Loop Homes Energy Monitoring-How does it work and how so they make money

Fozzie_Bear

Can anyone shed any light on the business model for Loop Homes? They offer a free App which monitors your energy usage and from the little I can find out they intercept/access the smart meter data and use this to populate their app. I don't know if this comes from the supplier or the central Smart Meter "call Centre" What I cant work out before signing up is their business model. Do they charge for additional services or recommend products on which they earn commission. Any insight would be helpful

Spies

They most likely sell your usage data on to third parties

[Deleted User]

All DCC Users are required to have a data policy. They are not allowed to pass on/sell data from a smart meter to A N Other without the consumer's express permission.

Loop's data policy is here:

https://kb.loop.homes/data-security-privacy

I use the BRIGHT App owned by Hilderbrand - another Registered DCC Other User. They use their own approved Adapter software to access the same smart meter usage data as your supplier. The App is free and consumer approval is renewed annually.

Fozzie_Bear

[Deleted User] said:

All DCC Users are required to have a data policy. They are not allowed to pass on/sell data from a smart meter to A N Other without the consumer's express permission.

Loop's data policy is here:

https://kb.loop.homes/data-security-privacy

I use the BRIGHT App owned by Hilderbrand - another Registered DCC Other User. They use their own approved Adapter software to access the same smart meter usage data as your supplier. The App is free and consumer approval is renewed annually.

If I read you correctly they cannot make money from selling your usage data due to a Data Policy. If they cant sell your data then I am still unsure how they make money. They mention in T's & C's about products from amazon. Maybe they make commission on purchases you might make for energy saving equipment but that seems a bit flimsy in the current climate. Also how to Loop and Hilderbrand get the data.
The GSM network between the meter and DCC is supposed to be secure and locked down for obvious reasons. Do they get the data from the DCC and do they have to be vetted as Trusted Partners or similar?

QrizB

Fozzie_Bear said:

Can anyone shed any light on the business model for Loop Homes?

I have the Loop device and app. Generally speaking the device works well, the app is more hit-and-miss (it went through some really bad versions, the current one is mostly OK but prone to hanging).

The app seems aimed at finding you a tariff to switch to (which would normally earn Loop a referral fee) and showing you the benefit of solar panels & a home storage battery (which generates sales leads for Loop, which they can sell). Currently however their tariff data provider isn't giving them any tariff info, so they aren't able to recommend switches, and I've already got solar so I can ignore their exhortations in that direction too.

Fozzie_Bear

QrizB said:

Fozzie_Bear said:

Can anyone shed any light on the business model for Loop Homes?

I have the Loop device and app. Generally speaking the device works well, the app is more hit-and-miss (it went through some really bad versions, the current one is mostly OK but prone to hanging).

The app seems aimed at finding you a tariff to switch to (which would normally earn Loop a referral fee) and showing you the benefit of solar panels & a home storage battery (which generates sales leads for Loop, which they can sell). Currently however their tariff data provider isn't giving them any tariff info, so they aren't able to recommend switches, and I've already got solar so I can ignore their exhortations in that direction too.

As an aside do Loop have a web portal or only the App. We want to monitor the energy usage of our village hall now that the smart meters are FINALLY working, but we dont want the app as it means putting it on a personal phone.

PennineAcute

Fozzie_Bear said:

QrizB said:

Fozzie_Bear said:

Can anyone shed any light on the business model for Loop Homes?

I have the Loop device and app. Generally speaking the device works well, the app is more hit-and-miss (it went through some really bad versions, the current one is mostly OK but prone to hanging).

The app seems aimed at finding you a tariff to switch to (which would normally earn Loop a referral fee) and showing you the benefit of solar panels & a home storage battery (which generates sales leads for Loop, which they can sell). Currently however their tariff data provider isn't giving them any tariff info, so they aren't able to recommend switches, and I've already got solar so I can ignore their exhortations in that direction too.

As an aside do Loop have a web portal or only the App. We want to monitor the energy usage of our village hall now that the smart meters are FINALLY working, but we dont want the app as it means putting it on a personal phone.

You need the mobile app.  There is a web portal, but this is just for editting profile and changing password.

