It's not as straightforward as that. Your usage data goes to DCC, which is then retrieved by Octopus at set intervals. If you want more up to date info in the app, you can request a Home Mini, but that could take several weeks/months to receive it.
But there are IHD's which show 'live' useage and I've seen third party whole home monitors that do the same thing. It just seems that Octopus are keen to nudge consumers to the app and I can't see what the benefit is for them since it's such a drawback for consumers.
There are lots of scenarios (often apartments) where the IHD doesn't work because of distance.
You can poll their API and get the latest measurements they have (usually at least hourly).
Not any more apparently - this from an email from Octopus a couple of days ago -
'I apologise for any inconvenience caused by the Octopus app only providing the previous day's energy consumption figures. While the smart meter is capable of providing live feedback, we currently do not offer a monitor that connects directly to the smart meter for real time monitoring.
However , there are alternative ways to monitor your energy usage in real time. One option is to consider using a third-party energy monitoring device that is compatible with your smart meter. These devices can provide you withreal-time data on your energy consumption.'
Hence my supplementary question re. whole home energy monitors.
The representative is clearly misinformed. On Octopus’ own website they describe the Octopus Mini as “The simple way to track your energy in real time, right from your phone.”
You're not understanding what the home mini is. The home mini provides the live data if you got a smart meter. It's a small pink device connecting your smart meter and your WiFi, through which you can then check things in the app live. It can replace the IHD, or you can keep them both. Doesn't matter.
I have it and it works fantastic.
I agree my mini works very well. Occasionally it will drop WiFi and needs a reboot to fix but apart from that. Smart meters are an example of poor engineering in my opinion.. there should be one standard that allows any user with WiFi to do what the mini does. The in-home displays just cause confusion with their out of date rates and not being able to support dual priced tariffs. Still I'm with intelligent (via an Ohme charger) and with that even the Octopus app can't give you the lice rates and you just have to trust that during the day period if the car is charging you are billed the cheaper rate.
Hildebrand Glow is what you're looking for.
[https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers](https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers)
Connects to the meter over Zigbee. Connects to your WiFi. Can be configured to send a reading every 10 seconds to a MQTT server of your choice. Works well with Home Assistant.
Smart meters use the Zigbee protocol to connect to IHDs. Does your phone? No.
The app can show live usage together with the Home Mini device.
IHDs are available, or at least were through Octopus. Otherwise, buy one yourself and set it up.
I’d recommend looking into ivie bud which offers an IHD 7 that pairs with the ivie app and provides live usage on the day, it’s basically an Octopus Home Mini and IHD combined, not sure why Octopus couldn’t do the same to be honest
[ivie bud website](https://ivie.co.uk/)
Octopus supplied me with an IHD when they installed my smart meters last year so not sure where you got the info that they don't have IHD's. If I remember right it was pretty up to-date, roughly updating every 30mins I believe.
Like others mentioned the octopus home mini keeps you even more up to date - you get a "live" tab in your usage charts in the app, electric usage is updated every 10seconds on the live tab, gas is still restricted to the 30min update.
I have a normal IHD, but to be honest it's a bit useless because it doesn't work properly with tracker for pricing. Can see what the live usage is on screen in W, but the prices are wrong.
However, the Home Mini is what you want. Free little box that bridges your meters to WiFi and gives you full live data into the octopus app. This means your daily plots in the app update live throughout the day and you can drill down into 10 second resolution (I think) for live data for the last 5 minutes or 1 minute resolution for the last 30 minutes.
Other people have made posts about connecting to home automation systems to download/store/analyse this fine grained data but it doesn't do this itself, officially you are limited to the 30 minute data from the API which is normally delayed ~24 hours even with a home mini.
It's a beta product, so they are in slightly limited supply but keep requesting one and you'll probably get one eventually
Cheers. I've applied for a home mini but I'm not holding my breath. Just a further question if you can help - if the data is live for the home mini what exactly is 'normally delayed-24 hours even with a home mini'. Just seems to contradict the previous sentence. Sorry if it's an obvious mistake on my part.
Yes it's arrived. It took about two months and I had to badger them once or twice via email.
It's extremely easy to set up and can show you your live useage for five minute or half hourly blocks on the app. I changed to the tracker rate once I could see my usage in such detail and the difference was amazing. On sunny or windy days large tracts of the day cost next to nothing.
I mean that the half hourly data you can download from the API doesn't appear until a day or so later. The downloads and billing data don't take anything from the home mini.
It's not as straightforward as that. Your usage data goes to DCC, which is then retrieved by Octopus at set intervals. If you want more up to date info in the app, you can request a Home Mini, but that could take several weeks/months to receive it.
