Can I get an In Home Display (IHD) sent to me?

Get familiar with your new IHD

With the recent changes to our app, many of your will have been sent a new Chameleon In Home Display (IHD) 6. So we thought it would be handy to have a dedicated topic guide for this device. If you haven’t got an IHD6 yet, request one here. 

When you’re sent an In-Home Display, this needs linking up (pairing) with your meters, with the help of our Support team. Call us to get this done when you’re near the device: 0330 102 7517 (0117 370 1041 from a mobile).

The default screen on these are often set to “Usage today” rather than your current balance. There is a simple fix to get your balance as the home screen default:

Choosing Your Home Screen Layout

From SETTINGS you can also change the view of your home screen according to your personal preference by selecting HOME screen. This option will give you four different home screen layouts to choose from. Use the left and right arrows to scroll through the options. Once you have chosen the screen view you prefer, press SET to save the settings. 

There is also a super handy user guide here.

If you have an issue with your IHD6:

To help the Support team work out why the IHD isn’t connecting, we need you to do some checks, which you might need to provide to the team via email, depending on what you diagnose: hello@boostpower.co.uk

Is there a WAN and HAN connection?

Check the electricity meter and confirm what the LED light labelled 'WAN' and ‘HAN’ is doing.

If you have a Secure Liberty smart meter, and the WAN light is flashing, the meter has WAN. Please check how many times the light flashes between pauses. One flash between pauses means very low signal, five means great signal. If the light is solid, there's no WAN. The HAN light will be solid when the HAN is open - this will activated during install (when pairing the electricity meter to the gas meter and any devices) as well as when pairing an IHD or smart relay via SFE. Once this process has completed, the HAN light will turn off. So you’ll need to check the IHD directly to see if it’s connected to the HAN.

If you have a Aclara S2 smart meter, if there’s WAN and HAN coverage the WAN & HAN lights on top will flash every 5 seconds. If they are searching for signal then they will flash every 3 seconds and if there is a connectivity issue then they will flash every 1 second or not flash at all.

Here are a list of questions you may be asked, if your meter has no or poor WAN:

1. How strong is the mobile phone signal next to your meter?
2. Is there anything metallic in the way of the meter which could be moved?
3. If the meter has something metallic blocking the signal - for instance a mirror or an ironing board - then moving this may solve the problem.
4. Is your electricity meter in a metal box (e.g a metal meter cupboard)? 
5. Is your electricity meter in a basement, or is it partially enclosed (e.g in a closed cupboard under the stairs)?

If the IHD is showing missing data for one or both fuels and the meter comms are fine, you should perform the following checks.


1 - Check the distance to the electricity meter, has the IHD been moved? 
 

Try to keep the IHD within a max of 6 metres from the electricity meter. The signal will decline significantly with walls.

2 -  Has the IHD shown data previously or has anything changed e.g. obstructions?
 

If the IHD was previously showing data, check if anything has changed in the home that could have caused the loss of communication.

3 - Is the IHD showing the correct time?
 

If it's not showing the correct time, the IHD is not paired.
 

4 - Check the IHD signal bars

Signal bars solid > IHD is paired.
Signal bars flashing > Needs to be paired by our Support team: 0330 102 7517 (0117 370 1041 from a mobile)

5 - Try turning off for several minutes before turning back on.

If we’ve missed anything out, please leave a comment below!

In Home Display FAQs:

Why is my IHD balance different from my app balance? 

The app balance gets updated once a day after midnight. If you've used energy since midnight or if you've topped up since the time your energy balance updated on your app, then your app balance will be out of date. 

If your meter isn’t communicating with us, then your balance won't update in the app. But the IHD will communicate from your meter throughout the day to stay up to date.

Troubleshooting issues with PAYG Smart and your SMETS1 meter

Do I have a SMETS1 or SMETS2 meter? How can I tell the difference?

A SMETS1 meter has a meter keypad with numbers, and a red and blue A and B button. 

If you have a SMETS2 smart meter, it’ll just have the 2 red and blue buttons, but no keypad. 

Why isn’t my top up showing on my meter or IHD?

It’s normal for smart meters to lose signal from time to time, just like mobile phones. This means it might take longer than usual for your top-up to show up as energy credit. It shouldn’t take more than an hour to see your top-ups on your meter, but you can always add them manually too. Read on for more info. 

How do I top up my SMETS1 meters manually?

