With traditional prepayment ‘pay-as-you-go’ meters, you need to manually top up a card or key at PayPoints.
If you’re familiar with the routine, it means when you’re running low you have to trudge down to the local shop to top up – come rain or shine.
But with smart prepay meters that often arduous and annoying journey can be a thing of the past.
With a smart prepay meter the process is simpler: you can top up from home – no gas card or electricity key necessary.
So that means you can stay sat cosy at home and top up from your sofa via online, your phone or on the smart meter itself.
And by having one you could also see your fuel bills reduce.
Some smart meter owners have saved between £10-£20 a month by using information from the in-home display to make changes to their energy use.
Smart meters are the new generation of energy meters being rolled out in homes in England, Scotland and Wales. Eligibility may vary by supplier and region.
They come with an in-home display (IHD). It gets fed information securely by your smart meter to show you in near real-time exactly how much gas and electricity you’re using, how much it’s costing, and – in the case of a smart prepay meter – how much credit you have left.
You can use this information to work out which appliances, such as the kettle, the oven or the tumble dryer are using the most energy and, if you can, adjust accordingly – like, for example, turning appliances off standby. This way, you will identify new opportunities to save energy, and money.
Not only will they help you save, but they can also give you a sense of control over your costs – if your heating is on, you won’t need to worry about how much it’s costing, because you can see for yourself.
IHDs will also give out a low credit alert if they’ve fallen below a low threshold and enter emergency credit, which means you’re less likely to be caught short.
Smart Energy GB is a government-backed organisation tasked with informing Great Britain about the benefits of the smart meter rollout.
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Ask your energy supplier if you’re eligible for a smart prepay meter. For more info visit smartenergygb.org. Eligibility may vary by supplier and region.
