[Will_ivieBud]

Hey everyone 👋,

I’m Claudia and I’m part of the ivie team. You might have heard of us before or you’re just coming across us. Not long ago, we paired up with E.ON Next to be their replacement in-home display partner.

We released the ivie Bud in-home display to everyone earlier this year and are happy to see our community of Buddies grow. We’ve joined the forum to help out with questions you might have about the ivie Bud, spread news from ivie and squash any misconceptions about IHDs and smart meters.

Here at ivie, we come across a lot of common myths about smart meters and IHDs. Below, we quickly bust through some of these myths to break apart fact from fiction.

1.“A smart meter is an in-home display”

Our friends at E.ON Next probably hear this a lot. It’s pretty easy to think your smart meter and in-home display are the same thing.

Let’s quickly go into what they are:

Smart meter: a smart meter is connected to your electricity or gas supply and records your energy usage and sends automatic readings to E.ON Next. It’s usually tucked away in a cupboard or hidden away in the garage.

In-home display (IHD): a small device with a digital display that shows your energy in kilowatt-hours and pounds and pence, as sent from your smart meter. Take the ivie Bud for example!

2. “In-home displays never work”

Have you been a victim of a misbehaving IHD? Maybe your energy data was inaccurate or maybe you never saw your energy data at all? These are not uncommon issues. And we’re here to tell you your IHD is not always at fault! (Please don’t throw it out!)

As many of you know, your IHD gets your energy information from the smart meter via the communications hub, which is placed near your smart electricity meter. If there’s a connection issue between the comms hub and smart meter, or just the smart meter itself, the IHD might be sent inaccurate data or nothing at all. This can be annoying. Make sure to check in with E.ON Next about getting your comms hub and smart meter talking to each other again, so you can see your energy data. This should do the fix!

3. “Get your next in-home display off eBay”

If you’ve broken or lost your in-home display and can’t get it replaced because it’s out of warranty, your first point of call might be to buy it online from sites like eBay. Don’t do this! These IHDs will never work for you.

Pre-owned IHDs are already connected to the seller’s smart meter and can’t be connected to a different smart meter in another home. Sadly, you’ve wasted your money here. Make sure to ask for a refund immediately from the seller and inform eBay.

4. “Smart meters make your energy bills go up”

The smart meter itself won’t save you cash. Saving energy and money on your bills starts with you. To make the most of having a smart meter, you’ll need to use your IHD so you can keep track of your energy costs in real time. And this is true for 75% of people who say they have a better idea of their energy costs after owning an IHD and smart meter*.

And that’s it for now! We’re on a mission to spread awareness about the benefits of smart energy tech like IHDs and smart meters. We hope this helped.


What do you like about your in-home display/ivie Bud? Our favourite feature is real-time energy data.

*Data from Smart Energy GB 2021.

Claudia & the ivie team.

[theunknowntech]

Hey @Claudia_ivieBud ! One of my friends has written guides of his own about your stuff too, which you can find here and I've also done my own version here on this forum. Could you take a peek and let us know if we need to correct anything? I think some of your team might recognise his style as well! :)

[Will_ivieBud]

Hey @theunknowntech! Nice to meet you.

I'll get the ivie team on it and we'll take a look at your guides. It's great you and your friend have made these. We'll pop you a DM with comments if we have any!✍️

[jjf]

@Claudia_ivieBud Hi. Is there any information on how to actually get an IHR? I have never been issued one and would like to request it.

[Will_ivieBud]

@jjf Hey 👋,

As you're part of E.ON Next, you can get a replacement in-home display (IHD) at https://ivie.co.uk/eonnext/. The ivie Bud costs £49.99 to buy but you can get a discount via the link. Thanks. 👍

[HenryP]

Hi Claudia 👋 I am an Eon-Next customer and have bought your ivie Bud but am struggling to link it to my Smart Meter. I can power it up and using the app link it to my wifi network but it won't get past that stage. I have returned the Bud and replaced it in case that was the issue and for 24 hours it did move on but didn't display any data. It then returned to the 'Joining' screen where it has remained for the past week.


I have downloaded the App which is working, can 'see' my meter although is recording slightly less usage than my Eon-Next app.


I'm sure it will be a case of operator error but can you suggest anything?

[Will_ivieBud]

@HenryP Hey Henry 👋,

Thanks for your message. We're sorry you've not been able to get your ivie Bud connected to your smart meter. It usually only takes a few minutes to get connected but as you've been joining for a long time now, there's likely an issue at hand with your smart meter.

If your smart meter is experiencing connection issues, it will struggle to connect to any devices like the ivie Bud IHD. This might be why yours is not working yet. Have you been in touch with us via customercare@ivie.co.uk too? The team can investigate why your smart meter isn't connected and try to help you.

Thanks!

[HenryP]

Hi,

Yes, I have been dealing with Tom at Customer care and it was he who sent a replacement Bud. New Bud trying to connect but without success. 😢

[Will_ivieBud]

@HenryP Thanks for confirming. We're sorry about this. Tom is a great help with any questions like these. It does seem that your smart meter might be at fault though! If this is your second ivie Bud, it likely means the problem lies with your smart meter and not the ivie Bud. Has Tom told you if there any issues with your smart meter?

[HenryP]

Tom has been very patient.

We've tested the meter, it's communicating with Eon so we believe it is working as it should and it is working with the Ivie app and providing data to that which I think means that we can be confident that it is working.
Any other suggestions?