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Updated on 18/07/24 by Abby_OVO
 

As a disclaimer to the user written guide below, we’d just like to confirm that OVO don’t currently have access to the SmartThings functionality directly. This is something we’ve looked into - however we’d like to assess the benefits it could bring our members, against any security concerns.

 

This doesn’t prevent you downloading and accessing your usage data here yourself, however you should be aware that you’re entering into an agreement with a third party app to grant them access to your usage data. As such we’re not able to help with any technical issues you experience when using these type of third-party apps.

 

 

Being able to get your Smart Meter readings in various ways is a pretty hot topic here on the OVO Forum and also in several other places. There’s a few options out there, but recently Samsung SmartThings has added a new integration with Chameleon Technology which provides a new way to get usage data onto your phone.

 

This forum guide has been created by a forum volunteer to help explain how it all works. I just want to give you a quick heads up though first. Samsung and Chameleon have not been involved with this guide and while OVO’s Community Moderators have reviewed it for moderation purposes, everything within is my own creation.

 

You might also want be interested in the original news post from Chameleon as well.

 

What is SmartThings?

SmartThings is a home automation and smart device control platform developed and hosted by Samsung, but also made up of Integrations with their partners, which allows non-Samsung devices and services to be used with the platform. Most Samsung devices have SmartThings support built-in and available by default out of the box.

 

Who are Chameleon?

Chameleon Technology is primarily an In-Home Display manufacturer, but they also have a data platform - Chameleon Cloud - which can be used to integrate Smart Meter usage data with other platforms and services.

 

What is the integration about?

Right now, the main purpose of the integration is to allow you to import usage data from your Smart Meter into SmartThings. It may be expanded further in the future, but in the meantime it runs on the basis of daily snapshots. You can use automations to trigger actions based on the data as well if you wish.

 

How does it work?

In common with other similar apps such as Loop or Hildebrand Bright, Chameleon  Cloud communicates directly with your Smart Meters via DCC, without going through your energy supplier or the CAD features of an IHD. It then forwards the collected usage data to SmartThings so that you can view it within the SmartThings app. You don’t need to be with OVO because the whole process is independent of your energy supplier. Once it’s up and running, you can use the SmartThings app on any supported device to access recent usage data and trigger automations based on it. It’s a little basic right now, but it will probably become more useful if real-time data support is added in the future.

 

What does it cost?

It’s currently free at the moment with no upfront costs or subscription fees that I’m aware of at the time of writing. As with a lot of free things though, it’s worth reviewing the Privacy Policy just in case, so that you can avoid hidden surprises later.

 

Where can I get it?

The first thing you’ll need is the Samsung SmartThings app for Android and iOS. It’s usually preloaded on most Samsung Galaxy devices. Otherwise, you can find it on the Google Play Store and iOS App Store. You’ll also need a compatible Smart Meter that’s communicating with DCC. All SMETS2 Smart Meters should be fine by default as long as they’re communicating with your supplier correctly. SMETS1 meters that have been migrated to DCC and running as “SMETS1+” are also generally compatible, although your mileage may vary. Unfortunately, SMETS1 meters that have not yet been migrated to DCC are incompatible at this time. But you’ll be able to use these features once your meters have migrated. If you don’t have any Smart Meters yet and you’re with OVO, here’s how you can get one! Oh, and please make sure to have a recent energy bill handy too before you start setup! You’ll need it during setup to verify your account and confirm that you have permission to use the service. If you’re with OVO, you can retrieve one from within your online account or via the OVO Energy app.

 

Do I need an IHD?

Nope. The integration communicates directly with your Smart Meters, so you don’t need an IHD.

 

How can I set it up?

As long as you’ve already got a compatible Smart Meter and you’ve set up the SmartThings app so you can use it, the process is fairly easy, but does have several steps to go through. Here’s what you’ll need to do.

  1. In the SmartThings app, add a new Device
  2. Select Search by brand - this makes it easier to find Chameleon
  3. Select Chameleon from the list, you may need to scroll down
  4. Tap Energy monitoring followed by Smart Meter, then choose a Home and Room before tapping Next
  5. Chameleon Cloud will load up and appear on screen
  6. Review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy - it’s important!
  7. Fill out the details to locate your Smart Meter and run a compatibility check
  8. Upload a copy of a recent energy bill and wait for verification to complete
  9. Create a Chameleon Cloud account
  10. And finally, return to SmartThings and you should see your Smart Meter show up under Devices in the room you selected

It may take a few days from here before usage data starts to show up for the first time, so hang in there and check back in every so often. Once the first import completes, you should see new data come in on a daily basis.

 

Is there a Privacy Policy?

