IHD showing under usage

Hi ​@Tricko ,

Your IHD simply mimics whatever charge is shown on your meter so if that has been updated recently (our has) then that may be the cause. They should of course show the standing charge (which is usually added early each day) but I have seen units that don’t do that.

One other thing with your new supplier … do you have a split tariff at all ? If so, some suppliers (including Octopus) have begun to set your meter and therefore your IHD as well to a cost per kWh which is an average of your annual cost. Not useful for daily usage which is why I have purchased an alternative device from Hildebrand - their Glow IHD is very useful and can integrate with other systems to give very accurate cost readings

Hey ​@Tricko 

Welcome back to the Forum! I’m glad to see BPlightlog has already stopped by with some helpful advice on this. 

BPLightlog previously wrote the following helpful topic on third party data providers, I wonder if that might also be helpful here if you consider getting an alternative device:

Well yesterday we used 6 KWh and IHD said that was 90p. We cleared all settings on IHD and let it come back on only took 5 minutes decent strong signal I suppose. It is still reading very low but with accurate energy use. We had a search through and found a tariff of 12.6p on the IHD and THIS we think is the issue.
It has been reading this SEG payment tariff as our import cost since we signed up for outgoing octopus. We have checked the Smart meter and this also says Active tariff is 12.6 p not our 24+ p. Although our account shows what we are being charged each day. Heck knows how it’s happened.
going to be a long phone call 🙁

You might want to double check your bills as the 12.6p could be an average unit cost for your usage.

As I mentioned earlier, the IHD simply picks up the tariff from the meter and as you’ve already noticed, you will be charged at your actual tariff cost rather than what the meter suggests. 

Our Export rate is definitely the 12.6p and it seems too much of a coincidence for it to have only happened since we started the Outgoing tariff. But will check with Octopus to confirm.many thanks 

Actually ​@Tricko , I’ve just looked at our meter (and IHD) and that is also set to 12.6p (we’re with the tentacled one as well)

I had thought that ours had been set to our average tariff level as they’ve done that before but that’s not 12.6p

I wonder if they’ve done a mass upload at this level.

I usually get a quick response from them via X/twitter for any customer support but as I’ve said, the IHD isn’t at fault as it takes its details directly from the meter

Ooooh interesting 🤔 I wonder. I did speak to someone and he got quite shirty and told me if you keep pressing the A or B button on your smart meter you will see your import tariff aswell.
So I did just that and it only showed the total active tariff 12.6 p on both A and B buttons. I’m not worried we’re being undercharged it’s just the IHD was quite helpful and now I can’t taunt my brother two doors down that we’re spending less than him 😆

Ours changed yesterday - they update the meter and the IHD takes its info from there.

Our standard IHD is not very useful anyway as we have a 3 tiered tariff which the basic IHD can’t show.

I actually use a third party IHD (Glow from Hildebrand)  and feed that into a data system called Home Assistant.

Hey ​@Tricko,

Thanks for the update, it's great to hear that everything is back to normal for you! If you get a chance, check out the links that BPLightlog shared; they might be really helpful. We've had a Hildebrand representative on the Forum before, and they offered some great advice that helped others so we can also vouch for them! 

I marked your response as the best answer for the thread so that others can easily see what worked for you.