Your guide to the SMETS1 (S1) Chameleon In Home Display
If you’ve got a SMETS1 meter installed by OVO you might have been provided with the Pipit IHD (find out more about these here), the Chameleon IHD3 or more recently the Chameleon IHD6.
How to identify a Chameleon IHD
The Chameleon IHD3 is a black device with a multi-coloured display.
This device is compatible with SMETS 1 or SMETS 2 meters, the only noticeable difference will be a power button on the back of the device if it’s SMETS 2 compatible.
The Chameleon IHD6 has a black front, with a white border and a touch screen:
Where should I plug in the device?
The IHD needs to be able to pick up clear signals from the electricity meter so we’d recommend plugging it in as close to the meter as possible. Locating the IHD more than 20 metres away or the other side of thick walls can mean it’s unable to receive and update your usage information.
How to use the Chameleon IHD3
The IHD is very easy to use. You can access all its functions with the 7 buttons along the bottom of the screen.
How to view your energy usage by day, week, month or year on an IHD3
Tap the Home button to see how much energy you’ve used so far today
Use the Calendar button to move the display through ‘so far this week’ and ‘so far this month’
Use the ‘back’ arrow to scroll back and see how much energy you’ve used each day, week, month or year
Tap the Utility button to switch the figures on the display between electricity, gas or combined fuels.
How much are you using right now?
Tapping ‘Now’ will show you how much electricity you’re using in real time. This is displayed as kilowatts (kW) and cost per hour. This lets you check if anything’s been left turned on, and work out which appliances use the most energy. The coloured light at the bottom shows whether your current use is low, medium or high.
Setting budgets on your IHD3
To help you manage your energy use, you can set a target:
Bring up the menu screen by tapping OK. Select Adjust Settings and then select Set budget by tapping OK.
Choose the time period you want to set a budget for (daily, weekly or monthly) by tapping the Calendar button. Use the back and forward arrows to change the amount. The IHD will show you how much you used in the previous period to help you set an achievable value. Tap OK to confirm your choices.
You can set individual budgets for each fuel. Tap the Utility button to switch the figures on the display between electricity and gas.
When you’re looking at how much energy you’ve used in the past, the light will show you how much you used compared to your budget.
Check your meter readings on your IHD3
Bring up the menu screen by tapping OK. Tap Meter Information.
Cycle between electricity and gas using the utility button to check your meter readings.
Tutorial mode
The device has a built in tutorial that can be used during the installation visit and can be started by you at any time. The tutorial goes through key aspects of the IHD using dummy data and takes three minutes.
The tutorial can be exited by pressing the Home button, or each section skipped through by pressing the right arrow button. It can be accessed through the menu options.
I'd like to add a couple of thoughts, @Allyballybeez, although I don't (yet) have Smart Meters installed.
Firstly, the frequency of your meters sending data (via DCC) to OVO is a separate issue to what's on your IHD. The IHD receives updates from your electricity meter on a wireless-mesh network called Zigbee (2.4GHz).
I don't know exactly how often these are sent, but I would expect it to be about once per second. That's how your IHD gives you "immediate" info of the consumption of a device you've just turned on.
To save power, Zigbee doesn't run continuously. In particular your gas meter has a small battery which needs to last 10years+. So there is an inbuilt snooze-mode. Again I don't know the exact time-periods, but it's probably "live" for about 10% of the time.
In effect this means that your energy consumption is being "sampled" by the IHD rather than it receiving continuous readings. At low-usage times, you will therefore see small fluctuations in the display.
Secondly, your Smart Meters have been configured by OVO to retain a breakdown of your tariff structure which includes the standing charge element.
A couple of months ago there was a Forum discussion generated by a customer who noticed his IHD had been displaying daily usage whilst he'd been out of the country. He was understandably concerned until it transpired that this was only the standing charge element of his tariff.
And finally @ITGeek123, are you charging two EV's from a single-phase consumer unit?
If so, is that two 7kW chargers each hanging off a 32A trip?
