Is there any reason left not to go smart meter?

insular1

Yeah same here. Also very confused about their billing. Was told 329 would be taken same as @SD_DRACULA above but first month a random 229.55 came out instead. Was thinking it must have been the 100euro welcome credit but still have no statement or anything to check and see for sure. Second month was due today but nothing came out so very confusing. And now app is acting up.

insular1

Oh also found out they somehow messed up and changed the name on my ESB account when I swapped to them to some randomer. Was very annoying as I was in the middle of trying to get the ESB to upgrade my fuse at the time and this delayed it by a few weeks before Pinergy got it sorted. They do seem fairly unprofessional. Makes me feel less guilty that I'll hopefully be making a profit off them this year. 😂

insular1

Pinergy app seems to be back working. I have data for yesterday, but still nothing for the 31st. Anyone else the same?

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709544#Comment_121709544

Same.

Also quite annoying not seeing the export on the app

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121709544#Comment_121709544

Yep same here

DrPhilG

Pinergy credit arrived.....

Must be my lucky day. Time to buy a lottery ticket.

garo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121627551#Comment_121627551

So I finally took a look at my first Smart Meter bill from over a month ago and discovered that the number of units charged to the non-EV/Day rate was much higher than what the two registers 1.8.2 and 1.8.3 add up to. Turns out these registers just show the standard(?) Peak/Day/Night hours consumption and do not reflect the usage I am being billed for on the EV rate. So any electricity consumed between say midnight and 2am goes into the A+T1 (1.8.1) but is actually being charged at the non-EV rate.

I did a data dump from the ESBN site and the summed up usage lines up with the billing units. I guess there is no point looking at the meter readings now. A bit sad that my non-EV rate usage turned out to be higher than what I thought it was (263 vs. 175) but quite happy that the proportion of non-EV usage is much less than what I had projected when making the decision to switch to the EV plan. And as the worst days are behind us my day usage has gone to close to 0.

BTW is it possible to access the ESBN data through an API? Or do you have to sign in on the website?

curioustony

Not officially.

A boardsie posted a python app last year. Edit, found the link:

https://gist.github.com/schlan/f72d823dd5c1c1d19dfd784eb392dded

There's a Java equivalent on GitHub: https://github.com/Tonyslogic/comparetout/tree/master/app/src/main/java/com/tfcode/comparetout/importers/esbn

That's part of an android app, but almost all jse. The ESBN bit is in closed testing. Probably go to open beta soon.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tfcode.comparetout

garo

That python script is all I needed. Thanks.

garo

Made a small change to clean up the output into a pandas dataframe. I am on Energia so also did an EVRate annotation.

def load_smart_meter_stats_v2(user, password, mprn, days=30):
    last_month = datetime.today() - timedelta(days)
    smart_meter_data = load_esb_data(user, password, mprn, last_month)
    imports = {}
    exports = {}

    for item in smart_meter_data['imports']:
        # https://www.esbnetworks.ie/help-centre/esb-networks-online-account-faqs/your-energy-consumption
        imports[parse_date(item['x'])] = item['y'] * 0.5
    for item in smart_meter_data['exports']:
        # https://www.esbnetworks.ie/help-centre/esb-networks-online-account-faqs/your-energy-consumption
        exports[parse_date(item['x'])] = item['y'] * 0.5
    imports = pd.DataFrame([imports]).T
    exports = pd.DataFrame([exports]).T
    imports.columns = ["imports"]
    exports.columns = ["exports"]
    imports.join(exports, how="outer")
    df = imports.join(exports, how="outer")
    df["EVRate"] = False
    df.loc[df.index.isin(df.between_time("02:01", "06:01").index), "EVRate"] = True
    return df

curioustony

@garo, be careful with that gist. I think there are gaps in the data sometimes using the range API. The HDF is more reliable, but it too can have a partial day for the last entry.

I think ESBN run batches at random times, and eventually the smart meters send reliable data. Seems to tally with occasional bill corrections... My best theory so far

jasgrif11

It would be great if there was a plugin to show HDF data in Home Assistant

paulbok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824060#Comment_121824060

I think at this stage they should be just be renamed "meters". There is nothing smart about them

curioustony

@paulbok true. Biggest issue for me is radio technology. Either we will pay to replace the meters or we will pay to keep a 2G network in operation, and somebody will get their pockets lined...

garo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824060#Comment_121824060

Thanks for the headsup. I was shaving off the last partial day in another bit of the code. Another annoying thing is that if you give a start date before the first day data is available it the request will hard fail rather than give you the data it has. The readings for Nov-Jan lined up exactly with the units I was billed for. I'm not doing anything critical with this data anyway. It's just for science 🤓

mrpdap

Hi Folks,

I had a smart meter installed recently and am looking at options and rates to switch.