Shedman

Fozzie_Bear said:

QrizB said:

Fozzie_Bear said:

Can anyone shed any light on the business model for Loop Homes?

I have the Loop device and app. Generally speaking the device works well, the app is more hit-and-miss (it went through some really bad versions, the current one is mostly OK but prone to hanging).

The app seems aimed at finding you a tariff to switch to (which would normally earn Loop a referral fee) and showing you the benefit of solar panels & a home storage battery (which generates sales leads for Loop, which they can sell). Currently however their tariff data provider isn't giving them any tariff info, so they aren't able to recommend switches, and I've already got solar so I can ignore their exhortations in that direction too.

As an aside do Loop have a web portal or only the App. We want to monitor the energy usage of our village hall now that the smart meters are FINALLY working, but we dont want the app as it means putting it on a personal phone.

Use either N3rgy.com (I'm a Consumer tab) or, better in my view, use Guy Lipmans python program.  Both work on a browser.

The Guy Lipman one does requires an N3rgy.com account but otherwise pretty straightforward to set up ...instructions in the Getting Started tab

https://energy.guylipman.com/sm/home

Fozzie_Bear

Shedman said:

Fozzie_Bear said:

QrizB said:

Fozzie_Bear said:

Can anyone shed any light on the business model for Loop Homes?

I have the Loop device and app. Generally speaking the device works well, the app is more hit-and-miss (it went through some really bad versions, the current one is mostly OK but prone to hanging).

The app seems aimed at finding you a tariff to switch to (which would normally earn Loop a referral fee) and showing you the benefit of solar panels & a home storage battery (which generates sales leads for Loop, which they can sell). Currently however their tariff data provider isn't giving them any tariff info, so they aren't able to recommend switches, and I've already got solar so I can ignore their exhortations in that direction too.

As an aside do Loop have a web portal or only the App. We want to monitor the energy usage of our village hall now that the smart meters are FINALLY working, but we dont want the app as it means putting it on a personal phone.

Use either N3rgy.com (I'm a Consumer tab) or, better in my view, use Guy Lipmans python program.  Both work on a browser.

The Guy Lipman one does requires an N3rgy.com account but otherwise pretty straightforward to set up ...instructions in the Getting Started tab

https://energy.guylipman.com/sm/home

Thanks for the link. that's just the sort of thing we want. I will discuss with colleagues and sign up for an account and see what data we can extract. For example over the summer we decided to heat the domestic hot water in the hall via the immersion rather than fire up the 120,000 Kw gas boiler to heat a tank full of water. This seemed a sensible thing to do but we haven't got any stats to prove it going forward.

[Deleted User]

Fozzie_Bear said:

[Deleted User] said:

All DCC Users are required to have a data policy. They are not allowed to pass on/sell data from a smart meter to A N Other without the consumer's express permission.

Loop's data policy is here:

https://kb.loop.homes/data-security-privacy

I use the BRIGHT App owned by Hilderbrand - another Registered DCC Other User. They use their own approved Adapter software to access the same smart meter usage data as your supplier. The App is free and consumer approval is renewed annually.

If I read you correctly they cannot make money from selling your usage data due to a Data Policy. If they cant sell your data then I am still unsure how they make money. They mention in T's & C's about products from amazon. Maybe they make commission on purchases you might make for energy saving equipment but that seems a bit flimsy in the current climate. Also how to Loop and Hilderbrand get the data.
The GSM network between the meter and DCC is supposed to be secure and locked down for obvious reasons. Do they get the data from the DCC and do they have to be vetted as Trusted Partners or similar?

Hildebrand makes money because it has commercial contracts and it sells its own IHD/CAD which uses the BRIGHT App. Commercial contracts include the development of a BEIS-sponsored tariff price comparison tool. This tool will be used by price comparison websites to pull a year’s worth of smart meter data (usage and times) to choose the cheapest overall time-of-use.

To make use of this tool, price comparison websites will either have to become Registered DCC Other Users or partner with a company such a Hildebrand; Chameleon or Loop who will provide the secure Adapter firmware (the link to the DCC network and smart meters).