IHDU gone blank on Gas but leccy is ok?

Bark01

macman said:

The IHD is a freebie gimmick: there is no requirement for the supplier to supply one, repair it or replace it.
As you say, it's not a smart meter fault, the smart meter works as intended.
The Bright app is an excellent alternative.

For a smart install to count towards official figures the supplier has to offer an IHD at install. I know of one supplier who will repair replace for a year as a basic warranty. But yes after the initial install there is very little obligation.

And just a general FYI to the thread as no-one has mentioned it, all the communication goes through the comms hub which is attached to the electricity meter. I.e. the gas meter doesn't talk directly to the IHD, its sends info to the comms hub which then relays it to the IHD. Moving the IHD closer to the gas meter won't help. But if you are getting reads through to your account then it sounds like software/hardware issue with the comms hub or IHD. Leaving the comms hub plugged in and next to the elec meter might help.

Gas meters do not provide real time information like an elec meter, so you will only get one read every 30 mins or so. This is to preserve the battery life of the gas meter. The electricity meter is connected to the grid so doesn't have battery concerns. You should still be able to see total gas cost for the day so far, but you won't be able to see real time cost. 

poppellerant

macman said:

No, but it does give you usage by half hour/hour/day/week/month.
Meter readings serve only one purpose: to calculate kWh usage or £ cost, which Bright does very well.

It might well be good at showing me it's own calculations of kWh and/or costs, but it doesn't show me live meter readings as a (working) IHD would.  This is what I want, in order to record meter readings in my own spreadsheet on a monthly basis.

Why is it seemingly so hard to view this raw and basic information, other than directly accessing the meters?

macman

For electricity, it will give you a monthly usage figure in kWh, which you can use in your spreadsheet to give you a meter read, once you have your opening read. Obviously not so good for your gas, as it will only supply final kWh usage, not volume reads.
The IHD was primarily intended to help people understand their energy costs in real time. 

[Deleted User]

It might well be good at showing me it's own calculations of kWh and/or costs, but it doesn't show me live meter readings as a (working) IHD would.  This is what I want, in order to record meter readings in my own spreadsheet on a monthly basis.

The IHD doesn’t show you the readings: it displays the total of the 4 registers (indexes) contained within each smart meter.

For example for a consumer on an E7 tariff, the IHD would total the day and night readings.

Bark01

poppellerant said:

macman said:

No, but it does give you usage by half hour/hour/day/week/month.
Meter readings serve only one purpose: to calculate kWh usage or £ cost, which Bright does very well.

It might well be good at showing me it's own calculations of kWh and/or costs, but it doesn't show me live meter readings as a (working) IHD would.  This is what I want, in order to record meter readings in my own spreadsheet on a monthly basis.

Why is it seemingly so hard to view this raw and basic information, other than directly accessing the meters?

IHDs only show live readings for electricity. Gas meters don't send a live feed of usage as they run from a battery. They only 'wake up' and send a read to the comms hub when required by default i thinks its once every 30 mins. The batteries are supposed to last the lifetime of the meter (10-15 years), but i've seen firmware issues leave the meter transmitting and drain the battery in a matter of months. 

Are you saying you can't see gas usage on the live screen of your IHD, or you can't see gas usage anywhere? Nobody can see gas usage on the live screen, its only viewable on the running total or historical screens. Thats why the 'Now' button only has an elec sign. 



If you want to track your usage you can request your MiData from any supplier. Its a government energy transparency scheme. its been in place for a while.

EDF make it very easy to get hold of:

Midata is a voluntary programme of work which the government is undertaking with leading businesses like EDF, consumer groups and regulators for organisations (not just energy). It involves releasing data that they hold about customers back to them in a portable electronic format.

This information may give you a clearer picture on things like how much you spend on energy, what your energy consumption is and your consumption behaviour and patterns. Midata is all about being more open and honest about the data we hold on you.

It’s available to download as a standard CSV file format if you login or register to MyAccount and navigate to the bottom of the 'Tariff Details’ section.

However having just checked my data its hardly showing me anything. It used to show all reads, i'm on a new account and haven't had a bill yet so maybe that's the issue. Have a look at your own MiData on your MyAccount page.

You could raise a complaint about a lack of MiData but you can't raise a complaint about a non working IHD. The only obligation on a supplier is to supply a working IHD or have taken all reasonable steps to get you a working one during the install process. If it worked and then stopped you are out of luck. 

I glance at my IHD at the end of the day to see the cost, but for all other data i go to EnergyHub, its part of EDF's My Account. It makes comparing usage day by day or hour by hour very easy.

poppellerant

Dolor said:

It might well be good at showing me it's own calculations of kWh and/or costs, but it doesn't show me live meter readings as a (working) IHD would.  This is what I want, in order to record meter readings in my own spreadsheet on a monthly basis.

The IHD doesn’t show you the readings: it displays the total of the 4 registers (indexes) contained within each smart meter.

For example for a consumer on an E7 tariff, the IHD would total the day and night readings.

I'm on a standard tariff, so suits me perfectly.  Before the gas readings stopped showing on the IHD, I was able to view the meter readings which would match the ones shown on my meters, but without the decimal places shown on the IHD - which doesn't matter anyway, as I only record whole numbers.

My IHD from EDF is the same shown in Bark01's post and does show the meter readings when you access "Meter information" from the menu.

Bark01 said:

poppellerant said:

macman said:

No, but it does give you usage by half hour/hour/day/week/month.
Meter readings serve only one purpose: to calculate kWh usage or £ cost, which Bright does very well.

It might well be good at showing me it's own calculations of kWh and/or costs, but it doesn't show me live meter readings as a (working) IHD would.  This is what I want, in order to record meter readings in my own spreadsheet on a monthly basis.

Why is it seemingly so hard to view this raw and basic information, other than directly accessing the meters?

IHDs only show live readings for electricity. Gas meters don't send a live feed of usage as they run from a battery. They only 'wake up' and send a read to the comms hub when required by default i thinks its once every 30 mins. The batteries are supposed to last the lifetime of the meter (10-15 years), but i've seen firmware issues leave the meter transmitting and drain the battery in a matter of months. 

Are you saying you can't see gas usage on the live screen of your IHD, or you can't see gas usage anywhere? Nobody can see gas usage on the live screen, its only viewable on the running total or historical screens. Thats why the 'Now' button only has an elec sign. 



If you want to track your usage you can request your MiData from any supplier. Its a government energy transparency scheme. its been in place for a while.

EDF make it very easy to get hold of:

Midata is a voluntary programme of work which the government is undertaking with leading businesses like EDF, consumer groups and regulators for organisations (not just energy). It involves releasing data that they hold about customers back to them in a portable electronic format.

This information may give you a clearer picture on things like how much you spend on energy, what your energy consumption is and your consumption behaviour and patterns. Midata is all about being more open and honest about the data we hold on you.

It’s available to download as a standard CSV file format if you login or register to MyAccount and navigate to the bottom of the 'Tariff Details’ section.

However having just checked my data its hardly showing me anything. It used to show all reads, i'm on a new account and haven't had a bill yet so maybe that's the issue. Have a look at your own MiData on your MyAccount page.

You could raise a complaint about a lack of MiData but you can't raise a complaint about a non working IHD. The only obligation on a supplier is to supply a working IHD or have taken all reasonable steps to get you a working one during the install process. If it worked and then stopped you are out of luck. 

I glance at my IHD at the end of the day to see the cost, but for all other data i go to EnergyHub, its part of EDF's My Account. It makes comparing usage day by day or hour by hour very easy.

Half-hourly updates are fine for me, as long at it's fairly accurate and not days out.