Yup. You can view that right here by clicking on the Privacy Notice text. Please don’t attempt to sign up via that exact link though, as it won’t work and you’ll get stuck. It’s not actually intended to get to that page outside of the SmartThings app, but I have magic powers that lets me break stuff. XD

 

Where can I see the data?

You’ll be able to find it anytime in the SmartThings app, in the same Room that you assigned the Smart Meter Device to. Feel free to rename it something other than the default name of “Smart Meter” if you’d like to. You can also check SmartThings Energy under the Life tab, as long as you have it set up there.

 

Can I export the data?

Yes, it looks like you can do this. You’ll want to head into the settings for SmartThings and then choose the Download personal data option. From here, you can save the exported data to your phone/tablet and then transfer it to your PC. This may not work very well on iOS/iPadOS devices however, due to restrictions imposed by Apple, so I recommend doing this from an Android device for the easiest experience. It may take up to 30 minutes for the export to be generated. It’ll be a ZIP archive, so you’ll need to extract the contents first before you can open them. The resulting output is made up of CSV and PDF files. You can open a PDF file using a web browser such as Chrome or Firefox on your PC, Preview on macOS, the built-in document viewer on most Linux distros or the built-in PDF viewer on Android and iOS. You do NOT need Adobe Reader for this purpose.

 

As for CSV files, you can open them in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice Calc, depending on what you have available. If you don’t have any of those on hand, you can also open them in a text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit. Notepad++ also works pretty well and can format the file for easier reading. These same tools should also be capable of opening any other file formats that might be included in the download. If you have any trouble opening the files that happen to be in other formats, I’ll be happy to try to locate the right tool for those as well on request. Please don’t share the downloaded files with anyone, as they will contain personal data that could be sensitive and you really don’t want to leak them.

 

Can I opt-out later?

Yes. It’s a little complicated but definitely possible. Please bear in mind that after completing these steps, you will have to start again from scratch if you decide to use the service again in future. These instructions are carried over from this thread. I’ve also spoken to Chameleon Technology directly and they’ve confirmed these steps should work.

  1. In the SmartThings app, edit the Smart Meter device and then tap Linked Services to find the active integration
  2. Delete the relevant Linked Service from the list - which will also remove the device from the app
  3. Contact Chameleon Technology by email using optout@chameleontechnology.co.uk and the subject line Cancellation Request. You can fill out the details of your request in the email itself - you’ll probably want to ask them to delete your Chameleon Cloud Account as well. I’ve done some clever tricks, so that if you click that link above, it’ll automatically create a new draft email with the subject line already filled in for you. Magic!

 

If you want to later stop using SmartThings completely, you can use the Leave SmartThings option in the SmartThings app to wipe everything from Samsung’s servers. You may also want to delete your Samsung Account if you’re not using it for anything else after that - you can do that via the account settings on their website. Please only use the email address listed above for opt-out requests, as Chameleon won’t respond to anything else. If you’re moving out, your supplier should also send the SMETS Command Restrict Access for Change of Tenancy to your meters once you notify them, which will forcibly disconnect ALL linked services and devices except for the Comms Hub, IHD and Smart Meters themselves. All other connections - including Chameleon/SmartThings will be severed and disabled permanently.

 

Where can I get support?

The two best places I can think of would be over here on the OVO Forum or on the SmartThings Community. Because of the nature of this particular integration, the forum volunteers over here are more likely to have experience with using the integration with Smart Meters, whereas the SmartThings Community is more likely to have users with a lot of general SmartThings experience. Either way, you should be able to get the help you need. Please don’t post personal information though, as it could get leaked and forum volunteers can’t use it anyway. Unfortunately however, you probably won’t be able to ask your energy supplier for help as they aren’t involved. The best alternative is community support resources, as Chameleon currently doesn’t have any official help guides or support contacts right now. We’ll try to help as best we can though!

Nice guide, @Blastoise186 

 

I’m keen to hear from members who have this installed. Is it worth getting?

 

 

Tim - great blog, would have saved me hours.  Mine doesn’t connect, probably as you suggested before, a smets 1 smart meter issue. 

I am able to download my data from Ovo via a python script though so all is not lost.

You're welcome. It took me a few days to properly research everything and try to test it out using my smart meter Raichu and my trusty phone Oshawott. I guess you could say that I do a lot of testing using my kit.

Surprisingly though, the hardest part was actually getting hold of the details about how to opt out! I had a few discussions going back forth with Chameleon about it, but we eventually figured it out. I kinda helped them out a little by discovering a slight flaw in the opt out process, and they helped me out by providing the details I needed to get the right email address and process to use. :)

I have SMETS2 meters, but when I tried it last week (after seeing the discussion in another thread here) I found that the upload-a-bill stage in the sign-up process didn’t work, it just got hung up.

Perhaps I’ll have another go today.