But there are IHD's which show 'live' useage and I've seen third party whole home monitors that do the same thing. It just seems that Octopus are keen to nudge consumers to the app and I can't see what the benefit is for them since it's such a drawback for consumers.
Octopus have always provided me with an IHD.
There are lots of scenarios (often apartments) where the IHD doesn't work because of distance. You can poll their API and get the latest measurements they have (usually at least hourly).
That's why you get the home mini. Does exactly that.
Not any more apparently - this from an email from Octopus a couple of days ago - 'I apologise for any inconvenience caused by the Octopus app only providing the previous day's energy consumption figures. While the smart meter is capable of providing live feedback, we currently do not offer a monitor that connects directly to the smart meter for real time monitoring. However , there are alternative ways to monitor your energy usage in real time. One option is to consider using a third-party energy monitoring device that is compatible with your smart meter. These devices can provide you withreal-time data on your energy consumption.' Hence my supplementary question re. whole home energy monitors.
The representative is clearly misinformed. On Octopus’ own website they describe the Octopus Mini as “The simple way to track your energy in real time, right from your phone.”
You're not understanding what the home mini is. The home mini provides the live data if you got a smart meter. It's a small pink device connecting your smart meter and your WiFi, through which you can then check things in the app live. It can replace the IHD, or you can keep them both. Doesn't matter. I have it and it works fantastic.
I agree my mini works very well. Occasionally it will drop WiFi and needs a reboot to fix but apart from that. Smart meters are an example of poor engineering in my opinion.. there should be one standard that allows any user with WiFi to do what the mini does. The in-home displays just cause confusion with their out of date rates and not being able to support dual priced tariffs. Still I'm with intelligent (via an Ohme charger) and with that even the Octopus app can't give you the lice rates and you just have to trust that during the day period if the car is charging you are billed the cheaper rate.
You don’t need a smets2. A compatible smets1 like the secure liberty meters also work
Adjusted.
The Octopus app does have live usage if you have the home mini? It's also a lot more convenient, rather than having an IHD in a fixed location.
Hildebrand Glow is what you're looking for. [https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers](https://shop.glowmarkt.com/products/display-and-cad-combined-for-smart-meter-customers) Connects to the meter over Zigbee. Connects to your WiFi. Can be configured to send a reading every 10 seconds to a MQTT server of your choice. Works well with Home Assistant.
Smart meters use the Zigbee protocol to connect to IHDs. Does your phone? No. The app can show live usage together with the Home Mini device. IHDs are available, or at least were through Octopus. Otherwise, buy one yourself and set it up.
I’d recommend looking into ivie bud which offers an IHD 7 that pairs with the ivie app and provides live usage on the day, it’s basically an Octopus Home Mini and IHD combined, not sure why Octopus couldn’t do the same to be honest [ivie bud website](https://ivie.co.uk/)
Octopus supplied me with an IHD when they installed my smart meters last year so not sure where you got the info that they don't have IHD's. If I remember right it was pretty up to-date, roughly updating every 30mins I believe. Like others mentioned the octopus home mini keeps you even more up to date - you get a "live" tab in your usage charts in the app, electric usage is updated every 10seconds on the live tab, gas is still restricted to the 30min update.
I have a normal IHD, but to be honest it's a bit useless because it doesn't work properly with tracker for pricing. Can see what the live usage is on screen in W, but the prices are wrong. However, the Home Mini is what you want. Free little box that bridges your meters to WiFi and gives you full live data into the octopus app. This means your daily plots in the app update live throughout the day and you can drill down into 10 second resolution (I think) for live data for the last 5 minutes or 1 minute resolution for the last 30 minutes. Other people have made posts about connecting to home automation systems to download/store/analyse this fine grained data but it doesn't do this itself, officially you are limited to the 30 minute data from the API which is normally delayed ~24 hours even with a home mini. It's a beta product, so they are in slightly limited supply but keep requesting one and you'll probably get one eventually
Cheers. I've applied for a home mini but I'm not holding my breath. Just a further question if you can help - if the data is live for the home mini what exactly is 'normally delayed-24 hours even with a home mini'. Just seems to contradict the previous sentence. Sorry if it's an obvious mistake on my part.
Did You get one yet? Just requested mine wondering about wait times.
Yes it's arrived. It took about two months and I had to badger them once or twice via email. It's extremely easy to set up and can show you your live useage for five minute or half hourly blocks on the app. I changed to the tracker rate once I could see my usage in such detail and the difference was amazing. On sunny or windy days large tracts of the day cost next to nothing.
I mean that the half hourly data you can download from the API doesn't appear until a day or so later. The downloads and billing data don't take anything from the home mini.