Only 4% of houses with smart meters are on smart plans

Spanish Eyes · 22-09-2022 7:35pm

Whatever you use or don't use, the standing charges are outrageous. Surely if customers reduce usage consistently during peak hours, they should get some kind of payback from the standing charge as an incentive. Talking through me hat I suppose. But there is no way out of rising bills. We might save energy here and there, but Winter is not the time that usage can be drastically cut back unless you use oil lamps and watch netflix on your phone. Oh and don't boil a kettle when you fall in the door after work gasping, or put on a wash, or put on the heat and get the electric pump to do its work no matter what form of CH you have.

To me it's swings and roundabouts. I really haven't got the energy (ha ha) to sit down and pore over spreadsheets from a Smart meter to see what's best. But I might have to soon enough. So be it.

unkel · 22-09-2022 7:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119651898#Comment_119651898

If you refuse a smart meter, you will NOT get paid FIT.

@curioustony - "Hoping that we follow Germany in the budget and exempt FIT income for tax purposes."

I sure hope so. I have no appetite to lose half of my FIT payments over €200 to income tax. So I will cap my export to whatever the income tax exemption is. If it will be exempt altogether, I will try and install even more PV and export all I produce during the day (when electricity generation is expensive and dirty) and import almost all that I need during the night (when electricity generation is cheap and clean)

Hell, I will even try to be one of the first in the country with a proper V2H setup, using the enormous batteries in the EVs parked on the drive. And any utility wishing to implement V2G, ping me. I'll be your guinea pig.

StrawbsM · 22-09-2022 7:56pm

All these acronyms confuse the hell out of me! Actually, anything to do with watts and watts not 😉 confuse me.

Barbosa92 · 22-09-2022 8:02pm

Electric Ireland told me that only a few weeks ago. They said if I wanted a day/night tariff they would have to replace the smart meter and I would have to pay for the replacement.

lawred2 · 22-09-2022 8:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119650309#Comment_119650309

Spoofology. Smart meter can't determine any of that.

tom1ie · 22-09-2022 8:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652301#Comment_119652301

Smart meter uses an algorithm to determine electricity usage that is always on, or a large draw for a short period etc.

sydthebeat · 22-09-2022 9:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119651957#Comment_119651957

thats not necessarily correct

the standard 24 hr meter rate per unit with airtricity is 33.22c inc vat

im paying 31.22c as day rate, 23.37c as night rate and 33.3c as peak rate.

as ive shown, im using most of my units as day rate, and quite a bit as night rate as well.

i dont have a nightsaver meter, therefore im also paying €63 less per year on standing charges compared to a nightsaver meter charge.

cobham · 22-09-2022 9:35pm

Item on smart meters on RTE now

22-09-2022 9:48pm

that Regulator doesn't seem to have a clue!! She's waffling on and on about nothing at all. She hasn't answered any questions , its a clear as mud!

yankinlk · 22-09-2022 9:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652469#Comment_119652469

If you want to switch to a smart tariff you have every right. But justifying its a good choice versus standard rates of non smart tariffs is not the way to convince anyone you are saving money.

Hopefully there is some momentum now for the providers to make decent smart tariffs. When that day happens I'll give back my day night meter in a heartbeat.

22-09-2022 9:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652667#Comment_119652667

Complete waffle, she hadn't a clue imo.

Car99 · 22-09-2022 9:53pm

Aoife Mac Evilly from CRU believes people are making savings using the smart plans. She must have been told that by Eamon .

lawred2 · 22-09-2022 11:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652333#Comment_119652333

Yeah an algorithm. Fancy terminology for educated guesswork.

Bobeagleburger · 22-09-2022 11:14pm

D/N Meters are currently worth their weight in gold!

Bobeagleburger · 22-09-2022 11:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652333#Comment_119652333

You don't need a smart meter for that!

I sincerely hope people aren't switching to smart meters and paying hundreds a year extra for the pleasure, to see what their usage is! 😄

Citizen Six · 22-09-2022 11:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649604#Comment_119649604

Mine was done by KN Circet. The electrician was from Clontarf.

Citizen Six · 22-09-2022 11:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649701#Comment_119649701

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119649774#Comment_119649774

Here's one of my meters, where I pay day/night rate. One disc, but switches where the usage is read.

I've got a smart meter as well, but sticking with standard plan I'm already on with that one. But will be using the smart meter to sell excess generated power back to the grid.

Delta2113 · 22-09-2022 11:30pm

ESB Networks are going to provide an online Portal and app so anyone with a smart meter regardless off tariff (not smart and smart tariffs) can see your data.

Of course they should have had this from day 1 but this is Ireland after all and not sure when this will go live.

FishOnABike · 22-09-2022 11:40pm

So called smart tarrifs just don't offer enough of an incentive to switch to a time of use based cost.

According to my electricity supplier I might save just under €1 a month by switching to one of their 'smart' time of use based tarrifs compared to the flat rate I'm on now. For the hassle of having to watch what I use and when, €1 or so isn't worth it!

If they want people to change their lifestyle and switch to 'smart' tarrifs they will need to offer clear and significant incentive and not penalise too much those who stray a little from the ideal tarrif profile.

irishchris · 23-09-2022 12:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652126#Comment_119652126

Surely it is better to export and get paid half of the rate when losing the other half to income tax after the exemption.

For example pinergy paying 21c to me but even if I was in higher tax bracket and losing 50% to tax I would still be making 10.5c on every exported unit which is a lot more than what any of us expected the full fit to be.

Obviously would prefer it all tax exempt but cutting off nose to spite face by capping export to avoid losing some of fit to tax seems a bad idea

unkel · 23-09-2022 1:01am

No, because every unit I export, I would have to import at night rate. So if I can export at 14c, but use at 8c, but lose half of the 14c to income tax, I'd only get 7c, so cheaper for me not to export and use it directly myself

irishchris · 23-09-2022 1:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653286#Comment_119653286

But if using the power direct all the time you wouldn't have to worry about setting export limit up then?

But by having export limit set and not using it at certain times in day you would be throttling your panels back to just the export limit and the extra they could produce and earn would simply not happen as wouldn't be produced in first place

Gooser14 · 23-09-2022 8:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652469#Comment_119652469

I'm on a day/night meter & my current 30% discounted unit prices, incl VAT @ 9%, are 23.41c day rate & 11.55c night rate. However, as a rural user my standing charge is €1.3253 per day incl VAT.

From 1st Oct my unit rates will be increasing to 32.36c day rate & 15.96c night rate. The SC remains the same.

My current supplier is Electric Ireland.

Icsics · 23-09-2022 8:30am

We moved to Nightboost Electric IRL. It has definitely reduced bills, but you must time appliances for the 2-4 slot. We time dishwasher, washing machine, immersion & hybrid car to charge at that time.

Red Silurian · 23-09-2022 9:18am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652469#Comment_119652469

The standard 24hr rate with airtricity according to their website is 29.90c. You're paying roughly the same for your day rate as somebody on a nighsaver rate, 11% more between 5-7 and your night rate is for some unknown reason almost 40% higher

Believe it or not this is actually one of the better smart offers on the market at the moment

tom1ie · 23-09-2022 9:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653067#Comment_119653067

I know that.

The poster was asking how can the meter tell what’s in and I explained how.

mammychicken · 23-09-2022 9:45am

Can I refuse to have a smart meter fitted?

ELM327 · 23-09-2022 10:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119653887#Comment_119653887

Yes and you should absolutely.

My (non smart) rate is 28c day 7c night. I will eat my hat if you can find a smart meter tariff within 10% of that.(Especially given that as I have solar, 90+% of my paid usage is night rate)