Perceptions on Smart Gas Meters in Smart Cities for Reducing the Carbon Footprint

Abstract

Carbon emission is a prominent issue, and smart urban solutions have the technological capabilities to implement change. The technologies for creating smart energy systems already exist, some of which are currently under wide deployment globally. By investing in energy efficiency solutions (such as the smart meter), research shows that the end-user is able to not only save money, but also reduce their household’s carbon footprint. Therefore, in this paper, the focus is on the end-user, and adopting a quantitative analysis of the perception of 1365 homes concerning the smart gas meter installation. The focus is on linking end-user attributes (age, education, social class and employment status) with their opinion on reducing energy, saving money, changing home behaviour and lowering carbon emissions. The results show that there is a statistical significance between certain attributes of end-users and their consideration of smart meters for making beneficial changes. In particular, the investigation demonstrates that the employment status, age and social class of the homeowner have statistical significance on the end-users’ variance; particularly when interested in reducing their bill and changing their behaviour around the home.