Energy Monitors

Abbafan1972

Good morning. 

We have smart meters for Gas & Electric and have one of these monitor thingies (don’t know the proper name sorry). There’s various screens on it and there’s one which shows your costs so far for today. 

I am not sure how this is worked out, as on the screen which is supposed to show our tariff, there is no information at all. 

I have posted some pictures as to what I can see. The orange light at the bottom is usually green, but will change to orange if I switch on a high powered item such as the kettle, but in this case it’s the dishwasher. 

Can anyone help please? Are these things just a waste of time? 

Thanks. 

Sorry - we are with EDF for both Gas & Electric. 

[Deleted User]

Most people would call that the In-Home Display (IHD) They’re not always a waste of time, but they are a gimmick.

They’re nothing to do with your billing or payments, nothing to do with the readings that go to the supplier, and nobody will bother to fix them when they go wrong.

The ‘tariff’ is just a setting that might or might not get updated at some random time.

Just a handy little screen when it’s working but nothing more than that.

QrizB

If the £ values are meaningless because the tariff info is wrong, you might want to switch the display to show kW and kWh instead.

[Deleted User]

OP - you need to contact your supplier and ask them to update the tariff information that is sent to the ESME and the GSME (the two smart meters). I suggest that you do this after the 1st October.

Provided the tariff information is correct, the IHD will show the correct cost for electricity. The gas cost may be very slightly out as the gas proxy meter built into the comms hub uses a fixed calorific value whereas you are billed on an average calorific value. 

Why a gas proxy meter? The gas meter has a battery. To prolong battery life, the GSME sends data to the gas proxy meter every 30 minutes. The gas proxy meter then does the volume to kWh calculations.

dunstonh

Can anyone help please? Are these things just a waste of time? 

No.  They are a valuable starting point to understanding your energy use.  Knowing your daily use and how you get there is the first step to becoming more efficient.

You should switch from money to kWh/Kw as those are the important figures when looking at your use.  Tariff info is not as helpful.

So, for example, if you look at the electricity use in kWh and what the daily use is, then you can see whether you are using a lot or a little.    If you are using a lot, then the next stage is to find out what is using your energy and how you can reduce it.

A lot of posters here used to cruise along using 20 kWh per day of electricity, or thereabouts but have got it down to 10kWh or less.  If they didn't know the figure to begin with, they wouldn't know if its high or not or if they should be looking to reduce it.

matelodave

As said above, a much more useful measure is kwh rather than ££'s. especially as the cost is a variable amount based on what your tariff is and whether the meter has been set correctly - which looks as though it hasn't.

I've been with seven different energy companies since I've had my smart meter and some have set the tariff and only one correctly but I've always been able to monitor my consumption in kwh which has allowed me to determine what appliance are in use and whether I am using more or less than I anticipate.

I can also get info on historical daily, weekly and monthly data going back over 13 months which allows me to compare consumption and see whether my energy saving measures are working. Some I can get from the IHD and some from a free app called Bright (here it is for Android - Bright – Apps on Google Play or here for Apple - Bright on the App Store (apple.com) 

FreeBear

dunstonh said:

Can anyone help please? Are these things just a waste of time? 

No.  They are a valuable starting point to understanding your energy use.  Knowing your daily use and how you get there is the first step to becoming more efficient.

Agreed. They are a useful tool in identifying when & where your energy is being used. It is a shame that the graphs do not have a decent granularity and there is no option to zoom in on the data.. I have a separate whole house energy monitor and can examine the data in detail. Being able to pin down when the big spikes are, and for how long settles arguments like "how long you were in the shower".

The historical data can then be used to compare usage and you can see what small changes have helped to cut consumption.

[Deleted User]

Personally, I prefer the free App BRIGHT to monitor my 30 minute usage and costs.

millie

[Deleted User] said:

Personally, I prefer the free App BRIGHT to monitor my 30 minute usage and costs.

My Bright App shows the wrong rates per kwh,

[Deleted User]

millie said:

[Deleted User] said:

Personally, I prefer the free App BRIGHT to monitor my 30 minute usage and costs.

My Bright App shows the wrong rates per kwh,

GIGO. The App is populated by ‘pulling data’ data from your meters. If the supplier has not sent the correct tariff information to your meters then the cost will be wrong. 

Hildebrand, the owner of BRIGHT app uses DCC-approved secure software (an Adapter) to connect to the DCC Network.

millie

[Deleted User] said:

millie said:

[Deleted User] said:

Personally, I prefer the free App BRIGHT to monitor my 30 minute usage and costs.

My Bright App shows the wrong rates per kwh,

GIGO. The App is populated by ‘pulling data’ data from your meters. If the supplier has not sent the correct tariff information to your meters then the cost will be wrong. 

Hildebrand, the owner of BRIGHT app uses DCC-approved secure software (an Adapter) to connect to the DCC Network.

The tariff on is showing correctly on my display so it is not that. The Bright App is showing the standing charge and unit rate as the same amount. the standing charge is correct but the unit rate is way too much