Advice on best electricity provider

turfthrower

Hi all,

So I'm interested in purchasing my first electric car, a Hyundai Kona, but obviously this raises the issue of who is the cheapest provider of power.

My dealer recommends Pinergy, and I've been quoted a rate of 18c per unit for general power and 16c per unit for EV power. This company will apply for the grants and fit a charging station in my house for no upfront costs, recouping the remainder of its fee (€100 or so) from ongoing standing charges.

In addition, the company says its metering technology can help you reduce power consumption overall.

Is this a good deal?

I get the impression there are some knowledgable people on this forum - has anyone done the ground work on working out the best provider for cost control in EV ownership?

KCross

I havent checked all of them in the last few weeks but it is usually Airtricity and Energia are the cheapest.

Check them out.

I'm currently paying 16.41/8.12 inc Vat with Airtricity.

Also take a look at bonkers.ie. You can plug in your current usage etc and it will tell you who is the cheapest.

slave1

Just Energy unlimited, currently on €81/month unlimited leccy day or night....

unkel

I was with Just Energy unlimited last year. Paid €720 for the full year, all in. That was for about 3.5MWh. Same price as Energia, the cheapest non-unlimited supplier at the time.

Difference is, I actually used about 15MWh

KCross

unkel wrote: »

I was with Just Energy unlimited last year. Paid €720 for the full year, all in. That was for about 3.5MWh. Same price as Energia, the cheapest non-unlimited supplier at the time.

Difference is, I actually used about 15MWh

Did they ever come back and say "unkel, you caught us there boi!"?

Thyey must surely have copped on to that and added something to the small print by now?

unkel

KCross wrote: »

Did they ever come back and say "unkel, you caught us there boi!"?

Nope. And they had fierce trouble collecting my money too, even though I had properly set up my direct debit. They somehow didn't take the first few months. And then towards the end (after I had moved to a different current account and setup my new direct debit properly with them over the phone with the correct IBAN and all), they failed to collect the last few payments too.

Of the above €720, they collected less than half

But yeah, when I went to sign up with their unlimited gas offer and was ready to send them my very low gas bills from last year, they kindly refused to take my business

KCross

unkel wrote: »

Nope. And they had fierce trouble collecting my money too, even though I had properly set up my direct debit. They somehow didn't take the first few months. And then towards the end (after I had moved to a different current account and setup my new direct debit properly with them over the phone with the correct IBAN and all), they failed to collect the last few payments too.

Of the above €720, they collected less than half

But yeah, when I went to sign up with their unlimited gas offer and was ready to send them my very low gas bills from last year, they kindly refused to take my business

Wow! They sound like a dream come true!

The Op is in a good position here, like you had, that they have "low" bills now (which is what they base the fixed price on) but when they add the car the bills will jump up and they will get that for free.... but for one year only, of course.

turfthrower

Done a bit of shopping around and it looks like Electric Ireland offers the best rates right now for what I'm looking for.

I get the impression you could spend a lot of time haggling with our provider over another. A total time sink.

Ryath

Your own provider may call you when you go to switch. I switched to Energia in August using bonkers. SSSE Airtricity called a few days later offering reduced rates about 1c per kw above energia and €100 credit. Didn't run the exact figures but If my usage had remained the same it was probably worth staying. We'd just got a heat pump so our usage has gone up though so the credit wouldn't have covered the price differance.

unkel wrote: »

But yeah, when I went to sign up with their unlimited gas offer and was ready to send them my very low gas bills from last year, they kindly refused to take my business

Were you planning on getting one of these if they let you sign up!
https://www.amazon.com/Briggs-Stratton-Products-Generator-Transfer/dp/B01MQ0AKGF/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=generatorguide-20&linkId=5a27bdd70c1ded54ac2c1798e85e7004&language=en_US

How unlimited is jut energy ? you pick a monthly cost so why would I not pick the cheapest and run electric heaters all day ?

Some info on Just energy.


http://www.moneyguideireland.com/unlimited-electricity-good-true.html

KCross

Deleted User wrote: »

How unlimited is jut energy ? you pick a monthly cost so why would I not pick the cheapest and run electric heaters all day ?

You have to prove your total consumption for the last 12 months by showing them your bills.... which is why it works a treat if you are only buying an EV AFTER you've proved your last 12 months of consumption.

They dont seem to have copped that issue yet!

Once your first 12 months is up they then readjust your monthly bill to what it should be.

unkel

KCross wrote: »

Once your first 12 months is up they then readjust your monthly bill to what it should be. you move to another provider

FYP

KCross

unkel wrote: »

FYP

Of course!
Their rates are not actually that good except where you can capitalise on this unlimited loop hole.