Bare in mind as well, any figures on the ihd for energy usage and standing charges do not include 5%tax that the government kindly take. So your bill will not exactly match the ihd.
Great point, @Tufty71, you seem to be a bit of an IHD expert, this is good news
Cheers Amy here to help if I can
The guide starts at the main menu. I’ve never seen the main menu on my smart meter. So, how about updating the guide with how to get to the main menu from the usual display?
many thanks.
I've popped your post here, @Solarpayz, you'll find a handy guide by @Nancy_OVO, at the top of this thread.
Hope this helps!
What edition of the OVO Guide are you referring to please @Solarpayz?
I've got three here! One is A4-size, and other two are A5. On the back of my A5 ones it has the edition number printed. I have OVOR14 and OVOR15, and they're quite a bit different.
OVOR15 is shorter, but clearer. It incorporates some changes I'd suggested in previous feedback, which is good to see!
@Amy_OVO - can you please alert @Linnea that we're discussing this here?
I am referring to the OVO webpages.
it explains all that I need except how to pull up the main menu.
my smart meter tells me that I have a message and I’m unable to retrieve it.
Erm... I receive messages on my Chameleon IHD.
I mean... I could go outside and read them from the meter, but any messages intended for customers are transferred to the IHD anyway.
I press the OK Button, then the Right-arrow to get to the Messages page.
Which URL are you using to get to the Guide on the OVO website?
Who sets the standing charge and unit rates used by the display to show usage as money.
If it’s done by the user … how?
Hi@PedrosPlotThickens - this information is within the Tariff-data which OVO download to your meter(s) as the final step of the commissioning process. If you can see usage data from your Smart Meter online at your personal account page, but the IHD still shows incorrect costings, then email to tell them.
My Chameleon IHD3 Smart meter has the wrong gas, electric and standing charge costs in it, therefore all the real time costs are incorrect and render the “Smart” meter a waste of time.
OVO tell me it is not possible to change them which is ridiculous, does anyone who is more technical know how to?
I’ve moved your post to this thread, @g6ued, there’s tons of info above, this is something our team should absolutely be able to fix, please reach out to them.
You can send us a message on Facebook, Twitter and our Help Centre has online chat! You can reach our team on: 0330 303 5063. Our opening hours are 8am-6pm Monday to Friday.
Thanks!
Hi Amy. I already wrote an email and this was the response: -
Thanks for taking the time to send us your recent email, I hope you're well.
I have a double checked with a team leader and we're unfortunately unable to do this with the smart meter itself, however you're unable to keep up to date with this on your online account or your in home display.
I hope this email finds you well.
Many Thanks,
Stella-Maris
Thanks for posting here @g6ued
This sounds bizarre…. but I need a bit more info. Normally I’d obtain this from your Forum Profile page, but you haven’t yet filled that out. (Please do!)
In the meantime, can you say when your Smart Meters were installed?
Also, have you found my main Topic on SMETS2 Smart Meter Installation? I’ve put loads of background information there which you may find helpful.
We have been with OVO for three years now, so I assume it was installed when we switched?
I would think its not possible for the consumer to change the tariffs, so how do I get OVO to do it?
I’m a bit wary of jumping to conclusions in this case.
An install date three years ago strongly suggests that this is a SMETS1 meter, probably made by Secure:
But I thought that OVO were supplying the PipitIn-Home Device at that time. I don’t even think the IHD3 from Chameleon was available three years ago. I can’t find any web references to it dating from that time.
Your particular tariff is downloaded into the smart meters by OVO as the last stage of the commissioning process. Currently that data is used only by the IHD. The OVO App displays and your online graphs are derived from meter readings being combined with tariff-data held by OVO centrally (not on your Smart Meter).
Does this help in any way to clarify what’s happening?
I’ve just checked the gas meter and yes you are right, its a Secure, so the electric one must be too.
I appreciate that the Smart meter is just a guide, but what's the point of having it if it does not display the correct data and is not calibrated to the actual meters?
