Energy Saving Apps

People are constantly looking to simplify how they interact with energy suppliers, and apps are helping them to do so. Most energy companies now have an app that allows you to track your usage and predict future costs. However, there are some third-party applications that do so much more and interact with your smart devices to give you greater control over your energy usage. This guide will take you through the key energy apps on the market right now. 

Our lives are dominated by technology, from taxis to dating or ordering food, there seems to be an app for everything. App culture has naturally moved into utility services with many more people turning to apps to calculate their energy usage and needs. Energy apps can do everything from controlling the temperature of your boiler, to even detecting when your windows are open! They can make life easier and your energy usage simpler to manage. 

There are apps made by energy companies themselves, these will usually just track your energy usage and bills. But there are also apps made by third-parties that look at your energy usage in a broader sense. Let’s take a look.

Npower is one of the highest-rated smartphone apps for energy, although it’s important to note it scored higher reviews on the iPhone app store than on the Android version. It gives you the ability to submit meter readings straight onto the app, view your bill, track your energy and even forecast the future amount of energy you might use. 

 

Like Npower, the Ovo app is really all about energy management. For pay monthly customers it allows you to track and manage your energy bills, and plan how much you are going to spend that month. A great feature for prepayment customers, you can avoid having to go to your local top-up shop and top up straight on your phone. 

 

The British Gas App probably goes the furthest of all the energy apps from providers. With this app, you don’t simply track your usage but it syncs with smart meters and gives insights tailored to your specific energy use. 

 

This again is simply a way of tracking your energy usage from EDF Energy. It’s a convenient way of seeing your bills and changing your personal information and preferences. 

 

Outside of the traditional energy providers, power shop is a new provider from New Zealand that is attempting to shake-up how we manage our energy tariffs. The app is not just an added extra service but a fundamental part of how this energy company works. You use the app to decide how and when you pay your bills. You do this by buying ‘powerpacks’ which discounts the cost of your electricity. Essentially, it’s very similar to in-app purchases that you might have experienced elsewhere. The key thing to remember here is that you save as much as you engage, the more active you are on the Powershop app the more likely you are to see real savings. 

This is an app that requires you to already have smart devices installed in your home. It’s a good app if you already have a smart meter and some smart devices (plugs/switches) as it has features such as ‘geofencing’ which turn your switches off automatically if your phone goes outside of a certain range of your house. It’s important to note that you would have to install a kit which does mean more upfront costs. 

 

This is an app designed for people who want to make their energy consumption more sustainable.  It essentially tracks your day-to-day actions and gives you virtual rewards for making sustainable choices. 

 

This is the most simple app on the market that’s designed to help you track how much your energy costs. The app will tell you how much it costs to run an appliance over a certain amount of time. You simply have to enter the kWh and how often you use it, and it will calculate the cost of running. It’s important to note that it isn’t perfectly accurate, as people are on different tariffs, but it can give you a rough estimate.