Smart Home concept and the integration of energy meters into a home based system

System aspects are becoming more important in domestic applications areas such as the `Smart Home´ concept. Such system oriented evolutions will significantly influence the domestic environment, including metering and energy management applications. The author describes general aspects of Smart Home systems, including application examples and customer benefits. Metering related points are analyzed by showing the system oriented functions of electricity and other meters. Important points are automatic meter reading including billing and prepayment, load management and energy optimization, security aspects and customer communication and services