Pay monthly customer - why is my Pipit 500 IHD asking me for a PIN?

Is anyone else having trouble getting OVO to supply the In Home Display Unit for Smart Meters. We had our Smart Meters installed in December 2016, the engineer had ran out of these units and said OVO would post us one within a month. Here we are 4 MONTHS later and after numerous phone calls and e-mails we are told there are supply problems.
We are interested to find out how many others have not received these units as we are thinking of contacting BBC Watchdog.

Disappointed wrote:

Is anyone else having trouble getting OVO to supply the In Home Display Unit for Smart Meters. We had our Smart Meters installed in December 2016, the engineer had ran out of these units and said OVO would post us one within a month. Here we are 4 MONTHS later and after numerous phone calls and e-mails we are told there are supply problems.
We are interested to find out how many others have not received these units as we are thinking of contacting BBC Watchdog.

Hi there,

I am sorry to hear of the issues you've faced getting a IHD - I can only speculate that due to supply issues OVO are unable to get them to customers as quickly as they'd like to.

Saying that - I'm sure that OVO have some sort of waiting list for IHD's given the supply issues - perhaps you could message one of the moderators @Lucy_OVO @Darran_OVO or @Tim_OVO and ask them if they can make sure you are?

Hope the supplies are replenished soon and you get your IHD - do keep us posted.

The point of us all paying extra on our energy bills towards smart meters was so that we could help reduce our energy consumption. A key intelligence this would provide was being able to monitor power consumption easily through an IHT to help us make more intelligent decisions on energy use.

Unfortunately the OVO smart meter IHT seems to be a complete failure.

1. Running on, rechargeable, batteries it just powers off after about 45 seconds. It then needs to reboot by you turning it on again. This hardly makes it easy to monitor power consumption.

2. Plug it into the mains and switch to power display and all is good. Until a few minutes later when it reverts to showing your bill, which is of no use whatsoever in helping you monitor and change your energy consumption.

Please tell me I have a dud unit, or that there is a setting I can't see to make this device deliver smart information that is actually useful?

websanity wrote:

The point of us all paying extra on our energy bills towards smart meters was so that we could help reduce our energy consumption. A key intelligence this would provide was being able to monitor power consumption easily through an IHT to help us make more intelligent decisions on energy use.

Unfortunately the OVO smart meter IHT seems to be a complete failure.

1. Running on, rechargeable, batteries it just powers off after about 45 seconds. It then needs to reboot by you turning it on again. This hardly makes it easy to monitor power consumption.

2. Plug it into the mains and switch to power display and all is good. Until a few minutes later when it reverts to showing your bill, which is of no use whatsoever in helping you monitor and change your energy consumption.

Please tell me I have a dud unit, or that there is a setting I can't see to make this device deliver smart information that is actually useful?

Hey websanity,

The In Home Display (IHD) won’t stay on all the time, but you can wake it up whenever you need to use it.

The estimated bill is the screen that it will revert to but you can check your consumption and monitor your usage under the ‘history’ tab.

Lucy

I like the estimated bill function on the IHD, but it has only been of use in month one as it does not appear to reset after that month's readings have been taken - so our screen shows the cumulative amount since day 1. Do I need to reset manually? If that is the case, have not found how to do it.

We've just had our smart meter; fantastic service and thoroughly grateful that I don't have to read the meters ever again:) However, what a pathetically useless waste of money the wireless monitor is. We had one of these when we were with EON and it was fantastic; it showed you how much energy or money you were using over time or at that present moment. This was great for us as we have solar panels and I could see when we were using 0 energy off the grid and I could go and put the washing on etc. you could also go around and turn things on and off and see the impact. This OVO monitor doesn't do anything like this from what I can see and I am really disappointed. Have I missed something or is it really useless?

Foxcub wrote:

I like the estimated bill function on the IHD, but it has only been of use in month one as it does not appear to reset after that month's readings have been taken - so our screen shows the cumulative amount since day 1. Do I need to reset manually? If that is the case, have not found how to do it.

Hi @Foxcub welcome to the forum and thanks for your post!

Whilst I'm afraid as I'm a PAYG customer I'm not 100% with what you've raised.

I just wanted to let you know that one of the other forum members or moderators will respond to your post ASAP with some further info on using the IHD for pay monthly customers.

Sorry I can't be of more help at this time however rest assured someone will get back to you shortly

Have a lovely weekend

ghj76 wrote:

We've just had our smart meter; fantastic service and thoroughly grateful that I don't have to read the meters ever again:) However, what a pathetically useless waste of money the wireless monitor is. We had one of these when we were with EON and it was fantastic; it showed you how much energy or money you were using over time or at that present moment. This was great for us as we have solar panels and I could see when we were using 0 energy off the grid and I could go and put the washing on etc. you could also go around and turn things on and off and see the impact. This OVO monitor doesn't do anything like this from what I can see and I am really disappointed. Have I missed something or is it really useless?

Hi ghj76,

It's not the prettiest of gadgets, I'll give you that. But I like to think our In Home Display (IHD) can be really useful, when you know how. Here's the guides we have to help:

https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-answers/topics/smart-technology/smart-meters/what-do-the-buttons-on-my-in-home-display-screen-mean.html

https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-answers/topics/smart-technology/smart-meters/how-can-my-ihd-and-smart-meter-help-me-manage-my-energy-use.html

Have a quick read and let us know if we've won you round. I'll also move this query to another topic on IHD's so other users can get involved.

