The great things about In-Home Displays, also known as IHDs, is that they're very useful little gadgets that can show you your energy usage in real-time, but unfortunately it’s all too often that your dog knocks it off the coffee table (a dogs wagging tail can swipe just about anything in range!), you spilled coffee on it or worst of all… It grows legs and vanishes when the previous householder moves out. 😞 So what can you do if you're in need of a new IHD or just fancy a spare one? Read on to find out!
Introduction and acknowledgement
But first, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Blastoise186, one of the forum volunteers who helps out on the OVO Forum. With over 18 months of experience and two Chameleon IHD6 (named the Kecleon Brothers) to play with, I’ve learned a lot about how these devices work and many of the quirks of using them. I see a lot of questions across multiple forums about how to get a replacement IHD if yours breaks or goes missing, so I’ve spent the last six months researching and digging pretty deep to find out. I’ve also been researching Consumer Access Devices, or CADs as well. These gadgets are similar to an IHD, but don’t include a screen. They can be useful if you simply want to get real-time data into an app and have the device do nothing but that. I’d also like to give credit and thanks to OVO Energy, Chameleon Technology, Geo and Hildebrand for their assistance in researching this guide and for giving me advice and feedback on how to improve it. And also for handling my barrage of questions over the last six months! 😃 Likewise, kudos to the several forum members here who got early access to this guide and helped me to catch multiple mistakes before it went live!
In the interests of full disclosure, while all four companies mentioned have provided me with advice to help create this guide, the ultimate control of the content remains with me and I have received no incentives from any of them. Other forum members and the community moderators have also contributed feedback and their own thoughts as well. All links to outside sites are just the usual ones you’d find on Google and I will not gain any commission or kickback from your use of them. Oh, and I’m also required to mention that the products and advice I mention in this guide are not supplied, endorsed or directly/officially supported by OVO Energy or any energy supplier, so they cannot provide assistance if you have a problem. You’ll want to reach out to the relevant support teams of the IHD, CAD or App you’re using if you use any of the ones I mention here. And finally, a HUGE THANKS to literally everyone who I’ve spoken to, chatted with, emailed or otherwise helped me out with my research in some way over the last six months. While many of you have asked for anonymity, you guys rock and I truly appreciate the help!
It’s been less than 12 months since I had the IHD OR I’ve never had one at all, what’s my best option?
Firstly, sometimes you can fix problems yourself! 🙂 Feel free to give this guide a try as you might get lucky. If it works, you should be back on the road pretty quickly.
Most IHDs come with a 12 month warranty, which covers faults with the device itself - but DOES NOT cover accidental damage, loss or theft. If you’re in this situation, I would generally recommend getting in touch with your supplier in the first instance. If you’re with OVO, you can see your options right here, but otherwise please check the website of your supplier. If you still can’t find their details, feel free to let us know here on the forum and we’ll help you track them down. If your supplier denies your request however, the rest of this guide may still be of use to you. Likewise, if your IHD was lost, stolen or accidentally damaged then I’m afraid the warranty will not apply.
It’s been more than 12 months since I had my IHD, or I accidentally damaged it lost it or it got stolen. What happens now?
If it’s been more than 12 months, the warranty will have expired and I’m afraid you will no longer qualify for a free replacement. You may still have options anyway though, which are detailed further down. Your supplier may also be willing to send a replacement for a small fee so it’s worth asking anyway. Before trying that though, it’s worth seeing if you can self-recover. :)
OVO’s Support Team can try to arrange a replacement IHD in these circumstances, but there may be a £28 replacement fee - before this can be done. It’s intended to cover OVO’s costs and does not generate profit. Other suppliers vary, so please reach out to them directly. Unfortunately, the warranty is also void in the event of loss or accidental damage and your supplier can charge a replacement fee if this happens. As for stolen IHDs, the policy depends on the supplier. Please contact them to explain the situation as they’ll be best placed to assist.
Hold up! The previous householder ran off with my IHD! What can I do?
Oh no! Sorry about that. 😞 As much as I hate to admit it, this is all too common. A lot of people pack up and take the existing IHD with them, not realising it won’t work at the new place. If you do accidentally take it with you, it would be really helpful to the new householder if you could take the IHD back to its original home and give it to them. OVO would certainly appreciate it if you did! :)
If you’re with OVO, then you can definitely ask for a replacement IHD to be sent out free of charge by having a chat with the Support Team. There’s no charge for this as OVO’s policy is that your first IHD is always free and every member is entitled to one. Once the request is in, OVO will aim to send you a new IHD out in the post as soon as possible, depending on stock levels. If you’re with another supplier, please reach out to them directly as they might be able to help you out.
