Airtricity vs. ESB

Eurorunner

Mods - please move if theres a more appropriate section...


Noticed another post here where someone had switched. Is there much of a saving to be made?

Del2005

Eurorunner wrote: »

Mods - please move if theres a more appropriate section...


Noticed another post here where someone had switched. Is there much of a saving to be made?

Don't think so. There's a thread on here where someone says that they didn't get the last set of price reductions on Airtricty, only difference apart from that is that the electricty is green.

Edit:
Found link, last post

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055122725&highlight=Airtricity&page=2

gerryjuice

Del2005 wrote: »

Don't think so. There's a thread on here where someone says that they didn't get the last set of price reductions on Airtricty, only difference apart from that is that the electricty is green.

Edit:
Found link, last post

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055122725&highlight=Airtricity&page=2

Petty sure there is no way of determing that if you are with airtricity that you actually getting "green" electricty. The wind farms etc, transmit power into the main grid where the houses get their power from, the same as the other power generators. Unless you have a line directly connected to a wind farm theres no way of determining that you are getting actual "green" electricty.

antoinolachtnai

It has to do with the purchasing policy of the supply company. Airtricity claim the electricity they purchase and feed into the grid is greener.

Macha

Airtricity don't 'claim' anything. They're obliged by Irish law, as with ESB to declare their fuel mix on their statements & bills.

Airtricity have a much cleaner and environmentally friendly fuel mix than ESB. If you want to help clean up the air in Ireland, and reduce our dependence on foreign fuel then go for Airtricity. We're going to have to all pay extra for ESB's energy anyway through the Kyoto protocol - that's millions of tax-payers' money. Bit of a no-brainer.

Ardent

Made tentative enquiries a couple of years ago into the possibility of getting electricity with them. I found them quite rude and got the distinct impression that they're not interested in the residential market.

Savings over ESB are practically nil, according to themselves anyway.

markpb

Their online signup for domestic supply has an option to send you an email or text to remind you to read your meter. Do they not come out and read the meter themselves?

Eurorunner

Thanks for the posts. I don't really see this as a valid argument from airtricity. As it stands, any new turbines that are connected to the grid - that power is going to be used anyways. Is it not the case that the focus should be on getting the green energy production up?

@markpb: If thats the case, its not really much better than ESB - don't think they have been out to read my meter in the two years I've lived here. Probably best to get into a habit of submitting readings to avoid a nasty surprise in the future...

antoinolachtnai

ESB networks still do the meter reading, don't they!?

Obviously, whatever electricity is available may be used on the grid. However, electricity retailers have a choice of which electricity they purchase at a given time.

So if it's 5am in the morning and there is a choice of suppliers, and airtricity needs to feed 100 MW into the grid to supply its customers, it can buy that 100 MW from any of a number of suppliers. It can do this on the basis of whatever criteria it wants, for example, on the basis of the price or environmental friendliness. It can also decide to favour its own generation capacity (airtricity have a lot of windfarms) over others.

gaz wac

Hi

Just wondering if anyone ever went with Airtricty? Rang them up yesterday and you are looking at a 10% savings over ESB!

Anyone?

ntlbell

gaz wac wrote: »

Hi

Just wondering if anyone ever went with Airtricty? Rang them up yesterday and you are looking at a 10% savings over ESB!

Anyone?

they both list their pricing on their websites

do the maths and make a decision.

gaz wac

I can see the figures :rolleyes: want to know if anyone had any problems with them after they switched ?

ntlbell

gaz wac wrote: »

I can see the figures :rolleyes: want to know if anyone had any problems with them after they switched ?

they're as reliable as the ESB...

gaz wac

unhelpfull

ssshhhhhhh for a while !!

NewFrockTuesday

Meters are read by a company called Networks. They were part of the ESB but broke off independently about 10 - thats what the guy from Airtricity told me today when I was on to them.

Macha

gaz wac wrote: »

I can see the figures :rolleyes: want to know if anyone had any problems with them after they switched ?

None. With Airtricity, you also have the option of having your bill sent to you by email.

Check with your employer, Airtricity have offer a 5% discount to all employees of where my boyfriend works. Y'never know.

Eurorunner

Does anyone have valid links to both the airtricity and esb domestic tariffs? If so, please post them here so that we can do a real comparison.
I went through airticity's website and they do have a webpage for 'tariffs' but theres no actual tariffs shown!

