*5.3. Practical Recommendations*

Based on our results, we may conclude that, while electricity smart meters are useful for the energy providers, they might not offer enough real benefits for the residential consumers. Even if SM are combined with smart metering information platforms, such as Internet widgets and mobile applications, their role in prompting energy monitoring is very limited. At the same time, we observed that mere participation in the study, independent on the group and getting acquainted with the e-licznik application, enhances the phase change and the readiness to monitor energy consumption. These findings suggest that using SMP without any prompts and instructions is unlikely to occur as there are no reasonable incentives that could convince respondents to monitor energy. Financial, social, or environmental benefits are probably too low and the effort too high to lead to a permanent behavioral change.

In conclusion, we believe that some good practices are needed. It is necessary to make monitoring of electricity consumption easy, intuitive and non time-consuming. Designers and suppliers of smart metering platforms should provide user friendly solutions. Smart meters should also be proposed with some additional enabling technologies, such as e.g., smart plugs or smart devices, as well some IT solutions enabling remote adjustment of energy consumption of home appliances or air conditioning to the current electricity prices. Moreover, to raise awareness, some educational campaigns would be helpful. Our results suggest, however, that the role of theoretical knowledge in the energy market should not be overestimated when it comes to energy monitoring and phase changes. Knowledge appears to affect attitudes on monitoring more than behaviors. Rather reasonable price polices, such as additional financial incentives for consumers to control energy consumption and to shift from pick to off-pick hours, would be more beneficial.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization of the study and Methodology: A.K.-P. and K.B., Introduction: A.K.-P.; Literature review: A.K.-P.; Theoretical background: K.B. and A.K.-P.; Methods and Survey design: K.B. and A.K.-P.; Data analysis: J.S. and K.B.; Results and discussion: K.B., J.S., and A.K.-P.; Conclusions: K.B. and A.K.-P.; Writing and editing the paper: A.K.-P., K.B., and J.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Open access of this article was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland under the 2019-2022 program "Regional Initiative of Excellence", project number 012/RID/2018/19.

**Acknowledgments:** This work was supported by the National Science Center (NCN, Poland) by Grant No. 2016/23/B/HS4/00650.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
