Start Saving Energy Now - Smart Meters Are Coming To Your Home

July 29, 2011 - PRLog -- Dramatic changes are afoot to the way you will pay for your gas and electricity in the future. The Department of Energy and Climate Change is reported to be investing some £11.3 billion into a nationwide scheme to fit every home and small ‘non-domestic premises’ with a new ‘smart’ meter.

The meters offer a number of key benefits. They provide consumers with more information about consumption. They allow supply companies to conduct remote readings. And energy companies are expected to use them to offer a greater array of off-peak tariffs. Eco superstore My Greener Home’s director Edwin Lloyd is familiar with many energy monitoring and cost cutting ideas:

“The fact that people are not able to access this technology right now is frustrating. There’s a tremendous interest in energy efficiency, not least because of rocketing bills. Being able to better understand your own consumption patterns is important to start saving money. If you have more information about where you are needlessly wasting energy, then you can take easy steps to solve the problems. More choice of off peak tariffs should also have been implemented a long time ago. For example, there are devices that easily control when you use electricity. It helps to promote environmental awareness as well as shrinking the bills”.

The cost of installing the new meters is to be absorbed by the energy companies themselves. The Government has been expecting the meters to create efficiency savings. It argues that these will create greater value for these companies, who will then pass the benefits onto their customers. However, concerns have been raised over whether energy companies will indeed follow suit. They are certainly not universally popular following price hikes after a bitterly cold winter. While parts of the country froze in extreme weather conditions, suppliers did not mitigate against the extra costs homes were facing simply to maintain a healthy temperature indoors.

“There is the question of whether energy companies will ‘play fair’ and pass savings on to customers. Many people are worried that instead, they could in fact opt to pass the cost of installing smart meters onto the general public instead. The meters will take many years to install in any event, and in the meantime, consumers need to make sure they’re being as energy efficient as possible. It will rein in the bills ready for when the meters finally arrive. The best way is to use an energy monitor to see what’s going on at home; then use the most energy efficient appliances possible and install the latest heating controls to stop burning money where you just don’t need to”.  

My Greener Home stocks a massive range of energy saving devices alongside consumer-friendly advice at:

http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/

Interested journalists should contact news@mghtrading.co.uk
Telephone: 020 8133 9002