Bath team claims smart meters are fundamentally flawed    

Researchers from the University of Bath have said that existing smart meters are not fit for purpose, and have developed their own smart meter in response to the problem.

According to the team, the government’s £11bn smart meter rollout is fundamentally flawed, as the devices being deployed save users little or no energy. Critics have said that the main beneficiaries of the scheme will be the energy companies, as manual readings of meters will no longer be needed. But homeowners only receive rudimentary information on their energy use, and it is claimed that this is not enough to significantly affect behaviour.

In an effort to come up with a solution, Bath University embarked on a four-year, £1.5m research project. The result is the iBert, a smart meter which its creators say genuinely helps people save money and energy. Using a small number of cheap sensors to gather data about energy use, the device makes recommendations on how to save money based on usage patterns over the previous week or more. Tested across 47 homes, the iBert led to a 22 per cent reduction in gas consumption.