Joining the Smart Meter revolution

It was over five years ago that I first got the offer of having a Smart meter.

Doing what I do, I thought that would be a great new toy to allow me to compare my home's actual energy use against the SAP methodology.

The meter was installed and worked perfectly... for all of about 10 days. Then the display showed '----', the meter stopped sending data to my energy supplier, and that was it.

Zino refuses to be a sell out, but Tilly is happy to promote your company for a fee of one strawberry 🍓 

This was when I discovered that the Government is very keen to get Smart Meters installed in our homes, and tracks installations quarterly. But there is no such enthusiasm for replacing or repairing broken Smart meters.

This link takes you to the latest statistics.

In the UK, two thirds of our homes have Smart Meters - that's approximately 38 million homes.

3.7 million of these - 9.6% - don't work properly. They are classed as 'Traditional Mode' Smart meters. This means they are not sending data to the energy supplier, which means occupiers still have to send meter readings manually and can't track their energy use to help reduce bills.

In some cases, the problem is with the In-Home Display (IHD) unit, which can be easily lost or broken. Most of the big energy companies have signed up to a set of 'voluntary replacement principles'. If you need a new IHD, arm yourself with this information before contacting your energy supplier:

Smart meter In-Home Display: voluntary replacement principles

My issue was not with the IHD. It was the Smart Meter's transmitter that had failed. At the time, my energy supplier told me they wouldn't fix it. They had no incentive to.

Years later, after changing to a new energy supplier, I thought I'd try again.

It took many months of emails, and a few engineer visits, but I can finally give a big shout-out and THANKS!! to Octopus Energy, who replaced my faulty Smart meter, and set me up with their Home Mini kit.

It's a rather snug fit for my energy meter, with separate PV meter, fuse box and additional switches. The Smart meter's transmitter is shown on the right.

Unlike the IHD unit, the Home Mini is a small, pink square of recycled plastic. Instead of displaying live data on a display, it sends your energy use to your phone and online account.

The Octopus Home Mini plugs in to a regular plug and connects to the property wi-fi. The unit is very small - banana included for scale

So, be prepared for a whole series of dull posts about my energy use in the coming months!

Hopefully, more insightful posts will come when I can start comparing my true energy use with what the Home Energy Model predicts.