Smart meters - good or bad.

[Arnold Cunningham]

Condi said:

The IHD things are useful for about a week, then mine got put in a draw and never plugged in again. You can get hourly/daily/weekly/monthly data from the suppliers website if you need to, and the biggest advantage of a smart meter is not having to send readings, plus access to time of use tariffs. Otherwise it's quite simple, the more things you have turned on, the more power you use! To save money, turn stuff off!

Ours is in the kitchen. So if I walk past and the draw is higher than I expect, then I know someone has left something by accident. Often as not I’ve left the garage lights on and it’s a handy reminder.

[OutInTheShed]

In my Sister's house, the display tells people when someone's using the electric shower in the guest suite, so you know not to run taps or use the other shower.

[craigjm]

James6112 said:

Very pleased with mine & the info it provides (EDF)

I had to raise a complaint to get it working, after being fobbed off a few times.
Then I couldn’t get an electric bill. After being fobbed off I raised a complaint to get that fixed!

Now it’s all good..

Gives a lot of info, eg Septembers usage-



Small numbers as 18p electric, 3p gas until May 23

Edited by James6112 on Monday 10th October 19:37

How does it know which appliance is making the draw?

[James6112]

craigjm said:

James6112 said:

Very pleased with mine & the info it provides (EDF)

I had to raise a complaint to get it working, after being fobbed off a few times.
Then I couldn’t get an electric bill. After being fobbed off I raised a complaint to get that fixed!

Now it’s all good..

Gives a lot of info, eg Septembers usage-



Small numbers as 18p electric, 3p gas until May 23

Edited by James6112 on Monday 10th October 19:37

How does it know which appliance is making the draw?

Apparantly some clever stuff ‘learns’ from usage patterns & the appliance draw characteristics. No idea if it’s 100%, but a good guide !

[FiF]

Well we will see, just booked smart meter fitting with OVO later this month.

Have resisted for years and been very happy to take monthly readings. However whilst the gas reading is easy, the electricity reading is getting more and more difficult. Essentially the LCD display is giving up the ghost and is now so faint that last month spent best part of ten minutes finding the exact angle of torch and my eyes to see the numbers reliably.

Fully expecting the IHD to be of use for a week or two whilst figuring out and dealing with the house just ticking over load and then turning stuff off that's not needed. TBH I could start that process now. Expecting the same results as I got with an old BG device clamped around the meter cable. That ended up in the drawer too. Though price of power these days I definitely won't be repeating the experiment to see how high I could get the reading by having everything powered up and running flat out all at the same time.

[FourGears]

Brief update

Smart Meter Install Monday
Data now available on Octopus website so can see consumption. Woo hoo!

However
Data is a day behind so can't see todays data (yet)

Will try IHD on weekend and see what it shows.

It is helpful though to see the usage even if it is a day behind

[No ideas for a name]

FourGears said:

Brief update

Smart Meter Install Monday
Data now available on Octopus website so can see consumption. Woo hoo!

However
Data is a day behind so can't see todays data (yet)

Will try IHD on weekend and see what it shows.

It is helpful though to see the usage even if it is a day behind

The data is only uploaded to the DCC once a day, not in real time.

[FourGears]

Ah righto, I assumed (wrongly) as it updates every half hour it would be real time.

I suppose that is what the IHD is for though.

[FiF]

FiF said:

Well we will see, just booked smart meter fitting with OVO later this month.

Have resisted for years and been very happy to take monthly readings. However whilst the gas reading is easy, the electricity reading is getting more and more difficult. Essentially the LCD display is giving up the ghost and is now so faint that last month spent best part of ten minutes finding the exact angle of torch and my eyes to see the numbers reliably.

Fully expecting the IHD to be of use for a week or two whilst figuring out and dealing with the house just ticking over load and then turning stuff off that's not needed. TBH I could start that process now. Expecting the same results as I got with an old BG device clamped around the meter cable. That ended up in the drawer too. Though price of power these days I definitely won't be repeating the experiment to see how high I could get the reading by having everything powered up and running flat out all at the same time.

Now installed meters.

Surprised by the power reading. Hope it's accurate. Just had a look and house is ticking over, quite a few lights on, lounge, kitchen, garage, outside security lights, fridge etc, heating, TV, sky Q, modem and full house mesh wifi, laptop on charge, 300 Watts. At times down to 250w. Mostly about 280w. About 6p/hr.

Essentially a lot lower than last time I looked but we have made some significant changes in kit since then.

[Road2Ruin]

FiF said:

Now installed meters.

Surprised by the power reading. Hope it's accurate. Just had a look and house is ticking over, quite a few lights on, lounge, kitchen, garage, outside security lights, fridge etc, heating, TV, sky Q, modem and full house mesh wifi, laptop on charge, 300 Watts. At times down to 250w. Mostly about 280w. About 6p/hr.

Essentially a lot lower than last time I looked but we have made some significant changes in kit since then.

That sounds about right. Our's is about 120w, but you seem to have a but more kit running.

[FiF]

Road2Ruin said:

That sounds about right. Our's is about 120w, but you seem to have a but more kit running.

Thanks for that comment.

First up this morning, all the rest still in bed, only things on being the kit genuinely regularly left on standby, so TV, SkyQ, mesh wifi, TV sound bar, (too lazy to unplug) plus a couple of dusk to dawn outside lights. Guess kitchen stuff eg fridge, freezer, oven etc were technically on but not actually running, same with heating.

Steady 84w, very happy with that.

Plus the gas side of the IHD is already working, as opposed to the couple of days the OVO guy suggested.