Smart Meter In-Home-Display IHD6 Stripdown 

This was a rather interesting overview of this neat little display! My power company upgraded my meter to a "smart" one from the same manufacture (in the States here.) and I noted the zigbee logo on mine as well. Did a fair amount of research coming up with nothing, so I rang up the power people and got basically nowhere. I wanted to see if it were possible to monitor my usage via zigbee from the meter and inject that data into my home assistant server for collection graphing and monitoring. Anyone I could reach with electric company had no clue. The old meter used the ISM 900mhz band, and while I never successfully found my power meter, I was able to find the gas meter in the 433mhz ISM band, and successfully sniff its data out of the air. My solution for power monitoring was to build my own system with some CT clamps inside the electrical panel, which plug into an esp32 and run data into esphome addin within home assistant. Pretty neat.

Hello again Julian. The third wire on the battery is almost certainly the other end of a grounded negative temperature coefficient thermistor. This allows the charging circuitry to detect the battery temperature and cease charging when outside a specified range, usually between 0'C and 45'C.

Very interesting video. I love the fact that you are scaring the family into switching things off😂. Also loving the thrupence and tuppence, just don’t get enough of that these days 😂.

Although these may be Zigbee often the profile is the SE profile which is not compatible with the usual profiles we use for home automation, which generally follows the Zigbee HA profile. Just wanted to mention that as a lot of people think Zigbee and that it could be put easily into home automation systems and they may not be so easy to integrate as people think. The Anti-Tamper switch can be setup to be silent to notify the utility company when you have opened it as often these devices are rented and not owned by the customer.

Lithium Thionyl Chloride cells are primary cells I.e. non rechargeable. They are used for sensors with long term applications. Have a look at SAFT LS cells on RS. AA cells with 3.6V each.

I think the version I bought off ebay to mess about with, might be the updated IHD7, as it has a slightly different PCB layout and also has a room temperature sensor near the bottom. I also has an ESP32S2 Processor along with the FT800 display / sound / touch screen chip. I've uploaded a picture of the PCB but for some reason it won't let me put the link to it.

The gas meter does talk Zigbee (which is 2.4G) and they wake up every 30 minutes for a short period, which makes firmware updates fun. The anti-tamper switch will have sent an alert to the DCC (middleman) who may have sent it to your provider who might not even notice 😀

The various numbers your showed on screen can actually be used by anyone who has them to pull your electricity usage stats. E.g there's a third party sites called Hildebrand that I used to get my Octopus readings into home assistant. Pretty sure I only needed those numbers.

It is nice to see yours working, my in home display has never worked, some issue with my meter setup. I have asked my supplier several times to fix it and they never do.

Octopus has a useful API for grabbing various bits of info. We don’t have solar panels yet, but we do have a plug-in hybrid car. I was going to use the agile pricing to optimise for cost charging the car. However, we now have a deal with cheaper electricity in the early hours, so I just run the charger then

Great video. This was the only video I could find on these display. Purchased one off the back of it. However it appears the only do plug in now (I was unaware) so have to leave it plugged in at all times. I noticed the newer ones do not have the battery symbol. It does show a wheather reading instead.

My parents have been considering getting solar since before they built their house in 2020. They couldn't do it when the house was built because of the increased cost of materials and labour during the pandemic. I was speaking to my colleagues at work, one of them has a 10kW system and the other a 15kW system, and surprisingly the one with the 10kW system paid back the cost in just under 3 years, and the one with the 15kW system paid his back in only 2 years. Both of them have batteries and generate a large excess of energy, they basically end up with negative bills over the year, so they're effectively being paid to generate electricity instead of paying to use it. The latter uses a lot more electricity, so that's why his pay back time was quicker. When you're spending thousands of Aussie dollary doos on electricity every year, installing an excessively large system that reduces your bill to zero or negative makes the pay back quicker, obviously at the expense of higher up-front costs.

