Still haven’t made up your mind about getting a smart meter? If you want to read more about smart meter benefits, how they work and what happens once you have one installed, you’re in the right place. 

Installation checklist

What is a smart meter?

A smart meter is an electricity or gas meter that can automatically send your meter readings to your energy supplier. If you have a smart meter, you’ll no longer have to remember to take and send manual meter readings each month. And your bill will always be based on real readings rather than estimates, making it more accurate. 

How do smart meters save energy?

Smart meters run on a tiny amount of electricity – just 1kWh over an entire year. But the information they provide could help you save much more than that by having more control over your energy.   

Because you can see how much energy you’re using in real time, as well as track your usage over the past day, week or month, you’ll be able to easily see the impact of energy saving actions. Making simple changes like turning down the temperature on your boiler, or swapping to LED bulbs, can all make a difference to your bill. 

Read more about how a smart meter can help you save energy.
 

Save energy

How do smart meters help the environment?

 As well as helping you save energy, smart meters are key building blocks for a more flexible, efficient energy system.  

By providing a clearer picture of how much energy is used throughout the day, smart meters help energy suppliers and the National Grid match supply and demand more closely. This means the grid will be better able to make the most of energy from renewable sources, rather than relying on big fossil fuel generators.  

The information that smart meters provide will also enable energy suppliers to offer more flexible types of tariff, which will support people to use clean technologies such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.  

Read more

Open window energy use

How to read a smart meter

One of the benefits of having a smart meter is that it submits your readings automatically. However, it can still be a good idea to know how to read one, just in case you need to check it.  

 Find out how to read lots of different types of smart meter, as well as your In-home display, in our guide. 

Energy use women on phone

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Questions about using a smart prepayment meter? 

Go to our smart prepayment page for more information. 

More information about smart meters 

Here are some useful resources about smart meters.