Energia and Netatmo

Yellow Dog

Just switched to Energia last month.
Will be having my Netatmo Smart Thermostat installed in a couple of weeks.
Just wondering about the following Terms & Conditions:

The Netatmo product must be installed and remain operational in your home until 2020.

You will be eligible for a charge of €100 if you request that your Netatmo be uninstalled.

If I decide to change supplier after 12 months will the Netatmo work with new supplier?
Will there be any fee for having Netatmo down the line?

aidancoughlan

I switched to Energia recently and opted for the Netatmo deal, but called them up during the cooling off period to drop the Netatmo. They asked me a bunch of questions (age of house, whether I ever had an SEIA grant before etc.). I called SEIA afterwards to clarify. Basically Energia are operating as a third party filling out the SEIA grant paperwork for you - the screening questions are part of the SEIA conditions. I suspect the conditions you saw were SEIA grant conditions too.

I get the impression they are pulling a fast one - framing it that they are giving you a free Netatmo/installation (quoted as €249) , when they are having it covered under the SEIA grant.

There are two downsides to this energia deal as far as I can work out:

(1) The Energia package *including* the Netatmo gives less discount on gas & electricity than you would receive otherwise, so you are paying at least in part for the Netatmo package (or the convenience of filling out the SEIA paperwork for you).
(2) The SEIA grant is currently up to €700 for upgrading heating controls - you can only claim it once, so if you plan to do some more extensive work on your heating controls (eg., multi zone, or radiator valves) it may be a wasted opportunity to avail of the full grant. While the Netatmo is quoted as €249 including installation, but is actually available for €110 or so online, and apparently easy to DIY fit... so you may be losing your €700 grant opportunity to get a "free" €100+ unit. Bear in mind though, that you have to use a registered SEIA contractor to get the grant, so there will be some installation costs too.

Hope someone can correct me if this is wrong, but that's what I figure at the moment.

If I decide to change supplier after 12 months will the Netatmo work with new supplier?
Will there be any fee for having Netatmo down the line?

There should be no problem using the Netatmo (or another smart thermostat like Tado, Nest, Hive, Climote etc.) with any supplier in the future, its not tied into Energia in any way...nor any fees required to use it.

rightjob!

aidancoughlan wrote: »

I switched to Energia recently and opted for the Netatmo deal, but called them up during the cooling off period to drop the Netatmo. They asked me a bunch of questions (age of house, whether I ever had an SEIA grant before etc.). I called SEIA afterwards to clarify. Basically Energia are operating as a third party filling out the SEIA grant paperwork for you - the screening questions are part of the SEIA conditions. I suspect the conditions you saw were SEIA grant conditions too.

I get the impression they are pulling a fast one - framing it that they are giving you a free Netatmo/installation (quoted as €249) , when they are having it covered under the SEIA grant.

There are two downsides to this energia deal as far as I can work out:

(1) The Energia package *including* the Netatmo gives less discount on gas & electricity than you would receive otherwise, so you are paying at least in part for the Netatmo package (or the convenience of filling out the SEIA paperwork for you).
(2) The SEIA grant is currently up to €700 for upgrading heating controls - you can only claim it once, so if you plan to do some more extensive work on your heating controls (eg., multi zone, or radiator valves) it may be a wasted opportunity to avail of the full grant. While the Netatmo is quoted as €249 including installation, but is actually available for €110 or so online, and apparently easy to DIY fit... so you may be losing your €700 grant opportunity to get a "free" €100+ unit. Bear in mind though, that you have to use a registered SEIA contractor to get the grant, so there will be some installation costs too.

Hope someone can correct me if this is wrong, but that's what I figure at the moment.


There should be no problem using the Netatmo (or another smart thermostat like Tado, Nest, Hive, Climote etc.) with any supplier in the future, its not tied into Energia in any way...nor any fees required to use it.

They definitely are not doing this,you need to meet the full SEAI spec to receive any grant and they jobs get checked.

aidancoughlan

I called SEIA afterwards to clarify. Basically Energia are operating as a third party filling out the SEIA grant paperwork for you

If in doubt, check it out!. I did call the SEIA, and the operator went off to check with a supervisor before confirming that Energia were operating a a third party in filling out the grant forms for their customers availing of this deal (they used a special name for their role that I don't recall). I understood it to be that Energia were actign as an authorised intermediary to the SEIA. If I remember correctly, I also spoke to Energia subsequently about the SEIA grant aspect at the time when I was cancelling the Netatmo part of the deal to preserve my option to avail of the full €700 grant, and didn't meet any resistance/contradiction.

