By the year 2020, smart meters must be installed in every home in the UK – but what are they and what do they do? The following guide explains all.
A smart meter is an electricity meter – they will eventually replace all electricity meters in homes.
One of their tricks is that they are able to send electronic meter readings to electricity suppliers directly, reducing the need for meter readers to come to your house, find you’re out, leave a card, come round again, miss you by a couple of minutes and then leave another card!One of the other benefits is that there is no need for the householder to take their own reading – good news for anyone who is vision impaired, or finds it hard to wriggle into that narrow little, hard-to-reach cupboard to get to the electricity meter.
The smart meters send readings to electricity suppliers in different ways – some feature a built-in SIM card, like those used in mobile phones, which send the readings, while other smart meters send readings to electricity suppliers using long-range radio.
The good news for the bill payer is that any bills from electricity suppliers will be completely accurate – no more estimated readings and to-ing and fro-ing between the bill payer and the electricity supplier to establish the correct reading and bill to be paid.
Some smart meters also come with an energy monitor. This allows the householder to see exactly how much energy is being used at any time – so switch on the TV, computer and a few lights and gauge how much is being used. It’s a very useful tool to identify what uses up the most electricity in the house – and is a good visual guide, particularly for persuading children and teenagers to turn off appliances when they’re not using them.
The other good news is that because electricity companies will be able to gauge more accurately when electricity is used, they should be able to operate more efficiently and electricity prices may drop. Using smart meters may also enable the electricity suppliers to create more creative energy tariffs, or even offer plans that are customised to suit individual households’ needs.
