Tech Showdown: Octopus Home Mini vs In home display

You may have heard about the Octopus Home Mini - but what is it and why is it so special?

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00:00 Intro
00:30 Home Mini vs IHD
01:48 Home Mini info

[dangerfulmind]

One negative for me is that the IHD shows the price you pay including the standing charges whereas the mini does not, this means the price you see in the app isn't the actual price you pay, you need to add the standing charges on yourself, that's not good, there need to be a reading shown that includes this too.

[owenoj]

Just received my octopus mini and its a pretty neat device! I have it hooked up to home assistant so i can see in real time and react to that data through my smart home.

[maverickdg]

Joined the waiting list a few months ago but still looking forward to actually using one as it’s just what I need to optimise my solar and EV charging

[CarFinanceSimplified]

It's a superb device. Had mine a little over a month and it's worked faultlessly integrating both with the Octopus and Octo-Aid apps. Many thanks!

[lwaed]

It's fine, easy setup (though I did have to reset) and works. I don't use it much because I already had a myenergi Hub that does most of what it does. The disappointment for me is that it doesn't make any attempt to show real-time cost, only consumption. The IHD does try to show cost (but is always wrong - I was expecting OHM to fix this). It also hasn't helped my problems with meter losing connection - I regularly need that reset and OHM can't replace or augment the official connection.

I'd also echo that a more secure case would be useful - wrapping it in black electrical tape to keep it shut defeats the point of it being pink!

[herrtomas]

Been using mine for months. Works perfectly.
I’m guessing that this is the next step on the path to “your wifi connection” sending the data from the smart meter back to the provider. Makes sense as the old G next works get turned off. They struggled for ages to get my meter to see the public network to send data.
Only current snag is that whilst this is the link between your smart electricity meter and the outside world, they still rely on the battery-run gas meter talking to the electricity meter. That doesn’t work in my sons house as they are both on opposite sides of the house, and the gas is out of range of the host meter.

[GurungyNoHamuster]

The Home Mini is great... much better granularity than the default Home Display. Oddly enough I just got a second Geo Trio II through Insights+ from Schneider (Drayton Wiser). It looks exactly like my 'gas board home display' but also has better granularity, so the home display CAN do it. Why isn't it configured that way to begin with? Anyway, full marks to Octopus... and Schneider.

[scallywagII]

A small correction. My IHD does show a pylon symbol and the power when exporting. When first installed the engineer said I should see this, but it took about a year to start working. Nice to have the extra detail but I am spending more time looking at the phone.

[bluebrakes]

I received mine recently. A doddle to setup. The only criticism i have so far with it is that during the setup process, the blinking LED is hard to tell what colour it is flashing against the pink plastic. The instructions suggested blue, but mine looked red or purple.

[bob]

Mine is on thebway, can't wait to get it as i am on agile and the normal home display thing has never worked with it, so it will be nice to at last to see live consumption and cost, rather than waiting for the bill.

[dean]

I think it needs to be more robust for production. I moved mine to different places to test connectivity and found the plastic case easily popped open. Also the receiving socket for the USB power cord came adrift from the PCB. This was not through any rough handling at all.

[invincibubbl]

does the mini or the IHD require a wi-fi connection? I have no router and only use my phone for internet access

[paulcdb]

Just signed up so guess it’s a long wait! 😞

Hoping to have batteries up and running soon so be easier to run this off the batteries rather than the grid since I can’t tie into the fuse box so the IHD will bec1 of the few things not running off solar/off peak electric. Plus it’ll probably work better with home assistant than the current, random stats provided by the API.

Anyway I can bribe someone at Octopus to post one sooner? 🤔😂

[serraios]

Set up mine today. Led is green and no live data on the app
It’s next to the IHD which doesn’t work either
Great!!

[martinburman]

Yay just got email today to say mine is in the post :)

[beefmacarons]

I'm still waiting on any response to a smart meter request, so no chance of getting this. Would be great to have before the winter!

[petermorrison]

I ordered Octopus Mini in October last year. Not yet received it. How long should it take to arrive from ordering?

[garhat]

Got a smart meter installed almost a month ago, the IHD still isn't showing me any info, been on the phone to Octopus they just say it'll take time for it all to configure... I dunno if I've been outsmarted with the smart meter or if it's just crap...

[jo-jo]

Had mine a few months now, at first it was great, but I've noticed today that it's still saying I've only used over £4 of electric for the month which is wishful thinking but I know that's not accurate. It also doesn't give a current meter reading. I had so much trouble with the old style IHD since I switched from Bulb to Octopus Energy that's the reason they sent me the mini, but I'm not impressed with it.

[gtrratio]

I’m quite tech savvy person and would love to get this so that I can tack my energy consumption. I’m happy to join beta tester program and give any feedback you will require.