Smart Meter For Solar Systems

How Does A Smart Meter Reduce Your Electricity Bill In Murrieta Homes?

 Smart Meter For Solar SystemsA smart meter is an electronic device that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing. The benefits to a consumer of having a smart meter are many, and include more accurate bills and no visits from meter readers. Only a smart meter can get you accurate bills from your energy supplier.

A smart meter is a new kind of gas and electricity meter that can digitally send meter readings to your energy supplier. A smart meter is meant to be a useful utility for checking how much electricity you are using throughout your house to increase your awareness. A smart meter can be instructed to send information about your energy usage to a new energy company instantaneously. Those who have already upgraded to a smart meter are more satisfied with their energy supplier, the accuracy of their bills and control they feel when compared to those still using the old analogue technology.

10 Facts You Need To Know About Smart Meters & Solar If You Want To Reduce Your Energy Bill Today

While most homeowners are familiar with the installation of smart meters on their homes, many are seeking more information about the smart meters’ impact on their electric bills and their ability to lower or control their electricity costs with solar in this new “smart grid” enabled world.

1. Definition of a smart meter
Smart meters are digital devices that record the amount of energy you use in your home and send this information to the utility company.  Smart meters are the digital replacements of their predecessors, the old electro-mechanical analog meter.  They have a digital display and are about the same size as the old analog electricity meter. The new electric meters provide two-way communication between your home and the utility. These new meters use secure wireless network technology or powerline technology to communicate your usage data to the local utility. The utility uses the information from the smart meter to calculate your energy use and your monthly electric bill.

2. Why the utilities are installing smart meters
Utility companies around the world are installing smart electric meters for many reasons.  Those include efficiencies related to remote meter reading, fixing service disruptions remotely, and as a first step in the rollout of smart grid technologies in their service areas.  One of the critical factors driving smart meter technology is the need to match electricity consumption with the real time demands on the grid. Utilities are increasingly challenged during high usage times such as hot summer afternoons when air conditioning loads can place tremendous stress on the grid. The smart grid promises to aid utilities in their ability to balance grid demand in their service areas in real time. Read more here.

Your Smart Meter can share information with you through its In-Home Display (IHD) or a Smart Gateway – gadgets that show you exactly how much energy youre consuming.

SMART METERS HOW DO THEY WORK

How can a smart meter help save me money?

There’s a pattern to how we consume energy. High energy use times are weekday afternoons and evenings. Unsurprisingly, low energy use times are overnight when we’re all sleeping. The problem is that electricity can’t be stored easily on a large scale. So energy networks need capacity to generate enough energy for peak demand times, even though much of the network’s capacity may lie dormant during the off-peak hours.

The network also needs to cater for the periods of heaviest demand – such as hot summer days – which may only occur for several hours a year. And the infrastructure needed to supply energy is expensive; in fact, the Australian Energy Market Commission’s price trends review in 2014 found that 53% of our energy bills are due to network costs.

If a large number of electricity customers shift their energy use to off-peak times, there’s less need for expensive upgrades as the current network infrastructure can be used more efficiently. Thanks to the data now available through smart meters, retailers are able to offer a range of products and services to incentivise customers to use cheaper, off-peak energy, including:

  • Flexible pricing
  • Critical peak pricing
  • In-home displays
  • Direct load control. See more here.

Smart meter satisfaction consistently highAs the number of installations increases, those who already have a smart meter are reaping the benefits of this new technology.

Smart meters explained

What are the benefits of having a smart meter?

Smart meters use a secure national communication network (called the DCC) to automatically and wirelessly send your actual energy usage to your supplier. This means households will no longer rely on estimated energy bills, have to provide their own regular readings, or have meter readers come into their homes to read the meter. There are several benefits to smart meters:

  • More accurate bills Smart meters mean the end of estimated bills, the end of having to remember to provide meter readings and/or have a stranger come into your home to read your meter
  • Better understanding of your usage With the smart meter display, you can see the direct impact your habits and lifestyle have on your bill. This is particularly useful to prepayment meter customers, who can better track how their usage impacts their available credit. By making your energy usage easier to understand, you can make smarter decisions to save energy and money, including feeling more confident switching energy supplier.
  • Faster and easier energy switching Because your usage data is so easily accessible, the aim is to make energy switching as quick as just a half hour.
  • Bringing Britain’s energy system into the 21st century The future is smart, and smart meters are part of the effort to create a smart grid, which is part of providing low-carbon, efficient and reliable energy to households. Read full article here.

What Can A smart Meter Do Besides Measure Consumption?

A Smart Meter can come with a handy portable in-home display device (IHD), so you can see exactly how much energy you’re using at home in near-real time. A smart meter can allow you to be more efficient in the ways that you use energy. When used with our free Electricity Outlook portal or an in-home display, the smart meter can save you money by helping you to better understand and manage your electricity use. Another advantage that having a smart meter will offer you is that you wont have to have anybody come round to your house and take meter readings manually.

In addition to reporting your energy usage, the smart meter can inform the utility immediately if there’s a power outage in your area. Furthermore, given that the smart meter can be read more frequently (as much as every 15 minutes), the information captured will allow better identification of abnormal consumption which could be the result of electricity pilferage. Our independent research says that eight in ten people with a smart meter have taken at least one step to reduce their energy use at home, you may contact us here: (951) 805-1262 for more information.

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