Octopus home mini unboxing - what does it do?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
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I signed up for the waiting list for an Octopus Home Mini a couple of months ago, and this week, a little box landed on our doorstep.
So what's in the box?
How easy is it to set up?
And why did I want one?
In this video I talk through this little piece of kit and what it might mean for our low carbon lifestyle.
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thanks - have ordered. A huge fan of Octopus Energy - in a different league too the others.
Hope you find it useful!
When I scanned your code it opened my app but just took me to the normal start screen. Good to see they thought of that scenario.
Phew - I did wonder whether I shouldn't record some of the bar-codes etc on there...!
Great video, received ours at the weekend an excellent bit of kit designed by Octopus and is far superior to the IHD.
Good little bit of kit I think!
I too signed up for a mini but nothing arrived, meanwhile our ALPHAESS solar software shows what we are using, we often charge the car when making 4kw off the solar and the 5Kw battery is full so a free charge or put the washing machine or dishwasher on during the day for the same reason. Usually we charge the car to 80% at night and top off the house battery on cheap rate so overall our bills are kept as low as possible, this mini would be a useful addition to the measuring kit we already have
Thanks for this video. My mini arrived today and wouldn't connect. Watching your video identified that the unit needs to pair to Bluetooth to get on tke wi-fi, Octopus instructions say nothing of this!!!
So does this completely replace the IHD display attached to the Smart Meter ?
Received mine today and it is impossible to set up. I have the Octopus app on my phone and the smart meter display. Follow the instructions, read the QR code and that is where it departs from all the various youtube channels on this subject. All it does is take me to a page demanding my credit card details. fill in the details and it then displays a message in a foreign language (might be Spanish) the only word I understand is "error". Have cancelled the card in case it's a scam. Will try to phone Octopus tomorrow as this has caused me too much stress for one day.
Hi Graham, that doesn’t sound right, no credit card details required for mine so does seem like some kind of scam is happening. Hope Octopus can sort it out
Tom
Great video ,love the fact you kept saying "WE " as in family i take it ,are they interested do they have the app ,do they actively watch their usage,mine on the other are going to go bonkers when mine arrives ,i have the "ivie bud" plus the the octopus app already ,i kinda mention it their eyes roll over and say if i need it, ill switch it on ,it just causes arguments ,so ill say nothing and connect it and hide it , i find the app is not accurate ,its under my acutual usage ,my ivie is set a little higher cost wise so no surpises ,wonder how the mini will be ,thanks again Tom 🐙
Hi Ian, thanks for the comment! Not sure why I keep on saying ‘We’, it’s just me and my wife, and my dog, they don’t pay as much attention to this stuff as I do…!
I wonder if more and more people will be interested in energy as we move to electric cars, heat pumps, solar panels or batteries.
Not heard of an ivie bud. I’ll look it up.
Thanks for commenting!
Tom
@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle the ivie bud is an IHD its great £50 well spent as we didn't have one in our rented home , we private rent we have a great landlord who has already done external cladding for us and a new drive 🤗
You can integrate it into Home Assistant and have pretty dashboards, allegedly
I haven't played much with what 3rd party integrations we could do... but always love a dashboard!
Got mine today but it wont pair, shows up on my mobile phone in available devices, I click it and it says pairing then dosen't show up on paired devices, tried and tried. I give up.
That does sound frustrating- have you been in touch with octopus?
Makes sense to get one and so much nicer than those horrible smart meter displays. Have been using the Loop app before I heard about this, but like you say that's about 24 hours out of date for the data.
I wonder if it will work in parallel with the IHD.
Yes it doesn’t change how the IHD works. Just adds a bit more detail on the Octopus app
@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle thank you for your reply.
I got this, I dont find this useful esp. if you have smart meter installed for gas as well. If you had just electricity, then this may be good. I am using the visual Geo Usage monitor. It also converts gas readings from hideous m3 to kwH. If I had to pay for this, then I would not buy. On hind sight I would not have registered to get this device.
Hi Sudha, I find it helpful to understand real time impacts of managing our heat pump, or of turning certain appliances on and off. It is helpful to monitor those interventions rather than having to wait for data to be sent over the next day.
I like being able to see energy use on my phone too.
You are right it doesn't offer much in additional value but I think it helps a bit
Thanks
Tom
Excited for mine. Got the email Tuesday and I am now just waiting. How long did yours take to arrive from the confirmation email?
Hi Daniel - it was about 7-8 days after the confirmation.
