UK "smart" energy meters

Hardware
61

Timmo this is what you need, its not dependent on supplier.

To confirm what Holdestmade said, you cannot and will not ever be able to connect to the Zigbee network (HAN) if tour smart meter. Firstly its its own Zigbee coordinator, you only have one coordinator in a zigbee network, this would be your conbee. Secondly, the Data and Communications Company (DCC) who manage and control access to the UK smart meter infrastructure only allow authorized 3rd parties access to the network, as you can imagine there is immense scope for all sorts of fuckery here!
Hildebrand, who make the Glow hub as per my link, are authorised to access the DCC network. When you buy the glow hub, you have to explicitly allow Hildebrand access to your meter and its data via a couple of mechanisms they will explain. Once they have access they can pull the data from your meter via the Glow Hub and pipe it back to you via REST API or direct MQTT feed (very cool).

Josh

2 Likes
62

Ahh, cool.

Wish there was a way of hacking the IHD they provide by flashing a firmware or something so we can access this data. Apparently it sends mqtt data via WiFi but getting this data is probably impossible.

Be nice if OVO fixed their API to get live data instead of yesterdayā€™s data which isnā€™t great but at least itā€™s something I guess

63

I beleive the delayed access to data is to do with the DCC and not the energy provider in this case, this is why the hildebrand system requires and onsite device, the Glow Hub. The hub is not directly accessible, it just grabs the immediate meter data and send it to Hildebrand who make it immediately available back to you. They also offer a comparable free service that works in the same way as OVAā€™s API with delayed access to your data, could be useful for those with other suppliers who dont provide this directly but dont want to spaff Ā£60 quid on the hub?

64

One of the biggest questions is why do you want the data ?
The data from the Hildebrand unit by MQTT is as instantaneous as your internet connection allows, so probably ~200ms delayed at maximum.
If you need anything better than that then youā€™re best bet will be additional metering using something with MODBUS or a similar protocol.

65

I have a SMETS1 meter, so it looks as if I would have to go with the Glow Stick. I canā€™t find anything about the MQTT feed. Do you know if itā€™s available for both or have a link to any further Information?

66

Iā€™ve just gone through the account setup process on Glow, waiting for it to be authorised in 2 days they say!

Has anyone had this work with Home assistant yet? How does it integrate?

67

For anyone who is looking at getting the Hildebrand glow solution, below is my experience.

Iā€™ve been runinng it for around 2 weeks now, and so far its the best way I am able to get my smart meter data, even if I change my suppliers, they will still provide me with the data, so long as they keep their API open! but thats like anything cloud I guess, which is the only downside to this solution, they do not give you local access to the device to feed data to you, it effectivley sends data out then you go and retreive it from their serversā€¦seems a little counter intuative.

I ordered the IHD unit from them to get the more granular results.

Integreation with HA was simple enough with the addon from unlobito - https://github.com/unlobito/ha-hildebrandglow

The sensor I put on the HA dashboard is also pretty responsive in terms of my usage, so i turn my oven on it pretty much spikes instantly, so not a great deal of delay.

The only thing that got me was that you dont get your own API key which is what I thought you did based on the documentationā€¦ instead you use the generic one provided by Hildebrand documentation located here https://github.com/unlobito/ha-hildebrandglow coupled with your Glow account credentials.

Their support team are super responsive and are working on some interesting projects as well.

Currently everything is working fine, I did notice a few outages in my data collection however not 100% sure if that was my end or theirs. Will keep an eye on it if it happens more often or not.

Overall, happy so far, and my influx DB is getting fatter by the second with my smart meter data :grin:

6 Likes
68

mqtt is available on both the IHD and the Stick - just let us know you want it when you place your order.

1 Like
69

Thanks for all the great info here, I ordered my Glow Display and it is working really well so far. I have been able to integrate it with Home Assistant through MQTT and templates, and can now gather instant electricity consumption, as well as daily / weekly / monthly electricity and gas consumption and meter readings. All of that is in real time! I published my setup guide here in case anyone wants to replicate it:


And if youā€™d like to poke around the MQTT API Iā€™ve also published my python test script.
I initially tried the ha-hildebrandglow custom component but found it required restarting Home Assistant every week to refresh the plugin, it did not expose the gas meter and it used the web API meaning it didnā€™t get real-time data the way the MQTT API does, but uses polling instead.
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70

Merci Fred. It works a charm. I did not realise that MQTT is not enabled by default on Glow. So was scratching my head for a while. As soon as the glow team enabled it data started flowing in. Great work!

1 Like
71

Thereā€™s a discussion around API access for Bulb here which I would encourage people to show interest in.

72

I have just come across this nPower phython script https://github.com/corifeo/nPowerAPI and tested it, it appears to work and pulls the last 180 days for both gas and electric from nPower.

