Does anyone break their contract to swap energy providers for winter/summer

witnessmenow · 26-03-2026 07:39AM #1

I was using kilowatt.ie last week and it suggested an interesting tactic of moving to pinergy during the summer months since their export is so high and then moving to a more standard EV rate plan during the winter, where if you have import outside of the EV window it won't cost 42c

Does anybody do this? It's €50 to break your contact so it would be €100 to consistently do this every year.

Would it also allow for you to take advantage of energia 4 hours EV rate without hitting into their 6k kWh limit before the price goes up? We only have a 12kW feed a 4th hour of EV would be beneficial to us, but we use nearly 12k kWh a year so we would in theory be paying the higher price for a lot of it

Kilowatt does suggest that pinergy would be the cheapest regardless, but since we don't actually have solar installed yet, it's a hypothetical not backed up by our actual solar exports and battery offsets.

conor_mc · 26-03-2026 08:23AM

Pinergy now charge an exit fee of €11.25 per remaining month on the contract, instead of the old fixed €50 fee, but might be workable on a 9/3 split rather than a 6/6, but you d have to be careful not to sign up to 24m with Pinergy. I believe you can get 12m on the phone with them but it’s a 24m contract if signing up online.

ECO_Mental · 26-03-2026 10:12AM

Interesting idea, I'm with pinergy since last October and even though I've got a 30kWh battery and a 16kVA connection I was struggling during the depths of winter and ended up importing at the high rate on really cold miserable days when the HP was working hard... Would be great to have for example the 4 hour energia rate for those four months of the year. I will have enough credit built up by next winter but I think I might run the numbers on this.

I know I'm the UK if you are on Octupus energy they allow you to swap between their tariffs no problem. Maybe if you stay with the same supplier but just change the tariff they might waive the cancellation fee??

witnessmenow · 26-03-2026 10:15AM

It seems like energia would also be a sticking block, their 6000kWh limit is actually 1000kWh every 2 months. It seems like they have me all figured out

mbarosin · 26-03-2026 02:54PM

I recently broke my contract with Electric Ireland to move to Pinergy based on the results from kilowatt.ie.

Interestingly, I don't appear to have been charged an exit fee by EI even though I entered a contract in September 2025. Maybe it's because I was with them for a year before that.

I'll suck up the Pinergy exit fee in October/November to move back to something with a longer night rate as my HP usage is far too high for a 10kwh battery

oaklands · 26-03-2026 03:14PM

Rather than paying 2x€50 every year consider if buying an extra battery makes $$$ sense.

Over 10 years, €1000 goes a long way to subsidizing the extra 16kWh battery (~€1500 delivered vs €1000 in exit fees), Not to mention the money to be made exporting any excess.

ECO_Mental · 26-03-2026 03:35PM

I've 30kWh of battery and a 15kVA inverter, EV and heat pump.. This was my first winter and I did find that, even been able to charge the battery at 10kW I did struggle to fully fill my battery as sometimes the battery charging rate throttled down as to not trip things out. I was still getting to 92 to 95% SOC and if I was doing any more mileage I would have struggled to fully charge my car also. For those 4 winter months I think there is merit to maybe switching to a different tariff, one that had a four hour window, or maybe the Flogas rate which has a very good night rate so if I got caught late on in the evening I would be paying only 23 cent instead of 44 cent.

I also found that on some really cold miserable days and the heat pump was working hard I could run out of battery by 8-9 pm on the very of day, but a lot of days I would be out by 10-11pm... Importing at 43 cent for a couple of hours at 4kW that €50 termination fee doesn't be long going.

I think it's marginal and I will have to work the numbers, but it's an interesting strategy and worth investigation

witnessmenow · 26-03-2026 03:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124342353#Comment_124342353

the issue for me isn't the battery capacity, it's charging them. Even the 20kWh I'm getting will not be able to charge in 3 hours. Plus on days we charge the EV, our current 12kW connection would be maxed out just with them.

Getting a 16kW connection would probably be the next move but will almost certainly require a new consumer for us so an expensive next step.

ECO_Mental · 27-03-2026 11:39PM

Did some sums on this and for the four winter months based on my consumption with my battery etc if I switched to Flogas from Pinenery (which has a good night rate and EV rate) for Nov-Feb I would be €70 better off over those months…dont think its worth it to change supplier and break contract..Im surprised I thought it might be more but Pinenery is just too good if you have a big enough battery.

I think its always good to be reviewing suppliers and the offers out there if you are a big energy user

Does anyone break their contract to swap energy providers for winter/summer

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