Like the title says, has anybody recently had a “SMETS2 Smart Meter” installed by Octopus Energy in the North East of the UK.
I’ve put off having new smart meters fitted for many years now as I have equipment setup of my own to make by “very dumb” gas meter and “slightly dumb” SMETS1 electricity meter smart in my own way. They both currently integrate very well with Home Assistant and I do not want to loose ANY of this integration.
BUT with my current electricity meter I CANNOT go onto any sort of smart tariff and as I have 2 x 9.5kWh GivEnergy batteries installed (plus a lot of solar panels) and I live in the dark and gloomy North East of England where the sun disappears for about 4 months of the year I’m contemplating moving onto a tariff with a cheap night time rate.
I’ve made numerous enquiries to my energy supplier Octopus Energy trying to find out exactly which make and model they will install and have spoken to some helpful staff BUT they will not give a definite meter model.
Probable meters are…
Kaifa MA120 Single-Phase meter (4 port)
Kaifa MA120B Single-Phase (5 port)
EDMI ES-10B Single-Phase (4 port)
EDMI ES-12B Single-Phase (5 port)
Landis&Gyr E470 Single-Phase
I currently use old / out of manufacture “Current Cost” equipment to read both meters that upload data to Home Assistant every few seconds
Electric Meter - Optical Pulse Counter
Gas meter - Reed Switch Counter
I get Power (watts) & Energy (kWh’s) using my current equipment
I believe that if I’m supplied a IHD (In-Home Display) that I can possibly communicate with that and get live data every few seconds.
So basically what I’m after is information from probably anybody really not just Octopus Energy customers, who have smart meters (gas & electric) in the UK and how they communicate with Home Assistant.
I’ve also got the Hildebrand Glow IHD which interfaces directly to the meters so works independently to Octopus. There’s also a custom component for that too
Where in the UK are you
What Make & Model are your meters
Do you feel you get all the data you would require for Gas & Electric
Do you think I would want both an IHD & Octopus Home Mini or would just 1 device to give it all
I’m near Hull, East Yorkshire. The models are above. I get more data than I need
Octopus IHD is crap, I never got it working
If you are with Octopus then you’d be ok as is. The mini only gives the extra instant power draw/export. It’s free (but takes a while to come) so may as well get one. Also you get more data direct from Octopus - standing charge, current rate etc (see above)
I had the Hildebrand before I was with Octopus
Octopus is a cloud service whereas the Hildebrand connects direct to the meters via proprietary zigbee and the via MQTT to HA
I’ve got the Hildebrand DCC integration running on my Mam’s & Daughters Home Assistant setups as they both have smart meters installed already but I find it a bit hit & miss.
Currently my daughters is missing Gas Used Today
and my Mams is missing Electricity Used Today and have been like that for about 4 days
What I’m most after is something that doesn’t really on a third party like a Cloud if possible
Yes the cloud Hildebrand DCC setup is crap, that’s why I bought the Glow IHD. Different local component and works spot on. Not cheap though, think I paid ~£60 for it but it’s now £91 and OOS.
When I asked what make & Model meters you had I was after the model number printed on your actual meters NOT what is reported to HA. There are 2 possible Kaifia meters & 2 EDMI meters I could receive
All smart gas meters have an internal battery (the electric meters and the radio network unit are wired to the mains so don’t need one). The gas meters only communicate to the electric unit every 30 minutes, so that the battery lasts at least 10 years (and then the meter will need replacing anyway).
Regardless of how you connect to the smart system, the gas data is always in 30 minute blocks at best. I have an IHD (pointless device) and I can hear my gas boiler from my desk. Clearly the IHD gas flame I see is for the previous 30 minute block and is not ‘real time’.
My Octopus mini works in a similar fashion, taking the gas data from the electricity and HAN unit, so ‘live’ gas is actually time-blocked. Not that this is a problem. I can see when the central heating comes on, and when the hot water is recovering from drawing a bath.
Bottlecap Dave’s integration places the gas meter value for the half hour into the (mini live gas) sensor state and holds this for about 6 minutes, so you get something like this:-
Not having a more granular data feed is a minor matter compared with having a smart meter and access to Export tariffs, saver sessions, and dynamic pricing.
I’m seriously considering NOT getting the gas meter changed and only allowing the engineer to install a new smart (SMETS2) electric meter, that way I should get the best of bold worlds (I Think!) unless someone tells me differently
On a very basic level, all meters have to be changed at some point. Gas meters only last for 10-15 years, and you will have to have your gas meter changed at some point (smart or dumb). At my last house someone turned up to swap the gas meter after about 12 years, and I had no choice in the matter (change it or we turn off the gas).
If you hang on to your old dumb meter, at some point it will get changed and the likelihood is that only smart meters are available.
I would say that you are only putting off the inevitable, that smart meters are actually useful (when they work) and getting one can be quite difficult so if they are offering - go for it.
What will you loose? Not much frankly - you really don’t need the data that much.
And as an extra thought - go for the Octopus Mini. Getting gas meter consumption via the standard route is very slow. Electricity consumption for the previous day arrives usually by 9 in the morning. Gas can be late afternoon, early evening, or the next day (or later that week). The Mini is close to real time.
I currently get real time data from my gas meter using an add-on “Current Cost GaSmart” so I’d be losing that.
I’ve had the same gas meter for the 22 years I’ve lived in this house
If I’m forced to have it changed in the future then I have no choice and by then the gas meters could be smarter. But whilst I (think) I have a choice I do not see ANY benefit and only NEGATIVES for having it changed
