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Smart Meter? What can I do with it?

banie01

What can one actually monitor via their smart meter?

More importantly, can I make any use of, or even view smart meter data without signing up to a Smart Meter price plan?

I'm with EI and the welcome blurb keeps offering me smart priceplans without a means to just view my data?

Am I missing something? Is there a tab or option I need to select to view my data without changing plan?

Or is deliberately forcing me to select a an without my knowing my own usage a way of selling me something without my knowing what I actually need?

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ablelocks

i got a smart meter installed last week - am i right in thinking that i should wait until i'm out of contract with Energia to move to a smart plan (with them or another provider?) - contract is up in September

2011

@eeepaulo regarding this comment: "If you enable the smart meter you are breaking your current contract, the figures you then quote are without your discounted rate."

I don't agree. Energia did not consider this as breaking my contract.

When I talked with Energia yesterday they told me that should I opt for a smart meter plan I could avail of a discounted rates. First they quoted higher rates for day, night and peak (smart plan) then they quoted the rates I posted above with my discount applied (also smart plan).

eeepaulo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118891720#Comment_118891720

You are currently in contract.

So you are getting a discounted rate, the figure you quoted is with the discounted rate you have for your contract, i agree its good.

If you enable the smart meter you are breaking your current contract, the figures you then quote are without your discounted rate.

Its not a like for like comparison.

2011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118891670#Comment_118891670

Read my post carefully.

You are incorrect. I rang Energia today. Above are the exactly prices I was quoted inclusive of the price hikes that will be imposed on me on the 25th of this month.

I always get a discounted rate as I change supplier annually.

eeepaulo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118888382#Comment_118888382

You are comparing different things.

You are getting a currently heavily discounted tariff which will go up with the price rise but you are still getting the discount.

If you break the contract you will have to pay a fee, and you no longer get the new customer discount.

(100 euro is an awful way for energia to behave if someone wants to enable the meter, you'd think they could just transfer the remainder of your contract to the smart tariff for no fee and keep giving you the discount)

The energia smart tariff doesnt look good mind, i'ds end up about 13 euro worse off a year compared to the 24 hour tariff, and SSE's price rise also increased the day rate of the smart tariff by more than the 24hr one.

I think we should all write to Minister ryan and tell him if he wants everyone on smart meters he should tell the energy companies that anyone with a smart meter should be offered smart tariffs but should also be offered a match of any of the 24hr or day night tariffs they offer.

cunnifferous

They are a total scam. I wrote to pricewatch in the Irish times, see if they'll take it up.

2011

I am just off a phone call with Energia.

At present I am in contract with Energia and I have a Smart meter installed. If I make no changes to my plan from the 25/04/2022 I will be paying the following rate per unit (inc. of VAT):

€0.2266 (at any time day or night)

If I pay a fee of around €100 I can change to a "Smart" plan, then I will be paying the following rates per unit (inc. VAT):

Day rate (08:00 to 17:00 hrs and 19:00 to 23:00 hrs) cost = €0.3172

Peak rate (17:00 to 19:00 hrs) cost = €0.4155

Night rate (23:00 to 08:00 hrs) cost = €0.2267

^^^^Regardless of my usage, it makes no sense for me to change, worse still one I go "Smart" I am not permitted to change back!

How "Smart" are these plans?????

John.G

They are showing shots on sky news (re energy costs) of what I presume are UK smart meters which show far more than just the power, don't know if they are the norm or not.

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118812191#Comment_118812191

Better just getting an OWL monitor :)

If you want to measure individual appliances, smart plugs are great. Get 4 of them for about €20 these days.

John.G

The smart meter doesn't concern itself too much about the customer, it doesn't even display the power in watts which most people can identify with and watch while they switch different appliances on/off. Its less user friendly in fact than my 50 year old Ferranti meter.

My meter's disc does 225 revs/kwh, so I simply divide the time in seconds it takes to do one revolution into 16000 (16000/t) which gives the power in watts, ie, if it takes 80 secs to do one revolution then the power is, 16000/80, 200watts.

