LONDON - Around 64 per cent of consumers using a system to monitor their energy demand at home, so-called smart meters, have made improvements to energy efficiency, a survey by Centrica's British Gas showed on Tuesday.

The UK energy supplier, which has installed 400,000 smart meters in customer homes and businesses, also found that 80 percent of the more than 700 smart meter users surveyed said the devices had made them rethink their energy consumption.

"This report shows that UK energy users want smart meters and they are using them regularly to help save money and change their energy habits," said Tom Hargreaves, an expert in smart meters from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

The UK government has made plans for every household and business to be fitted with a smart meter by 2019, a target that requires the replacement of around 53 million gas and electricity meters.

British Gas plans to install more than one million smart meters this year for free in customers' properties.

Smart meters are devices fitted with a consumer-specific target system using a traffic-light indicator to tell users if they are on track to meet their energy saving goal.

The government plans a parallel scheme to encourage users to install energy efficiency improvements, such as loft insulation.

The so-called 'Green Deal' programme provides consumers with a mechanism to pay for home energy efficiency by offsetting payments for such installations through monthly savings on energy bills.