Trouble getting night-rate meter

fricatus

I've called Electric Ireland three times in the past month asking for a night-rate meter to be installed, and there's still no sign that anyone is coming. On one occasion they referred me to ESB Networks, but they said that while they certainly carry out the work, it has to be initiated by your supplier, because it involves a change to your standing charge and tariff structure - which is fair enough.

I'm likely to switch to Energia at this point, not just out of spite, but also because maybe if I sign up to their contract, they might just get their skates on and request the night meter.

Has anyone else had similar issues? Am I likely to encounter the same problem with Energia?

Round Cable

fricatus wrote: »

I've called Electric Ireland three times in the past month asking for a night-rate meter to be installed, and there's still no sign that anyone is coming. On one occasion they referred me to ESB Networks, but they said that while they certainly carry out the work, it has to be initiated by your supplier, because it involves a change to your standing charge and tariff structure - which is fair enough.

I'm likely to switch to Energia at this point, not just out of spite, but also because maybe if I sign up to their contract, they might just get their skates on and request the night meter.

Has anyone else had similar issues? Am I likely to encounter the same problem with Energia?

Sounds unusual, 20 hours after calling Electric Ireland, the ESB had installed the night meter at my house.

Electric Ireland have a section here on boards, may be worth posting this there to see what their representatives say.

unkel

I rang my electricity supplier at the time (it might have been Airtricity - can't remember) on a Friday and on Monday morning my night meter was installed by ESB Networks. This was a good month before I actually got my EV

You definitively have to go through your own electricity supplier. They instruct ESB Networks to do the install.

macnab

My bill is with ESB. It took me months to get mine set up. I had to ring them a few times. Some paperwork got lost at one stage and the process had to start all over again. My advice is Keep ringing them.

n97 mini

Tell them you want to make an official complaint, and send it to the address they give you. They have 10 days to resolve the issue and then the Regulator can get involved.

It won't go that far though as the threat of an official complaint works wonders (speaking from experience).

Ewan Hoosarmi

If you change to Energia, they won't be able to start the process to change the meter for 2 weeks from you signing up.

I was with Bord Gais Energy and got the meter changed the day after I requested it... then changed to Energia.

billy few mates

I'm with Bord Gais as well, I enquired last week about this and they said I could have one whenever I want. I told them a Friday appointment would suit best and (fingers crossed) the ESB are coming to do it tomorrow afternoon.
I couldn't believe how straightforward it was....

billy few mates

Installed yesterday as planned, didn't even take him twenty minutes from start to finish...

fricatus

Round Cable wrote: »

Electric Ireland have a section here on boards, may be worth posting this there to see what their representatives say.

Did that, and got it sorted. Thanks!

Can anybody tell me when the dual rate kicks in, and how I can know how much is used at night and in the day time? They didn't install a new meter, just did something with the existing one, and there's only one display as far as I can see. A meter reader came to the house and said it wasn't dual-tariff yet.

Anyone got any experience of this?

n97 mini

Is there a button on your meter? If so this cycles through the number of kW/h used between midnight and 9am, 9am and midnight and total KW/h. The kW/h between midnight and 9am are billed for at a lower rate if your billing is flagged as Nightsaver on your provider's system.

As and aside I actually had a woman from ESBN insist to me over the phone that the kW/h at night are "different" to day time kW/h. How she got a job with a power company is beyond me.

Ewan Hoosarmi

Just to add to this. If you have a digital meter, make sure to check the time it displays. My digital meter runs 20 minutes slow, meaning that my night rate starts at 00:20 and runs to 09:20 at this time of the year.

I'd ask ESBN to come out and correct the clock, but it suits me to have 20 minutes extra in the morning.

Dardania

This page might be helpful further to n97's post: https://www.esbnetworks.ie/existing-connection/meters-readings/how-to-read-your-meter/electronic-domestic-meters

unkel

Midnight to 9AM summertime, but 11PM to 8AM in wintertime!!!

n97 mini wrote: »

As and aside I actually had a woman from ESBN insist to me over the phone that the kW/h at night are "different" to day time kW/h. How she got a job with a power company is beyond me.

And the average salary in the ESB is over €100,000 :eek:

fricatus

Thanks all, so as n97 mini suggested, there is a button on the meter, and it toggles through date, time, total units, night units and day units (not necessarily in that order, but it's clear from the display which is which).

So when I submit a meter reading, how does that work? Do I give the two figures, the day one and the night one?

n97 mini

fricatus wrote: »

Thanks all, so as n97 mini suggested, there is a button on the meter, and it toggles through date, time, total units, night units and day units (not necessarily in that order, but it's clear from the display which is which).

So when I submit a meter reading, how does that work? Do I give the two figures, the day one and the night one?

If your provider has you set up correctly for billing you'll have two input boxes, day and night. On your meter the day reading will be the higher of the two (it can be R1 or R2, depends on the meter).

n97 mini

unkel wrote: »

And the average salary in the ESB is over €100,000 :eek:

Yeah, fookin tell me about it.

Neighbour is an IT project manager in ESB. Guess who she calls when her PC/broadband/calculator/tumble dryer won't work.

fricatus

n97 mini wrote: »

If your provider has you set up correctly for billing you'll have two input boxes, day and night. On your meter the day reading will be the higher of the two (it can be R1 or R2, depends on the meter).

I'm guessing you mean that it's the higher figure right now, but isn't it possible that the night figure will eventually overtake the day figure when I'm chomping down all those night-time units into my car? Not sure what we consume by day and by night normally, and how much difference the car will make.

n97 mini

fricatus wrote: »

I'm guessing you mean that it's the higher figure right now, but isn't it possible that the night figure will eventually overtake the day figure when I'm chomping down all those night-time units into my car? Not sure what we consume by day and by night normally, and how much difference the car will make.

Yeah, if you've had no major use for Nightsaver till now your day reading will be currently much higher than your night.

Since we got the Leaf our consumption has gone to 52% night, 48% day, but at that small of a difference it'll takes years, if not decades, for our night reading to pass out the day one.