{"id":14092,"date":"2019-04-02T10:15:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T10:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/?p=14092"},"modified":"2019-04-02T10:15:26","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T10:15:26","slug":"smart-meter-owners-reporting-higher-bills-than-savings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/smart-meter-owners-reporting-higher-bills-than-savings\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart meter owners reporting higher bills than savings"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14093 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733-500x334.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/h5>\n<h5><strong>According to new survey findings, having a smart meter installed at home does not necessitate lower energy bills.<\/strong><!--more--><\/h5>\n<p>Published by leading electrotechnical trade body ECA, its recent YouGov survey of adults who are eligible for a smart meter, just 1 in 14 respondents with a smart meter (7%) said that having one had reduced their energy bills, while 1 in 11 (9%) said they had increased.\u00a0 This is despite 1 in 4 (23%) reporting that the main reason for having a smart meter installed was to reduce their energy bills.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, nearly half of respondents (47%) said they were \u2018very unlikely\u2019 to have a smart meter installed during the next 12 months, with 20% \u2018fairly unlikely\u2019 to do so. Just 5% of respondents said they were \u2018very likely\u2019 to do so, with a further 13% \u2018fairly likely\u2019 to have one installed in the next year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>ECA Energy Advisor Luke Osborne commented:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese ECA findings suggest that smart meter users seldom report lower energy bills \u2013 which seems at odds with the Government\u2019s \u2018save money\u2019 message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSmart meters can play a role in stimulating a shift towards a lower carbon future. However, the Government needs to do far more to incentivise change and explain the benefits of using smart meters if they are to increase consumer confidence and take-up in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While 61% of smart meter owners reported that they had \u2018no issues\u2019 with their smart meter, almost half (45%) reported they had experienced \u2018no benefits\u2019 in having one.\u00a0 The benefit that came out on top for respondents with a smart meter was \u2018more accurate billing\u2019 (29%), while 1 in 11 (9%) cited \u2018connectivity issues\u2019 as a problem.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, fear of data breaches and cyber-attacks came out as the top reason (30% of respondents) for not getting a smart meter, among those unlikely to do so. However, of those with a smart meter, less than 1% reported any issue with data security or hacking.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Luke Osborne added:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic awareness of data security has increased significantly recently. These ECA findings show that the Government must do more to explain to the public why smart meters do not present a security risk from hacking or other data breaches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Less than 1 in 3 adults who are eligible for a smart meter (32%) surveyed have a smart meter installed, despite a Government commitment for all UK homes to have one by 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to new survey findings, having a smart meter installed at home does not necessitate lower energy bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1144],"class_list":["post-14092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eca","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/shutterstock_765027733.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14094,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14092\/revisions\/14094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}