Introductions
Hello. I’ve just joined the forum. I’m interested in smart homes and using technology as a means of greener living. I have solar panels, battery storage and a dynamic electricity tariff which is optimised using a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) that I created. I’ve recently added predictive algorithms for output from my solar panels so that I can establish how much (if any) electricity I need to buy from the grid to fully charge the battery each day. I use a Glow Stick with the Bright app to see the electricity consumption / export from my smart meter, but plan to use the APIs for automatic load management in future.
Comments
Thank you for starting this discussion and welcome.
I'm Jane Wilson, COO at Hildebrand - and these days also doing all the customer support and fulfilment ;)
Any questions people have that are specific to their own configuration - please drop us an email to support@glowmarkt.com and we will do our best to help.
FYI, we are looking at how we can do more to support solar and SEG - will let you all know when the work is complete. Take care all.
Chris here - Oxwichbay on the Octopus forum.
I am interested also in all things energy. My introduction to Smart meters was in trying to find a supplier to replace my very faulty economy seven meter.
Octopus were rolling out the Secure Liberty 100 smart meters and if you insisted they could record 30 min data. Getting the data was a whole different ball game.
I have the GlowStick USB CAD device. I have always found the CAD name undersells what can be gained.
Blake here,
Reasonably long time user of the GlowStick have a keen interest in home automation and IoT, often look at this from a programming integration point of view. I currently maintain an Python library to talk to the CAD. Always happy to help if I can.
Sidepipe - Adam IRL... just a bit of a data geek to be honest but into green energy where it makes sense. My EPC for the house suggests installing solar water heating at a cost of 4k-6k, for a saving of 50 quid a year. Erm, I'll pass thanks!
@Greening_Me - I've looked into battery storage cost/tech a few times and really can't make it make financial or eco sense ( wrote quite a long piece about it a while ago if anyone's interested in my calculations. ) Even with TOU tariffs, it still doesn't seem anywhere near the break even point despite having many more options such as being able to charge the battery overnight etc ( though I haven't made any detailed calculations for this since TOU wasn't really a thing when I last looked. ) Have you actually managed to make it cost in?
Hi @sidepipe - I'd be interested in your piece and your calculations. We are involved in a research project on battery in the non-domestic space and obviously financial viability is a key element. If you don't mind sharing - please send it through to support@glowmarkt.com - thank you. Any other views from others who'd like to share are very welcome.
Hello all, Iain here. My Display/CAD arrived in the post today, so I thought I should join the forums. I'm an engineer, cloud computing and data geek, and had a SMETS2 meter installed earlier in the year so I could get the Agile Octopus tariff. My primary focus is the decarbonisation of my transport and heating, with the cost of them being secondary, so naturally solar PV and batteries are of interest. Always up for a chat on all things energy related.
Hi, Andrew here. Like Adam, it would be fair to call me 'a bit of a data geek' :-)
I received my GlowStick a couple of weeks ago, and have written a few Perlscripts to access the data. I'm currently looking at whether a battery makes sense (the ROI isn't looking convincing as yet, even though I'm on the Octopus Agile tariff); I also like the idea of UPS but the added cost there doesn't help with ROI either.
Hi, Simon here. Having just made the switch to an EV - Peugeot 208 I'm now switching to a smart meter and move to overnight charging. Also a 'data geek', I've worked in IT all my career and am now fascinated with reading everything about smart tariffs, dynamic pricing, DSR... the list goes on! And what will we do with all that wind energy (once we've built them) during the night??
Hi Steve here, I was directed here by Octopus as I was looking for a CAD that I could use to post realtime data locally. I run an eclipse mosquitto instance under docker. I have not yet purchased the Display&CAD as I can't work out whether data can be restricted to be published locally. We don't have a reliable internet connection so systems that rely on it suffer. Up until now I have been using various other APIs (Tesla, Fronius etc.) to pull data from kit here but rarely did they agree with the Octopus API readings. After the L&G E470 misreading issues, which took nearly a year for the energy suppliers to act upon, I would like to keep a close eye on the replacement Kaifa one.
