I had a smart meter fitted a couple of months ago and recently had a request from Eon for readings. I went into my account and it was suggested I got a smart meter installed, so I booked a new appointment in June.
Whilst trying to enter my readings, they kept failing to be accepted because they were 'too low'.........clearly, Eon have no idea that a new meter has been fitted.
They will now assume that you still have your old meter and it's gone "around the clock". I see a bill for tens of thousands coming :)
Why are you entering readings if you have a Smart Meter?
I also had one fitted recently - in Feb.
I can see my usage either on the supplier website, via an app, or the supplied, or even read the meter. I even have a mini gizmo and can see on my phone my current electric consumption.
I was always anti- Smart Meter but had one due to the clock / Economy 7 issue. I’m not a convert but I am quite impressed with the Octopus system.
For example. We were away recently for about 2 weeks. Obviously nearly everything was turned off, other than a fridges, freezers, some computer related kit, security etc. I could see the ‘background’ daily power usage. During a normal week, I can see peaks when I charge the car, Senior Management runs the washing machine, ……
I don’t use it to run around turning off lights etc but it is interesting to see the just how much power you use and when.
I'm with Eon Next too, with a smart meter. If accessing my account on the web, I'm prompted to give readings. Not sure why.
The Eon app allows that too, but not in real time - there's a couple of days lag. The IHD is real time.
Very clever! How does that work?
Yes, it can be, to establish the best times to use high drain appliances if you have a variable tariff, solar etc.
I'm trying not to get too obsessed with app gazing . . .
I have a new tariff option coming up soon, so will change over to Octopus.
Use a referral - https://share.octopus.energy/jade-light-417 You get £50 off your first bill, and I get £50 too.
As soon as you become an Octoput customer, look to change to the Tracker tariff, to save much more on both gas and electric.
https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/
Sorry Harry, I didn't see your post until later.
As an interesting aside, I would never have found out that the gas valve in my boiler was bypassing a tiny quantity of gas every day if it hadn’t been for my Octopus mini displaying my half hourly gas consumption.
It can be a handy gas leak detector…
Tim
From what I understand of it....
It collects data from the meter, just like your In Home Display would, but unlike the IHD, it can also connect to your wifi. Using your wifi, it can forward the readings every few seconds, to Octopus's Kraken server. Your phone App, can then get the same data instantly, and constantly updated from the Kraken server.
Without the Mini, your meter forwards the consumption data in a 24 hours worth batch, overnight, to the DCC, the DCC then forward it to your supplier. So your consumption data could be 24 hours, or even longer delayed.
You mean you give your electric company your Wi-Fi password?
No, the mini box ‘sits’ on your Wi-Fi and also interfaces to the Meter. It must be within 5m or so of the meter.
Set up is very easy, at least if you have the existing app on your phone ( which allows a you to see daily data, bills, etc). You plug the mini into a USB supply and follow a few instructions. It can take a few hours even a day for the system to ‘sync’ but, once it does, you can even see ‘instantaneous’ electrical consumption. The gas meter updates less often so you get less detail.
the Eon IHD receives data in pretty much real time - to the point a red 'warning' lights up if a high drain appliance is switched on.
For some reason it doesn't seem possible to capture the data the Eon IHD receives except from the IHD. Octopus seems to have cracked that nut.
That said, my Givenergy solar system does seem to give a real time electricity consumption (and generation, battery charge, and export) reading via their app
- although only if connected to home wifi. If away from home there's a lag of up to about 5 minutes. And of course no gas, or meter readings.
The delay before an app shows the previous day's usage is a right pain. I'm with Octopus and it's the same, so it's not just Eon.
Normally I see the previous day's usage in the app by around 14:00, but today I'm still waiting for yesterday's gas to show up, although the electricity reading was there by about 16:00.
I downloaded "geo Home" an app on my phone which talks to my IHD and gives me yesterday's usage at 00:01 - as soon as "yesterday" has ended. This is brilliant - during the summer when we're on BST.
However the app has a serious bug that I cannot get the app's support guys to take seriously (because they can't reproduce it)...
During the summer, when we are on BST, the readings for electricity and gas are fine, and the match the ones that the Octopus app eventually displays. But in winter when we change to GMT, the gas usage reports the day-before-yesterday's reading under "yesterday" (*) and so on for all preceding days. So I have to wait an extra day to see the gas readings. The electricity readings are fine.
So if the real gas readings (as reported by the Octopus app and by subtraction of readings displayed on the meters' own displays) were
date gas reading
18 123 19 234 20 345 21 456 22 567the app would display
18 (real reading for 17th) 19 123 20 234 21 345 22 456I suppose I'll just have to live with that during the winter months, as I did for end 2023-beginning 2024.
(*) Like the Two Ronnies' "Answering the question before" sketch ;-)
I switched yesterday to Octopus Energy. Had some sort of indian ring me this morning asking why I moved suplier, I told him that Eon didn't know I had a smartmeter and keeps asking for meter readings and when readings were submitted they were refused because they were too low. Pillocks
I would take a photo of your meter and its serial number as from what you’ve said previously, there may be some ambiguity in Eon’s records which might complicate future billing by Octopus.
Tim
Good point, will do.
No, the Mini gadget gets the password.
It doesn't 'talk to your IHD', nothing can, nothing does, apart from the HAN in the meter.
Any apps, get the data via the DCC. The only exception I am aware of, is the Octopus Mini, which gets the live data direct from the HAN, and feeds it via wifi, and the Internet, to an Octopus server.
Given that the gadget knows your wifi password, and has an internet connection, how do you know it doesn't deliberately or accidentally send the password back to Octopus Towers?
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