I can't see any reason to switch to a smart rate. Its true that night time rates are cheap but the normal rate and peak rates are higher than a normal (non smart) package.

Eg, Energia has 16.31, 30.47 31.94 for night, day and peak vs 26.28 for their 'best value' bundle.

Am I missing something?

Thanks for your help

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838160#Comment_121838160

Yes, probably a battery 😉

The best plan as of right now is still pinergy 5.5c from 2-5am, 40ish cents during the day, but only works if you can fill your battery at night and use no day rate units.

They also have a very good FIT of 25c so even without a battery but with a decent size installation if you export a lot you will get nicely compensated for it.

Quite a few people here have negative bills with pinergy due to a lot of export

championc

Pinergy very late this month with their Feb Clean Export email 🤔

NinjaTruncs

When do the usually send it? I noticed they haven't sent the Feb statement either.

TheChizler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121838160#Comment_121838160

Seems to very much depend on the provider and your usage patterns. I broke down my usage last year for the three periods and Flogas smart plan pretty much broke even with the best 24h plan this year if I don't change my usage. If I move 2 kWh from day to night I save about €100. I've added smart plugs to my dehumidifier and washing machine so they only come on after 11pm when I need them which should move on average 3 kWh. Not massive numbers and there's potential for it all to go wrong if we start showering during the day more with the gym and everything. Probably not worth it for the extra trouble but I (currently) enjoy managing this kind of thing.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895928#Comment_121895928

They are brutal.

Especially when it comes to refunds, 🤬 28 working days but no problem taking it in an instant

championc

Well my February Pinergy bill finally landed. €51 Export credit and a €57 bill - so net €6 for all of Feb, and that includes EV charging.

Still on gas heating, but cooking on electric now.

bunderoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895996#Comment_121895996

I've just got an EV and am trying to see which is the best option for me. Energia EV 4 hour 7c rate would charge my car and also can put on the immersion for those 4 hours. Outside of that, probably the dishwasher. New efficient washing machine and new heat pump dryer, there isnt much else to loadshift. So trying to work out if a smartplan is now better or the Energia EV rate but has a larger standard unit rate than the others.

garo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921337#Comment_121921337

Depending on your driving an EV can consume a lot of electricity and make the Energia (or Pinergy) plan a no-brainer. What is your current consumption and how much do you expect to drive? Do you have solar PV or a battery?

bunderoon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121958691#Comment_121958691

Looking at it properly since my last post, our unit usage the last 12 months was 5,333 units.

We use oil for heating and hot water most of the year and boiler stove compliments this in the colder months.

I'll need to charge the car 4 days a week (40Kw EV) so that's roughly 5,800 units annually.

Immersion (3Kw) every night for 4 hours would roughly be 4,000 units annually.

3 usages combined is ~ 15,133 units. Immersion and EV would be 9,800 @ 0.0754e = ~738e a year.

It will save me a load compared to diesel and kerosene.

Maybe trying to load shift ~20% of the 5,333 day units to 2am-6am (Dishwasher/Dryer etc) would also make the higher day unit rate of an EV smart plan more palatable.

I have no PV solar. Maybe a DIY 3Kw on shed roof this year if I'm able to. But the above wont be factoring a sizable solar array properly for atleast 2 more years.

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121824635#Comment_121824635

How would that work? It'd just be static if it was HDF data, rather that some endpoint you could query for usage

jasgrif11

I agree it’s not Live but would still be nice to pull in the data and graph it.

curioustony

I found one today. No idea how mature or stable it is. Might be worth a look -- I have not. It's a fork of another work that has similar ambitions (I think). I suspect integration with HA would not be for the faint hearted…

https://github.com/colinmacgiolla/esb-smart-meter-reading-automation

My experience with ESBN smart meter data leads me to guess that it is batch updated on a manual trigger, and the data is eventually consistent. Not a problem except that's not how HA normally works.

garo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121960419#Comment_121960419

Sounds like you have all the data needed to make the choice. Note that Energia have a 1000 unit per 2 month cap after which they charge about 1c extra for the EV rate. It's still pretty low all things considered.