Every home's electrical installation needs to have certain hardware that's designed keep you and your family safe, and to protect your appliances and other posessions. Safety switches help with this, providing protection against injury by immediately shutting electricity off when it poses a risk. Circuit breakers and fuses protect your electrical appliances against over-currents, and therefore limit the chance of electrical fires.
It's a very good idea to familiarise yourself with your home's switchboard housing, and the circuit breakers, safety switches or fuses it contains.
Electricity meters are a necessary evil. Smart meters are in most ways no different from the plain vanilla ones that they've replaced. Smart meters are necessary for solar installations, and can also serve to help you monitor and control the amount of electricity that's consumed around your home - and, no they are not part of a conspiracy to take money out of your pocket!
