Data is power: Unlocking the power of Half-Hourly smart energy data!
We know it's important for small business growth to save energy. This helps you save money and makes your business more sustainable. The first step of your journey to business growth is understanding your energy consumption, one way to do this is to access your half-hourly energy consumption data. We understand that there’s a lot of information about smart meters, especially about half-hourly meters, and data consent. We're here to help and have put together all the information you need in a clear and simple way to help you save cash and carbon.
What is Half-Hourly data consent?
Smart meters automatically send us your meter readings, so you don't have to worry about it. You can choose how often they send readings: monthly, weekly, daily, or every half hour giving you the time to grow your business. If you don't choose, it defaults to half-hourly, however you have you have the option to opt out in 7 days.
Half-hourly data gives a detailed look at your energy use throughout the day. This means we’re able to provide you with a view of exactly when you're using the most energy and spot patterns in your consumption. With this information, you can make smarter decisions about your energy use, helping you save money and grow your business efficiently and sustainably.
How can it benefit my business?
- Accurate billing: by having half-hourly data preference, your energy invoices are based on accurate readings, this reduces the risk of incorrect estimated bills.
- Energy efficiency: being able to see a detailed breakdown of your consumption can help you identify areas of higher usage; this information can be used to help you grow and try new methods to reduce energy waste.
- Cost savings & sustainability: reducing energy waste, can ultimately save your business money, help it grow, and become more sustainable by achieving sustainability goals.
- Optimising resources during peak energy usage: understanding your “peak usage” can also help small businesses grow by ensuring they have enough stock and/or staff to cover the busier periods.
- Energy Hub – having your data preferences as half-hourly allows you to use Energy Hub to save time for business growth. Energy Hub can be accessed through your MyAccount. This tool enables you to view your consumption breakdown, annually, monthly & daily. If you don’t do anything you will be defaulted to half-hourly reads with the option to opt out within 7 days. You also have full control and can change your data preferences at anytime via your MyAccount.
How do I review my data preferences??
- Online via MyAccount – you can change your data preference in on your MyAccount under “smart meter data preference”.
- Contact us: you can call us, email us, or text us and request for your data preference to be changed to half-hourly.
- Install a Half-Hourly Meter: if you don't already have one, your supplier will arrange for the installation of a half-hourly meter.
What is a Half-Hourly meter and how is it different to a Smart meter?
Half-hourly meters are a type of smart meter that automatically send us reads every 30 minutes without you having to choose a preference. Suppliers can’t directly communicate with a half-hourly meter. Half-hourly meters are usually used by larger business that tend to have a higher energy consumption; however small business can also benefit from them by having a more detailed view of their usage. But remember if you have a standard meter, you can switch the data preference to half hourly in MyAccount. There are other smart meters that are more flexible and can send us reads at different intervals such as, monthly weekly, daily and half-hourly. Suppliers can remotely communicate with these Smart meters to save you time and allow for your business growth.