Once you get the new IHD, please follow the instructions in the box to set it up. You’ll need to call the Support Team again to do this - and please have the GUID handy (it’s either on the bottom or back of of the device!) as this really helps the agent to pair your shiny new IHD more quickly.
The engineer who installed my meters didn’t give me an IHD, can I still get one?
Sure thing. You’re entitled to one anyway but it might just be that the engineer ran out of stock on the day they installed your meters. Have a chat with the Support Team if you’re with OVO, or customer service of your supplier and they should arrange for one to be sent out in the post. As with above, OVO has a policy that you’re always entitled to have an IHD sent out in the post for free if the engineer didn’t give you one during the initial install. Most suppliers share the same view, but it’s always best to ask them directly.
My supplier won’t give me another IHD! What can I do?
Well, that's the snag. You're pretty limited I'm afraid, because if your supplier won't get you a replacement IHD, you're basically out of luck. Or at least, you were until just recently… I’ve got more details below as to your options.
I used to be with SSE and had an SSE Smart Energy Tracker or SSE Smart Energy Monitor. I got used to those and prefer them over any other IHD. Can I get another one of those?
Sorry, but no. The SSE Smart Energy Tracker has been permanently discontinued. It was only ever available for SSE customers with SSE installed SMETS1 meters. They were discontinued when SMETS2 launched and stocks of them have basically run out. If you have SMETS2 meters, you definitely can’t use an SSE SET and if you have SMETS1, you’re probably better off with a different IHD model anyway.
The SSE Smart Energy Monitor (manufactured by Onzo) likewise no longer exists and is incompatible with SMETS1 and SMETS2 anyway. You can no longer get those devices from Onzo either because they’re no longer manufactured - and quality issues with the rechargeable batteries you probably don’t want to keep using them anyway.
I want to return a broken IHD. Can I do that?
Yup. OVO can arrange this for any OVO supplied IHD. You can post it back to this address:
OVO IHD Return
Dragon RS
Unit 2 Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate
Tredegar
NP22 3AA
For any other IHDs, your supplier should be able to help. All returned IHDs will either be refurbished or safely recycled as far as possible.
In-Home Displays
If you have SMETS1 meters, your best bet is currently the Hildebrand Glow Display CAD - make sure to select the SMETS1 variant. It's a pretty good IHD that you can set up yourself. It costs about £65 but will work across all suppliers. Just make sure to contact Hildebrand before having the meters or Comms Hub replaced, so that they can do some preparations ahead of the meter exchange. A SMETS2 variant is also available for the same price - but please make sure to pick the right one! The best place to verify compatibility will be via this tool from Citizens Advice. It’s the same tool Hildebrand themselves recommend all the time. However, Hildebrand will run a check against your meters anyway and will reject and order if your meters aren’t compatible. Any money paid to them will be automatically refunded if this happens. Hildebrand has also been providing me with advice recently to help improve this guide, so I want to shout them out to say thanks! Their help is HIGHLY appreciated.
If you've got SMETS2, then you've got more options. As well as the Hildebrand Glow above, you could consider the ivie Bud, which costs around £50 and works only with SMETS2 meters. I tried it out recently and it unfortunately didn't work for me, primarily due to unique circumstances related to my site. However, it's a far better IHD than the SmartView 2 and it's based on the well known Chameleon IHD6. Like the Hildebrand Glow, you can self-pair the ivie Bud without involving your energy supplier. Please check compatibility first though, which you can do via https://ivie.co.uk/compatibility/ and via this Citizens Advice tool.
Geo currently doesn’t have any IHDs on the market that you can purchase for yourself. If this ever changes, I’ll be happy to list them here. However, Geo does offer an attachment that you can use with some of their IHDs to get real-time usage data into the geo Home app. It costs about £20 and clips to the back of selected Geo IHDs to enable their CAD features. It does not work with any IHD from another brand, nor can it function by itself.
As for my personal preference? Personally, I've always used Chameleon IHDs and did test out the ivie Bud for a while, but I'm probably biased and that's partially because I’m a Chameleon fan. Hildebrand made a very good case to me as to why I should probably break my loyalty to Chameleon though and they were pretty convincing about it! And to be fair, the Hildebrand Glow is a very capable IHD with some clever tricks not seen on other IHDs like a capacitive touch screen, local MQTT support and API access. Ultimately though, either one is probably fine and it'll really depend more on whether you have S1 or S2 - and also whether you want the extra toys to play with locally!
If more IHDs come onto the market, I'll update this post.
