Mercury Energy GEM - do the Ad's misrepresent the capabilities?

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mmlakeman

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Topic # 120768 12-Jun-2013 19:40

Hi, Signed onto Mercury Energy from Genesis partly because of the GEM - good energy meter - Ads on TV showing the 'cool' Mac users looking at their graphs of monthly, daily and half hourly usage. The Ad suggests that by monitoring your usage you can adjust what you do to save power and money.
Quote from the Ad-
"GEM uses your Smart meter to track your usage everyday
and can tell you how much you have spent each half hour"

Now maybe I'm silly but as it turns out the data you get from GEM is actually 2 days old - so you can note down what appliances you use - then wait 2 days - then have a look at how much power it used....

Not really as useful as its made out to be...

Anyway, interested in others opinions, here is the link to the video:

Meet GEM - The Good Energy Monitor from Mercury Energy - Ad on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOR7zbSkZf0

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Reply # 836117 13-Jun-2013 06:07

I use it. About a day old, sometimes slightly more, have not seen anything more than 2 days (if that much).

From the graphs I can see when we shower, how much power the aircon uses when we are not home and not using anything else, and the blip when the hot water cylinder switches on to top-up (which is actually very seldom). You do have to work out what is what yourself, if you are bothered.

Or just use it for seasonal comparison. We are using 30% less power than a year ago, the only significant change is we have added an aircon. Interestingly our summer usage is lower as well even though we used the aircon lots, perhaps last summer someone left the fridge door open to cool the house...

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Niel

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Reply # 836429 13-Jun-2013 16:24

I've found a glitch in The Matrix. About 10 minutes ago I was checking my power usage as my bill came in unexpectedly high, and the past month's data was not on the "compare with others" graph. Now since 4:00 the data is there, it was updated right now. And so up to now when I was glancing over the graph to see how my power usage changed when we started heating the house (and I forgot I've also added the regulated dehumidifier 24/7), I was looking at data from a month ago and thinking it did not change much. My graph is also missing data for a day or two of last week (i.e. a glitch).

I was wrong so I'm changing my previous statement to "it is useful but with issues you need to be aware of". You can get to the most recent data (which can be 2 days old as you said), but you need to know where to look.

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richms

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Reply # 854136 11-Jul-2013 23:03

I think its the same as the data I get from genesis energy - totally useless.

And as I had a single meter with 2 registers installed replacing my dual meters I used to have, no longer do I get the seperate meters showing on the bill, I have to go and open up the meter box, and push the button to read the 2 registers myself and work out how much power the shed has used for what to use for claiming stuff. And it was their cock up and they want to charge me to go back to 2 seperate meters.

Days are often missing from it. Slow to update. Useless low contrast non backlit LCD display on the meter is almost impossible to read thru the meterbox window due to angle. I hate the thing.

Richard rich.ms

Niel

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Reply # 854547 12-Jul-2013 19:28

Today Mercury sent me an e-mail saying what my daily power usage was for the past week, think they started sending it out a week or two ago. Thing is, it shows my usage for last week from the 1st to the 7th, then gives me a projected next bill cost and says there is still 1 day left before the next bill. However, I got my bill yesterday, so even the power usage advisor is 2 days behind (just like the on-line power usage graph). There are a few issues to sort out. But I'm told (by friends and family) that Mercury is one of the better power companies to deal with.

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Hammerer

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Reply # 887579 31-Aug-2013 21:30

I recently signed up with Mercury but as we don't have a smart meter I didn't try GEM at them time. Now I've tried using it with monthly readings and I've also found it has lots of problems:

I can't set a savings goal unless I have 12 months history. There's no option to input readings from my previous supplier unlike the feature provided by that supplier.

I can't compare my power usage with similar houses because GEM keeps using samples of smaller houses.

If I change the details about my house, GEM takes days to update the comparison statistics.

Niel

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Reply # 887691 1-Sep-2013 08:24

At first I was impressed by GEM (for tracking my own usage, not comparison), until I realised it is 2 days behind and defaults to the previous month's graph with a number of clicks required to get to the latest (2 days old) usage.

You can never have enough Volvos!

Grant777

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Reply # 897632 18-Sep-2013 13:10

Would be good if it showed your separate meters - we have the hot water separate, which is controlled by them, seem to see it kick in early in the morning on the graph.

mattwnz

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Reply # 897654 18-Sep-2013 13:31

A little off topic, but does anyone know how much power these smart meters use over say a year and 10 years. Especially as they do transmit the data over the cell network.

Niel

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Reply # 897869 18-Sep-2013 17:41

It does not use cellular from the meter. The meters form a mesh network to get data to a hub within 4h. The hub then uploads data to the control room using either cellular or fibre.

Power for the radio >should< be supplied before the current transducer, but don't quote me on this.

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richms

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Reply # 897874 18-Sep-2013 17:57

The genesys one is definatly gsm based.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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Reply # 897875 18-Sep-2013 17:58

richms: The genesys one is definatly gsm based.

Yeap mine is GSM too, I think it is a vector one. I presumed they were all the same, because if you change energy supplier, they aren't going to change over the meter.

E3xtc

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Reply # 898179 19-Sep-2013 07:37

Yeah our previous one with Genesis was GSM based; and due to the wonderful way in which power companies work, there is a likelihood that if you switch to a different power company they may require you to switch out meters. I think there are 2 different types from memory of speaking to the installer.

We bought our house and it had a Mercury meter in it; Genesis had to install a meter of their own so that it was able to read the meter remotely....so they do vary....but from what I can remember they were trying to work towards either having a single model or systems that could read either.

Niel

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Reply # 898758 19-Sep-2013 22:21

It appears there are multiple platforms trialled, e.g. rural systems do not use GSM.
http://www.metrixinfo.co.nz/metering-rd/communications-3/

One overseas brand I saw a datasheet for (think it was Elstar) consumes 0.7W excluding optional GSM comms module, which works out to about $1 per month.

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Niel

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Reply # 898763 19-Sep-2013 22:27

Read the paragraph down the page just before the "for further information" address:
http://www.countiespower.com/news.htm

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Niel

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Reply # 898764 19-Sep-2013 22:30

And the demo video:
http://www.metrixinfo.co.nz/about/ami-demonstration/
This is what is installed at our home in Pakuranga, Auckland for Mercury.

You can never have enough Volvos!

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