Secure Meters, a leading manufacturer of smart energy metering and solutions, approached us with the idea of developing a smart in-home display that would show energy consumption and related cost information to assist end users in managing their energy usage and costs as part of the roll out of Smart Metering in Great Britain.
The smart metering challenge and the Anders solution
They wanted to create a device that would collect and smartly display energy usage information, using a wireless connection (via a Home Area Network), and offer on the device’s touch screen an instant visibility of energy consumption.
Working together, we provided them a custom monochrome LCD with Resistive Touch Panel to ensure a smooth and simple navigation for the user. For visibility in either low or high ambient light conditions, we developed a backlit high resolution and high contrast monochrome graphical display. These are some of the many customisable aspects of a monochrome display that we can offer.
Today, the Pipit 500 from Smart Meters helps homes to save up to 12% of energy bills by providing alerts and displaying hourly, weekly, monthly and yearly data and graphics on energy usage trends of the household, as well as supporting prepayment functionality.
“The Governments vision is for everyone to use energy more efficiently, by seeing what they are using and what the cost of that usage is, and to see in real time the affect that changing their consumption has on cost. We at Secure Meters having been providing such displays that provide this type of information for years.
Simple to use display to engage customers
For the GB Smart Metering rollout we wanted to provide a new display with a simple to use user-interface that would instantly engage with the end user thus empowering them to make a real difference in their energy usage and reduce their impact on the environment and safeguard energy supplies” commented Phillip Kettless, Project Manager for Pipit 500 development and Senior Manager Smart Metering Projects.
We were happy to work with Secure Meters on this project. We believe there is a strong market for home smart metering and that connected houses are no longer a fantasy. According to technology research firm Ovum, the majority of us will have a smart energy meter and smart thermostats by 2020. Devices around your home will be connected, such as your fridge and dishwasher, so they become more efficient in their energy consumption.