Hi Steve - Welcome to our forums. If you want a local solution then our CAD isn't your solution. Unfortunately there is no real-time solution that delivers local access as far as I'm aware, we are already unique in offering a CAD to retail customers directly, being a DCC Other User and making data available via API and/or MQTT. The challenge is that with SMETS2 meters for a company like us to do the meter join we have had to go through the very expensive (time, skill and outgoing costs for connections and mandates audits) process of becoming what is called a DCC Other User (https://smartenergycodecompany.co.uk/your-security-and-privacy-obligations/) - and by having an internet connection with our devices we can then deliver OTA updates, etc. You could always start with non real-time with our Bright App and related APIs - that gives you HH data which is updated fairly frequently. If you have one of our CADs we can also publish over MQTT. What we can say is that even if your local internet drops, we will catch up the HH profile reads for you when you can next get back online but appreciate that may not meet your needs. If you've more detailed questions - feel free to drop us a line to support@glowmarkt.com
Thank you Jane for your prompt reply and appreciate the work your company is doing in this area. I think the simplest (and probably the cheapest) answer is for me to install a reference meter in series with the SMETS2 one. Many of them have RS485 connectivity which is relatively simple to address. If I need to fall back on remote HH data the Octopus API can supply that. It does seem strange to go to such efforts to secure a local short range Zigbee signal from the consumer but then the groups that decide on such standards rarely consider end users.
Hi all. I just joined the forum.
I have recently joined Octopus Energy as when I was with OVO I was able to monitor my energy usage on the OVO app.
I left OVO as they failed to sort out my connectivity problem that is assuming I had a problem in the first place !?
OVO asked me for monthly meter readings as they said that I needed to wait for a firmware update for the communication hub and yet after installing the Bright app and registering my IHD by verification I can see the last 13 months of data so does this mean that my meter was working fine all along ?
What I mean is if there was a connectivity problem surely the Bright app wouldn't work would it ?
Evening all.
I have joined finally this evening, have been having a great email exchange with Jane the last couple of weeks.
I'm an Igloo customer, have an IHD and smart meters. I am a bit of a data geek in my work life and have started a research project this year to try and track energy consumption within the home, taking into account various variables (in/out/kids home/outside temp) and measure trends. Not only energy usage, but temperate, carbon footprint (both home energy and cars) and loads of other things. My aim is to build a picture of a home, and then publish the findings, spot improvements that can be made and the steps I took so others can have a go too.
So part of this is to get at all the lovely data from things like the smart meter, my smart thermostat, etc, so I can then start the analysis... And there lies my first hurdle!!!
Appreciate any help or comments!
I joined yesterday and am amazed that I can access my smart meters using the Bright app even though I haven't purchased anything YET, I don't think there is any other company offering this service? You weren't easy to find but my persistence was well rewarded.
I am interested in home technology and access to the data, a retired software developer.
I only had smart meters and a Geohome Trio 3 IHD installed 13th Jan 2021 by Green Network Energy, who promptly ceased trading, leaving me with a display and app that could not read the meters. I was told by the IHD company that the comms unit needing resetting by my Energy provider, rather tricky as EDF Energy have taken over supply but I don't have a customer account number or tariff yet.
What puzzled me is that your app can access and report accurately on it, any suggestions why you can but existing IHD/app can't?
That said, the IHD won't boot now so I may be ordering one from you unless EDF will provide another FOC.
I have a query about the Bright app so I will post in the relevant place, many thanks
Hi @davepreston, welcome! The good news is that when Green Network Energy installed your meters they clearly managed to successfully commission your meters - and once SMETS2 meters are commissioned it means that we can then capture the meter readings via the DCC (which manage the communications network behind SMETS2 meters). We can do this because we are a DCC Other User who built our own adaptor - that all gets quite technical but be reassured as it comes with a very high bar including security and privacy audits.
I can't comment on why your IHD isn't working - it could just be that the engineer didn't commission it properly.
Not sure if you are aware but you can get API access automatically, and MQTT on request - the latter obviously only makes sense with our CAD for the real-time data.
The postie knocked today. I've just got my Glow Display delivered.
I'm an EV owner (Kia Niro 64kWh).
I'm on the Agile Octpus tariff (they replaced my SMETS1 meters with SMETS2 (which sometimes works)).
I'm a long term Raspberry Pi hacker and MQTT wrangler.
>>MQTT on request
How do I request MQTT access?
Hi All -John here
I've just joined the forum. I'm a retired Operational Technical Strategy manager for a large UK water utility. I have a long term career interest in measurement, control and telemetry. In retirement I'm playing around with IOT type stuff, using GSM, LORA and other stuff on a whole bunch of local and remote Raspberry Pi's. I've just gone smart (almost) with SO Energy.
All stopping my brain from seizing up in retirement.
Cant wait to get my hands on a SMETS2 CAD device.
Cheers
Hi John - welcome and thanks for sharing your background. We are either actively using, or have developed IoT and LORA solutions.
SMETS2 CAD and IHD/CAD are hopefully due to be with us in mid December - but these days it is not sensible to make promises on timings! If you've any specific questions - just drop an email to support@glowmarkt.com