VW ID.3

We're coming to the end of the Airtricity credit, haven't paid a cent for electricity since we got the credit, was it January I got it or end of December maybe ? can't rem but almost used up now I suppose a lot to do with getting a substantial amount of free work charging but not as much the last month or two because I've been on the site with just an outdoor socket they call an "ev charger" They have absolutely no drive to get in proper charge points.

Airtricity announced a 45% increase from October + 8% standing charge ( on top of recent increased ) which is disgraceful cashing in on massive electricity prices with an 8% in standing charges, absolute joke.

The Government still refuse to offer a FIT and I refuse to spend money on solar PV on energy we can't use giving it away to the ESB for free.

I'll be heading to the site with the 11 Kw chargers more often even if it's more inconvenient to get there and back.

From 1 October 2022 we’re increasing our electricity standard unit rates by 45.2% and our electricity standing charge by 8%. Increase based on 24hr meter,

This shows the priced valid from October.

Day 32.32

Night 20.48

It's a long way off what I was paying with Energia , 17 Day and 7 Night

We're stuck with them until January but at least we got 8 or will get around 8.5 months of free electricity so can't complain too much but it's going to be very difficult to expect less well off families to pay these prices and heating in the Winter not to mention higher Petrol and Diesel costs.

We're in the process of getting a pellet stove boiler because it's 2.5-3 times cheaper per Kwh than oil, it's an investment, we had to replace most of the rads, we had a good bit of work to do so decided to get out the Oil stove in the Kitchen and replaces it with a Klover pellet boiler stove and plumb that in to the heating. There really is no other option and at least the pelets are local and the prices will go up with electricity costs because the saw mill uses a lot of electricity. So with the current price hike the pellets will go up in price too.

The Government still refuse to reduce VAT on sky rocketing energy costs telling us the E.U won't allow it, well nice of them considering it's the E.U solely responsible for these hikes with their sanctions not caring about the hardship it's half a billion citizens are going to go through this Winter.

So far this month I have used 220.11 Kwh to commute Carlow/Dublin and non work related driving.

July I used 324.61 Kwh

Solar array isn't viable in my opinion without a FIT because we couldn't use the energy during the day, especially in Summer, dumping it isn't a solution IMO either because that's a waste of energy we could get credit for via FIT and buy back when we need it. A battery isn't a real solution either as it would be far too small for excess in Winter.

2 Electric cars would be good, charge one during the day and drive it the next lol

Solar would reduce bills but the waste would be terrible so the advantage of solar but not the advantage of being able to use when needed and I hear that even the batteries they provide are crap and can't even provide more than maybe a kw of sustained power when cooking, never mind when you have the Oven + few hobs on.

Yeah on that one site in Grangecastle on the Interxion Data Centre site I get 3 pin plug giving me 2 Kw max and 1.8 Kw to the car so get roughly 14.4 Kwh per day, nothing to sniff at but they shouldn't be so miserable and install proper charge points like most other Data Centre owners.

Equinix, Microsoft, Google, Facebook K2, Keppel etc all have proper charge points.

I might go up Tuesday to The Equinix site up near the Airport and juice her up. Pity the id.3 77 Kwh doesn;t have a 20 Kw charger.

Be good if businesses had 20 Kw DC chargers either would make a big difference because I can't always hang around all day waiting for another charge and might have to go to the other site.

Never happy! lol

Well the other issue is price increases and I can imagine that getting much worse with the soaring cost of Gas.

Can only imagine how the German companies are going to manage with gas shortages, it might even slow down production even more or worse cause plants to shut altogether.

They certainly didn't think hard enough about sanctions, God only knows what's going to happen if the Gas is shut off altogether.

Perhaps it's time for the Irish Government to increase Oil and Gas exploration instead of forbidding it the arseholes.

From what I remember it was supposed to be some.sort of regulatory thing that a fit was to be provided and a guarantee for X years and that it wouldn't simply just end after half the Island or more got solar PV and then they'd take in the profits from all the free energy.