Best Electricity Plan for new EV Owners

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122000449#Comment_122000449

How many KW you need to pump into the car will be a function of your KM covered. I think real world will see you using somewhere between 18kw and maybe 24kw for each 100km you drive. So work it back from there.

witnessmenow

For my calculations the energia plan works out €15 more expensive a month.

The peak rate with board gais is only 4c more expensive than the all the time rate of the energia plan, for our average usage it only saves about €5 a month. The big savings is the standing charge, which is just over €10 a month.

What lets it down for us is the day rate being so expensive, that costs us €25 extra a month based on our usage. (This might change in the future do, I'll explain below.)

(This is comparing the bord gais rural plan to the energia urban plan, so it might not be exact comparison)

To get my usage numbers:

I downloaded our smart meter data

I put them into energypal.ie.

I filtered the usage between when it the smart meter was installed and when we got the EV (as we were on a 24 hour plan before we switched, the Ev charging threw off our usage stats, when it would be charged at the cheap rate going forward)

That gave us a daily average energy usage and also a percentage of how much power were using at the different rates

The day/night/peak consumption is the average daily X 30 with their percentage usage applied.

The Ev rate is based on predicted amount of driving we'd do and calculating based on our average efficiency while driving, with a 10% allowance for charger inefficiency

These figures are based on when I had a 24h plan though, so the dishwasher , washing machine and dryer where just put on whenever, and are the biggest source of energy consumption in our house (up there with the electric shower and cooking), we try push them to the Ev rate now so that should bring our day usage down, probably our peak too.

I work from home and my wife is at home with two relatively small kids so we use a lot of power, so your results maybe way different!

dodzy

In my situation, I'll use approx 100kwh per week for 500kms @7.5cent per kwh. Taking AC/DC conversion loss into account at approx 10%, I'll still be paying well below a tenner for what was costing me €60 per week. Home usage is in the region of 10kwh per day so the car dictated the plan in this respect. Charging the car during the 4hr energia EV window - 4 times per week, will see me through comfortably, saving close to €2,500 on diesel per year (at current diesel pricing, which is likely to go only one way).

Incidentally, if on-street charging was to cost me 73c per kwh, that would be pretty much the same costing to me as the diesel spend. And from what I'm seeing out there, plenty of those charge points are not a million miles away from this rate. Needless to say, if I ever find myself at one, I'll be pretty disgusted (aside from the once in a blue moon long distance trip)

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122003874#Comment_122003874

I'm trying to make up my mind between the 3 hour BG rate and the 4 hours Energia rate. First world problems and all that! EnergyPal edging me toward BG as the house uses about 5000kw a year aside from EV but I'd say it's fine lines really between them.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122003781#Comment_122003781

I use Tronity which tells me how much each charge costs, amount of Kw used etc.

dodzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122003987#Comment_122003987

Referral code required Cobo ? How do you rate it (free/paid version)?

bunderoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122003911#Comment_122003911

In the same boat. Dragging my heels on the move to a smart plan.

I have a 40Kw EV and would need to charge it at last 4-5 times a week. But only from about 40% upwards going by my usage. So a 3 hour window (2am to 5am) @at 7kwh would bring me more or less back to 100% ~20kw x 0.07c = 1.40e Maybe another hour here or there at night rate adds another 7kwh x 20.93c = 1.46 to the cost.

Then washer, dryer and dish washer on at 11pm for 20.93c

Immersion on at 2am to 5am. @ 2.7kwh x 3 = 8.1kwh x 0.07c = 57c and one more 1 at night rate to top tank up adds another 56c to the cost.

I will use ~5300 units for the house, ~3400 for immersion and ~6800 for the car in a year. I cant achieve the savings with Energia compared to the Bord Gais EV Smart Plan pricings.

dodzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004244#Comment_122004244

Makes sense for you. I've no dryer or immersion to factor in so my decision was easier.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004155#Comment_122004155

I have the full version I didn't have to pay anything, something to do with having a VAG car I think. It's a brilliant app I'd pay for it if required.

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121986995#Comment_121986995

The HV battery contactors "kick in" when charging starts but they do not dis-engage the moment charging stops, e.g. on a Tesla they stay connected for around half an hour (assuming you have not driven off etc.) so this is not as harsh as thinking it's turning on/off constantly with clouds etc..

