Green Barometer

New research out today (Monday 17 March) reveals that eight out of 10 Brits don't know what they are paying for their gas and electricity.

The figures also suggest 82 per cent of Brits don't know what energy rate they are on while energy bills are seen as the most difficult to understand of all household bills.

The research - commissioned by the Energy Saving Trust -the UK's leading organisation set up to help people tackle climate change, finds that almost half of respondents would be interested in having a smart meter and 96 per cent of those would then use the device to help cut their home energy use.

Smart meters - advanced electrical meters - allow householders to monitor how much their energy use costs the environment and their pocket. They can also tell instantly which household appliances are costing the most money to run.

The devices have been trialled in countries ranging from Sweden to the US but are not widely available in the UK yet. These trials have shown that householders who use smart meters can reduce their energy bills by between five and 10 per cent.

Based on savings of five per cent the Energy Saving Trust estimates that if everyone in the UK switched to smart meters British householders could save £1.2bn a year and the equivalent of 7.4 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

Of everybody surveyed, 32 per cent of people find their energy bill hardest to understand compared to: water bill 19 per cent; phone bill 16 per cent; credit card statement eight per cent; bank statement eight per cent; cable bill seven per cent.

In addition, 54 per cent of people said they are interested in a smart meter so they can get accurate bills by paying for actual and not estimated usage.

And Sellwood urged Government to take action: "While the Energy White Paper outlined the need for energy suppliers to make better displays available to households free of charge on request, we would like to see the Government act more boldly and offer the support necessary to enable smart meters to be rolled out across the UK.

Smart meters are better than clip-ons because they offer two-way connectivity with the energy supplier - not only for electricity but also gas too; this means that the energy cost displayed would exactly match what you owed the energy supplier. You would also know the carbon cost of what you are doing."

Smart meters would cost between £100 and £200 if mass-produced.

Other smart meter benefits identified in the Energy Saving Trust's report include: