Arc Innovations can enable a range of connected or wireless in-home device (IHD) options to suit our customers' goals. These range from smartcard enabled prepay displays to simple informational displays or more complex graphical display options.

Arc Innovations Prepay In-Home Devices

Prepay IHDs enable a full energy prepay service to operate in the home with communication between the consumer and the meter. Customers can purchase electricity from their homes using a number of mechanisms that, effectively, hands control back to them. The in-home display allows customers to view their usage, account balance, tariff rates, vending options, and credit expiry configurations.

The In-Home Device displays information on:

• Current credit balance
• Rate tariff in cents per kWh
• Current energy information
• Estimate of time left based on the previous day's energy use
• Visual and audible warnings, which are given when available credit is less than the preconfigured level. (The consumer can temporarily disable the alert)

Prepay system credit information is stored and maintained locally by the meter. Consumption is automatically deducted from the local balance with the associated local information provisioning to the consumer via the IHD. Credit balances can be transferred to the meter through the smartcard reading interface built into the IHD or, directly, by remote vending.

Other features of In-Home Devices

Other features of in-home devices provide a variety of options about how information is displayed. These include:

• Near real time information to the user regarding energy consumption
• Current energy demands and associated costs
• Time of use (TOU) rates, and critical peak pricing (CPP) programmes
• Visual indication of when usage is nearing the point where higher rates will apply
• Comparisons of energy usage periods.