Communicating ‘smartness’: smart meter installers in UK homes

摘要

There is growing interest in ‘middle actors’ as influences onenergy use in the built environment. This paper reports onnovel research with four focus groups of meter installers, employedby three major energy suppliers, two in Great Britainand one in Northern Ireland. All the participants have beeninvolved in installing smart meters or semi-smart keypadmeters in homes. The Smart Metering Installation Code ofPractice requires installers to be trained to communicate tohouseholders the uses of, and potential benefits from, smartmetering, along with any health and safety issues. Installersare also required to demonstrate how to use the in-home displaythat is offered to all customers, and to be able to give basicadvice on energy efficiency. The smart meter rollout thusoffers an opportunity for a representative of the supplier togo into every customer’s home and talk about energy withhousehold members.Using transcripts from the focus groups, we analyse what theinstallers have to say about their work in terms of training, support,challenges, rewards, household priorities and concerns,and organisational issues. This material illustrates the sociallearning that can take place during and around the time of installation,for the utility and the installers themselves, as well asamong households and their social networks. It highlights issuesfor policymakers when planning and evaluating smart meteringprogrammes in terms of customer benefits from demandreduction, particularly those relating to installer training andworking arrangements. To set the focus group material in context,the paper draws on findings from the UK Smart MeteringEarly Learning Project, published in 2015, which included alarge-scale household survey.