Its all very well them saying they're cheaper but I won't believe til i see the actual tariffs side by side. Last time I checked, they also said they were cheaper but there was no difference...

NewFrockTuesday

Heres what I was told today.



its 15.09 per unit compared to 16.4 for ESB.

If you pay your bill by direct debit and get your bills online, it goes down to 14.92 p/u.

If you set up a level payment order then it further decreases to 14.76p/u.

Which he said is 10% cheaper than ESB.


I had to get that rumpeled up A4 out of the bin and found the earing I dropped earlier! I love Karma.

Eurorunner

Thanks for that Deepsense but I would be wary of what you were told. I mailed them and asked them to confirm tariffs for domestic customers and have gotten absolutely no response from them.

It may be just bad customer service on their part but I would wager that there is no significant difference. In which case, its wrong for them to mislead customers in intimating that there are savings to be made. They have a tariffs page on their site with no tariffs on it - not very upfront and it seems for a reason.

Eurorunner

I take back what I said above! They send me on a copy of their tarriffs (see attached) and it is as Deepsense said - 10% less provided you pay by direct debit and pay standard amount each bill (annual consumption is averaged out).

Going to sign up now.

gaz wac

Hi Eurorunner,

I got the whole 10% savings when I rang them up last week but I would be interested to know if anyone actually moved over and if they are having any problems? I wonder if ESB charge you a reconnection fee if your not happy with Airtricty? Do they suffer from many outages? Can they guarantee a supply 24/7/365? I remember our company was going to change over to them and we got the company legal team to read their T&C's and they were not happy..cant remember why, so will find out but it had somthing to do with the fact that if they run out of electricty, customers are up shi*t creek!

markpb

gaz wac wrote: »

Do they suffer from many outages? Can they guarantee a supply 24/7/365?

AFAIK your electricity is still supplied by ESB Networks so any outtages will be on their side and are nothing to do with ESB or Airtricity. All you're doing is increasing the amount of "green" electricity going into the pool.

Eurorunner

@ gaz wac: I just had a look through the 'electricity supply' section of their T&C's - doesn't seem to be any sneeky stuff in there. As markpb says, its service as usual. The ESB distribution co. are still responsible for the distribution of power. If my power goes out, the whole town will be out as far as I can see.
They did have a section on limited liability - didnt refer directly to lack of supply but I would imagine they won't pick up the tab for any damage/loss of business, etc due to loss of power. This is no different than before really.

The only way they can mess up is with mistakes with billing/accounts or cancellations.

gaz wac

Cool, I can see alot of people switching over this year so !!!

yom 1

gaz wac wrote: »

Cool, I can see alot of people switching over this year so !!!

Well it certainly has me interested in it!:pac:

bugfreebob

ntlbell wrote: »

they both list their pricing on their websites

do the maths and make a decision.

I have been using Airtricity at home for around 9 years, as I like the idea of supporting Green energy. I was with ESB for 11 years before that. Until recently I never had any problems with Airtricity. However, their customer care seems to have taken a turn for the worse since getting over by Scottish Power.

I had major problems last year with a power surge that caused damage to domestic equipment in a number of houses in the area including mine. Couldn't get through to Airtricity customer services even though it was during the day-time. However, their 24 hour number is answered by ESB Networks. In fairness, I can accept that occasional faults will happen in the Network, and the ESB Networks guys were very helpful - I don't know whether they knew who my retail supplier was.

I get the impression all the hard stuff is done by ESB networks, so you have the backup of this even if you are with Airtricity for billing purposes.

However, my real gripe with Airtricity is that they increased the price above ESB price last Summer, and never told me. When I discovered, I threatened to leave, but put it off until after the Budget in case the Greens brought in a carbon tax.

To add to this, their e-billing has become very unreliable - I haven't received a bill in 3 months, although my bank account is being debited with a constant amount higher than any previous bills. I am going to query this now.

I went on line today and did a search on Boards to see if anyone had other experiences. I'm amazed to discover that Airtricity are now claiming a 10% saving. However, I am disturbed to see that their tariffs no longer appear to be published on their website. I might stay with them if they really have a 10% saving, although I am getting really worried about their billing system and customer care.

Eurorunner

bugfreebob wrote: »

I'm amazed to discover that Airtricity are now claiming a 10% saving. However, I am disturbed to see that their tariffs no longer appear to be published on their website. I might stay with them if they really have a 10% saving, although I am getting really worried about their billing system and customer care.

