In-home display explained

The in-home display (IHD) is that small portable screen that arrived with your smart meter installation. Most people have one sitting on a kitchen counter or windowsill. Some find it genuinely useful. Others forget about it within a week.

What it shows you

A typical IHD displays:

• Current electricity usage in watts (updates every few seconds)
• Current gas usage in kWh (updates less frequently, usually every 30 minutes)
• Daily cost so far for both electricity and gas
• Weekly and monthly usage totals
• Your current tariff rate per kWh
• Traffic light indicators showing whether your usage is low (green), medium (amber) or high (red)

The real-time electricity reading is genuinely eye-opening when you first get it. Switching on a kettle and watching the display jump from 300W to 3,000W gives you an immediate, visceral sense of what different appliances cost to run. That awareness fades over time for most people, but the initial education is valuable.

Gas data is always delayed because gas smart meters only send updates every 30 minutes. You won’t see real-time gas usage on the IHD.

How it connects to your meter

The IHD communicates with your smart meter via Zigbee, a short-range wireless protocol. This is a direct local connection, not WiFi and not the internet. The meter broadcasts data over Zigbee, and the IHD picks it up.

This means range matters. The IHD needs to be within wireless range of your electricity meter, typically 10 to 15 metres depending on walls and obstructions. If your meter is in a cupboard under the stairs and your kitchen is at the back of the house, the signal may not reach. Moving the IHD closer to the meter usually fixes reception issues.

The Zigbee connection is also why your IHD only shows data from your own meter. It’s paired to your specific meter during installation and won’t pick up signals from neighbours’ meters.

Do you actually need it?

Honestly? Most people don’t use it after the first few months. The novelty of watching real-time usage wears off, and the Octopus app provides the same information (and more) on your phone.

The app shows half-hourly consumption data, cost breakdowns, tariff rate information and historical trends. If you’re on a smart tariff like Agile, the app shows upcoming half-hourly prices too. The IHD can’t do any of that.

Where the IHD still has an edge is for households where not everyone uses the Octopus app. Having a visible display in the kitchen that shows “you’ve spent £2.40 so far today” creates passive awareness for everyone in the home.

If your IHD breaks or stops working after a switch, it’s honestly not worth stressing about. Your meter readings and billing are completely unaffected. The IHD is just a display device.

Common problems after switching supplier

When you switch energy supplier, the IHD often stops working temporarily. Here’s what you might see:

• Blank screen: The display shows nothing or only a clock
• “Waiting for data” message: The IHD is trying to connect but isn’t receiving meter data
• Stale data: The display shows old readings that no longer update
• Missing gas data: Electricity updates but gas doesn’t (or vice versa)

With a SMETS2 meter, these issues typically resolve within a few days as the new supplier registers with the DCC network. The IHD reconnects automatically.

With a SMETS1 meter, the IHD may not reconnect until the meter is enrolled onto the DCC network. The good news is that most SMETS1 meters have now been enrolled through a national migration programme. If yours hasn’t, Octopus will typically offer a free SMETS2 meter replacement. Either way, a non-working IHD doesn’t affect billing.

Troubleshooting

If your IHD stops showing data:

1. Move it closer to the meter: Zigbee range is limited. Try placing the IHD in the same room as your electricity meter for a few hours.
2. Restart it: Unplug or remove from the charging cradle, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in. This clears temporary glitches.
3. Wait a few days: After a supplier switch, the connection often re-establishes itself. Give it a week before escalating.
4. Contact Octopus: If it’s been more than two weeks with no connection, get in touch. They can check the meter’s DCC status and sometimes trigger a reconnection remotely.

Keep in mind that a non-working IHD does not affect your meter, your readings or your bills. It’s purely a display device.

Third-party alternatives

If you want better energy monitoring than the standard IHD provides, there are several third-party options worth looking at:

• Octopus Home Mini: A palm-sized device Octopus sends out for free. It connects to your meter via the HAN (Home Area Network) and sends data to the Octopus app every 10 seconds. Far more responsive than the standard IHD, and it doubles as a range extender for gas meters with weak signals. Made from recycled ocean plastic. You may need to join a waitlist due to high demand.
• Glow Display (Hildebrand): A combined IHD and consumer access device (CAD) that connects to your smart meter via Zigbee. Provides a physical display alongside the Bright app, web dashboard and API access. Works with any supplier and supports both SMETS1 and SMETS2 meters. Available to purchase from the Glowmarkt shop.
• Loop: A free app that connects to your smart meter data via the DCC. No physical device needed. Good for historical analysis, cost tracking and appliance-level insights.
• Home Assistant integration: If you run Home Assistant for home automation, there are integrations that pull your smart meter data and let you build custom dashboards, automations and alerts. The Hildebrand Glow integration is particularly popular for local real-time data.

Most of these tools connect through the DCC network rather than Zigbee, so they work regardless of where your meter is physically located. The Glow Display is an exception, using a local Zigbee connection to your meter for real-time data. All tend to offer much richer data visualisation than the basic IHD.