I now have 9.6kWh of batteries waiting for panels on the roof, I did ask how 18 panels stacked up on there sides in the garage is going to reduce my bills. funny they had no answer for that. 🙂

I am with Utilita and for the past few months had constant signal problems, the engineer came out and said that gas meter not communicating with electric so got no display from my gas and now waiting again to see if they can fix it their end. Got told that if you use a Wi-Fi connection you risk hackers and people switching on your power etc not sure if that's the case but if you dont have a firewall setup that could happen in theory.

Wow! I never knew your wife was from Hong Kong! Chinese women are Beautiful! I love their culture and intelligence. Thanks again for another awesome video, Julian! I have a job interview coming up with an electronics manufacturing co. in CT, USA. Wish me luck! 😀

"Taking a body full of sweat, into your bed at night". Julian, you know there are ones who want that. Probably in NY or LA. 😯 Maybe Cypress. 😜 I think showering in the evening is a great idea. I miss not having a tub. I have a very small studio apartment. Can't beat the cheap rent, though.

It looks like there's a track going from the switch to R40 which is unpopulated, the other side of which goes down towards the voltage regulator at U2. That suggests it might be a pull-up resistor, and the fact that it's not fitted suggests it's floating, hence it may not be active.

Thanks for your time and efforts on this intriguing video. I have a question for you and your subscribers :- "Would an IHD function correctly when paired with a S.M.A.R.T meter that is operating in *dumb* mode?" Presumably, this would preclude the "benefit" to the energy companies knowing when you use energy but it would give homeowners the tools to manage their energy usage (the primary reason energy companies give for the use of SMART meters in the first place).

9:37 these meters use a C or D-cell sized lithium thionyl chloride non-rechargeable cell. I did a teardown of one of these meters a few years ago : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vPc14g-b2YY.html

My IHD went pop a few weeks back, noticed it rebooting and then saw smoke coming out of the back! Unplugged sharp-ish. Received a replacement but haven't got around to getting it paired to the meter yet.

Many thanks fir very useful information.

Very interesting. I wonder when are they going to start charging for apparent power as well?!

Most smart meters still use 2G, which is why the 2G shutdown has been pushed back so far to give time for the smart meters to wear out and be replaced "naturally", without having to go round to everybody's house (again).

Could you please help me I have same home display at home from last two days my gas is showing only …… dots like this I press on dots showing usage KWH not cost. Could you please guide me how will I put back on coast.

Hi Thanks for the video it expalins alot...however i just wondered how this work with a storage battery and solar,does it give reading after the excess power has gone to the battery?

Will they let you switch to Octopus Go for your incoming power, or are you on another supplier for that? I’m attempting to find a solar installer but there’s more chance of Russia going home than having panels on my roof any time soon.

So. The smart meter is already a WiFi hub. Already connected to the telecommunications infrastructure with transmitter and receiver for data. ? Right. So! How to use this ! instead of the current internet providers. ?

I have the same smart meter with British Gas. How far should history go back?

14:07 I might be wrong, but I think that inductor is a piezo buzzer. I've seen the same in a cheap bluetooth tag.

Mine has never worked from the day of installation. Contacted the energy provider many times with no result. I've had the meter and display unit for going on 3 months now. Very dissatisfied with the way they are responding. They either have very poor installers and technicians or they just can't be bothered. (Octopus energy)

The little notch on the power cable is to prevent strain on the micro USB port which can cause it to break or detach from the PCB. Micro USB suck!!!

I have one of this unit from my previous providers and is not linked to anything now. Can I use this unit to connect to a raspberry pi or something else to make an alternative use of it?

Do you recommend installing smart meters? Can the energy suppliers manipulate the actual reading remotely?

Big Brother is watching You.

dont they have encryption keys that are volatile if the tamper is activated, like card machines?

