Smart Meters: What are the benefits?

You will hear about Smart Meters everywhere these days - from your neighbours, the morning radio show or even on Facebook. And yet, you might still be confused about what they are and their real benefits.

Why should I get one? What makes them so smart?

Don't you worry - we've all been there. However, Smart Meters are simpler than you think - and yes, also very beneficial! We are here to make things clearer for you. Worry not, as we will explain exactly what the benefits are and how they can help you.

As they are the new smart technology in utilities, people call them the smartphones of the Energy world. They are a replacement to the conventional gas and electricity meters, by making things more flexible, controllable and efficient.

Smart Meters benefit you, because they:

Save you money
Save you energy
Make your everyday life easier

But how do they do that, exactly? When making the choice to get a Smart Meter installed, you should have all your questions answered! That is why we’ve put together a list of all the benefits of Smart Meters that you need to know.

Understand your energy use

Nothing will benefit you more than a true understanding of your own personal energy usage. We all have different lifestyles, homes and appliances, and because of that, each one of us uses their energy differently. Your Smart Meter provides you with accurate and regular information on what you're using, in pounds and pence. Now you finally get a true understanding of how your lifestyle affects your energy bills.

Whether you have kids, you work from home or you stay up at night, you can see how everything you do affects your energy.

Avoid any surprises

As you get a better understanding of your Energy usage, Smart Meters show you exactly what to expect with your costs, what affects them and at what point they might change due to changes in your life. You get full control and awareness over all the energy that’s being used, so you never have to worry about any surprises you weren’t expecting!

Stay in the know

You no longer need to look at your actual meter to see what’s happening – everything can be accessed on your in-home display (or other devices). A Smart Meter can help you see what you might have missed before, such as when you forget to switch things off upstrairs!

Your Smart Meter will also give you an indication of how long your credit should last you, so you can always be prepared.

Improve your lifestyle

When you see how your lifestyle impacts your energy usage, you become motivated to make better changes to your habits. What’s even better, is that, it also helps you make those changes, because now it’s clear what you should do less of and what you should do more of instead! You can switch up your everyday routine to focus on the things that save and not those that consume.

Make it cheaper

When you make changes to your everyday routines, saving energy results in lower costs. So, not only you know what costs to expect, you can also easily figure out how to reduce them. Especially that very often you’ll find that there are things that drain a lot of your Energy, even though you're not using them.Such as those game consoles that you think are switched off.. read about this in Small Everyday Changes To Save Energy.

Find the energy thieves

Thanks to Smart Meters, you can watch your energy usage in real time. With that, you can test your appliances and figure out which take up a lot more energy and which ones cost you less. It’s never been easier to test out everything in your home - whether it's comparing your laptop with your tablet, or figuring out which way of cooking is cheaper for you!

Easier ways to top up

If you’re on Pay As You Go, you can top up your your gas and electricity whenever and wherever suits you! Smart Meters allow us to give you more options for topping up, whether you want to do it from a smart device at home, on the go or call us direct to utilise the auto-top up option. You can also carry on going to your local PayPoint shop, so you can pick and choose what’s convenient for you!

Full house of energy savers

This is an amazing benefit for those with kids or housemates. When you have a Smart Meter, it will help those who are less careful to become more aware. Once they see how the things they do directly impact the costs and it might just stop them leaving the lights on everywhere. If they don’t, this will then be useful if you split bills, as you’ll know who’s been using more energy.

Help kids save energy

As mentioned earlier, you can use Smart Meters to make the kids not only understand, but also want to save energy. Now that everything's visual and clear, they have no excuse! With a clear display of measurements, you can set your kids fun challenges to reduce costs.

Use the display to show your kids just how much they’ve used when they left the water running this morning. Hopefully, that will be the last time!

No more manual readings

One less thing on your to-do list! One of the biggest benefits of Smart Meters is the end of manual readings. A Smart Meter will regularly send your actual readings to the supplier digitally, so you no longer have to worry about them.

End of estimated bills

As the readings are sent straight to the supplier, this results in more accurate billing. Smart Meters mean no more estimated bills! We will be aware of your usage and set up your tariffs accordingly. Your bills will now be more personalised and adapted to your own lifestyle.

Smart Meters are free!

Unlike other great Energy Saving improvements, such as installation of solar panels, Smart Meters do not cost you anything. They will be installed for you free of charge, at your own convenience, which makes them the ideal option for your home.

Become more eco-friendly

By helping us all reduce our energy usage, we are becoming more eco-friendly and supportive to the environment. It also helps us, as the supplier, by providing energy more efficiently according to the demand.

Essential for the future of energy

They are a key ingredient for better energy systems in our world. According to Andreas Umbach, reducing carbon emissions, increasing renewal energy and improving energy efficiency might not be possible without Smart Meters. He believes that we need to fully understand our energy consumption to be able to control and improve it in the future.

Upgrading to the digital era

Smart Meters mean new technology and new improvements. The old meters many of us still have in our homes were designed for a different era. Something as crucial to our everyday lives as energy can now be adapted into the digital age and allow us to take advantage of all those benefits that new and smart technology provides us with!

We hope that things are little more clearer to you now. There are many benefits to Smart Meters, and that is why we decided to offer them to our customers. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to get in touch - we are here to help!