Tim

@Foxcub

Thanks for your post, as @Mattj3135 advised, be good to get more info on this one, so other users can help.

I've also moved your question on this existing conversation around the IHD as some of the other comments may well help.

Thanks

Darran

Since there seem to be lots of people wanting an IHD, can I send mine to someone? After the first week, it went into a box of electronic junk. I do have the MyOvo usage page permanently open on my laptop though. I find that far more useful and interesting, especially when used in conjunction
with an emonTx providing 10 second readings of electricity usage. I've calculated how much energy my fridge/freezer uses per 24 hours, how much it takes to boil a mug of water, how much for a laundry wash at 30 degrees, and how much is used by the bits and pieces that are plugged in permanently, such as internet router, smart meter router, emonTx, cordless phone etc.

If anyone wants my IHD (and Ovo permits it, I assume it needs to be paired to your electricity meter by them), you can have mine. To be polite, it's not very good. See this topic:

https://forum.ovoenergy.com/pay-monthly-21/how-has-having-a-smart-meter-helped-you-1/index5.html

I'm still waiting for the promised colour version which allow us to monitor our stats in real time on web / mobile devices.

Sure thing @Rooty- if you would like to return your In Home Display to us, Rooty, please pop me a private message confirming your name, DoB and OVO account number and I can get a envelope sent out to you.

We were running a trial for a new IHD, but this trial has now stopped. We’re currently collating the information and sussing out the best next steps.

Lucy

Hi Lucy.

Private message sent. Thank you.

I should add, just to be clear to anyone who is thinking of a getting smart meters installed. I'm a fan.

If like me you are interested in checking your usage from the previous day, along with your morning coffee, OVO have provided neat tools on their website to do just that. The estimates can be a bit off, but by the virtue of daily readings, I know precisely what my monthly bill is going to be before its even sent. And thus I've now been able to guesstimate what my electric cooker, dishwasher, washing machine and separate dryer use. Even the electric shower.

The existing in home display however is very clunky, quite old technology and I don't find it at all useful. I don't blame OVO for going the route they took initially; it's all added cost to them. However, automation, monitoring, and voice control of the smart home is where the future is at (for many) and this cannot be ignored if OVO want to be considered truly innovative.

So IF we get the promised new meter and the realtime online monitoring tools that have been hinted at, I will be a very happy customer.

I have had a smart meter for about a year and am quite happy with it. I also requested an In Home Display, but quickly gave up using it. I think it is a complete waste of time, when I can access the relevant information online through MyOvo.

People on this forum presumably have internet access, so my advice would be not to bother with the In Home Display at all and use MyOvo instead.

Hope the new version is much more useful than the old one. I no longer bother with ours.
When will it be available and how do I get one?

Stiggysawdust wrote:

Hope the new version is much more useful than the old one. I no longer bother with ours.
When will it be available and how do I get one?

Well, Stiggysawdust, I asked that question on another thread and the response was basically "we are giving the nicer, newer technology to brand new customers". That may not be verbatim. :8 It's a typical manoeuvre in business, but not very inclusive.

Hi Lucy/Darran @OVO
I have been mulling over getting a smart meter and have held off due to all the issues I have read about. But can you tell me what the latest update is? If I ask for an install now will I get an SMETS2 meter with the new colour IHD display or are there still issues with these two still. Happy to wait as not in a rush...
Anyone one got any photos of what the Gas & elec smart meters that OVO are installing look like in situ?
Thanks
Daniel

DAL wrote:

Hi Lucy/Darran @OVO
I have been mulling over getting a smart meter and have held off due to all the issues I have read about. But can you tell me what the latest update is? If I ask for an install now will I get an SMETS2 meter with the new colour IHD display or are there still issues with these two still. Happy to wait as not in a rush...
Anyone one got any photos of what the Gas & elec smart meters that OVO are installing look like in situ?
Thanks
Daniel

Hey Dal,

SMET2 meters haven’t been rolled out yet so if this is what you were after, it might be best to hold off for now! I’ve also attached photos of the gas and electricity smart meters that we’re currently installing.

Lucy

hello

Lucy_OVO wrote:

It sounds like you’re referring to the ‘Estimated bill’ section on the In Home Display (IHD). You won’t be able to reset this part (or the IHD) but you’ll be able to see your usage for the day, week and month via the ‘History’ tab.

Lucy

That's a short fall in the system and MUST be fixed otherwise the display is useless as a chocolate tea pot.

Hey @MikeWilliams,

That is a slight issue in the way the Pipit 500 IHDs are designed. We've had plenty of feedback around this which is why we're trialling and rolling out the Chameleon IHD currently, which will show this info.

You can get a projection of your next bill (just for the current month, not a cumulative total) on your online account.

Cheers,
Nancy

@Nancy_OVO Is it possible for existing users to get one of the newer displays. My old Pipet (installed in March 2015) is certainly showing its age with a dim display (not that I got much useful info from it anyway though as OVO never seem to get the right tariff details loaded) and is difficult to read.

@VinceMarsters, if your old IHD is giving up the ghost we can look into sending you a new one. I'd advise contacting the team about this on 0330 303 5063. We'll need to send you out a prepaid jiffy bag to return the old one and then we can send out a shiny new one.

We can't guarantee it's going to be a Chameleon, but it could be. It entirely depends on stock, which is limited, and region.

Nancy