I was also suspicious of them not putting their tarriffs up on their website - seems very strange. However, as you can see by the tarriffs they confirmed to me (in the attached pdf file above), there is a saving to be made.

Sorry to hear about the poor customer service - but I think as long as the accounts side of things is monitored, theres little other damage they can do. ESB Networks still look after supply so its business as usual on that end.

Victor

There is information here on how to change supplier.

http://www.cer.ie/en/consumer-information-electricity-how-to-change-supplier.aspx

321654

Eurorunner wrote: »

I was also suspicious of them not putting their tarriffs up on their website - seems very strange. However, as you can see by the tarriffs they confirmed to me (in the attached pdf file above), there is a saving to be made.

Sorry to hear about the poor customer service - but I think as long as the accounts side of things is monitored, theres little other damage they can do. ESB Networks still look after supply so its business as usual on that end.

Im still a bit suspicious though that tariffs are only available on request.

This is all you get when you click on their Tariffs link

http://www.airtricity.com/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/airtricity_your_airtricit/

Eurorunner

321654 wrote: »

Im still a bit suspicious though that tariffs are only available on request.

This is all you get when you click on their Tariffs link

http://www.airtricity.com/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/airtricity_your_airtricit/

The .pdf is what was forwarded to me as part of a mail from airtricity - so I take that as confirmation of their rates...

bugfreebob

Eurorunner wrote: »

I take back what I said above! They send me on a copy of their tarriffs (see attached) and it is as Deepsense said - 10% less provided you pay by direct debit and pay standard amount each bill (annual consumption is averaged out).

Going to sign up now.

Thanks for bringing these new tariffs to my attention Eurorunner. I contacted Airtricity and told them I was going back to ESB because they were charging me 10% more than ESB. I mentioned these new tariffs, and they said they were only for "new customers". I have been with Airtricity for 9 years. I explained that I could cease and go back to ESB and then return to Airtricity to get the tariffs...they agreed to transfer me to the new tariffs. I also discovered that they had put me on a flat payment plan without consulting or notifying me. I don't like this, because it only gives me a bill every 6 months and they are not even putting tariff updates on their website.

Any Airtricity customers out there should contact them to make sure they are getting the new tariffs.

I don't like their behaviour, but I will stay with them for the moment now that I have the 10% reduction.

Eurorunner

bugfreebob wrote: »

...and they said they were only for "new customers". I have been with Airtricity for 9 years.

Thats poor form.

bugfreebob wrote: »

I don't like their behaviour, but I will stay with them for the moment now that I have the 10% reduction.

We will have to keep an eye on them :pac:

321654

It seems there is some sneaky stuff after all then.

Thats it for me then.

As the dragons say "I'm out"

Victor

321654 wrote: »

Im still a bit suspicious though that tariffs are only available on request.

This is all you get when you click on their Tariffs link

http://www.airtricity.com/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/airtricity_your_airtricit/

That page now has detailed information.

BendiBus

Victor wrote: »

That page now has detailed information.

And online application too.

Raiser

bugfreebob wrote: »

Thanks for bringing these new tariffs to my attention Eurorunner. I contacted Airtricity and told them I was going back to ESB because they were charging me 10% more than ESB. I mentioned these new tariffs, and they said they were only for "new customers". I have been with Airtricity for 9 years. I explained that I could cease and go back to ESB and then return to Airtricity to get the tariffs...they agreed to transfer me to the new tariffs. I also discovered that they had put me on a flat payment plan without consulting or notifying me. I don't like this, because it only gives me a bill every 6 months and they are not even putting tariff updates on their website.

Any Airtricity customers out there should contact them to make sure they are getting the new tariffs.

I don't like their behaviour, but I will stay with them for the moment now that I have the 10% reduction.

I was on the verge of signing up until I read the above and similar here on Boards.ie - Its obvious to me that lots of folks will run on reading the increasing numbers of scare stories about Airtricitiy's half-arsed, disinterested, shoddy and sneaky Customer service practices.

Cabaal

bugfreebob wrote: »

Thanks for bringing these new tariffs to my attention Eurorunner. I contacted Airtricity and told them I was going back to ESB because they were charging me 10% more than ESB. I mentioned these new tariffs, and they said they were only for "new customers". .

Sadly alot of companys do this, mobile phone companys, eircom, ntl etc its pretty common practice...basically as a customer you need to keep aware of cutrrent price plans compared to your own