It doesn’t work with the IHD you get with the smart meter. You have to buy theirs…
I guess that’s a “no” then….
Not always the case, especially with new build homes. When I moved into my new build last year, there was no IHD. I contacted BG and they told me they no longer leave an IHD in a new build because most seem to go ‘missing’ before the new occupants move in. So a few weeks after moving in, a BG engineer arrived with an IHD whilst he swapped out the unregistered Smart meter some dork 3rd party engineer had installed on behalf of the house builder.
The Bright App works absolutely fine with our Smart meters. Unfortunately, the Standing Charges on both meter readings are totally incorrect because it seems BG haven’t updated the DCC with the correct tariff information.
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Interestedly, the IHD supplied by Shell is the same model as that displayed on the ivie.co.uk website.
Question:
Is the IHD purely for my benefit, ie., informing me of usage etc, or is it also the means by which my meters communicate with my energy provider?
I’m fairly certain that IHDs are purely a monitoring device to show a homeowner what energy they’re using. The Smart meters themselves are connected directly to the DCC network via phone signal, well the meters that work are anyway.
To be honest, I find BGs IHD to be nothing more than a gimmick, it’s not like I’m looking at the thing every day. Almost all of my home energy appliances are very energy efficient anyway, even my Blomberg heat pump tumble dryer uses very little energy in use.
In fact, as a result of this post, I’ve just sacked the IHD off and thrown it in a box and probably saved myself a quid a year in running costs 
It’s effectively a pointless bit of kit anyway.
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Ok, I’m going to stop moaning about the Bright App not displaying the correct standing charges. I’ve checked my online British Gas account tariff info and the Bright App and they are now reading the same.
Yep. For most providers they’re optional anyway and you don’t have to accept one. And if they give you one anyway you don’t have to use it.
I think the concept of what they do is sound, but I think the package they come in is largely wasteful when so many of us will own a phone or a tablet, and an app could achieve the same thing.
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Yes, the actual communication is performed by the comms hub which is built into the electricity meter. That transmits the data from both the gas and electricity meters.
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So what app would people recommend to try?
Thanks Mike. The gas meter is communicating, it seems, as the various apps I’m trialling all return gas data. The problem then, is the comms with the electricity meter. Presumably it’s the link between meter & hub.
Every day’s a school day…. 
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Could be, and possibly even fixed with a remote reboot if you can get Shell to organise that.
Yes, I’ve spoken to them this weekend. It’s now on their list……
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Give the Bright App a go. After 24 hours, it’ll populate fully with the last few months data. For me, the App works well on both my Android Nokia tablet and my IPhone XR.
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Unfortunately it says my meter isn’t eligible
I’m guessing then that your Smart meters are SMETS 1 and haven’t yet been upgraded to connect to the DCC.
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Yeah apparently so
Who’s your energy provider? If the meters were installed years ago, you could try asking them if the meters could be changed. They might say no, but if you don’t ask and all that…
Worth noting too, that Smart gas meters apparently only have an active working life of around 10 years before they need replacing. This is due to them containing a non serviceable internal battery that powers the meter so that it can send live data to the electric meter which then sends that on via either 3g signal or by the more modern 4g method to the DCC.
It’s British Gas we have been in the house for 4 years and the meters were in when we moved in so don’t know how old they are
I’m assuming then that your meters haven’t gone ‘dumb’ then and are providing daily updates to BG, or are you submitting manual readings?
If the meters are reporting, even if you ask for them to be changed, they might tell you to bog off, but there’s still no harm in asking.
How do you pay your bill, monthly or quarterly via direct debit? or do you pay via other means?
Personally, I’m on BG’s standard variable tariff for gas and leccy and I pay monthly via direct debit. I’ll never go back to overpaying(or underpaying) ever again. That’s why I’m a fan of working smart meters, I just pay for the energy as I use it, not piling hundreds of pounds a year extra into BGs accounts for them to make interest on. Each to their own though, I don’t need to have a fixed amount put aside each month for the purposes of budgeting.