Friday 26 February 2016

Finance Fridays – Smart Meter Usage

smart meter usage
Back in October we featured smart meters on Finance Fridays. The general idea behind smart meters is that they can give each household greater control over their energy usage and bills. Rather than receiving estimated bills or having to wait until your bills arrive a smart meter is able to real time information and costs on energy usage. By 2020 every household will be offered a smart meter, to help monitor their usage and costs, at no extra cost.

Our friends over at Smart Energy GB have been helping everyone get to grips with smart meters. To get a better idea of how users have been getting on with their smart meters they asked them a few questions. Here is what they found out:

  • 85% of smart meter customers had better idea of what they were spending on energy.
  • Customers with smart meters are more confident in the accuracy of their bills (81%) when compared to those with traditional meters (64%).
  • Around 80% of people with a smart meter have taken at least one step to reduce how much energy they use.
  • 79% of people with a smart meter would recommend them to others.
  • When it comes to understanding their energy bills 75% of people with smart meters say they can get to grips with them but only 61% with a traditional meter can.
  • For those with a smart meter 72% said they have the right information they needed to choose the right energy tariff compared to 57% of people with traditional meters.
  • More than half (52%) of those with a smart meter say their new meter is helping them save money.
Smart meters can monitor the usage of both electric and gas. People who have had a smart meter installed have found they have become much more aware of energy usage. Left the TV on standby? Turn it off and you can see immediately on the smart meter the difference it makes. Some of the other popular methods to reduce energy usage and costs have been simple things such as switching off lights and turning the heating either down or off. You'll never leave your mobile phone on constant charge again!

Have you got a smart meter? How have you found it has helped you?

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14 comments:

  1. It is useful to learn about this sort of thing to know where you can easily save energy. The TV standby thing drives me nuts I have to say - most new TVs automatically seem to have this option all the time rather than allowing a full switch off!

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  2. I don't have a smart meter yet, but I am pretty good at turning everything off when it's not in use. It's a shame the rest of the family can't do this too - maybe a smart meter would help with awareness?!

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  3. Oh I should get a hold of a smart meter and try to make some savings!

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  4. I think these are a great idea - I would especially like to show my teenager the difference turning things off makes, as she seems to think stand-by is off!

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  5. I have been really tempted by these a few times, I think they might really work for us. I think with the kids growing up and tending to leave things on a bit we might need to have something like this in place.

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  6. I think this would work for us too. It looks like a good buy.

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  7. We have just had our smart meter replaces and they are going to send us a new usage meter for free as ours wasn't reporting correctly

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  8. We've haven't got a smart meter , we are pretty good are turning things off or I am rather

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  9. I would love a smart meter. We have an electronic thermostat and love it

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  10. I'd be really interested in getting a smart meter, our house is very inefficient when it comes to electricity and heating so it would be good to monitor it.

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  11. I've had a smart meter for a couple of years and I think they're a great tool in helping us to identify just how much energy it takes (and costs) to run a bath!!

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  12. I will mention this to my hubby, he is an energy assessor in his day job and I am sure would appreciate the input.xx

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  13. I would love one of these, I'm sure there's lots more we could do and this would really help.

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  14. Interesting to read about smart meters. We were contacted about having one but the chap never showed up. Sounds like a great way to save money you don't realise you're spending!

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I appreciate your comments. If you have any tips, tricks or tweaks please pass them on!