People across the country are looking for ways to cut their energy bills after recent price hikes - and one of the solutions some are looking to is a smart meter. Smart meters were introduced in 2011 as a way to monitor your gas and electricity usage - cutting the need for people to physically read meters and showing you exactly how much energy you are using.
The read-outs are often sent to a device that sits somewhere in your home, or to an app on your phone, so you don't have to check your meter to see how much you are using. More people are now switching to smart meters providing an update every 30 minutes - so you can see exactly how much energy you are using as you use it.
So far, around 24million homes have a smart meter and the plan is for 85% of us to have one by the end of 2024 - with Ofgem now looking at using them for surge pricing - charging people more to use energy when demand is higher. But do they save you money?
A spokesman for Citizen's Advice said: "A smart meter won’t automatically save you money. You’ll have to be proactive to reduce your energy costs. The best way to do this is to use the digital ‘in-home’ display that you’ll be offered with a smart meter to keep track of how much energy you’re using. You can then try to reduce it."
Gill Baker, E.on Director of Smart Field Connections, said: "Smart meters give you better visibility of your energy use so you can see where and how you’re using energy, and therefore where savings could be made.
"You can easily track how much energy you’re using today, this week, this month or this year on your in-home display. And you can compare how much energy you used on previous days or months with today or this month.
Monitoring your energy use can help you to understand your energy habits better and what small changes you could make to save energy – 73% of people with smart meters have done at least one energy saving activity more frequently since getting a smart meter."
She added: "A smart meter doesn’t save you money on its own, but it can help you to manage your energy usage and costs. Your in-home display not only shows you how much energy you’re using in near real-time and but also how much it’s costing you in pounds and pence.
"When you see how much your energy habits are costing you, you might be inspired to make small changes to help save money on your energy bills. For example, turning the TV off at the socket instead of leaving it on standby or switching the lights off when you leave a room."
A spokesman for Uswitch said: "By adjusting your behaviour to use less energy day-to-day based on feedback received from your smart meter’s in home display, you may find savings on your bill.
"Smart Energy GB have calculated that, collectively, the savings could be as much as £560 million if everyone in Britain changed to a smart meter."
Lily Canter at lovemoney.com switched to a smart meter. She said: "In October 2020, we used 30kWh of electricity and 402kWh of gas less than the previous year. And in October 2019, less than two months after the meter was installed, we were already using 326kWh less electricity compared to 2018.
"Looking at the figures in more detail over winter 2020, we were using slightly more electricity (around 30 kWh to 60kWh per month) but considerably less gas. In December 2020, we consumed 540kWh less gas than in 2019 despite me working from home.
"This was because we installed an electric-powered oil heater under my desk rather than whacking on the heating every day.
"This was a direct result of the smart meter telling us that having the heating on was costing us £4 a day, whilst the heater was around £1.50."
But Lily warned that there are glitches - including gas meters often failing to send updated information - you can read her full review of life with a smart meter here.