Definitely will help me make family members more aware of impact of particular devices. Particularly useful as my home layout means the standard IHD cannot be located in a living area.
I would particularly like to bring down our “background” useage of energy and this will help us to identify the devices that lead to this.
I believe that it will also enable me to download the usage data? Hoping my son will help us to make use of that and record annotations that help us understand the peaks and troughs.
@@gavonak2841 as far as I am aware, you cannot download the usage data from the CAD but you can from the general smart meter. You can however integrate your CAD into a platform called home assistant. It can break down your live usage with the help of some smart plugs to itemise energy consumption. The CAD works just like your normal smart meter IHD, except for it’s sending the information to the internet.
I was sent one but do not really see the point as I use the Hugo app which I find very useful
Not seen the Hugo app, but yes, doesn’t really do much although it’s fun to see the live data
How does the mini work when the home is drawing electricity from a battery storage system, or is this mini data only when you are drawing from the grid. I believe, the former is the case. With a storage battery and solar system the grid connection is live but only small flows back and forth occur until a real demand for electricity is initiated, with the main electricity flow coming from your batteries throughout the 24hrs, so not clear how these all would work together with the mini. Or, is the mini looking at the home itself and one's overall system and informing Octopus of the specifics of that system. What data is it actually access? Can you answer this, please?
Hi David, good question, I think you are right, it is ready what is going through the meter, so gives a live electricity demand (or I guess export if you had PV). Instead of waiting for the following day for half hourly data, you can access the data almost live.
This is not tracking electricity flow between parts of the house or technology (such as battery, PV, heat pump etc).
It is quite a simple addition but I find it useful.
Hope that answers your question?
Thanks
Tom
@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle Many thanks, much appreciated
I prefer the smart one as it shows me gas aswell
That's fair, this allows a bit more review of data in real time where as the in home display doesn't let us review data throughout the day, but, yeah, it doesn't add a hug amount!
didnt seem to work very well with the solar panel tariff so its been unplugged again
That’s a shame. Would be good to have the live export as well (although I expect a solar system / inverter could give that anyway)
I asked octopus energy 4 times for a home mini and this guy Mfundo sent out a IHD a in-home display what I already have so I’ve given up asking for one.
That’s frustrating. I know the home mini is talked about as a ‘trial’ so they may be planning more in the future
octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/#addmetothelist
I had to email Octopus three times. On the third occasion they stated for some reason I was not on a suitable tariff, it was their mistake, they apologised and I was placed on the waiting list. Yesterday, about 2 months being in the waiting list I received a message to say one was on its way.
My Mini is "on its way" apparently. Unfortunately, the APP does not support older Androids - shame .:-(
That is a shame! I think you’ll be able to see the live data through a web browser as well…?
And can they switch off your electric at peak times when the grid can't cope with demand?
No they can’t. What gave you that idea?
@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle I thought that was why they wanted everyone to have a smart meter, so that the use of electric could be controlled & monitored?
There is no functionality in a smart meter to turn off someone's supply. Yes smart meters help understand instantaneous electricity demand so that electricity can be provided where it is needed. This is not a way to control individuals, but a way to help ensure supply and reduce costs.
@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle I hope that's right.
How long did it take to receive from the initial request? (Not the confirmation email to say it's on the way)
They say on the website there's a queue but doesn't say how long or how many they're sending out on average
Hi Andy - good question, I think it was a good few months but don’t remember exactly and can’t see anything in my inbox about when I asked for one. Sorry to not be clearer!
@@TomBray-LowCarbonLifestyle no thank you for coming back so quickly. A rough idea is great 😀
Hi Andy, I requested one in May 2023 and got an email last week to say it's on it's way. I think I was pushed up the waiting list because of ongoing issues with the IHD since Octopus took over from Bulb. They sent me a new IHD which worked for a week or two then packed up. So fingers crossed this little Home Mini arrives and works !
Can you link it to more than 1 phone?
Hi Chris, the home mini is linked to the octopus account rather than a phone. So if you have the octopus app on multiple phones you should be able to see live use.
Tom
This is definitely a toy for the Dad geeks. Don't let your household bill payer have this toy, they'll be on your case 24/7, monitoring live usage! God, I bet it has high usage alerts and stuff like that. Your resident dad geek would have Alexa shouting at you because you boiled a kettle when electricity wasn't 0.01p Kwh
I’ve been waiting for 3 months for mine still not received it yet
That's frustrating, I wonder whether they provide them in batches?