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Electricity monitors and smart meter displays

Guidance and product pages checked 15 November 2026. Prices may change. This is general information for Great Britain, not personal advice, and not a recommendation to buy any particular device. If you need work on a meter or a consumer unit, use a qualified electrician.

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A smart meter records what you use. The little in-home display (IHD) that came with it is the bit that shows you, almost live, what that is costing. If the display is blank, lost or was never left in the house, the meter itself should still be working, and your bills should still be based on its readings. You do not have to buy a new gadget on day one. The first step is to ask your supplier about a replacement IHD, then look at a free app or, if you want more detail, a monitor.

To see what a single appliance costs, a monitoring smart plug is usually simpler than a whole-house clamp. That is in our smart plugs guide. The sums in that guide use the current cap unit rate of 26.32p per kWh, which we explain in the energy price cap guide.

If your smart meter display is broken or missing

Under the energy supply licence, your supplier has to maintain the IHD for 12 months after it was installed for the occupier who received it. In that period, a fault or a missing display should be repaired or replaced. After those 12 months, it is no longer an automatic free replacement. GOV.UK has published voluntary principles that a long list of suppliers, including British Gas, EDF, E.ON Next, Octopus, OVO, ScottishPower and Utility Warehouse, have agreed to follow. Those principles say a supplier should offer a replacement IHD, or a way to buy one, once the display is confirmed as missing or broken, and should offer a free or lowest-cost replacement to people in vulnerable circumstances or on the Priority Services Register. What you are actually offered still depends on your supplier, so check with them rather than assuming it will be free.

1. Look for the original display first. Many only need new batteries, or they have been unplugged from the mains.
2. Contact your supplier through the app, your online account, or the phone number on your bill, and ask for a replacement in-home display. Say if you are on the Priority Services Register.
3. If the IHD is less than 12 months old, ask them to repair or replace it under the licence duty.
4. If it is older, ask what they offer now: a free replacement, a paid one, or an app or other device instead. Get the cost in writing before you agree to pay.

You can still request an IHD if you turned one down at installation, but the 12-month rules are tied to when it was provided, so confirm the position with your supplier. Official page: GOV.UK, Smart meter In-Home Display: voluntary replacement principles.

The Bright app, and Glow hardware

Hildebrand's Bright app is a free way to see smart meter data on your phone, once you create an account and complete their meter verification. Hildebrand is a regulated “DCC Other User”, which is why it can retrieve data without your supplier sending you a new display.

• Without a Glow CAD: if your meters are enrolled in the DCC, Bright can show delayed half-hourly consumption and tariff data after verification. This is useful history, not a live “right now” reading.
• With a Glow Display and CAD: you get near-real-time electricity (typically every 10 seconds) and gas (typically every 30 minutes) on the display and in the app. Hildebrand's own shop priced the combined Display and CAD at £69.99 on 15 November 2026, but it was out of stock, with a wait list, and the shop said the price will be going up. We have not listed it as a buy today. Check the Glow shop page and start with the free app at glowmarkt.com/bright.

Octopus Home Mini, for Octopus customers

The Octopus Home Mini is a small plug-in device, not a screen. It joins your smart meter's home area network and your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, then sends electricity readings to the Octopus app about every 10 seconds, with gas about every 30 minutes. You view the data under the Usage tab, on the Live and Day views. It needs to sit close to the electricity meter, ideally within about five metres, while still reaching Wi-Fi, and it has to stay plugged in. Octopus describes it as being in a beta roll-out, so eligibility and stock vary. Check the Octopus app or your account rather than assuming you can order one, or that it is free. It does not replace a working IHD if you still want a display on the kitchen counter.

Clamp monitors, including Efergy, OWL and Shelly

A clamp, or current-transformer, monitor clips around a single live cable, usually one of the meter tails, and sends a live reading to a display or an app. These work even if you do not have a smart meter, which is their main advantage. They do not measure gas, and they are only as good as the clamp placement.

This is electrical equipment. Follow the instructions, never clamp live and neutral together, and do not open a consumer unit unless you are competent to do so. If you are unsure, ask a qualified electrician. Shelly monitors, in particular, are often installed in a consumer unit or behind a socket.

Efergy and OWL are the long-standing home brands. We could verify a current, in-stock Efergy E-Max listing on Amazon UK today. We could not verify a current in-stock OWL listing (a previously published Intuition-lc page returned a 404), so we have not quoted an OWL price.

Products and official options we checked

Amazon prices were read from the product page on 15 November 2026 and may already have changed. Amazon links include our Associates tag. Official Glow and Octopus pages are plain links. This is not a recommendation to buy any particular product, and it is not electrical safety advice.

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