So they charge based on previous use so you end up paying the same or more lol.

slave1

KCross wrote: »

You have to prove your total consumption for the last 12 months by showing them your bills....

No you don't, I said I was not aware of mu usage and chose the lowest tariff, no questions asked

KCross

Fair enough. Their T&C says you need to provide it.
I think they also have access to that data from ESB Networks anyway so maybe you dont have to provide it but they know anyway?

If they just blindly accepted your word everyone could switch and just screw them. They'll be out of business soon enough if thats the case!

unkel

You'd have thought their rules got tighter after having me as a customer

But yeah I did have to prove my 12 months usage of electricity before I got onto the unlimited plan. That was back in September 2017 though.

No chance, I'd end up paying say, 200 a month every month including the Summer when I wouldn't be using so much, I know where they can stick their "unlimited" plan.

I'll stick to energia.

Mickeroo

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No chance, I'd end up paying say, 200 a month every month including the Summer when I wouldn't be using so much, I know where they can stick their "unlimited" plan.

I'll stick to energia.

What rates you get with energia? We're with them at the mo but will be asking to change to night rate.

Mickeroo

Mickeroo wrote: »

What rates you get with energia? We're with them at the mo but will be asking to change to night rate.

17 c day / 7.6 night.

Mickeroo

Deleted User wrote: »

17 c day / 7.6 night.

Is that excluding VAT? The rates we were quoted correspond to yours but only if it's excluding VAT and including the 25% discount we already get with them.

Mickeroo

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is that excluding VAT? The rates we were quoted correspond to yours but only if it's excluding VAT and including the 25% discount we already get with them.

Including VAT.

KCross

I pay 16.41/8.12 inc Vat for day/night rate. Rural rate. That's with Airtricity.

Change every year to the cheapest is my advice. It costs nothing to change and is a very simple process.

unkel

KCross wrote: »

I pay 16.41/8.12 inc Vat for day/night rate. Rural rate. That's with Airtricity.

Change every year to the cheapest is my advice. It costs nothing to change and is a very simple process.

+1

And to add to that, you can easily compare the rates at bonkers.ie making sure you know your annual consumption in units

Bonkers does not take into account any cashback offers though, so do adjust their figures based on that

rossj

Bump

Hey everyone...
what/ who is the cheapest rate as of now, TODAY Sunday 29th Nov 2020??...
Iv moved into a house on outskirts of a town but because my work contract is a short one I only have the house rented for 7 months..Would this circumstance alter what provider I should go with or does it make any difference
Need to get this leccy A/C set up first thing in morn.. ADVICE por favor

Black_Knight

rossj wrote: »

Bump

Hey everyone...
what/ who is the cheapest rate as of now, TODAY Sunday 29th Nov 2020??...
Iv moved into a house on outskirts of a town but because my work contract is a short one I only have the house rented for 7 months..Would this circumstance alter what provider I should go with or does it make any difference
Need to get this leccy A/C set up first thing in morn.. ADVICE por favor

Get one with a cheap early exit fee, and avoid any of the cash back ones if you're going to break contact before a year. Ask about this 7 months. Perhaps you can transfer the account to a new address and not incur a breakage fee.

Other than that, use bonkers.ie. is this electric car specific or did you just happen upon this thread?

rossj

no this is just plain old house electricity

thanks

corks finest

slave1 wrote: »

Just Energy unlimited, currently on €81/month unlimited leccy day or night....

That sounds ok but there’s just me n a teen , use about e15 a week

the_amazing_raisin

rossj wrote: »

no this is just plain old house electricity

thanks

I think energia and airtricity typically have the cheapest rates and the break contract fee if usually around €50. As mentioned above, use bonkers.ie or switcher.ie, they're pretty good and you can just put in the average consumption (3,500kWh per year I think)



Be careful if you have a gas supply, AFAIK the break contract for that is higher, more like €150


FYI, you can look around for a day or two normally, you just need the meter reading from when you moved in to sign up. They don't normally cut the supply for a while, and due to Covid the ESB have actually suspended all disconnections

the_amazing_raisin

corks finest wrote: »

That sounds ok but there’s just me n a teen , use about e15 a week

unkel must have driven them out of business because the company got bought by Flogas last year

Solutionking

Bit of advice, I went with Glowpower. Absolute disaster. Signed up and then finally got access to the portal which was minimal, something you would have seen in the late 90's as a website. With them a while and no bill, contacted them and said I wanted a bill as the contract said I would get monthly ones. Long story short I bounced back and forward for a few months, finally ending up getting a huge bill so wasn't happy. Paid the 50 quid and got the hell out while the going was good. Only got the bill in the end as I complained to CRU. Wouldn't recommend