My daughters smart meter flashes a LED at the rate of 1000/kwh so better off taking the time for 2 flashes, (or even 3) Power in watts is (no of flashes)*3600/t. ie 2 flashes in 36 secs = 2X3600/36, 200watts. but disappointing that this power isn't displayed, one shouldn't have to get a app or some gadget to count the flashes and convert to display somewhere.

Alun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118724098#Comment_118724098

I agree 100%. Choice isn't always a good thing.

Gael23

What’s the standard tariff for a smart meter with ESB?

johnb25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118628102#Comment_118628102

Ger,

What electricity usage monitor are you using? I have a heat pump and day/night meter but would like to get some specific data on appliances, especially since working from home.

Thanks.

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118720567#Comment_118720567

There are so many permutations. Its ,ike what they did with mobile phone bills a few years ago and health insurance plans now. They bamboozle you with combinations, but at they end of the day all that does is hide that they have become way more expensive than the simple method of day/night.

Hopefully soon someone does what some mobile companies did and just gives simple (normal priced) plans again.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118720767#Comment_118720767

Ya fire safety and general safety is problematic with off- peak use of appliances , will probably be an issue again now

Electric water heating and storage heating ,heat pumps etc. are mostly ok

Poulgorm

Is it correct that if you switch to a smart meter plan, you cannot switch back, if you find it is not offering any benefit?

Night time rates might make financial sense if you use the tumble dryer, washing machine & dishwasher when you are in bed at night.

But does it make safety sense? People who work in the fire safety area would not recommend it.

kirk.

I don't really get the move away from storage heating to standard heaters

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me with the comparative pricing of the heater types and better insulation standards of homes and storage heaters

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118719862#Comment_118719862

How many rates is there ?

Is there just the one extra peak 5-7pm rate or more ?

The focus on off-peak will increase going forward with the unit cost

JimmyVik

Im finding the smart meter rates far higher than the normal day night rates.

faolteam

Hi Folks im withe Energia and i have a Smart Meter in about two months was hoping i could see the daily usage and how much or where i was using the most any ideas or help,

Also can you tell me is there a Smart meter app for this ?

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625917#Comment_118625917

I am sure they will, offer more... in their own good time and priority.

My point is though that they have stuffed up the implementation from a consumer confidence viewpoint, by introducing the meters with a great fanfare and promising all sorts of benefits... without many of them being available from the start. It does not inspire confidence in a 'we are all in this reduce the use approach together', when the benefits so far, are largely cost cutting operational measures for the suppliers. It is like trying to seek out the three secrets of Fatima to find out what the exact consumer benefits will be ... we are being drip fed hopes of better things to come. Was there an EU imposed deadline to get the meters in... regardless of what they might offer in the early stages? - at least that would be an explanation for the way the implementation is being handled.

So far... my smart meter tells me nothing more that my €15 energy monitor already does, and the current smart plans would work out more expensive for me, as an already light user. I still believe that rather than driving down overall cost, the main advantage of the smart meter will be to reduce the inevitable rip off, for those who are using enough energy to make a timeshift tarrif change, worthwhile.

It's like the waste disposal industry .... if we all do what we are supposed to and reduce waste constantly..... how is 'the industry' going to remain viable? .... the only option is to charge more, for using less. The energy supply companies have the advantage of using smoke and mirrors with smart meters to blur this fact.

eeepaulo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118626012#Comment_118626012

I was visiting a relative in UK around Christmas who has one of them, just a little LCD thing that shows current usage, cumulative usage for the day, shows both cost and units used and also gas and electricity combined or separate. Looks quite cool. I think you could get something like that installed yourself but its lovely to just have it built in.

moc63

Have my smart meter now for over a year, So a few weeks ago i asked my provider what benefit I was getting. Apart from more accurate billing, I could change to some type of smart plan with different rates, and access total /daily usage online. I believe the providers now know your usage every 15 mins.

I asked will i be getting a Smart Monitor like in the Uk, but knew nothing about them. This was my impression as to the beneift of smart meters to me.

I Using your smart energy monitor - Meters - Help & Support - British Gas

silver2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625773#Comment_118625773

They will move to multiple price options.

