Should You Buy a Smart Meter When You Can Get it Free?

New companies and products are popping up in the latest craze to sell you a smart meter or energy monitor service, but do you need to splash the cash or get one for free? We investigate.

What is a smart meter?

Having a smart meter in your home allows all your data for your electricity to be transmitted back to your utility company so you can read and analyse your consumption in real time. It also allows you to undertake more in-depth analysis by producing various graphs and tables to investigate how much electric energy your home or business uses, then adjusting usage to reduce costs.

Various software tools allow you to view the data on your own computer or online if you don’t want to use your utility company’s website application.

The choice you make depends on whether you need a new meter installed or simply a device that clips onto your existing meter. Either way, the data is transmitted electronically to wherever it has to go, and you never have to have your meter read manually again. That means all the data received by your utility company is up to date, and your bills are 100% accurate.

What is an energy monitor?

An energy monitor is slightly different to a smart meter. These devices read your consumption directly from your meter and display usage on a screen in your home. You can see what energy you use now and over time to check your consumption.
Energy monitors do not transmit data back to your utility supplier, so you must still enter manual meter readings.

Should you buy or get one for free?

Your supplier should provide both systems for free to help you monitor your energy usage and transmit your consumption data to their billing system. Certainly, most will provide you with a free energy monitor, which starts you off looking at your consumption. Many studies estimate that you could save around 10% off your bill each year just by having this device showing your live usage data.

British Gas has termed their device Energy Smart which also allows you to input your readings on their website into your online account.

All the major energy companies have this service.

The UK government also has various targets, so all homes will need to have a smart meter installed over the coming years. All energy companies have their own targets to install these services for free (although they will obviously need to recoup that cost through higher bills through taxes).

A couple of utility companies in the UK already provide free smart meters under some of their tariffs. They are Opus Energy and First Utility (who have also partnered with Google Power, so you can see your consumption data online via your Google account). So you could try one of these or wait until the UK-wide rollout of the smart meters that every home will get.

You can also jump ahead of the queue and buy your own smart meter that clips onto your existing meter. A new company called AlertMe offers such devices from £69, so the choice is yours when you can get free smart meters and energy monitors.