In the meantime, out of curiosity, is it only consumption/usage data, or are meter readings there too? If there are meter readings, is there any history?

Thanks in advance.

As far as I’m aware, the integration doesn’t currently appear to grab meter readings as well, only usage data. It also seems as if it only starts to retrieve usage data from after you’ve set it up for the first time and nothing historical unless it somehow backfills later in the background. I’ve not come across anything saying that it can or will though.

Mind you, I get the feeling that the platform is probably being hammered right now with a lot of people trying it out, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the verification process keeps choking! Not much to suggest really other than to try again later. When I was initially testing it out and writing up the post, it worked just fine for me and took about two minutes to verify - but that was probably before many people knew that the integration existed.

ok thanks, @Blastoise186.

FWIW I’m happy to be able to see HH usage data via the Bright app, as I can already within seconds of it becoming available to DCC, and to be able to download the same data the following day using Ovo’s API. Since both Hildebrand and Ovo get it through DCC, albeit with different kinds of authorisation, it’s the same usage data.

As far as I have been able to tell so far, it’s only Ovo that have meter readings (perhaps only Ovo can get these because they are the supplier?), even if  they’re less willing than they used to be to share those readings with us punters.

BW

PS on the historical question - I remember noticing that Ovo didn’t get HH usage data prior to the date I gave them explicit permission (this was for another account, back in February last year, account now closed (though the data are still accessible in My Ovo). I assum that that was self-restraint on Ovo’s part, but don’t know the detailed ins and outs of DCC authorisations...

In contrast, when I gave that permission to Hildebrand for my current account, they got the full prior 13 months’ worth straight away, and it’s still there - the shame is it didn’t quite go back to when the meters were installed, because that was more than 13 months previously).

Aha, very interesting. I got as far as uploading my bill but it doesn’t look like the example and the checking software rejects the camera shot I took from my PC screen.  Anything I can try?

I think there is @chartman .

Obviously, I don’t work for Chameleon so I don’t have any access to their server logs. That would be way too easy!

I suspect your upload is being rejected because it’s a photo and they’re not usually clear enough for this to work. You’ll need to grab the original bill direct from your supplier using the online account and upload that as-is from your phone. If you need to transfer the file over, usually a USB cable works great if you’ve got an Android device. Otherwise, for iOS your best bet is just to email it to yourself or find a way to get it into iCloud Drive/Google Drive/OneDrive and retrieve it from there.

You must also go via the SmartThings app as well. If you attempt to do this using my links, the process will fail - I mainly included them more so that you can get quick access to the privacy policy whenever you need to review it.

What a complete pain in the butt… I got my latest bill and downloaded to my PC . It was already in PDF format. Hooked up my phone and transferred the file to my docs. Went back into the app. Couldn’t get back to the bill upload bit. deleted the app. re installed. Bloody thing remembered my devices! finally managed to get to ‘unpair’ and unpaired the chameleon. Added new device/chameleon and got back to the cloud stuff. Tried to upload the pdf and it wouldn’t accept it. 

What now?

Ouch. That’s a headache I didn’t predict. Nor do I have anything I can think of to help solve it. Too many personal data issues…

The best I can say is to make sure the bill you use is for the same property you’re trying to register and is dated within the last three months. Any older and it will be rejected.

If you’re still stuck, then I’m genuinely stumped. I guess give Chameleon a call? I honestly don’t know how they’ll react if you do because I’ve not tried it myself. I know I can reach out to them to report security bugs and submit privacy requests, but other than that they’re one of those companies which doesn’t really talk to end users very often.

Worth a shot I suppose, but I can’t say what will happen next. If they tell you to come back to OVO or your energy supplier, please let them know that this is not something OVO or insert your energy supplier here can help with as it’s specifically about the Chameleon Cloud platform.

Chameleon are launching a new device this week. 

https://ivie.co.uk/

This week huh? I might get one myself, but only because the ivie Bud is basically a Chameleon IHD7-CAD-PPMID and I want to expand my collection of IHDs. XD

I have no plans to use the CAD features myself either. I’ll just pair it to Raichu and have it around. At least it also means I could technically take that one with me if I move out!

@Blastoise186 got an email from them a few days ago as a priority access subscriber.

Might still be worth subscribing today.

Although of course it might simply be open for everyone at the same time.

No idea of the price. There is few more hints about functionality on their Facebook page but very little detail generally about additional features. 

Nah, I’m good so I’ll wait. Unlike some people, I’m too desperate to get one as I already have the Kecleon Brothers in the form of two IHD6-CAD-PPMID that OVO gave me. Kecleon Green and Kecleon Purple definitely belong to OVO and would have to remain at my flat if I ever move out though. But Kecleon Blue would be mine. Plus, I’d rather not get spammed just because I bought an IHD.

