We’ve made some updates to equivents!

After receiving quite a bit of feedback from many of you suggesting that you would like us to give you more notice of when equivents are happening we have made some updates which we wanted to share with you.

For any of you that have taken part in our National Grid DFS events, these updates will be very familiar to you already.

What’s Changing?


From now on we will be giving you advanced notice for some equivents. (Please note: We will also still be running equivents without any advanced notice as before. For these events you will still be awarded points via any connected smart devices)

For advance notice events, your points will only be calculated via your smart meter, which means you will need half-hourly data to participate and get rewarded for taking part manually.

Any Kasa plugs or EVs you have connected to equiwatt will still be automatically switched off, however, all your points will be awarded via your smart meter and not the devices themselves.

How will it work?


When we run an advance notice equivent, you will receive a notification via the app ahead of time, informing you when the next event will be. The amount of notice will vary but we will try to let you know at least the day before.

To take part in the equivent, you will simply need to tap the notification when it appears and opt into the equivent via the in-app pop-up that appears when you log in to your account.

If you can’t take part in the event or the timing is inconvenient, simply select the opt-out option in the pop-up.

Once you have opted in, you will see a confirmation message and the time and date of the upcoming event on the home screen of the app, just in case you need a reminder.

If you have any questions or feedback, let us know!

3 Likes

Does that mean if you’re [still] waiting for your SMETS1 smart meter to be upgraded you can’t participate in any advance notice Equivents?

1 Like

Hi @Stephanie_L, yes I am sorry to say it does. We need half-hourly readings to measure your savings and award you points and unfortunately, first-generation (SMETS1) smart meters that have not been upgraded do not provide this.

If you want to know more about the upgrading process you can read more here - SMETS1 smart meters and how they're being upgraded | Smart DCC

Hopefully, it won’t be long before your energy provider & the DCC upgrades your smart meter for you.

Thanks,

Mark

Mark
Your note says
“For advance notice events, your points will only be calculated via your smart meter
This suggests that for “surprise” Equivents points will still be awarded for smart plugs??
Can you please clarify.

Hi @Phil_Maud, yes that is correct. For events with no notice you will still be awarded points via your smart plugs.

Thanks Mark
I think that neess to be made clearer in the communication.

1 Like

So the smart plugs will stand mostly idle now?

Mine have been idle for months …so much so, one decided to start cycling on/off at 6am the other morning and I had to unplug it. Thankfully it wasn’t the one my fridge was plugged into, otherwise I think I’d be shopping for a new fridge now!

(@Mark_equiwatt I’ve dropped you a quick email about this - it seems TP-Link are willing to replace the faulty plug, but need an invoice/receipt from 11/07/2021, which I don’t have. Don’t know if you have any historical payment records that might help??)

Hi @MagicHorsey, apologies for not responding to your comment sooner. In answer to your question, no they will not remain mostly idle.

The overall focus has switched to participation via smart meters due to requirements from National Grid and other operators but smart devices and enabling automatic participation in events is very much part of our plans moving forward.

Smart plugs and other smart devices will still participate in all the events we run, albeit, there weren’t any instant events last month. However, we don’t expect that to be the case this month.

All the best,

Mark

Hi @Rich_T, sorry to hear about your smart plug, going into ‘Disco’ mode seems to be an issue that has affected other Kasa plugs previously.

I have responded to your email but since you purchased the plug from us we are happy to send you a replacement as that might be the easiest way to resolve the issue.

All the best,

Mark - Team equiwatt

1 Like

:joy: Thanks Mark, yeah ‘Disco’ mode is a great/accurate description.

That explains it. Thanks!