I had three of them. they are known for just screwing up and not connecting anymore. I suspect I live in a high noise area hence the three home display huds, I went through

I have one of thoses units and have never taken any notice of it, however I do know that the gas bit dosent display anything ! and we all shower in the evening too, so we're all squeaky clean...cheers.

Hi Mate great vid would you happen to know as im with edf how you connect the smart display to the smart metre all im getting is not commissioned connecting to smart metre cheers mark

Only time I shower at night is in hot, hot summers days and that's a second shower, as I'm a toasty boie at night and wake up sweaty.

My IHD is not displaying the gas consumption pls guide me on this. Thank you.

Jesus I'm using what you use in a week in a day 😂

Oh, I believe the white wire is a temp sensor.

Hi Julian, Great video as usual. I have an identical meter, but it doesn't have a wifi symbol top right, it shows the incorrect rate for gas and it does not show the export rate (I have a small 1.2Kw solar array) I have reset the IHD several times but the it still shows the wrong tariff ... any suggestions how I could update it?

Are these displays accurate 🤔??

Hi Julian. At 20:50 you said "thruppence" (meaning 3 pence) .. In fact your family used 30 pence worth of gas. So maybe you need to cut down their evening gas usage! LOL. Secondly, I'm sure these remote 'In Home Display' units must be registered to your own meter in some way else you could possibly hack into your neighbours meter to see how much power THEY are using? Just a thought mate.. Ian. 2E0IFZ.

My gas usage doesn't show but my electric does. What could be the problem?

how did you set up the smartmeter to read the solar panels? I have solar panels but I was told that the smartmeter was not able to detect the output of the solar panels

ER34615 Battery, 3.6 V, D, Lithium Thionyl Chloride, 19 Ah, Raised Positive and Flat Negative, 33.1 mm But see the size: 33 mm x 61.5 mm. So small, and still 19Ah, that is like WOW ! A LiFePO4 of that size only delivers 7Ah at 3.3 Volt(ish).

You'd think that the gas meter would have an impeller in the gas flow to recharge the battery.

8:24 our "smart" meters are on 2G. They are going to keep 2G alive specifically for the "smart" meters. How stupid is that.

Damn, I got one of these and was going to do similar as it has an ESP32S2 processor in it. Not sure if its been locked or not though. I did something with one of the PIP500 energy displays some time ago and reverse engineered the connections and used an ESP8266 and wrote some drivers for the touch screen and display. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gplwimAv6js.html

I have the same energy Monitor on Octopus but it doesn't have the wifi option as far as I can see.

I hate them, I love to use Bright which can provide with a monitor device and gets the information from the supplier

Hello Julian, sorry to contact you here, because I can't find your email. May I ask if you will consider business collaboration?

is it still the case that if you change supplier it effectively bricks your smart meter?

Don't tell you energy supply that

Lithium Thionyl Chloride battery. Primary battery, ridiculously high energy density, low internal discharge, not rechargeable, and releases nasty toxic gas if you try.

Mine makes some odd noises, like it has a tiny hdd in it with heads seeking.

If I use your exported power can I just pay you??? 🙂 and save money

How on earth do you use so little electric 😬

Packet radio or LoRa - LoRaWan - Mesh Radio > Shame you don't have USB SDR - Software-defined radio (SDR) "Hack RF One" And or "SDR Play" Due can then Can Ears Drop

Wait, your telling me there are people that shower in the morning? So you go to bed gross.

I was wondering why someone would still build devices in such an obnoxious design and resistive touch screen in 2022. Then you turned the device around and it showed „made in UK“, that was the aaaaahhhh moment 😂

If you can't programm IHD6 with arduino it's proprietary crap.

£ stands for "libra pondo" in Latin. The "pound" can be derived from this as a weight. The Italians used ₤ (Lire) but other currencies are also named after it. In English it is not certain whether it is a currency, a mass or a force. In Germany it was established that 2 pounds correspond to 1 kg. The American pound in lighter and requires 2.2 pounds for 1 kg. I can't say how much the British pound weighs.

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