Thanks to a nationwide roll-out, every home in the UK should be offered the chance to have a smart meter installed in their home by their energy provider by 2025. By the end of 2021, almost 28 million households had a smart meter installed. So, what are smart meters, how do they work, and what are typical smart meter components?
What is a smart meter?
Smart meters are used to measure both the gas and electricity consumption within your household. They’re a convenient, automated replacement for standard meters, which require you to track your meter readings and feed them back to your energy supplier manually.
Smart meters also come with an in-home display that gives you real-time information about your energy usage and how much it’s costing you.
With the ever-rising cost of living and the increase in energy bills, more and more homes are adopting smart meters to ensure they know precisely what they’re using and can feed back the correct information to their supplier to ensure accurate billing.
How does a smart meter work?
Smart meters work by using a secure national communication network, called Data Communications Company, to automatically send your energy consumption to your supplier. Having a smart meter means not having to rely on estimated energy bills or you having to provide meter readings.
Benefits of having a smart meter
Smart meters are favoured by millions of people in the UK because of their benefits, which are:
- Better understanding of usage – With smart meter displays, you can see the direct impact your daily lifestyle has on your energy bill. This is useful if you have a prepayment meter because it gives you a better idea of how your usage impacts your available credit. Making your energy consumption easier to understand allows you to make smarter decisions to save energy and money.
- Accurate bills – Smart meters put an end to estimated bills. Your smart meter will tell your energy supplier your exact usage, so you’ll only be billed for what you’ve actually used.
- Exclusive energy tariffs – Some energy suppliers offer cheaper deals to households with a smart meter or those willing to switch over to one. If you’re looking to cut your bills, switching to a smart meter can help.
- Modernises UK’s energy system – Smart meters play a huge role in the effort to create a smart grid. This is part of providing low-carbon, efficient and reliable energy to Britain’s households.
Smart meter components
Flexible interconnect systems are a vital smart meter component for the energy metering industry. They’re used in places where electrical connections require a high flexibility and/or printed circuit boards (PCB) to be connected, that are subject to vibrations. These highly flexible cables can be soldered at each end directly onto the circuit board, offering a permanent connection, or they can be supplied with a connector on either end.
Hitaltech is one of the leading smart meter component manufacturers and can offer flexible interconnects and enclosures for smart metering.
Other smart meter components include:
- AC/DC Converter
- Energy Meter IC
- Battery
- RTC
- Smart Card Connector
- LCD Display
Smart meter enclosure at Hitaltech
Hitaltech is a well-known expert of high-quality plastic enclosures for electronics. Our range of smart meter enclosures includes DIN rail enclosures (both wall-mounted or panel mounted), IP rated enclosures and other enclosures for electronics. We also provide a range of handheld and pocket-size enclosures.
At Hitaltech, we pride ourselves on our exceptionally high standards. We ensure all our enclosures are thoroughly tested in our sophisticated labs to exceed industry standards and expectations.
If you’d like to speak to us about your smart meter enclosure needs, contact us today on 01253 899910 or email us at uksales@hitaltech.co.uk.
