A review of smart electricity meters

Abstract:

This document is a project report for the project titled 'A review of smart electricity meters.'

According to Government statistics, 27% of UK energy is consumed in meeting demand in dwellings and 19% in non-domestic buildings, with offices/university buildings contributing a significant proportion. A recent innovation, which can be used by consumers to monitor how much energy they are using and where in the property the energy is being used (specific appliances, lights etc), is the ‘smart’ or Smart Occupant Feedback (SOF) meter. These were highlighted as potentially useful means of providing this information to building occupants. It is hoped that by providing consumers with an accurate picture of how much energy they are using SOF meters will result in a reduction in the amount of energy we use. There are also some Smart Occupant Feedback Disaggregation (SOFD) meters on the market which allow users to see how much energy each appliance has consumed. This would make it easier for users to save energy because they will know exactly where the largest savings are to be made. However very little data exists on the accuracy of these meters and current reports suggest that some meters can monitor simple loads such as a domestic lighting quite accurately but a number of items of equipment less well.

The aim of this project was to review existing academic and non academic literature on Smart Occupant Feedback (SOF) and Smart Occupant Feedback Disaggregation (SOFD) meters, to test the meters both in a lab and in university buildings/houses then assess their performance and examine what further work can be done to improve the meters.

Publication Year:

2008

Publisher:

Joule Centre

DOI:

No DOI minted

Author(s):

Levermore, G.