Hi Jody Popplewell, customer number xxxxxx
Contract: xxxxxxxxx, Meter: xxxxxxxxx
Date: 2020-06-06T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 17835, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-07-10T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 17891, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-08-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 17911, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-11-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 18152, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 18342, Plausible: False
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 18335, Plausible: True
Contract: xxxxxx, Meter: xxxxxxx
Date: 2020-12-02T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 0, Plausible: True
Contract: xxxxxxxx, Meter: xxxxxx
Date: 2020-06-06T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 78416, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-06-24T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 78942, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-07-10T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79197, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-08-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79478, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-09-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79770, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-10-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 80052, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-11-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 80426, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 80892, Plausible: False
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 80875, Plausible: True
Contract: xxxxxxx, Meter: xxxxxxxx
Date: 2020-12-02T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 0, Plausible: True
Contract: xxxxxxxx, Meter: xxxxxxxxx, Fuel: Electric MPXN: xxxxxxxx
Contract: xxxxxxxx, Meter: xxxxxxxxx, Fuel: Gas MPXN: xxxxxxxx

I have just had a smart meter installed yesterday so I am hoping it might start picking up at least daily info.

We would need to be able to get nodered or something to pull the info out that we need but might have some potential.

73

Has anyone used computer vision to extract smart meter readings? I am contemplating this approach since my meter is completely locked down but has a pretty standard LCD display

image
image2724Ɨ1162 365 KB

4 Likes
74

Looks like this might only give weekly, I will keep testing to see if it gets any more up to date readings

But it has now pulled in a reading labelled as ā€œsmartā€

Hi Jody Popplewell, customer number XXXXXXX
Contract: XXXXXXX Meter: XXXXXXX
Date: 2020-07-10T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 17891, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-08-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 17911, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-11-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 18152, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 18342, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 18335, Plausible: True
Contract: XXXXXXXMeter: XXXXXXX
Date: 2020-12-02T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 0, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-09T00:00:00, Type: Smart, Read: 46, Plausible: True
Contract: XXXXXXX Meter: XXXXXXX
Date: 2020-06-24T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 78942, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-07-10T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79197, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-08-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79478, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-09-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79770, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-09-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 79770, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-10-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 80052, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-11-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 80426, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 80892, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-01T00:00:00, Type: Customer, Read: 80875, Plausible: True
Contract: XXXXXXX Meter: XXXXXXX
Date: 2020-12-02T00:00:00, Type: npower, Read: 0, Plausible: True
Date: 2020-12-09T00:00:00, Type: Smart, Read: 105, Plausible: True
Contract: XXXXXXX Meter: XXXXXXX Fuel: Electric MPXN: XXXXXXX
Contract: XXXXXXX Meter: XXXXXXX Fuel: Gas MPXN: XXXXXXX
75

Hello ā€¦ just want to add to this and ask for a little of help please.

I installed the IOS app ā€œBrightā€ registered and it was working within an hour. I didnt quite realise the application ID was a generic one and can be found in their PDF that explains the API, but their support are very good and pointed me in the right direction. So I installed the Hidlebrand glow integration in HA which seemed straight forward but it didnt create any sensors for the two meters (gas and electric) I have , which do show up in the mobile app.

Question is , as anyone done it this way and got it working and if so any suggestions on where I might have gone wrong?

Many thanks

Andy

76

Great looking to replicate your setup as I am giving up with Bulbs SmartThings integration (keep falling over and they dont seem to care)

I have setup the free version with them using Android App and its OK - need their IHD of dongle for real-time data I suspect.

77

Hi @denver, Iā€™ve been asking Ovo for a live usage API for years, and although there was a rumour that someone was working on one late last year, I havenā€™t been tagged in the ovo forum about its release. I started using Home Assistant just before Xmas 2020, and installed the Ovo integration, but I donā€™t understand what data itā€™s providing. Have you been able to get your hands on the Ovo live usage API?

78

Hi @timmo001, I started using Home Assistant on a raspberry pi last December to monitor my home environment to continue baselining before doing some more retrofit. The first thing I installed and got working was the Met Office integration for external temperatures. Then I found the Ovo integration - I can see youā€™ve done some bug fixing in GitHub recently. I didnā€™t understand what it was showing me, but left it running anyway. Since then Iā€™ve got Hive returning lots of good data which all makes sense. Iā€™ve now got 5 Aquara temperature and humidity sensors feeding in via a ConBee II. I already had a couple of emonTH feeding into emoncms. And I have access to my energy use via an emonTx and Carbon Co-op, but canā€™t get data from either into Home Assistant at the moment. Can you explain what data the Ovo integration is pulling into Home Assistant? It it daily readings, or half hourly, or something else altogether? I was hoping this would be the missing link in the puzzle, but so far Iā€™ve failed to interpret it. Thanks in anticipation of you being able throw some light on this!

79

Iā€™m in the UKā€¦ I monitor my power using a PZEM-016 which is wired to a wifi Elfin-EW11ā€¦ home assistant uses the modbus integration to read values from itā€¦ Iā€™ve got volts, watts, power factor and ampsā€¦ got it all graphed in grafana and use the HA Utility Meter components to also track power usage per day, week and month.

I looked into reading directly from the smart meter and gave upā€¦ seemed a nightmare

80

This sounds interesting, do you have a link to a set up guide? Does the PZEM just clamp onto the incoming mains cable?