are basically stuffed. In my case it was even worse as the IHM had been supplied by Shell Energy - British Gas told me I had no cover what-so-ever as they did not supply it.

Their suggestion, should the IHM fail, was to use either the British Gas App or to login to my account via their Website, to look at my usage records.
These records are historical and at best at least a day out of date - absolutely no use to monitor your real time energy usage.

I could not believe this, with Energy prices rocketing that Monitor gives me the opportunity to switch off high usage appliances immediately thus managing my energy usage and the subsequent charges.

I took this concern to the Energy Ombudsman who unfortunately (and somewhat amazingly) sided with British Gas.

I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.
You'll just get the shock when you look at the historical data via their App or website account.

Fingers crossed that my IHM continues to work as I don't what to do should it fail.

regards

How exactly does it give you the opportunity to turn off "high usage appliances immediately", the only ones that most people have are electric water heating, ovens, kettles etc. the most people do not leave them running when they are not used/needed. Nothing that is in your house that is permanently on should be anywhere near a high usage appliance. What are the "high usage appliances" that you previously left on, but now feel the need to turn off?

brewerdave

[Deleted User] said:

FreeBear said:

SBEE400 said: I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.

Not just BG - I would imagine all the suppliers will decline to support the IHD after 12 months. Fortunately, it is now possible to get replacements (for example, Glow) and get them "paired" with your meter.

For electricity, there are a number of cheaper solutions - A whole house monitor (e.g. Owl) will give you instantaneous indication of a high consumption device being turned on. With careful selection and the right choice of software, you can even log the data and build up an accurate picture of your usage.

It was never Ofgem’s intention that consumers should get free IHDs for life. 

And isn't about time that the "Einstein" adverts based around the IHDs should be removed from TV adverts ? TOTALLY misleading - a Commercial organisation would have their hands chopped off by ASA !!

[Deleted User]

brewerdave said:

[Deleted User] said:

FreeBear said:

SBEE400 said: I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.

Not just BG - I would imagine all the suppliers will decline to support the IHD after 12 months. Fortunately, it is now possible to get replacements (for example, Glow) and get them "paired" with your meter.

For electricity, there are a number of cheaper solutions - A whole house monitor (e.g. Owl) will give you instantaneous indication of a high consumption device being turned on. With careful selection and the right choice of software, you can even log the data and build up an accurate picture of your usage.

It was never Ofgem’s intention that consumers should get free IHDs for life. 

And isn't about time that the "Einstein" adverts based around the IHDs should be removed from TV adverts ? TOTALLY misleading - a Commercial organisation would have their hands chopped off by ASA !!

Smart metering messaging has always been misleading. A meter is a meter!  That said, the IHD will come into its own as more suppliers roll out time-of-use tariffs. Unfortunately, the Press is already presaging doom and disaster with suggestions that suppliers will just amend 30 minute pricing at will. 

Astria

SBEE400 said:

Hi - I wasn't aware of independant IHD's so thanks for pointing that out - just have to save up now...

Just be aware that other alternatives exist. For example products such as https://geotogether.com/product/minim/ cost around £40, are self installed (no pairing required) and as such you can usually find them second hand for less and move them between properties easily.

Alternatively, you could buy a single plug solution for about £10 to see how much individual appliances are using such as washing machines, tumble driers and so on, and even leave connected overnight to see how much devices use on standby. For some people they are more useful as you can direct them to specific devices.

brewerdave

[Deleted User] said:

brewerdave said:

[Deleted User] said:

FreeBear said:

SBEE400 said: I just wanted to make others aware that, as and when your In House Monitor fails, if your with British Gas you will become blind to your live energy usage.

Not just BG - I would imagine all the suppliers will decline to support the IHD after 12 months. Fortunately, it is now possible to get replacements (for example, Glow) and get them "paired" with your meter.

For electricity, there are a number of cheaper solutions - A whole house monitor (e.g. Owl) will give you instantaneous indication of a high consumption device being turned on. With careful selection and the right choice of software, you can even log the data and build up an accurate picture of your usage.

It was never Ofgem’s intention that consumers should get free IHDs for life. 

And isn't about time that the "Einstein" adverts based around the IHDs should be removed from TV adverts ? TOTALLY misleading - a Commercial organisation would have their hands chopped off by ASA !!

Smart metering messaging has always been misleading. A meter is a meter!  That said, the IHD will come into its own as more suppliers roll out time-of-use tariffs. Unfortunately, the Press is already presaging doom and disaster with suggestions that suppliers will just amend 30 minute pricing at will. 

But the whole point of this thread is that the suppliers don't want IHDs ! Won't replace or even adequately support the ones currently in existence , that, I expect, aren't anywhere near sophisticated enuf to support time of use tariffs anyway.
As to pricing - as a cynic of the highest order , I'm sure that the big 5 (or 4 or 7 or whatever) are eagerly looking forward to evermore complicated charging regimes which nobody will be able to understand or ,more importantly, be able to challenge !!