Smart meters are becoming increasingly popular, with many energy suppliers recommending them to customers in order to help the UK meet ‘net zero’ by 2050.
With smart meters being rolled out country-wide by 2025, many people are opting to install them now.
There are many reasons why you should install a smart meter in your home. These reasons include, but are not limited to:
- They’re energy efficient
- Help you to save money
- They’re low maintenance
- They allow you to track your energy usage
1. They’re Energy Efficient
One of the biggest reasons for installing a smart meter in your home is that they’re energy efficient.
The government intends to roll out smart meters to all homes by the end of 2025, which ‘will generate total bill savings to households of £5.6 billion’, emphasising how energy efficient smart energy is.
In fact, smart meters encourage as many as ‘85% of people to take energy-saving actions’, helping you to conserve energy and save money in the process.
If you’re worried about how much energy you’re using, by installing a smart meter in your home, you can ensure that you’re being as energy efficient as you can be.
This not only allows you to live a greener, more sustainable lifestyle, but will also help to save you money in the long run, leading onto the next point.
2. Help You To Save Money
Arguably one of the biggest reasons to install a smart meter is that they can help you to save money. As the UK is currently in an energy crisis, with the energy price cap increasing to £2500 from October 2022, any savings you can make count.
So, how do smart meters help you save money? It largely comes down to the fact that it provides you with accurate usage readings, meaning that ‘estimated bills’ are a thing of the past.
With more accurate readings, you’ll only have to pay for the energy that you actually use. In addition to this, the detailed breakdown of your energy usage will encourage you to become more energy efficient, and in turn, save money in the process.
While it’s tempting to leave the heating on a little longer than you should, the breakdown that smart meters provide can be incredibly helpful to prevent you from overspending on your energy bill and help you to be more mindful and energy efficient this winter.
3. They’re Low Maintenance
Another reason for installing a smart meter in your home is that they’re incredibly low maintenance. This is largely because smart meters track your energy usage automatically without you needing to lift a finger.
There’s no denying that manually taking your energy meter reading can be tedious, especially when you go away for the week, or your meter isn’t easily accessible.
With a smart meter, you don’t have to do anything. Gone are the days where you had to reach your traditional meter under the stairs or some other hard-to-reach location to read your meter and manually inform your energy supplier of your reading.
This is because ‘Smart meters will record your energy use every 30 minutes’, without you having to do anything.
So, if you’re on holiday, away for the week, or simply just forget to take your meter reading, you’re all set to receive an accurate bill as your energy provider will automatically be informed.
As your energy supplier has these records, they can therefore offer reduced tariffs that are cheaper if you use energy when it’s more affordable to do so.
4. They Allow You To Track Your Energy Usage
Another reason to install a smart meter in your home is that they allow you to easily track your energy usage.
In the past, many people found it difficult to track their energy usage as traditional meters were often installed in places that were notoriously difficult and inconvenient to access, such as under the stairs or even outside of the home.
On the other hand, smart meters come with an in-home display that makes it incredibly easy and convenient to keep track of how much energy you’re actually using.
Additionally, this will be shown to you through a detailed breakdown of your usage, showing you how much energy, you’ve used in the last hour, week, and month.
With this data, you can better manage how much energy you use and know exactly how much you can expect to pay for your next energy bill based on actual usage.
Written by Jemima Thomas on behalf of Towy Heating, leading suppliers and installers of domestic boilers and home insulation in South Wales and Carmarthenshire.
