PIPIT 500 TOUCHSCREEN IN HOME ENERGY DISPLAY

Cannot connect to the meters even through the supplier - keeps coming back with an error at their end.And it does not come with batteries as described.Looks like will have to spend the extra from the supplier to get one that works :(

perfect.

I received one of these units (for free) when I had smart meters installed. I am not very impressed. To me, the most useful screem on the device is the one which shows current usage (the 'Usage Now' screen). However, if you leave it on this screen for more than a couple of minutes, it annoyingly goes back to the default screen, which is the 'account info' screen. This latter screen is the least useful one there is, especially as the tariff information on my unit is incorrect (although that it probably due to the smart meter itself being wrong). This makes monitoring the usage of various appliances unnecessarily difficult. Why can't the unit be programmed to stay on the screen the user puts it on? Another niggle is that one area of the touch-screen is very unresponsive. This is just where the right arrow appears on the history displays. This usually takes about half a dozen presses before it responds. There are 2 tri-colour LEDs which give an indication of how much power is being used, but bizzarly, these go off when the screen is in 'account info' mode (i.e. most of the time) if you are a credit customer. I can see that, once the novelty has worn off, this unit may be put in a drawer and forgotten about.

Easy to understand. Works well.

One of these fitted yesterday by my energy supplier (First Utility), so was "free". As stated by others, the function you need is the real time display of usage, which is on screen only for a short time before it defaults to a useless account summary screen. It was free so I don't feel too bad about chucking it in a drawer and going back to my "clip on a meter wire" energy meter, which does give continuous monitoring.

Nice product exactly what I wanted

I agree with the first reviewer that this monitor could be a whole lot more useful. My main bugbear is the same as his, ie that the display defaults to a fairly useless screen, whereas what I find most helpful in monitoring usage is a large and easy to read real time display of consumption. On this monitor, this information is in quite small text on another screen - so you have to call up this screen, which can then only be read from close up. Also, there is a larger visual display on this screen in the form of a dial, but if you have solar panels this larger display does not distinguish between consumption and export of electricity - so it may look as if you are using a lot of electricity when in fact you are exporting a lot. (The text below it does, however, show a minus sign when generation exceeds consumption.) The monitor does score over others I have used in the way it records and displays historical information, which is useful if you want to analyse and record energy usage. But for me at least, this is less helpful in influencing the way you use energy and potentially reduce your bills than easy to access real time information. Note also that - although the monitor holds batteries, it is designed to run off the mains. If you want to unplug it, to move it around the house for example, you have to press a 'battery' button, which only runs for a couple of minutes, supposedly to preserve battery life. I'm not sure why it has to be this way, as I've used other monitors which run for months on batteries. This may constrain where you locate the monitor, as it has to be within reach of a power socket. I should say that I was given this monitor by my energy supplier when I had smart meters installed, so I can't get too upset by its shortcomings. I wouldn't have been happy if I'd actually paid money for it though!

It's what I wanted but alot harder to setup need to phone electric company