The idea of having a smart meter is to monitor in real time the consumption and costs of the energy you are using so as you can control it. I can understand OVO not wanting it to work accurately because then they don't sell as much energy. The OVO app used to do it in real time until they broke it.
So what do I/OVO need to do to get this working correctly?
I think you need to email back to Customer Support and give them the link to this Topic so they can read the responses from myself and the Moderators.
The correct/full link to the post that you first uploaded is this:
I don’t expect you to get all the terminology correct, and OVO should still be able to resolve matters when customers don’t identify symptoms completely correctly. But here on the Forum there are enough of us who are technically competent to clarify what you say.
For example, in what you’ve just posted you used the term “smart meter” when you were actually referring to the IHD. That’s OK by me. But it might be confusing to a newly-trained member of Customer Services.
So let’s work together to get to the bottom of this.
It has always been the case that OVO installs the tariff data into the Communications Hub of your SMETS1 smart meter set. I can see no reason why they are unable to send an update now, which would restore correct output from the IHD.
One of the first things I’d like confirmed by OVO is that your SMETS1 meters really were installed when you switched to OVO three years ago.
And in the meantime, can you state here whether the IHD usage readings have ever been correct?
Or, contrariwise, what has occurred more recently such that you are now able to identify the IHD as being incorrect?
Just had a call from OVO, they are going to make an update over the next 10 days which will hopefully resolve it.
Thanks for your help too.
Lets see what happens….
Ihd 3
successfully unpaird my ihd thinking it repair electic reading Gas was working fine
It in defalt mode now Electric Mpan **edited by moderator** Gas Mpan **edited by moderator**
They not my mpan numbers
for you ihd to connect the meter need ihd guid number or your ihd needs gas and electic mpan numbers
Can not see how i change them on ihd
Hi @fang ,
Please contact the Support Team by phone for this one. They’ll be able to help you pair your IHD back up to your meters. It shouldn’t take more than five minutes or so. :)
Hi @fang and welcome to the Forum.
Firstly, we are volunteers here. Apart from the Moderators, we do not work for OVO. Your request will need to be sent to Customer Support, for which the contact details can be found here.
Secondly, most IHD can operate in a demonstration mode if they are not paired with a Communications Hub. Yours is probably now in this mode, using preset meter numbers held within its memory.
And finally, it is not possible to pair any device with your Communications Hub without a command being sent to it by an OVO engineer. This is timed operation, requiring you and OVO to agree when this re-pairing is to occur.
Morning,
I have a Smart Meter ACLARA with the Communication Hub being SGC1311 and the Meter being SGM1311. The A and B buttons on the bottom half are blue, and Indoor SSE Meter Tracker.
Since the increase in charges (start of October?) my indoor tracker is showing extremely low numbers. End of day prior to October would be showing around 60-70p, now 10p, and as much as I'd like that to be the case, I know its not. When the prices went up before, it rectified itself within a couple of weeks. Now though its been 5 weeks and still showing an incorrect number. Should it be taking this long?
Thanks.
Hiya!
This is currently being fixed. It should be resolved by the end of the year.
Ultimately, only DCC can push out the fix and they’re not known for being the fastest thing in the world at doing so.
Hi
I had a problem with the app showing 0.06p a day usage from boxing day. Turned out my meter was set to update once a month and it wasn’t communicating on the upload day. I did a manual reading in the app and changed it to half-hourly and all seems good.
However…
I needed to find out real-time data and our new home doesn’t have an IHD. The home was previously owned by an elderly relative who never had a display (possibly refused it but one never arrived or was installed). I asked OVO yesterday for advice on getting an IHD and they said they don’t send out SMETS1 displays anymore. They said that I would need my meter changing to s SMETS2 which they won’t just do. So basically they I can’t have a display and I really want to see real-time consumption.
I thought there was a OVO supplied IHD that worked on SMETS1 and SMETS2? Is it the IHD6?
I know that this house never had one when it was installed back in 2017. Any advice?
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