Random EV thoughts.....

Was looking great today, house battery full at about 3pm, water max temp so I plugged in car hoping to get about 7-10kWh into car over next 3 hours. A big dirty rain shower hung over house for rest of day, managed to get zilch....😁

Yea yea yea... Not worth a **** to us ordinary Joe's that don't have solar.

I can understand the frustration of some people who are not in a position to take the maximum financial advantage of driving EVs. Not everyone can afford to but a new car, whether it be an ICE of EV, and claim the nice little up to €10k taxpayer bonus as well as claiming a further €2,400 from the taxpayer for investing in cheap electricity. As we all know those who have the financial capacity to purchase an EV and predominantly charge it at home via solar are doing very nicely from driving ECs, thanks very much. Which is why I think it can be insensitive to the position of others, who are not in such a comfortable position, to be salivating at the possibility of further fuel price increases to further increase the disadvantage of those not in such a fortuitous position.

Many here changed suppliers to Energia last Sept with 9 hour night rate of around €0.08 incl vat, fixed for 1 year. Prices were increasing with other suppliers, we broke our contract with Bord Gais and like many others here were not charged a €50 fee for opting out early.

Moving other high energy items to night rate, plus a modest solar array means that our day usage is small. We have two EVs, each on about 18K/year and our last three bills (With the generous Government €200 discount per bill) have been around about zero.

Electricity deals will become available again hopefully soon.

BG flat refused to submit my request, cru never replied to my email, energia were vague as to whether they'd submit my request if I moved to them as a 24hr customer, one thing they were very certain of was that, a) I wouldn't be getting a fixed price deal and b) I wouldn't be getting the new customer pricing IF I got a D/N meter installed. These are the things prospective EV purchasers need to know before buying.

Having an EV is saving me around €110 a month on M50 and port tunnel tolls alone.

It absolutely all adds up.

You’re right it should be capped at €500 per year in savings @MojoMaker how long do you have an EV, maybe you haven’t hit €500 in savings yet?

I've never used the tunnel and would use the M50 toll maybe once a year if even that, just doesn't apply to my driving. As you say it could be a deal maker for many drivers.

Can you explain the €10K bonus ? I’m aware of the €5K SEAI grant off a new car and I assume €2.4K is related to a PV install. Thanks

I don't know what you mean by a Sharpie, anyway, my old spinning wheel type meter had been changed by esbn to a smart meter. Esbn told me I am allowed one free requested (by me) meter change.

The upgrade of older day-night / night storage / 3 phase meters is happening from Autumn 2023 according to ESB meter upgrade FAQ website.

All smart meter upgrades should be at no additional cost as its already factored in as part of network charges.

[Edit: fixed link]

Can you refuse it?

And yet they can't set a smart meter as a D/N meter, or so they say... Where obviously they can. The more you look at the whole electricity set-up the more rotten it becomes.