British Gas Begins Smart Meter Roll Out
British Gas has started to roll out smart meters to customers in the UK.
British Gas intends to install smart meters in over 10 million homes throughout the UK which will enable users to monitor their energy consumption and make instant changes to reduce their usage.
Smart meters will show how much energy each individual appliance use and therefore they will allow users to monitor how much they are spending on electricity.
Every home within the UK will have to be fitted with a smart meter by 2020 as part of the Government’s plan to cut carbon emissions. And while there’s no such thing as cheap electricity anymore, knowing how much gas and electricity you are using could help to reduce energy bills.
British Gas customers will have a separate smart meter for gas and electricity and those customers who have new smart fridges and washing machines, the meters will be able to note how much energy each one is using. Consumers can even fit smart plugs which gather data on electricity consumption. Data is then transferred to the smart meter before finally being transmitted to the British Gas central system.
However, British Gas isn’t the only energy provider with plans to install smart meters. Others including EDF Energy and nPower also have plans to install smart meters in customer homes.
British Gas said the data collected using smart meters would be used to help people to make choices about their energy usage. The managing director of British Gas Smart Homes, Dean Keeling said, “It can very quickly be used to deliver brilliant insight to the consumer to say ‘you don’t have enough insulation in your home’, or ‘your central heating system is costing you a fortune’”.
He added, “It helps us deliver insight to the consumer which they can trust, and we know is accurate. Ultimately for us that helps us build a better business”.
Greenpeace is in favour of smart meters and a spokesman said “Smarter use of energy is one of the biggest differences we can make, rather than just thinking about new ways of generating more energy”.
He added, “It will go some way to helping the UK meet its carbon emission targets”.
British Gas has so far fitted 400,000 smart meters as reported by Utility Exchange last year but many of these do not have the features of the new meters such as details of pricing and wireless capability.