When you say

They definitely are not doing this

, are you referring to the suggestion they are applying for the SEIA grant for you - do you have some information to suggest that's not what's happening ? It would be good to know, I might take up the Netatmo offer if that's the case. Both the SEIA and the relevant Energia department seem to be closed until new year.

rightjob!

aidancoughlan wrote: »

If in doubt, check it out!. I did call the SEIA, and the operator went off to check with a supervisor before confirming that Energia were operating a a third party in filling out the grant forms for their customers availing of this deal (they used a special name for their role that I don't recall). I understood it to be that Energia were actign as an authorised intermediary to the SEIA. If I remember correctly, I also spoke to Energia subsequently about the SEIA grant aspect at the time when I was cancelling the Netatmo part of the deal to preserve my option to avail of the full €700 grant, and didn't meet any resistance/contradiction.

When you say , are you referring to the suggestion they are applying for the SEIA grant for you - do you have some information to suggest that's not what's happening ? It would be good to know, I might take up the Netatmo offer if that's the case. Both the SEIA and the relevant Energia department seem to be closed until new year.

They definitely are not putting in a new timeclock and claiming the SEAI grant of a heating control upgrade.
You would have to have paperwork sent out to house that the home owner would sign,a BER cert done after the work and also the work has to meet the criteria.
It would aslo be illegal for them to claim a grant without the customer knowing.

They might be offering a heating control upgrade to you but you would be made aware of that and you would be charged additional money even if they were getting the €700.

So in short yes they are fitting a new time clock but no they are not fitting a timeclock and claiming any grants.

kibe6

aidancoughlan wrote: »

I switched to Energia recently and opted for the Netatmo deal, but called them up during the cooling off period to drop the Netatmo. They asked me a bunch of questions (age of house, whether I ever had an SEIA grant before etc.). I called SEIA afterwards to clarify. Basically Energia are operating as a third party filling out the SEIA grant paperwork for you - the screening questions are part of the SEIA conditions. I suspect the conditions you saw were SEIA grant conditions too.

I get the impression they are pulling a fast one - framing it that they are giving you a free Netatmo/installation (quoted as €249) , when they are having it covered under the SEIA grant.

There are two downsides to this energia deal as far as I can work out:

(1) The Energia package *including* the Netatmo gives less discount on gas & electricity than you would receive otherwise, so you are paying at least in part for the Netatmo package (or the convenience of filling out the SEIA paperwork for you).
(2) The SEIA grant is currently up to €700 for upgrading heating controls - you can only claim it once, so if you plan to do some more extensive work on your heating controls (eg., multi zone, or radiator valves) it may be a wasted opportunity to avail of the full grant. While the Netatmo is quoted as €249 including installation, but is actually available for €110 or so online, and apparently easy to DIY fit... so you may be losing your €700 grant opportunity to get a "free" €100+ unit. Bear in mind though, that you have to use a registered SEIA contractor to get the grant, so there will be some installation costs too.

Hope someone can correct me if this is wrong, but that's what I figure at the moment.


There should be no problem using the Netatmo (or another smart thermostat like Tado, Nest, Hive, Climote etc.) with any supplier in the future, its not tied into Energia in any way...nor any fees required to use it.

Energia aren't claiming the Heating Upgrade grant of €700. What is being claimed are Energy Credits for a remote access entry level heating upgrade (which you as a householder cannot claim privately and DOES NOT affect the €700 SEAI grant to upgrade your heating to multizone in future).

This is basically Part of their obligation towards Europe 2020 (hence requesting them to be left in until 2020). Energia produce carbon as a utility company and therefore are obliged under EEOS (energy efficiency obligation scheme) to reduce carbon through incentives like this or other energy upgrades or pay a fine for not reaching their target. This is why they claim energy credits as a way of showing their reduction (and why a normal Joe schmoe can't claim them personally) .

It is the same as other utility companies offer but obviously you can only do an entry level upgrade once which is why if you've had the Climote from SSE etc installed you can't get it. (Also if you've had grant already you've got a dual zone which doesn't entitle you to the Energia Netatmo/doesn't work on zone valves. Which is why they ask you this) .

Hope this clarifies it a bit more for you ðŸ˜