In-Home Display (IHD) Installation under VEU Program

Free In-Home Display under VEU Program

Wondering why the Victorian government is offering free In-home display (IHD) units and free installation for residential energy consumers under the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program even though you’ve already a smart meter installed at your home.

While a smart meter measures and relays your electricity consumption to your energy retailer, In-home display (IHD) offers you a way to view and monitor your daily and hourly energy consumption.

What is an In-home display?

IHD units are designed to encourage energy efficient behaviour in residential consumers by providing near real-time feedback on household electrical energy consumption and indicative usage cost.

It is a portable touch screen unit used with a smart meter. An In-home display visualizes (by plotting graphs or charts) your energy consumption on its built-in screen/display. You can also view the visualization on your computer screen or phone.

However, there are some in-home displays that don’t come with a built-in display. You can view and track electricity consumption on your phone or computer screen.

It allows you to track the usage on hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or even in real time. It offers granular control over your daily or monthly energy usage or consumption.

With In-home display units, Victorian households can get real-time energy usage and respective consumption cost feedback. This, in turn, translates into energy savings by developing energy conservation habits in household energy consumers.

Why do I need In-home display when my smart meter is working fine?

Smart meters, also known as type 4 meters, is a digital electricity consumption measuring device that measures and records electricity units consumed at a particular moment – in digital form.

Apart from measuring, a smart meter transmits the digitally measured data to your energy retailer – eliminating the need to manually check and log the consumption data.

While a smart meter records detailed consumption data, a consumer can only access the data through a third party. In-home display makes it incredibly easy to access and visualize the data on your phone or computer screen.

In-home display is your window to your electricity consumption. Just hook up your smart meter with In-home display, and you’ll be able to:

1. Reduce your electricity usage by checking which are the most watts-guzzling appliances.

2. Set a daily/monthly/weekly energy budget to track the usage

3. Check historical and real-time energy usage report.

4. Check electricity consumption of individual appliances – by switching appliances one by one while tracking the increase in kilo-watt-hour number on your IHD.

5. Get alerts when your energy usage crosses a set threshold .

6. Understand how, where, and when you could make smart choices that will save electricity and hence money.

An In-home display unit also allows you to see (in the form of bars/chart) the effect of an energy intensive activity or action like:

1. Using LED downlights instead of halogen/incandescent/fluoro lights.

2. Taking a bath instead of shower.

3. Setting the ac thermostat at 22°C instead of 23°C

4. Washing dishes on eco-setting of your dishwasher

5. Washing clothes with cold water and rinsing with hot water .

6. Air drying clothes or drying using a washing machine dryer.

Free In-home display installation under the VEU program

All Victorian households are eligible to get a free In-home display (IHD) installed in their home under the VEU program. Though, there are the following conditions that a Victorian resident need to meet before applying for a free In-home display unit and installation:

1. You have a residential property and you haven’t already installed an In-home display.

2. Commercial properties are not eligible for free In-home display installation.

3. Your electricity meter is located within 50 meter of your residential building.

4. You are a registered property owner.