Shell smart meters: is my handheld device especially crap or are they all this bad?

[TiffyTaffy]

We’ve just had smart meters newly installed. They are working and we can see meter readings in the Shell iPhone app so all good - except for the in-home device. I’ve charged it a couple of times so far and each time it’s then died (after much dramatic beeping) within a few hours.

If this is typical it will need charging every day! Sod that!

If you have one of these, how long does the battery tend to last/how often do you have to charge it? Is it even worth bothering with if you have the phone app? I’m just wondering if it’s as crap, and as pointless, as it currently seems?!

We have the same. Keep it plugged in and just detach it to look at it, but it's only recently, I've switched it on again. Don't tend to have it switched on much, but it gives different info from the phone app which gives different info from what's on website when I log in.

Im with Shell too and my in house app has never worked.
It sits in my kitchen drawer unused and totally useless
As you say the Shell energy mobile app gives all the information needed so I dont stress about it

Ah well this sounds totally useful and consistent then!

Thanks folks for validating my decision to shove it in a drawer and forget about it!

They don't last long unplugged at all. Think they're designed to be left plugged in really.

Hmm, think I’ll save my electricity.

Thanks though, I hadn’t quite realised it was meant to be kept plugged in.

Not with shell but our handheld device is always plugged in it can take batteries but never come with any so its plugged in all the time.

The IHD is designed to be plugged in all the time, any batteries are there to just to keep it going if you move it from one position to another.
They only cost about £1.47 a year to run.
I got this from the Q&A on www.smartme.co.uk/good-value.html.

Sorry the link had a dot at the end. Should be
www.smartme.co.uk/good-value.html

Yeah, ours dies within minutes of being unplugged. I'm not going to spend more on electricity just to see how much more I'm spending on electricity...

I watched mine when we first got it, and then recently when it really did look as if we were going to be paying 50p+ for a unit of elec etc, I plugged it in again to see what difference it made switching things off at night (big difference for TVs and playstations than my office set up). I suppose I already knew that, but it gave me hard evidence for the owners of said playstations.

It's unplugged now, but I shall be watching it again when the heating goes on.