Smart Electricity meters are rapidly replacing the old style analogue meters we have all become used to seeing. spinning wheels and analogue dials have been replaced by digital displays and solid state technology, why?
As with all things improvements and advancements are made that make life easier, so is the smart meter going to make life easier for you. Simply put no, nothing will change for you, except the potential for higher charges on your electricity bills, as these new devices measure and monitor far more electrical values than the meters they replace.
Being able to measure not just when and how much electricity you use allows the electricity company to understand what is using electricity. If you have a piece of equipment that produces a low power factor, your old meter would not detect this but the new one does and allows the electric company to charge for this situation.
Smart meter
s see more so therefore allow the utility to charge more accurately, gone are the days when only Kilowatt Hours and peak demand were monitored. Electricity data is now transmitted wirelessly, eliminating the need for in person meter reading, improving the efficiency of billing. If you chose to skip a bill payment the electric company simply cuts you off at the press of a button, very convenient!
Many people complain about higher bills received after the introduction of a smart meter, claiming these new devices are inaccurate. In our experience the smart meter is significantly more accurate, relying solely on solid state electronics and software to increase accuracy. The truth is your old meter was not capable of reading all of the electrical values to accurately charge for how you were consuming electricity. So for those who see an increase, what options do you have.
To lower electricity use is to understand electricity consumption and the best way of doing this is by installing a real time energy monitoring system. This will deliver insightful and actionable data allowing you to identify all anomalies, abnormal energy usage, check billing accuracy and basically out smart your smart meter.
If you want to level the playing field, then you need to be monitoring at a very minimum, all of the same values your new smart meter records and be one step ahead of the electricity company. You can’t manage what you can’t measure and using real time energy monitors allows you to take back control and lower your electricity usage by being aware of what, when and how much everything uses.
To conclude, the answer to are smart meters a good or a bad thing, they are good as you will pay for what you have used, even if you have been undercharged in the past technology advances and the use of such technology keeps everyone honest.
