Best Electricity Plan for new EV Owners

How much would a heat pump cost?

I assume if you were swapping out a oil burner it wouldn't just involve connecting to the current pipes in place?

No, but you can swap in an electric boiler.

It was coming in at around €4500 for the hp unit, tank and fittings - that was for domestic hot water only and doing it myself - more than a 25 year payback.

Theres a lot of talk about people retrofitting air to water hp’s for oil burners- problem is you want the hp sending out the water at the lowest temp possible - so in a bog standard Irish house a radiator at 40deg is pissing in the wind in winter - the oil would be up to 70deg- your then battling poor insulation and air tightness so the 40deg hp supply of hot water won’t heat the house- the rads would also need to be up spec’d. Add into the equation the HP out the back banging away all day at 6kwph and you have tasty electric bill. The house will never hit the desired temp and your night rates no good because in winter the machine will be running 24hrs- as the temp drops outside the hp will ice over causing more inefficiency..there’s also very few good refrigeration techs that are good at these home systems - plumbers don’t do refrigeration so you end up with pipes just being joined up and no proper commissioning of the refrigeration system and associated flow rates to the separate headers on the system. If I had a € for the people who said ‘my heat pump costs a fortune to run’ I’d be loaded.

First thing I did when I moved in was rip out the oil burner- silent electric shower heats water on demand, kitchen and wash hand basins off water heater which is powered off the solar -

My place runs on 2 x 3.5kw air to air HP units - very efficient inverters, works out about €1 a day in winter, house is constant 21deg- now insulated to the hilt and air tight.

I do keep the stove in the open area going all winter which takes the sting out of the electric, I get the wood for free and the units only run if they need too.

House is air conditioned in summer for free via the solar feeding the HP -

now insulated to the hilt and air tight

This is the most important thing. If anyone wants to save money on heating, the first thing to do is improve insulation. For any heating system, it'll be more efficient if you can keep the heat inside the house.

 I recently got the day/night metre installed and it is 1 hour and 10 minutes behind which will be correct for winter but out for the summer months. I rang ESB and they said they don't change the metres to cater for day light savings. So, time on metre will be correct for winter months but out by an hour for summer months. Summer night rate is from 12 midnight to 9am. Will Energia correct on their side? If not, what is the actual times for night rate during summer months I should use, 1am to 10am in real time? I know this is simple maths but I want to make sure I am correct.

What you describe is normal. Its how all the d/n meters work.

The meter does not change its clock for summer and winter time.

It is programmed to record two schedules based on its own clock... day (8am-11pm) and night(11pm-8am). It does that all year round which means it will actually be 12am-9am during the summer.

The providers dont need to adjust anything. They will get the reading from ESB and just apply day and night rates as read from the meter.

Summer... night rate is 12-9am

Winter... night rate is 11pm-8am

Now, you did say the meter is out by 1hr 10mins which means your actual night rate is 10mins off (which is also normal). So, your actual night rate starts at 10mins off the base times.

If you are still confused the easiest way to figure it out is simply look at the clock on the meter.... night rate ALWAYS starts when the clock on the meter hits 11pm. So, take a look at the clock around midnight tonight and when you see the clock on the meter hitting 11pm that is exactly the start of your night rate.

With energia and every time I contact them they say I have a smart meter. I have attached a picture if anybody can advise me. I know its a day night but does this meter have smart capabilites they say I don't have to read it.

My own clock is a half hour slow-handy in the morning.checked it there at 1 45 it say's 12 15😳😳😳,anyway the best way imo to know where you are is check the T1 and T2 arrow-it shows what rate you're at,T1-night rate/T2 daytime rate.good luck👍

Had a day night fitted myself today also replacing a smart meter. Seems crazy how they can't or won't offer the same tariff on the smart meters.

Someone made a good point that they're not going to offer anything half decent until everyone has smart meter installed as currently 1.5 million still to be fitted so they don't want people hassling them to hurry up the roll out

The esb lad that switched mine out and seen my solar panels. He tried to get me to keep the smart meter haha

Then i proceeded to tell him the craic and he was like "ok sounds like you've done your homework haha"

He said the whole thing is an utterly farce and that the smart meters can be configured to have a day/night but they won't do it. Sure wasnt the CRU rep on primetime last night saying they were unaware of any issues. The regulator either in on the scam or asleep at the wheel.

For someone that just got a smart meter installed and was thinking of switching to a smart plan, why shouldn't I?

The CRU have been asleep at the wheel. An absolute disgrace. The government too. What a fine little country.

And wait until they realise the unit price of GAS on these plans. That's actually the most scandalous bit of all.

Anyone have a google sheet of the plans from the different providers and discounts? Very hard to get definitive data.

interesting! anything viable out there?