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Ivie Bud anyone?

 
Electricity, Tariffs, Monitoring, Electrics & Providers
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 MaxtheDog
(@maxthedog)
Active Member Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 7
Topic starter 23/02/2025 7:01 pm   [#2138]

Hi All,

We had solar panels installed last March and had to have Smart meters installed to export. The IHD widget that Octopus gave us was never very good even when it was sat right under the meters. It just never seemed to be able to connect and read the data on a reliable basis. Eventually, I got sick of it sitting around telling me nothing and gathering dust and wasting (a tiny amount) energy in its PSU. I contacted Octopus to attempt to make it better, but they didn’t seem to be too bothered and said something along the lines IIRC of it being a “third party device”. Any it was binned, but I was wondering if there’s a decent replacement and came across the Ivie Bud. Has anyone got one or used one. If so what do you think.

I do have the data on the Octopus app and the data on the Fox app for the panels but it would be nice to see it on one of these. Or is it just the very definition of a first world problem? 🫣

Cheers,

Michael.


ASHP. It’s all to do with Specific Enthalpy.


   
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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Famed Member Contributor
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 2711
23/02/2025 7:40 pm  

I suspect your IHD is not the same thing as the Octopus Mini is it? The mini is produced by OE themselves and would be well worth your while applying for as this will provide almost topical data. I wanted a Mini but my SMETS 1 meter is unfortunately not compatible😉 The Mini is free but you may have to wait on delivery. Regards, Toodles.


Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.


   
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 MaxtheDog
(@maxthedog)
Active Member Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 7
Topic starter 23/02/2025 7:48 pm  

Hi,

No I don’t think it was the Mini. Doesn’t ring any bells. I’ll enquire.

Thanks. 👍🏻


ASHP. It’s all to do with Specific Enthalpy.


   
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Toodles
 Toodles
(@toodles)
Famed Member Contributor
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 2711
23/02/2025 8:03 pm  

@maxthedog https://octopus.energy/blog/octopus-home-mini/

Regards, Toodles.


Toodles, heats his home with cold draughts and cooks food with magnets.


   
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 MaxtheDog
(@maxthedog)
Active Member Member
Joined: 1 year ago
Posts: 7
Topic starter 23/02/2025 8:20 pm  

@toodles 

No definitely not that. I’d just Googled it and applied for one. Hopefully it’ll be better than the other.

👍🏻


ASHP. It’s all to do with Specific Enthalpy.


   
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Majordennisbloodnok
 Majordennisbloodnok
(@majordennisbloodnok)
Famed Member Moderator
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 1759
24/02/2025 11:51 am  

Posted by: @maxthedog
↑

Hi All,

We had solar panels installed last March and had to have Smart meters installed to export. The IHD widget that Octopus gave us was never very good even when it was sat right under the meters. It just never seemed to be able to connect and read the data on a reliable basis. Eventually, I got sick of it sitting around telling me nothing and gathering dust and wasting (a tiny amount) energy in its PSU. I contacted Octopus to attempt to make it better, but they didn’t seem to be too bothered and said something along the lines IIRC of it being a “third party device”. Any it was binned, but I was wondering if there’s a decent replacement and came across the Ivie Bud. Has anyone got one or used one. If so what do you think.

I do have the data on the Octopus app and the data on the Fox app for the panels but it would be nice to see it on one of these. Or is it just the very definition of a first world problem? 🫣

Cheers,

Michael.

There are several options open to you and I suppose the "right" one depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Eventually, the IHD is only giving you a very basic summary of what's going through the meter one way or t'other and combining it with the prices from your tariff. If all you want to know is how much in terms of kWh or £/p you've consumed then it looks like the Ivie Bud might well be the way to go; it seems to just be a like for like replacement. You could also get something very similar from Hildebrand.

Moving on from that, it seems Fox have recently released Octopus Agile integration so you may well be able to get the IHD information in some way within the Fox app, although it may need you contacting Fox and them doing a firmware update of your inverter for this to happen. Bear in mind I don't have Fox kit so I'm only working on what's publicly available on t'interweb without any form of sanity check on my assumptions.

The most complete solution is to go down the home automation route and that will give you everything you want but is certainly overkill if it's just a replacement IHD. However, this kind of solution becomes far more relevant if you want to get your various bits of kit working together in a more cohesive way, and since you've already got solar PV and are looking at getting a heat pump I'm wondering if that might be something interesting to you. Having said that, setting up a home automation system does involve a bit of learning and a bit of rolling up of sleeves since there is currently no entirely plug-and-play solution on the market.

Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here are a few screenshots of two of my most used tabs in my Home Assistant setup.

Cropped main tab

 

Cropped energy tab

 

Cropped energy graphs

You'll see from the second screenshot that the box marked "DCC Sourced smart electricity meter" shows precisely the same as your IHD, albeit with a half-hour lag. In fact, it's using exactly the same data since the smart meter network has to provide the DCC with that data as well as giving it to your leccy provider.

In addition, though, my home automation system is set up so that, for instance, if Octopus' import prices go negative then my battery will automatically charge from grid. That's just one example of integrating disparate bits of your kit in a more intelligent and cohesive way, and I have a number of other rules that help increase the effectiveness of what I've invested in.

Just a thought.


105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"


   
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