Tuesday 19 October 2010

Smart energy meters investigated

Smart energy meters are being installed by electricity suppliers across the
UK.

They are the latest digital devices that allow utility companies and their
customers to keep an eye on consumption of electricity and gas.

The Government planned for every home in the UK to have a smart meter
installed by the year 2020, although the reluctance of some power companies
to install them means we may not see them appearing en masse until around
2013.


However, some utility companies have begun trials and others have said they
will start soon.

The first company to issue smart meters was the aptly named First Utility,
which has been installing the meters in homes of new customers since
September 2008. British Gas has also started sending out what it calls
Energysmart meters to customers on certain tariffs.

What is a smart meter? Smart meters are not to be confused with the home energy monitors that you
may have seen (we have reviewed several). Those monitors are known in the
industry as indirect metering devices.

They work by having a sensor clamped on to the live supply wire of your
home's electricity to measure the consumption based on the signals coming
through the wire.

Read more:
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/features/2268739/smart-energy
-meters#ixzz10lmater8

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