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004244#Comment_122004244

Would you be better off with a D/N meter?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121998752#Comment_121998752

I got an EO Mini about 6 years ago, never had any trouble despite the missus ripping it off the wall one day 😂

I have the non smart version, dunno what the newer ones are like but they've always seemed to get good reviews

Cyrus

me too great little charger

bunderoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004723#Comment_122004723

Not sure. Excluding the hassle of swapping to one, most of my yearly unit usage would be Immersion and EV which would be at 7c per khw.

Then load shifting washer (new) and heat pump dryer and dishwasher to night rate will make a massive difference. Night rate of the D/N would be still double the unit price.

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122004244#Comment_122004244

I'm thinking I can only count on the washing machine to be done at night as the dryer comes after the washing machine and I'm not waiting 24 hours to dry wet clothes from the previous night!

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006512#Comment_122006512

FIgure out which uses the most electricity (I'm guessing dryer) and run that at the cheapest rate. In other words time the was so the dryer starts at the cheapest time.

A useful way of finding this out is to use one of those Tapo plugs and then you can get the data on your phone.

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006588#Comment_122006588

Indeed I have the Tapo plugs on both! Dryer is using about 10kw per month more than washing machine based on 2 months of data. Two month combined usage for dryer is 88kw. For washing machine is about 69kw for two months.

So actually not an off the scale difference between them.

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006676#Comment_122006676

Are you using the dryer for every wash though?

bunderoon

Used a tapo plug to show my better half how power hungry the old drier was. It served us 10 years. Getting a heat pump drier was a no brainer. More than 50% more efficient. I should probably reduce my forecast usage for this year based on that actually. About 70-80 units a month (no kidding), so ~900 units * .65% = 568. So projected unit usage this year about 332.

Long story short, the immersion and ev will use much more than the general day to day house activities, so 7c per unit on a smart plan would be much better for me than a D/N

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006682#Comment_122006682

Right now, given the weather, the answer is yes, no choice. If it ever stops raining, I'd obviously hope to pull it back in the summer. But they are a terror at home for popping everything in the dryer even when the sun is blazing down in June and July. It's a heat pump one anyway at least.

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006688#Comment_122006688

It's a heatpump dryer we have as well. Family of 5.

Re the immersion. Its takes quite a while to heat water using an immersion. I've been struggling with this one as to whether the gas would be cheaper. All in all, I'm not sure, for myself, that the immersion option will save a lot.

bunderoon

We have oil. About 1 hour to boost water from 30c to 55c. 2.5ltr of oil in the time (I'm led to believe). 1.12e x 2.5 = 2.80e. If litre usage is wrong, maybe 2euro then.

Electric:

3hrs * 2.8kw = 8.4kw * 7c = 58.7cent.

Add another kwh for good measure at smart night rate: 2.8kw * 0.2093cent = 58c. So about 1.17euro. Every night.

From Another thread here, I'll probably get plumber to move oil to lowest coil meaning heating full 250ltr tank to 60c a couple nights a week and the just used the ev rate to boost immersion as above.

TheSunIsShining

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006840#Comment_122006840

I must measure the gas usage for the same. I have smart temp probe on the tank so can see the temp before and after a blast of the gas boiler. And I can isolate the boiler to just the HW water circuit as well to measure it.

I wouldn't have thought an oil burner would cost as much as that to heat water 25 degrees by the way. But it's more difficult to measure I guess than a gas meter reading etc.

Dbarry55

Thanks I've seen energia have a good night time with free charging from 2am till 6am, however the day tariff is expensive

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007573#Comment_122007573

Free charging? I doubt that. Nothing is free in Ireland.

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007926#Comment_122007926

Yeah, it's 7.54c/kWh for those four hours. But all the rest is 33.86c. All prices include VAT.

bunderoon

That's why I think Bord Gais beats it. OK, 1 hour less, but BG has a night rate of ~20c aswell. It's day rate is also cheaper than Energia's.

dodzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008593#Comment_122008593

Don't forget the 5-7pm peak at over 38c, which is important to note for many households.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008553#Comment_122008553

Unless you have a big battery and a big solar array it's just too expensive.

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008783#Comment_122008783

If you look at the savings for those four hours against an average night rate of ~18c/kWh, then you're getting that ~28kWh at a saving of around €3 when you charge your car. Nine hours @1kWh on the other rate effectively. Total rip off and trying to drag EV owners in with a headline rate that will actually cost them. A lot.