Being forced to a Smart Tariff

Pappacharlie

I call these meteors "Not so smart meters". Their main aim is to manage the network demand by forcing the consumer to use electricity outside peak times. Consumers pay prohibitively high kW rates at peak times. There should be a major investigation into electricity prices in Ireland which happen to be the highest in the EU!!

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123492535#Comment_123492535

We do not pay the highest rates in the EU when you take discounts into account. The discounts you can get here are far too high and effectively punishes those who are not proactive on switching. Ideally this should be curtailed/limited and a lower general price can be given to everyone.

Using the average discounted rate here V the average discounted rate in Germany, Netherlands or Denmark, would see Irish rates about 8th on the price grid. - The media will never tell you that as such news does not cause the consternation they want to create

Consumers do not pay prohibitively high peak rates. EG Energia is 25.2c regular rate and 26.4c peak rate - a difference of just 1.2c. Then they entice you to move some use to off peak by giving a rate of 13c from 11pm to 8am.

Electric Ireland are about a cent more expensive in general, but again the difference between standard day rate and peak rate is 1.7c - again, hardly "prohibitive"

Not sure if you understand electricity generation, but it is generated 24 hours a day. You can't switch off the primary generation plants for a few hours here and there and wind energy is created all the time. If the generated electricity is not used, it simply it lost.

Technically a gas generation plant can be switch on and off, but the grid needs constant supply and head room, so there's excess generation at night even with many generation plants turned off.

Hence a decent "off peak" window that can substantially lower your bills if you manage them and no excessive or "prohibitive" excess for those 2 peak hours of 5-7pm - unless you think 1.2c - 1.7c is prohibitive)

There's no "force" (its an enticement that is easily taken) and there's no "prohibitive" pricing. And my own direct experience of moving to a smart rate is a 30% reduction in my bill by very small changes in how we use electricity that have had zero inconvenience for us.

Try it yourself - you might be surprised at how wrong these anti-smart meter fools actually are and by believing their misinformation it is costing YOU €300+ a year

Rock Steady Edy

Tried it ourselves as per post 10. It cost us more. I wasn't prepared to change our evening meal times to outside the 5-7pm range or put on the dishwasher/ washing machine to between 11pm and 8am when we're in bed (a relative had a dishwasher fire). We only use 3200kwh annually anyway, so the savings would be minimal. Happy to be back on a 24 hour rate.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123492854#Comment_123492854

The "peak" rate is literally 1.2c - 1.7c higher for those 2 hours and in return you get a rate of about 13c from 11pm to 8am

The immersion or instant hot showers that many would use before 8am at 13c/unit on top of refrigeration and any washing machine / dishwasher use (most have timers - which I time for about 6.30am) would make multiples of savings of the 1.2c-1.7c difference for the 5pm-7pm time.

I've made no changes to evening meals - our primary changes are the washing machine and dishwasher along with immersion and it has shaved about €30 off the bill each month and I'm comparing like for like from last year and allowing a calculation for a lower general rate.

L1011

Did the maths on this a while ago, and due to gas water heating and a heatpump dryer it made no sense to change - there was just so little high draw running in the off-peak hours.

However, I've ordered an EV and old fashioned day/night isn't really an option anymore, so I'll be changing when that arrives.