Loop empowers 15.3M UK households to fight climate change with new EcoMeter feature
The UK’s leading smart meter app, Loop has launched EcoMeter, a free feature to provide 15.3 million households with smart meters a real-time and 24-hour carbon intensity forecast for electricity from the National Grid.
The EcoMeter will enable users to consider how they use energy, by revealing how ‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ their energy consumption is at a specific moment in time. With this knowledge, users can make smart green decisions, like switching their energy usage from high-carbon times to when the National Grid is cleanest.
Households who use Loop have the power to lead the way as change-makers; to make a positive and significant difference in climate change from home.
The next step in energy efficiency and decarbonisation of UK households
Using data from the National Grid, EcoMeter changes colour – from green to amber to red – to reflect ‘grid carbon intensity’. This is a measure of how much carbon dioxide is released to generate electricity on the National Grid. The ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ periods vary daily and don’t automatically coincide with ‘peak’ and ‘off-peak’ times.
Equipping consumers with the knowledge of when to use power, can help households make tangible impacts on their carbon emissions. Based on the grid carbon intensity for 2023 to date, if consumers adjusted their energy use from 17:00 – 19:00 to 19:00 – 21:00 it would not impact emissions.
However, adjusting energy use to between 15:00 – 17:00 would reduce emissions by 10%. Consumers are encouraged to make small changes to contribute to big nationwide impacts, if repeated at scale.
A tangible impact for zero cost to consumers
The free Loop app already helps smart meter households shrink their electricity use by 16% and gas use by 10% – saving households around £250 and reducing emissions by around 250kg CO2e each year for an average dual-fuel household. EcoMeter takes these carbon savings a step further, empowering consumers not only to track how much energy they use, but also to focus on when they use it to maximise their positive eco-impact.
How? By giving households the power to make eco-conscious decisions about when to use energy-hungry appliances.
Dr Steve Buckley, Head of Data Science and Energy Doctor said: “Previously, many households weren’t able to access or interpret grid carbon intensity data, or didn’t know why it was important. EcoMeter provides visibility to this data and allows households to further reduce their impact on the environment. EcoMeter is designed to build environmental awareness in support of the UK’s broader sustainability objectives that will help us collectively tackle the UK’s ambitious green targets, for a smarter, cleaner future.
“Households play a vital role in nurturing a global mindset shift toward rethinking how and when energy is used. Knowledge is power, and we all have the power to set an example for others to follow. The Loop app aids this with factual insights to spark conversations about carbon intensity and sustainable energy practices. Through September, we continue to run our Summer Turn Down and Save scheme to encourage consumers to push their electricity usage outside of the dirtiest time. The high level of engagement that we’ve seen shows just how much this matters to households trying to reduce their impact and start their journey to a net-zero home.”
EcoMeter is the latest feature launch from Loop, to help households make informed, eco-conscious decisions about when they use energy. The launch complements the UK Government’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions, available on the Loop app: available to download from the App Store and Google Play.
