DTE Insight 4+

Issues but Customer Support Cane Through

I’ve had issues with the app, but after a few months they’ve resolved the issues I was seeing. I wish they would allow their customer support to continue to update tickets even when the ticket has been assigned to another team to give customers more granularity but overall I am happy with the app.

That being said, this is a cool feature to have, especially when you’ve got a lot going on in a home and are curious to see how much energy is being used. I’ve got a hot tub, AC, and a few other high consuming pieces of equipment and it is enlightening to see just how much is being used. After seeing how much, I was able to tailor their energy use to have a smaller impact on the grid and my wallet. It can be very helpful at times.

Time of day rate issues - updated for v8.0.4

Update: The developers are listening

V8.0.4 addressed all the issues below, making this app now highly useful for the time of day rate. You can finally see how many ‘on peak’ vs ‘off peak’ kWhs you have used, which is really the point of switching to get that ratio maxed. I’m upping the rating from 3 to 5 stars. - now if your still listening, just need to improve the login time, please!

App worked great when on the standard rate. After switching to ‘time of day’ rate, it was clear little compatibility testing was done. Issues 1) App provides a ‘red zone’ for on peak weekday hours, but can’t manage to adjust at the weekend. 2) live view shows off peak at all times, regardless of time of day 3) Total summary hour graph only shows total off peak hours (no on peak), but this is probably due to 2) 4) cost per kWh is all over the place and never reflective of actual rates. Seems that standard rate is used on some screens and random values in others. Please make adjustable if it cannot be tied to the actual and seasonal rate. 5) many other small problems. Generally needs to be checked for rates other than standard rate. Great potential if fixed

Lots of potential but poorly executed

This app has lots of potential an some great features, like budget setting, scanning of device usage, etc

That being said, a typical DTE production - good ideas poorly executed. I’ve been using this app since 2015 and it continues to crash, not update consumption consistently. Furthermore, its incessant updates for branding, look, etc are nice - but how about better consistency of meter consumption, not crashing randomly for no reason, opening and crashing immediately (newest issue that regularly occurs). I understand it all interfaces with infrastructure behind the scenes, so figure out what’s the issue and fix it.
I’m sure typical of DTE, internal management and “leadership” is running around blaming everyone / technology and developers are trying to fix with little to no time or budget...

Update as of 8/2/21 - Support has reached out before to try to fix it, but I get multiple days of no data, takes way longer than 36 hours to load. I’ve done the usual logout, login, delete/reinstall app. Not sure why this is so difficult. I have friends in other cities who use other utils apps that do the same thing, no issues. I also have a newer meter on the outside of the house (2019ish) and a fresh power run from the pole... so who knows. Oh wait yeah it’s DTE

Developer Response ,

Hello, we have released an update with a fix for the crashing issue. If you continue to experience crashes please attempt an uninstall and reinstall of the app to ensure the newest version is running on your device. If you continue to experience issues we urge you to contact Insight Support at 866.796.0512 or by at email DTE_Insight@dteenergy.com to assist you in troubleshooting. Thank you!