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SmartShift

Energy

Why everyone should get a smart meter

An at-home display for a smart meter


Smart meters aren’t perfect - but they are essential. They open the door to the big cost savings that our customers are achieving from switching to a smart tariff  - up to 50% in many cases! The reason why such cost savings are possible, is that smart meters enable half-hourly readings, which allow energy suppliers to set different rates for different hours of the day - as we describe in this article. This, in turn, allows people to save money by being more flexible in when they use electricity, especially if they can shift their usage to the off-peak hours of the day.


But there are other benefits to installing a smart meter:


  • You no longer need to take and submit monthly meter readings - meaning no more reminder emails, squeezing yourself into the utility closet, or costly mistakes!

  • You will finally receive truly accurate bills, as they will be based on your actual consumption rather than a combination of readings and estimates.

  • You can access granular insights on your energy use - including tips on how to become more flexible.


Smart meter installed next to a fusebox in a residential home

Image credit: Smart Energy GB


64% of households in Great Britain now have a smart meter, with around 700,000 installations taking place per quarter. A smart meter installation takes about one hour to complete, or up to two hours if you are having both electricity and gas smart meters installed at once, and you will usually be provided with an in-home display that many people put in the kitchen (or for those that don’t like the real-time commentary on their usage, in a closet!). The meter data is sent securely through a dedicated network to the Data Communications Company (DCC), from where it is accessed by your energy supplier.


Are there any downsides? Not in our view, but there are frustrations! Chief among those is the fact that for most people in the UK it is actually not possible to access your own smart meter data from your energy supplier! To our knowledge, only Octopus Energy offers this ability via their website - something we believe must change. We have also noticed that many of our customers are missing data for certain days, and there are multiple media reports of smart meters losing their communication link. And then there are those homes that are not currently eligible due to a weak mobile signal, or because the meter is situated far away from the residence as is the case with some larger developments.


Some of these issues are due to the fact that the current smart meter standard (SMETS2) is, in the fast-moving technology world, pretty old by this point and would probably benefit from a major overhaul. However, despite the limitations, smart meters will become increasingly critical to accessing more innovative tariffs as we electrify our homes.


Unfortunately many misconceptions on smart meters have accumulated over the years. For example, that smart meters are a privacy risk, or that you can’t switch supplier once you have one installed - both untrue. Since many others have done an excellent job of myth-busting, here is a list of resources:



If you have any outstanding questions on smart meters we’d love to hear from you - just drop us an email. But if you don’t already have a smart meter we hope we have convinced you to request one. To do this you should contact your energy supplier, or alternatively you can consult the official smart meter website here.

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