Boiling the kettle…

On Monday, an engineer came and installed a smart meter here at Terra Infirma Towers. And we entered the 21st Century…

Why did I wait until our existing meter hit its expiry date before upgrading? Well first off, I don’t like wasting electrical kit and secondly, we don’t own a car (never mind an EV) or heat pump (yet) and our 9-5 family routine – five people having breakfast and dinner at roughly the same time as the rest of the country – doesn’t lend to a ‘time of use’ tariff, so for us it wasn’t a priority.

20 years ago, I did buy an Owl clip-on electricity monitor, but eventually the novelty wore off and the batteries didn’t get replaced. But I am enjoying a return to casual energy monitoring, now with added teenager education (the internet warns this could lead to “family friction”, but they’re used to me blathering on).

One thing I really noticed is how much lower lighting consumption is despite having extended our house and filled the extra space with offspring. Back when I had the Owl, I could tell if the light had been left on in the basement, but now any single bulb pretty much disappears into the background hum of the fridge, internet router etc – I have to switch half a dozen lights on/off for them to register. I remember certain newspapers campaigning against energy efficient lightbulbs back in the day, and I don’t recall a mea culpa since…

In the bigger picture, it’s amazing how many commercial and industrial sites have very poor energy monitoring. Understanding your consumption patters is not only critical for finding efficiencies and spotting abnormalities, it also gives you the information you need before, say, investing in a behind the meter energy system. More importantly, it makes people think before they sign off on a bill payment. Data is power – in this case, literally.