Smart meters are an upgraded version of traditional gas and electricity meters, offering real-time data collection, as well as greater accuracy, reliability, and transparency. Whether you’re a homeowner or small business owner, understanding smart meters and their benefits helps you manage costs and make informed decisions about gas and electricity consumption. In this blog, we’ll explain how smart meters operate, the benefits they provide, and why they’re a critical part of modern energy infrastructure.
How Do Smart Meters Work?
Instead of relying on spinning discs, smart meters measure the flow of electricity with magnetic sensors that monitor voltage, current, and time. For natural gas, they use diaphragm and turbine meters to measure the volume of gas flowing into your home or business. The latest models use ultrasonic sensors with no mechanical components at all. As the data is collected, it’s converted into a digital record by a microprocessor and transmitted to your energy supplier over your local cellular or broadband network.
This connection also allows utilities to perform periodic software updates, modifying the unit’s features and functions in order to improve accuracy, reduce the risk of tampering, and ensure the meter can communicate with the energy grid. The display panel provides up-to-date readings on your gas and electricity consumption. However, you don’t have to interface with the meter directly, if you don’t want to. Most smart meters have mobile apps that let you monitor your current energy usage and analyze historical data remotely. They even let you pay your bills and predict future costs.
What Are the Benefits of a Smart Meter?
Installing a smart meter offers advantages for both consumers and energy companies. They’re a key feature of “smart grids,” distribution systems that use digital technology to control supply and demand more efficiently than traditional grids, where gas and electricity flowed in one direction, without immediate feedback or communication.
Smart meters let utilities track power consumption in real-time and respond as energy loads fluctuate. It also allows them to predict behavior, identify potential issues, and plan maintenance in order to prevent minor problems from escalating into an outage. Consumers not only benefit from greater reliability, but also:
- Clear Visibility. Smart meters help you identify patterns, showing you exactly how much gas and electricity you’re using and when. Once you understand the effect of your routine, you can adjust your habits and make informed decisions about your energy consumption.
- Accurate Billing. Manually reading meters is inefficient and time consuming. Meters are often located in hard-to-reach places, making it difficult to collect data. What’s more, they don’t measure usage down to the hour, forcing readers to estimate consumption based on previous readings. Smart meters eliminate these concerns, ensuring you only pay for what you use.
- Lower Costs. Once consumers are aware of their daily power usage, they can take steps to curb waste. In fact, after installing a smart meter, some homeowners manage to reduce their energy costs by as much as four percent, while some businesses reduced them by more than seven percent!
Besides lowering your bills, smart meters also help communities adopt more renewable energy sources. Because solar panels and wind turbines are installed at a local level, close to the consumer, smart meters are the best way to track their output and ensure they’re fully integrated into the grid, paving the way for a cleaner future.
Save on Energy Related Repairs with Agway
While smart meters help you manage costs at the point of consumption, we help you manage them long-term. Internal wiring and HVAC equipment gradually wears down, due to friction, mechanical stress, and environmental factors. Home insurance doesn’t cover this type of incremental damage, but we do, thanks to our EnergyGuard program, which protects your heating, cooling, and interior electric lines from problems caused by daily use.
When the need for repair occurs, our customers don’t waste time searching for a qualified repairman. They call us instead. Our service team maintains a network of contractors and electricians and sends the first available one straight to your door. There are no deductibles or service fees either. We pay for the visit and all covered parts. Don’t let a breakdown upset your finances. Sign up and start enjoying the benefits of EnergyGuard today!
