Smart meter customers: Make our Earth Hour pledge

Smart meters allow customers to do so much more with their energy. This initiative is just for customers with Octopus Energy smart meters.

That's because customers with smart meters are able to check their energy consumption via their in-home display monitors, so they can make sure to switch off what they need to beat the target.

This is one of the very exciting things about smart meters – you can track your own usage, helping you save money and understand your consumption better.

If you don’t have a smart meter yet, never fear – we have lots of other initiatives for all our customers, like our Wheel of Fortune (submit your meter readings for a chance to win up to £512).

Read up on getting a smart meter here.

As an Octopus customer, your electricity already comes from 100% green, low carbon energy. We make sure your electricity usage leaves no carbon trace, by matching every kilowatt of electricity you use with renewable energy we’ve purchased and contributed to the grid.

During Earth Hour, the renewable energy we predicted you’d use has already been purchased, and you don't use it it means the UK’s fuel mix gets that extra low-carbon boost as a freebie with more green energy on the grid.

Maybe an hour of darkness is just a drop in the ocean compared to the carbon savings needed to change course on global warming, but Earth Hour remains super important.

For one, it shows that collective action can really make change. But it's also a great opportunity for all of us to try shifting our typical energy usage patterns, for the good of the planet.

We know the energy industry has a massive role to play in transforming the world to a low-carbon one. One of the ways we’re going to make this happen is through “load-shifting”. That’s helping people move their energy use out of times of the day when energy is most in demand (which also tends to coincide with when there’s lots of dirty natural gas, coal, and oil in the UK's grid mix). And instead, using energy at times when demand is low, and there’s a lot of renewable energy available to be used. That energy can then be stored in batteries to use later.

If you charge your electric car, heat your water, or use the tumble dryer when the UK’s grid is chocka with energy from wind and solar farms, you can save tonnes of carbon, and make the most of the abundant green energy being produced all the time here in the UK.

Load-shifting can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, ease strain on the grid, and save you loads of money, too – we’re helping customers get the benefit of using energy out of peak times with a smart tariff that reflects off-peak prices – Agile Octopus.