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Rank 1
October 21, 2017
Solved

New 'Chameleon' In Home Display (IHD3) - can I view my live gas usage like my electricity?

  • October 21, 2017
  • 35 replies
  • 5109 views

Hi,

I have just had a smart meter and IHD fitted - it’s an IHD3. I can see how to see my live electricity usage (ie electricity now button).

However, is it possible to see how much gas is being used live?

Thanks

Best answer by Transparent

Updated on 05/05/25 by Chris_OVO:

 

That’s a good question…. to which the answer is “no, unfortunately not!

The gas Smart Meter has an inbuilt battery with a lifetime expectancy of 10 years. In order to conserve power it keeps the lcd display switched off, and only wakes up the transmitter to your Communications Hub once every 30 minutes.

So your IHD is only able to display gas usage to the last half-hour internal when the data was sent.

Please ask here again if you’d like further clarification.

And have a look at this topic all about smart meters and their installation.

 

If you can’t view any gas usage data (not just live usage) on your In-Home Display (IHD) this could indicate a communication issue. Check out this topic for more details.

 

There’s more advice in getting the most out of your In-Home Display in the guides below -

 

SMETS1 Pipit In Home Display (IHD)

SMETS1 Chameleon In Home Display (IHD)

SMETS2 In Home Display (IHD)
 

You can also view your usage data (albeit not live data) on your online account or OVO app (download for Android or iOS)
 

OVO member but not got a smart meter yet? - Book today!

 

Interested but not yet an OVO member? - Check out our plans!

 

35 replies

Blastoise186
Super User
Super User
July 27, 2025

It’s actually quite normal for forums of this type. Not all of them do it, but a fair few do in order to tidy things up as part of routine housekeeping. It’s usually done silently to avoid generating excessive noise, especially with the number of users it entails. Notifying users of this would just create a ton of noise for no real benefit. We get a LOT of questions here and if the Forum Moderators didn’t do this, the Forum would become a nightmare to manage.

There is a setting on a Chameleon IHD that you can change - it’s the preferred home screen setting. Change that one to the one you’re after and it should solve the issue.

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Johnny Thunders
Rank 3
Rank 3
July 27, 2025

It’s actually quite normal for forums of this type. Not all of them do it, but a fair few do in order to tidy things up as part of routine housekeeping. It’s usually done silently to avoid generating excessive noise, especially with the number of users it entails. Notifying users of this would just create a ton of noise for no real benefit. We get a LOT of questions here and if the Forum Moderators didn’t do this, the Forum would become a nightmare to manage.

There is a setting on a Chameleon IHD that you can change - it’s the preferred home screen setting. Change that one to the one you’re after and it should solve the issue.

The ihd7 has the setting you refer to, not the ihd3 I have. Had you seen the original title of the question, you'd know that. 

Most reasonable forum platforms have a 'notify user' if moved feature (I mod on a forum with now close to 3 million posts active & archived - it's automated and requires no effort or 'noise' whatever that is - I have a notifications section I assume the entire place can't see). This smacks of mod god syndrome and not "housekeeping", but what do I know right? My question is nothing to do with the OP and lumping them together isn't "help" or anything along the lines of the ethos of a discussion forum designed to answer people's questions. The person that replied to me was being helpful and a second onlooker suggests the 2 questions aren't the same, but us little people just have to accept things - God forbid an opinion is had. 

It's all good, I can see how this pans out.

I won't comment further as it's obviously a fruitless task. Apparently, my question is "solved" despite quite clearly it not being. 

✌️

juliamc
Rank 20
Rank 20
July 27, 2025

I still think it would be useful to notify someone who has recently posted a question that it has been amalgamated into another topic. Maybe with a time limit of a couple of weeks ? 
In the example of ​@Johnny Thunders question it appears to have been moved to a thread marked “solved” when actually he is awaiting a reply from ​@Abby_OVO 

Johnny Thunders
Rank 3
Rank 3
July 27, 2025

And add to that: besides not being the same question:

the OP is 7 years old!

This place doesn't appear to have the type of traffic that needs 'housekeeping' of this nature - especially when done in a stealthy manner. The question and reply I first received in their own thread is exactly how I'd expect this forum to work. Everything after that fact was probably more down to personal choice by a mystery person rather than any huge necessity to weld 2 posts 7 years apart together. 

Pardon the sarcasm, but why not just merge all 'IHD' topics in to one megathread as they are 'kinda' the same, oh but wait: that won't work out well will it? 

Anyway, learnt my lesson. 

Will find somewhere else. 

 

Blastoise186
Super User
Super User
July 27, 2025

In that case, it could be a config issue with your unit. ​Our resident Smart Meter Engineer might be able to figure that one out better than I can, but he’s only active here and doesn’t post elsewhere.

It’s worth remembering that many folks who come here don’t stick around, so notifying them with random emails doesn’t provide much benefit as by the time their threads are merged, they’ve already moved on. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, just that the use case might not be very strong here.

The solved status applies to the original question - you can still ask your own and get answers regardless. It’s just worth remembering that the answers are for the wider community, rather than just the original poster.

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