Robert Pritchard - Energy Efficiency

Our evening's  speaker, Robert, talked about smart meters being introduced in the very near future.  They are meters used to record our usage details of the utilities available to premises.

The first electricity meter was developed by Ottoman Blathy in 1888, the same year as Daimler made his first car.

All utility companies will offer smart meters, which have been tested out in Oxfordshire.  Basically they look very similar to the meters already in your home, except that they have the ability to transmit details of power usage or volume and duration, by sending the detail required every 30 minutes by existing mobile phone services to a central agency, who then forward the data to the utility company concerned for their records for charging and customer profiles.   Customers will not normally have to read the meters nor will the company need the teams of readers they presently require.   Discounts will be offered to consumers who pay by standing order.   We were told that the free installation will cost 5 percent of profit but will be more cost efficient for the utilities.

The meters are not compulsory and will depend on on a good mobile signal which will be encrypted by GCHQ coding for security.   So, rest assured if you don’t agree with your invoice blame Putin or even Trump.

British Gas are going to offer reduced cost electricity to consumers at certain times as an incentive to take up the system.

In closing, Robert also  reminded the audience of various cost saving ideas like LED lights and energy efficient equipment.

An unusual subject for Rotary, but the speaker kept it a fairly light one, but not technical.  Quite a number of questions resulted from the talk.  Obviously members were listening.

John Jameson