POWERING THE HOME of the future
Smart meters are here, and they will change everything… including your electricity bill
Today we have smart security systems to help keep our homes safe and smart voice assistants to help with household tasks, but there’s one part of the smart home that’s poised to really change our lives: smart energy. And the first step towards this future is having a smart meter installed in your home at no additional cost.
Smart meters are replacing our analogue energy meters just as smartphones replaced our rotary telephones. A crucial cog in the wheel of creating a cleaner, greener, smarter and more secure energy system for the entire nation, the smart meter gives us the tools to control and manage the energy use in our homes and on a national scale.
At first this will happen thanks to an in-home display (IHD) that tracks energy expenditure in near-real time so we can respond and adjust our habits. But as the technology matures, smart meters will allow our internet-connected fridges, washing machines and heating systems to talk to our energy suppliers to decide when it’s most efficient to run, benefitting both our pockets and the planet.
This will mean that rather than relying on old-fashioned timers or rushing home at lunchtime to put a wash on when energy is cheaper, we’ll be able to let our homes decide when to do that hot wash, based on when the smart meter tells it energy is the cheapest.
“Smart meters will help our energy system more efficiently match supply and demand,” says Robert Cheesewright of Smart Energy GB. “That’s the big challenge we face in trying to get to energy net zero because we have variable demand.” This technology – known as Demand Side Response – leverages the communication abilities of a smart meter to allow for ‘Time of Use’ tariffs, setting lower prices when lots of supply is being generated and then telling those smart appliances about it.
In this future, an energy-efficient home with an electric vehicle in the garage, an electric heat pump powering the central heating, and smart, wi-fi connected appliances doing the housework could leverage the connectivity of a smart meter and adapt all its requests for energy from the grid in relation to the current supply and demand.
Another key component in the smart energy system are batteries. Batteries could one day be common in homes as a way to store excess energy generated by personal solar or wind power and as a place to store cheaper energy to use when prices are higher.
Cheesewright uses the common kettle as an example. “In the future, if you’ve got a kettle with a battery in it, you could boil water when energy is cheap and then use the energy stored in the kettle to have another cheap cup of tea later, when energy is more expensive,” he says.
Similarly, using the smart meter’s connectivity technology coupled with a smart off-peak tariff from your supplier, your electric vehicle could determine the optimal time to charge in order to get the best value.
A smart energy system equipped with batteries can also save energy and make you some money. At times of peak demand, the grid can essentially buy back some of your stored energy – whether it’s in your electric car or wall mount – reducing the need for extra energy generation while slashing your personal bills.
But the benefits of batteries in our home will be more than just energy savings. They will also be there as a back-up, providing energy for your home in the event of an outage. This is because batteries can also store electricity imported from your energy supplier (known as brown electricity), so if the power goes out, you can simply flick a switch and the lights will come back on.
When your home is powered by this type of smart energy system – where your smart appliances and vehicles can talk to your energy supplier and get you the best deal and your home can power itself thanks to stored electricity in batteries – then we’ll really be living in the home of the future. And all you need to get started is a smart meter.
“The combination of batteries and smart meters means it’s possible to use cheap or free energy to power your home”