If the home is unoccupied during the day and you get home after 5, you might have an option of taking a very high mon-fri daytime rate, a good rate 5-11pm and weekends and a cheap rate overnight.

It is in the energy companies interest to spread consumption as it's not a "product" that can be stored easily.

If you look at the day spot prices you will get a good idea. Midnight to 4am is 85% lower than daytime.

https://www.nordpoolgroup.com/Market-data1/Dayahead/Area-Prices/ALL1/Hourly/

Ger Roe

I have a smart meter... I also have had a simple €15 wireless energy monitor for the past 6 years that tells me all I need to know. Dressing up the data into fancy graphs that I can clutter my phone with, is not something that I need to do ... I am only interested in price per unit, usage and total cost - I get all that from basic knowledge and my €15 investment.

As a low level energy user, the smart tarrifs are of no benefit to me, as yet. The meter is more of an advantage to the supplier than it is to me. We will all end up paying more, for using less electricity... without or without a smart meter. If you don't have heavy usage devices that you can use through the night (safety and noise issues aside), then at the moment, you do not have much leeway for supposedly 'smart' cost savings.

When/If I can ever afford a new electric car, I reckon there may be some advantage to going on a smart/off peak rate to charge it,...... but until then, it does not give me any advantage over common sense and a frugal cost saving attitude.

Their ultimate use will be to reduce the impact of future inevitable price rises... not to provide cheaper electricity as we would like, but to reduce the unrelenting rip off somewhat. The consumer will have to work harder (cut back) to save money - with or without a smart meter. The meter gives the impression that you will have some control to protect yourself from price rises, in fact most people will have no control or advantage... unless they are already heavy users that don't know how to, or can't reduce their usage.

clodola

I had a smart meter installed back in July , guy just rocked up, music blaring, installed ,then left

EI never gave me the option to change tariff ,as far as I was aware only benefit was me not having to submit a reading

Looking at my bill , config is MCC01, I see a few state they are on mcc12

MCC01 – requires daily collection of the 24-hr Cumulative Active Import Register

(see separate DPIA for 24-hr cumulative register processing).  MCC12 – requires daily collection of the 30-minute Interval Channel for Active

Import energy plus the daily midnight snapshot of the associated 24-hr Cumulative

Active Import Register.  MCC16 – requires collection of the three SST registers for Day, Night and Peak

energy consumption. These are also Cumulative Registers.

My contract expires next month (rural), sse looks like the cheapest option for smart meter tariff , from what I gather ,one benefit of the smart meter is you can have multiple tariff pricing i.e night, day rate;, has the ability to allow you sell back to the grid (whenever that's feasible here)

I was surprised at the lack data available or smart home integration

My neighbor was quoted 750 euro two years ago to upgrade to a smart meter for him to avail of the dual pricing, cheaper night rate for his hybrid car, not financially viable

silver2020

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625648#Comment_118625648

Smart meters use 2g

Beauty of a smart meter is you can change suppliers in less than 2 minutes. No reading required.

If you want to monitor usage I think you have to agree to it and it starts from then.

On price plans you can choose smart meter plans in ADDITION to other plans. You'll probably soon have plans with 3 or 4 or even 5 prices depending on time of day with high prices 9am-5pm (office and factory times) a lower price until 8pm, lower again until midnight and then an overnight price, then a mid price from 6am to 9pm.

eeepaulo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625518#Comment_118625518

I'm in the same boat, rural, first wave for the smart meter, no sign of broadband though.

NickNickleby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625562#Comment_118625562

Thanks FishOnABike. Starting to look like my initial post on this was hogwash. As I said above, I'm off to review the EI and regulator websites to see what is made known to consumers about use/benefits of the Smart Meter. Like Banie01, I'd like to do my own analysis of usage before making any rash decisions. I truly feel that a wrong decision could cost a lot of money.

NickNickleby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118625540#Comment_118625540

Thanks eepaulo, that's very helpful.

It seems amazing to me that we have to ask each other questions on here about this. I'm off to look at the EI and regulator websites to see how good the information is about all this.