AN INNOVATIVE "smart meter" will be installed in every home in the UK to encourage energy saving, under plans announced yesterday.
The gadgets, which will replace traditional electricity and gas meters, will display how much energy is being used at any one time.
A consumer with a smart meter will be able to tour their home using a wireless device that displays the immediate e
ffects of switching off lights and other devices.
The gadget will also show how much the energy is costing, and a red light will warn if a particularly large amount of gas or electricity are being used.
The UK government's plan to install the devices in all 26 million homes by 2020 was widely welcomed yesterday.
The initiative will be paid for by energy companies – but with the prices expected to be passed on to the consumer.
It is estimated the initiative will cost £7 billion, but ultimately save as much as £3.6 billion by 2020 because trials have shown the technology can save up to 20 per cent of a household's energy use.
As well as creating a change in energy habits, the government says the gadgets will mean the end of estimated bills, or the need to stay at home for meter readings to be taken.
Instead, the devices will enable precise information on a household's energy use to be communicated remotely to power companies.
Suppliers will also be able to offer cheaper off-peak energy deals to households.
The UK is to be the first country in the world to have such a widespread overhaul of energy meters for both electricity and gas.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: "The meters most of us have in our homes were designed for a different age, before climate change.
"Now we need to get smarter with our energy. Smart meters will empower all consumers to monitor their own energy use and make reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions as a result."
Karen Gibson, a 33-year-old nursery manager from Northumberland, who had a smart meter fitted in a trial about two years ago, thinks she has already saved £250.
"I know at any given moment how much energy I am using in pounds and pence," she said.
The meters could also pave the way for households to sell renewable energy back to the grid from home turbines or solar panels.
Various roll-out options are being considered. The preferred model would see energy suppliers being responsible for installation and maintenance, with the communication to and from the device co-ordinated by a third party across the country.
Mike Thornton, director of the Energy Saving Trust in Scotland, said: "Most people would never go on a mobile phone tariff if they didn't know how much it would cost for calls.
"Similarly, you wouldn't shop every week and then get the bill three months later and just hope you could pay for it.
"Smart meters help householders work out how much they are paying for their energy use and let people see in real time which appliances are producing the most ."
Keep the kettle boiling – but not plugged inSINCE he started using a smart meter in his Perthshire home a year ago Kenny Moyes has started heating his kettle on a wood burning stove and no longer uses an electric blanket.
Mr Moyes and his wife Lesley from Alyth have been involved in a trial of the devices with Scottish and Southern Energy.
When they discovered how much electricity their kettle used, they replaced it with one that could be kept warm on their wood burning stove and brought to the boil on the hob.
They fill hot water bottles instead of using electric blankets and use a pulley instead of a tumble drier.
"Initially it caused a wee bit of friction because I was constantly going to turn things off when my wife had turned them on," said Mr Moyes.
One appliance that he does not dare comment on is his wife's hair straighteners, which use a particularly large amount of electricity. "I'd probably be in divorce proceedings if I tried to stop her using those," he joked.
