Your Definitive Guide to Maximising Solar Savings with Smart Meter Technology
For homeowners investing in a SolarTherm UK solar panel and battery storage system, understanding your energy flows is crucial to maximising your return. Smart meters are an essential tool, providing accurate, real time data, helping you understand your energy usage that’s needed to truly benefit from your solar system and maximise potential savings.
If you are considering solar panels, or already have them, this guide will confirm how modern smart meters are now the cornerstone of an energy efficient home.
Smarter Energy, Smarter Savings: How Smart Meters Power Your Solar Investment
The smart meter rollout aimed to digitise our national energy grid, providing every household with the opportunity to monitor their gas and electricity consumption in real time. For solar panel owners this technology is even more vital. A smart meter put an end to estimated bills, meaning you only pay for the electricity you use, which as a solar owner is up to 70% less than a household without solar panels. The in-home display shows your energy consumption in pounds and pence, showing you the impact your solar generation has and allowing you to further adjust your energy usage habits to save even more.
Smart meters also help you to cut your carbon footprint, by providing visibility of what you are using you become more aware of your lifestyle on your carbon footprint and can manage your energy use more efficiently, further reducing reliance on expensive and carbon intensive grid power, maximising your clean, free electricity generated direct from your roof-top solar panels.
What Sets Modern Smart Meters Apart?
The biggest compatibility concerns around smart meters stemmed from the first generation smart meters, which often stopped working when a customer switched energy suppliers. The rollout of the second generation smart meters (SMETS2) has overcome this issue and now guarantees connectivity, operating on a unified, secured national network, ensuring continuous, secure data transmission even when changing suppliers. SMETS2 meters are designed to fully integrate with solar PV and battery storage systems. They accurately measure the electricity you import from the grid and the surplus electricity you export back to the grid.
Smart Meters and the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG)
For a solar owner, the single most valuable function of a smart meter is unlocking payments through the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG). In 2020 the SEG replaced the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) and required electricity suppliers to pay small scale, low carbon generators (like solar for homes) for the extra energy they send back to the National Grid.
To receive SEG payments, your solar system must have a smart meter fitted capable of providing half hourly export readings. The smart meter tracks the exact volume of your exported electricity, ensuring you are accurately and automatically credited by your supplier, without having to provide meter readings.
Ready to Maximise Your Energy Efficiency?
Combining an expertly installed SolarTherm UK solar panel and battery system with a modern smart meter is the formula for the most efficient, cost effective and future proof home energy setup.
Contact SolarTherm UK for a free, no obligation quote and design, tailored to your property, usage and future energy needs. No hard sell, just honest, expert advice.
Your home. Your energy. Your future.
FAQs
Can I have a smart meter if I have solar panels?
You can have both a smart meter and solar panels installed. To benefit from the Smart Export Guarantee, you need a SMETS2 (second generation) smart meter that can export readings every 30 minutes.
Can I change my supplier if I have solar installed?
Yes, you can change your supplier if you are out of contract, if you are in a fixed term contract you may need to pay an exit fee. Check with your current supplier whether your smart meter is a SMETS1 or SMETS2 smart meter, if you have the first generation SMETS1 meter you will need to manually register your export readings.
How much does it cost to have a smart meter installed?
Smart meters are installed for free by your energy supplier. Like the old style meters, you pay for the cost of the meter itself and a maintenance fee within your monthly energy bill.
Do smart meters need WiFi?
Smart meters don’t need WiFi to operate, they instead use a specially created wireless network called the Wide Area Network. Your In-Home Display device can be connected to your WiFi if you would prefer, but you will still be able to see your exact usage and export even if your device is not connected to WiFi.
