Are you wondering if you can use smart controls with a smart meter to help save on your bills?
If you like the idea of being able to monitor how much you’re spending on your energy bills, and exactly how much energy is being used when, this blog’s for you. Perhaps you’re a bit of a techie, or enjoy following money saving tips from Martin Lewis.
Whatever the reason, it’s great to be energy savvy – especially if you hate the idea of being wasteful and inconsiderate with your energy usage.
The good news is, you can make the most of smart controls with a smart meter. In fact, you could even find out how to save quite a bit on your energy bills!
As an experienced heating engineer, I’m going to tell you a bit more about how you can do this, below.
How to use smart controls with your smart meter
Smart meters and smart heating controls are two separate pieces of tech. Currently there’s no way to pair them together (although that might be coming in future). However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use them alongside each other to reduce your energy spend.
When you take into account that central heating and hot water account for 80% of your energy usage, getting live daily and weekly readings of your energy spend is very useful. You can tell which times of the day your energy usage is highest, and find out when you’re heating water or areas of your home unnecessarily.
Now, combine this with smart heating controls to set different areas of your homes to different temperatures, and even introduce geo-fence alerts so your controls can even tell if you’re home or not. Once you’ve made these adjustments with your smart controls, you can then check your smart meter to see how much if affects your energy costs.
Simply rinse and repeat until you’re saving as much energy as needed.
Which smart controls are most effective?
Looking for efficient control, without anything too technical? A lot of my customers prefer the Drayton Mi Genie.
Another great option is the Tado, which comes with the geo-fence alerts as mentioned above. This is controlled by your smart phone, so if you nip out by car or perhaps for a job, and cross the radius you’ve set around your home, your heating will go off – even if it’s scheduled to be on. It’ll come back on when you pass back into the area, saving you more fuel.
Nest and Worcester Wave are also high quality, premium controls with features like weather compensation. (This takes into account the weather outside, and assesses the time it takes your home to warm up again)
By far the most expensive, but also the most sophisticated control is the Honeywell Evohome. With this control, you can time and control each individual radiator in the house. This would take a lot of time and calculations with a smart meter, but from experience I know it could save you over 50% on your energy usage.
Pretty astonishing, don’t you think?
Advice from an experienced heating engineer
If you already have a smart meter, it might be worth working out whether it’s worth spending £200 – £700 on smart controls, and what the payback period would potentially be, before investing.
When choosing an engineer to install smart controls, ask if they are knowledgeable in this area, and which brands they are used to fitting. You want to know if they’re experienced with smart controls, rather than just fitting boilers with time clocks.
You could also get an electrician to fit your smart controls, but again you should check their experience first. Many control manufacturers recommend paying an installer to fit them for you. If you type in your postcode on their websites, they should give you a list of accredited installers who regularly fit their products.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve found this blog helpful when considering using smart controls with a smart meter. Not everyone wants to get so involved they become the next Money Saving Expert, however if your bills are too high, spending a little time with technology could help reduce your energy usage by reducing waste. And it doesn’t have to mean you’re left with a colder home!
Do you have any questions about smart controls for your home? Let me know in the comments section, or get in touch with me directly. I’ll be happy to help!