That’s why I’d rather wait at least a week or two after launch, to allow others to get a chance at it first. I already know far too many people who need a new IHD more than I do - and I suspect many of them will see this as a way to finally get a replacement IHD from an actually legitimate source.

Mind you, I also have some open security reports with Chameleon right now. They’re still under NDA of course, but I’m curious to see if the IHD7/ivie Bud fixes them out of the box.

I’m also curious as to whether it’s actually just a rebadged Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID or Chameleon IHD6-CAD-PPMID-S1 of some kind. If it is, then that will help to solve one of the issues that's rapidly causing a lot of problems for many other people I know elsewhere.

@Blastoise186 little info out there, e.g.

https://csa-iot.org/csa_product/ivie-bud/

I noticed that. However I still get the feeling they’re related to each other somehow. I find it somewhat unlikely that Chameleon would do a totally different design for the ivie Bud than for anything else launching at roughly the same time, but obviously I don’t have a crystal ball. The images posted by ZigBee Alliance do tend to be pretty close to the actual product though.

Hey, I’ve even seen actual IHD1, IHD2 and super early IHD3 models before! And they looked exactly like the images on ZigBee Alliance. So I’m wondering if the one on the ivie website literally just has “ivie Bud” overlaid on top of an actual device using GIMP or Photoshop. Only time will tell…

Tell you what, fancy testing it out first for us? We could probably do with having a new IHD guide created if it turns out the ivie Bud is very different from an IHD6!

Image looks good to me… I think the main difference is that you can see both gas and electric use at the same time - or is that what you get on an IHD6? I only have IHD3.

 

The IHD6 can show at least some extent of dual usage at the same time. In actual fact, you’ve got at least four different view options for the home screen layout. Each one suits different people but I prefer the default one myself.

I’m tempted to consider recommending this as an option for anyone who can’t otherwise get hold of an S2 IHD, but I think I’d need to discuss it with @Tim_OVO and @Jess_OVO first. I’ve got a call with them tomorrow anyway, so this would be a good topic for me to bring up with them.

The device itself is probably very similar to the IHD6 and if that’s the case, the existing guides should be fine for the most part. But if it turns out to be significantly different, a new guide would be needed. Inevitably, this forum will probably end up being one of the primary places to get help with it as well. :)

Well, the ivie Bud has now officially launched and I’ve ordered one. So I’ll have a third Kecleon very soon! I’ve already got Green and Purple, so this one will be Kecleon Blue.

£50 is a bit steep for an IHD mind you, but I guess I’ll see if it’s worth it! Before you go out and buy one though, please verify compatibility first!!! You can do that using https://ivie.co.uk/compatibility/ . If it says your Smart Meter is compatible, you can go ahead. But if it comes back saying no, please don’t purchase one because it definitely won’t work.

As for me? I’ll try it out for a week or so. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be sending it back for a refund so I can get my £50 back. If it does work, I’ll probably keep it as it might prove useful, albeit not for the reasons Chameleon Technology wants me to use it for. Muhahahahahaha

I’ve had absolutely NO JOY with this

Am doing it on a Sony smartphone Android 10 and have the IHD6

Can see the IHD6 connected to my router, with the right MAC address

  1. Installed Smartthings app (fought with samsung to get account set up)
  2. Add Device found Smart Meter
  3. get redirected to chameleoncoud.co.uk continue
  4. enter house name and postcode
  5. upload a .pdf
  6. black screen

Have waited what I think is a decent amount of time and no dice

 

Is there a trick?  

That sounds like a bug to me. I’d suggest getting in touch with Chameleon and see what they say. If you let them know you need help with the Samsung SmartThings Energy integration (not about your IHD!!!) they’ll probably be able to help.

They’ve been pretty good with my security reports and other contact reasons to date.

Cheers, I chased them on Twitter and they replied asking for MPAN, so hopefully it’ll get resolved

Great guide! However I can’t seem to get my gas meter usage. It is only showing the electric meter reading. 
 

does anyone know how I get the gas meter reading ?

 

many thanks 

 

Hi

 

Does anyone know how i can get my Gas smart meters data into smart things or another home automation system? I have got the electric meter into smart things which seems good, but it didn’t grab the gas meter.

 

I used to have the data into HomeSeer before Ovo switched the meter to a smart meter, but now I can’t work out how to connect to it.

Hi @robsant ,

I’m afraid that’s a bit tricky. The ability to get gas usage data into those kinds of platforms is heavily dependent on what each one supports. Home Assistant can sort of get the data via the ovo_energy integration but it’s important to note that it’s not perfect because it uses the Private API that OVO never intended anyone to use.

Other than that, I’m afraid there’s not much I can think of.

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