After making a payment, it takes up to 30 minutes (for electricity) and 60 minutes (for gas) for the money to show on your meter. If it doesn’t, you can give it a little push.

For this, you’ll need the 20-digit code on your PayPoint receipt. This is why it’s always best to keep your receipts safe.

• Press A on your gas or electricity meter

• Enter the code from your receipt

• Tap B to confirm and it’s all done!

If you top up online or via your app, PayPoint will either email them to you or send them via text.

If you’ve lost power and your top-up takes your balance above £0, your meter will start doing safety checks. If it detects gas, the power won’t switch on, so make sure all gas appliances are off before trying to reconnect. If the meter has disconnected, you can reconnect it by pressing A, A, B (SMETS1) or holding A and B at the same time (SMETS2).

Why did my SMETS1 meter cut out without using emergency credit first? 

1. Activate your emergency credit using your IHD

When your balance drops below £5, your IHD will flash and tell you that you can activate the emergency credit. If you don’t, it’ll then flash again when your balance is below 50p:

• Navigate to the main menu

• Click on Account

• Press the  emergency credit button

(You’ll find more detailed information on what to do in your IHD booklet.)

2. Activate your emergency credit using your meter:
 

• Press the 7 on the keypad

• You’ll see a message saying EC OFFER – tap A to accept the emergency credit or B to ignore

• Then tap B to confirm

• By pressing 7 you’ll see whether the credit has been activated – it’ll tell you EC SELECTED

Troubleshooting issues with PAYG Smart and your SMETS2 meter

Do I have a SMETS1 or SMETS2 meter? How can I tell the difference?

You can tell if you’ve got a SMETS1 meter, as it will have a meter keypad with numbers, and a red and blue A and B button. 

If you have a SMETS2 smart meter, it will just have the 2 red and blue buttons, keypad. 

Why isn’t my top up showing on my SMETS2 meter or IHD?

Smart meters can stop communicating with us for a number of reasons. If your top-up hasn't appeared on your meter, follow the instructions below to add your credit manually.. 

How do I top up my SMETS2 meters manually?

There are 2 ways:

1. Using your IHD – this is the easiest and fastest way:

• Tap the menu icon at the bottom right of the screen

• Press Top-Up

• Choose the fuel you want to top up

• Press OK

• Enter your PayPoint code

• Tap OK

• The IHD will then confirm that your money has been added to your meter

2. Using your meter
 

For electricity:

• Press A on your meter until you see Enter Top Up Code

• Press and hold A to begin typing 

• Enter your code using the A and B buttons to navigate through the digits

• Press and hold B when complete

• The meter will show you one of these messages: Top Up accepted or Invalid

• Press A to continue

For gas:

• Press C on your gas meter to enter the menu

• Using A and B, scroll to Prepayment and press C

• Tap A and B until you see New Payment

• Press C to select it

• Use A and B to enter your code

• Tap C again

If you’ve lost power and your top-up takes your balance above £0, your meter will start doing safety checks. If it detects gas, the power won’t switch on. If the meter has disconnected, you should be asked to press any button following a top-up to trigger a reconnection.

Why did my SMETS2 meter cut out straight away without warning? Where is my emergency credit?

1. Activate your emergency credit using your IHD:

If your balance drops below £5, the IHD will tell you that your emergency credit is available:
 

• Press the menu button

• Tap E-Credit

• Select the fuel you want emergency credit for (gas or electricity)

• Press OK

• The IHD will confirm your request

• You’ll see Emergency credit in use next to the fuel you’ve added it to

2. Activate your emergency credit using your meter

For electricity:

If your balance goes below £0, your meter will say EMC available:

• Press A to cancel or B to activate it

• You should now see 2 emergency credit balances. The first is how much emergency credit you have left and the second shows how much has already been accepted

• If you select the emergency credit, you’ll see an EC sign on the display at the bottom-right corner

For gas:

• Press any button on your gas meter to wake up the screen

• If you have any emergency credit available, you’ll see an EC logo on the screen, next to the signal bar icon

• Press C to enter the menu and B to scroll to Prepayment

• Tap C to enter

• Press B to scroll down to the Emerg. Credit option, then C to enter

• If the status says Available, press C to accept the £5 emergency credit (you should hear a beep sound and the status should change to In-Use)

• You can check your emergency credit balance by going through the same menu options until you see Limit and Remaining