Best app for Octopus Smart Meter (in place of in home display) 24 January at 9:56PM in Energy 16 replies 591 views

Qyburn

Petriix said:

What are you using the readings for  @Qyburn? 

I keep a spreadsheet with all my meter readings going back a few years. Mainly monthly. I don't want to lose that history, and if I understand correctly Smart Meter data only goes back 13 months. I'll also submit manual reading to Octopus for a couple of months just to sanity check.

Point taken about "registers" I will have a look at the meter itself. The installer showed which one button to press to get the meter reading.

Raxiel

I've found the Octopus app itself has just as much info as alternatives like Bright, and the same downsides too such as having to wait until the following afternoon for a given day to show up. Makes sense as they all pull the same information via the DCC.

I'd not heard of the Home Mini before now though, just registered my interest, thanks @smugwalrus

Dolor

Raxiel said:

I've found the Octopus app itself has just as much info as alternatives like Bright, and the same downsides too such as having to wait until the following afternoon for a given day to show up. Makes sense as they all pull the same information via the DCC.

I'd not heard of the Home Mini before now though, just registered my interest, thanks @smugwalrus

Sadly, even Octopus’ App cannot be trusted. This is what my Account shows (each smart meter has 4 registers):

My IHD showed a reading of 02501 on the 28th December. There is also no agreed convention on register use. All my usage is offpeak.

Dolor

For the OP. There is no such thing as an Octopus Smart Meter. Smart meters are supplier agnostic.

Meter and device manufacturers build and certify their products for use on the DCC network. Most meters and devices are owned by third-parties. Manufacturers are also responsible for meter firmware updates. The DCC is responsible for all comms hubs and the network. Suppliers obviously get all the flak when things go wrong but there is little that they can do other than ask other parties to put things right.

Petriix

Qyburn said:

Petriix said:

What are you using the readings for  @Qyburn? 

I keep a spreadsheet with all my meter readings going back a few years. Mainly monthly. I don't want to lose that history, and if I understand correctly Smart Meter data only goes back 13 months. I'll also submit manual reading to Octopus for a couple of months just to sanity check.

Point taken about "registers" I will have a look at the meter itself. The installer showed which one button to press to get the meter reading.

I used to do the same, but the smart meter data is more useful than periodic readings so I've built a different spreadsheet to analyse the half hour usage. 

You can download the data from Octopus whenever you want and then save it in your own spreadsheet so, as long as you don't go 13 months without doing so, you shouldn't have any problems. 

Raxiel

Dolor said:

Raxiel said:

I've found the Octopus app itself has just as much info as alternatives like Bright, and the same downsides too such as having to wait until the following afternoon for a given day to show up. Makes sense as they all pull the same information via the DCC.

I'd not heard of the Home Mini before now though, just registered my interest, thanks @smugwalrus

Sadly, even Octopus’ App cannot be trusted. This is what my Account shows (each smart meter has 4 registers):

My IHD showed a reading of 02501 on the 28th December. There is also no agreed convention on register use. All my usage is offpeak.

Mine has 15 registers, although to date all but R01 and R02 are still at Zero. I suspect that last part is true for the vast majority of customers, not that it's much help for those that are the exception. Does bright give all the separate values?

FWIW the 'Day' and 'Night' readings in my app do match closely to the readings on the meter (I don't doubt they're accurate, I've just never compared them on the same day the billing value is pulled). The IHD only has the sum total import.