How Smart Meters will change our home energy use forever

The UK is now joining with the whole of Europe in changing the way that our gas and electricity is monitored. New Smart Meters are to replace existing meters across Europe by 2022, with 80 per cent coverage being attained by 2020.

The UK government has therefore decided that we will all have Smart Meters installed in our homes by 2020, so just what are these Smart Meters and what does this change mean for the everyday consumer?

1. Traditionally meters just give you the total amount of energy consumption for your household over a given period. The new meters will be far more detailed than this, giving up to the minute information on your consumption and the cost of this consumption.

2. The meters pass details of your power consumption back to your supplier so that they can monitor your power use. This means an end to estimated bills and the overcharging that can result with this method of meter reading.

3. Smart Meters mean big savings for gas and electricity providers as less staff will be needed to run the metering system. Far fewer meter readers will be required, and it is hoped that fewer customer support staff will be required to answer queries and complaints relating to bill estimations.

4. The real advantage to consumers is the ability of the new Smart Meter to let you know exactly how you use your gas and electricity. It comes with a display unit that keeps you constantly updated with your usage. This allows consumers to monitor their energy consumption and better see where they can make savings by changing their energy usage behaviour.

5. Smart Meter technology makes things a whole lot simpler for energy providers as the meters can be controlled remotely. This means that your provider can reset your tariff, reconnect or disconnect your supply, detect power shortages and poor quality power supplies as well as unauthorised use of power easily and remotely from their headquarters.

Existing meters are not suitable for our future energy needs. They do not have the ability to monitor power coming from several different sources for example. Smart Meters can do this, and may have to when the world comes to rely on sustainable sources of energy more and more.

British Gas can not only provide your gas supply, but are also one of Britain's leading electricity suppliers.