Consumer Access Devices (CAD)
The Hildebrand Glow Stick is primarily intended to be used with the Hildebrand Bright app, the current Glow Stick is designed for SMETS1 Meters ONLY and cannot be used with SMETS2 meters. You set the unit up in range of your smart meter and it then sends usage data to the Bright app on a real-time basis. At £50 it's a pretty decent option if you have SMETS1 meters. Hildebrand are planning to launch a SMETS2 version within the next few months and will be happy to notify you when it's available if you contact them here. However, if you have the SMETS1 variant and your meters get replaced with SMETS2 meters (this is not the same as migrating the existing meters to DCC), then the SMETS1 variant will cease to function and you'll need to purchase the SMETS2 variant to continue using the Glow Stick.
Please bear in mind that the Glow Stick does NOT have a built-in display and you'll need the Bright app to use it. If you don't have a smartphone handy, this device will not work work for you. It's probably also worth noting that Hildebrand only appear to have a limited stock remaining of the SMETS1 Glow Stick. If you fancy one, I'd recommend getting one while you still can.
Smartphone Apps
Please bear in mind that without the aid of a CAD, none of the apps described below are able to provide real-time usage data. They are generally for historical data only, unless otherwise noted. I have done a basic due diligence check against them to make sure they're legitimate, but otherwise I cannot vouch for them. The apps below are the ones I consider most trustworthy but there are of course others as well. I just don't have the ability to scrutinise every possible app!
- Hildebrand Bright for Android and iOS
- Loop
- Samsung SmartThings - Chameleon Integration with SmartThings Energy
As an alternative to all these options, most suppliers allow you to review your smart meter usage data in your online account and app. If you don’t mind not having live data, this may be a potential option.
There’s also another deep dive into various apps posted by
I’ve seen cheaper IHDs on other sites like Amazon or eBay. Why can’t I just buy one of those instead?
Well, technically… You could do that… However, a lot of suppliers are wary about pairing IHDs from unknown sources and you can’t guarantee that they haven’t been tampered with somehow, which could compromise the security of your smart meter system. There is also the risk that such IHDs might not even work anyway, so it’s not worth the risk, nor the hassle of having to send it back. If you’ve bought one anyway, my advice is to attempt to return it via the refund processes of those sites.
IHDs are supposed to only come from approved sources and official channels, such as from your energy supplier or a DCC Other User. All of the IHD and CAD options in this guide come directly from approved manufacturers who have undergone the relevant checks so you can be confident you’re getting a genuine device.
The only exceptions to this rule are for old style energy monitors that use clip-on leads to "read" your electricity usage from the cables and plug-in monitors that can be used to monitor energy usage for a single device/socket. As these do not interact with the smart metering system at all, they are exempt from the rules that apply to In-Home Displays for this purpose - and I know the moderators would agree with me on this. For these types of monitor, the only thing I ask is that you should make sure to keep to reputable brands. Mainly for safety reasons, but also to make sure it actually works!
How do I set these devices and apps up?
The exact setup steps vary depending on exactly what you’re trying to set up. However, almost all of them can be set up without you needing to get your supplier involved. If you buy a device that needs your supplier to assist with pairing, you’ve probably got the wrong device and might want to consider sending it back. In the case of the apps I’ve listed, simply download your chosen app and follow the instructions. You will need a recent energy bill to verify your identity with and it may take a few days to fully set everything up.
If it’s an IHD or CAD though, you’ll need to wait for it to come through the post first. Unlike the IHDs you get from your energy supplier, you’ll also need to have Wi-Fi available to set up the device and continue to use it as intended. Simply follow the instructions in the box and in the companion apps to get started. It may take up to 24 hours for the device to become fully active, so please be patient during this time. If you have any problems or get stuck during setup, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the relevant support team. If you’re not sure how to find their details, we’ll be happy to give you a hand tracking them down. To protect your privacy and for technical reasons though, I’m afraid we can’t provide assistance with setting up such apps and devices via this forum.
I’m not sure if I’ve got SMETS1 or SMETS2 meters. Can you help me identify them?
Sure thing! It’s definitely a service we can provide here. 🙂 We’ve got lots of smart meter model guides listed here. If you can’t find a guide that matches your meter type, please post photos of your current meters, Comms Hub and (if you have one) IHD. We’ll be able to use these photos to figure out what you’ve got and can then advise you which options are likely to work. We don’t have a magic crystal ball or x-ray vision though sadly, so there’s no other way for us to identify your meters without photos or a description of the meters.
And that’s everything I have for you right now. If you’ve got any suggestions or feedback to improve this guide or you’ve found a new product you’d like me to add, feel free to drop a comment below. If you’d prefer to remain anonymous, feel free to shoot me a PM and let me know that way. I will consider all suggestions and if I like it, I’ll update the guide.
