Is it worth Moving to a Smart Meter Plan?

waterman said:
XXX has detected your meter as smart enabled. Due to applicable industry rules for smart metering, it is not possible to revert back to a non-smart tariff once your meter is smart enabled and activated.
Click to expand...
I just moved to SSE Airtricity. When I entered my MPRN the system recognised it was a smart meter and asked me to select if I would like to configure my meter for Smart meter service, warning I would not be able to revert back. The default was yes, I changed it to no.
It would be very easy to leave it at the default, is this possibly what happened in your case ?
 
I'm on a all-day rate which was slightly lower than the non-smart all-day rate. Just make sure you're comparing like with like - you don't have to opt for day or night rates just because your smart meter is active.
 
waterman said:
I made a switch to a different supplier last January last year day/night traiff - all fine.
Click to expand...
Multiple suppliers offer Smart Day/ Night plans, it's most likely the plan you switched to is a 'Smart Plan'. What is the MCC code on your bills?

As @ClubMan suggests above though, download your usage and use EnergyPal to review all available plans. It's likely there's a smart plan that offers best value for your usage.
 
Leo said:
Multiple suppliers offer Smart Day/ Night plans, it's most likely the plan you switched to is a 'Smart Plan'. What is the MCC code on your bills?
Click to expand...
This sounds like a plausible explanation of what happened. The Meter Configuration Code (MCC) will clarify. MCC01 is 24 hour mode, MCC02 is day/night mode and MCC12 and MCC16 are smart tariff modes.

What is an MCC code?

<p><span>A Meter Configuration Code (MCC) is used to describe the type of electricity meter that you have.</span><span> </span></p>
www.bordgaisenergy.ie
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leo
I've just switched from a Yuno smart plan (37c, 43c, 24c - we had drifted out of contract and I think we were paying too much) to an SSE Airtricity 24 hour rate of 26.73c with a €115 cashback.

I found the SSE guy I spoke to informative. First thing he said was that ESB recommends that if you don't use 38% of your electricity at the night rate, you should be on a 24 hour fixed rate plan not a smart meter plan.

We're not even close to being in the 38% night usage ballpark. The only electricity we use at night is fridge/freezer and the last dishwasher run. The only things we could add are washing machine (not going to happen with only two of us) and immersion (we've always used gas).

We do a lot of cooking and our peak time usage (17:00 to 19:00) would be high - electric oven etc. Yuno were charging 43c for this.

So, going to give the SSE 24 hour rate a go and see what happens to our bills.

D.
 
Dinarius said:
I found the SSE guy I spoke to informative. First thing he said was that ESB recommends that if you don't use 38% of your electricity at the night rate, you should be on a 24 hour fixed rate plan not a smart meter plan
Click to expand...
No need for anybody to be told this when they can download their smart meter data and upload it to EnergyPal to see what the best deals are for their specific usage patterns.

EnergyPal.ie

Use smart meter data, visualise your energy usage. Take control of your energy costs with EnergyPal.ie! Compare and find the best energy plans based on smart meter data - all for free. Start saving money and optimizing your energy consumption today
www.energypal.ie www.energypal.ie

Smart Meter Usage | Electricity Usage Monitor | ESB Networks

View your smart meter usage with ESB Networks, access daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly electricity data, and manage your energy efficiently online.
www.esbnetworks.ie www.esbnetworks.ie
Dinarius said:
So, going to give the SSE 24 hour rate a go and see what happens to our bills.
Click to expand...
Why guess when you can use the above resources?
 
Just ran the numbers in Clubman's EnergyPal.ie link. Excellent freebie!

As I suspected, it recommends 24 hour fixed price plans across the board, including the SSE Air plan I've just signed up for.

Its top recommendation is a Flogas plan which estimates that it would be about €40 cheaper over the year than the SSE plan.

SSE does very well on Trustpilot; Flogas less so. So, for the sake of €40 over a year, I'll stick with what I've signed up for.

But, glad to have the 24 hour fixed price plan confirmed.

Thanks!

D.
 
Dinarius said:
Its top recommendation is a Flogas plan which estimates that it would be about €40 cheaper over the year than the SSE plan.
Click to expand...
Last time I checked Flogas were offering a fixed rate for the year unlike the the others who rise/drop their rates every so often.
 
Elcato,

I didn't check whether or not the SSE rate is fixed.

Does it say this on the Energypal site results page? I can't see it.

Thanks.

D.

Just confirmed with SSE Air that it's not a fixed rate and my vary.
 
Last edited:
I finally tried this out, thanks ClubMan for regularly sending the EnergyPal link.

It's interesting the effect of the standing charge and cash bonus (?Sign up bonus) on the overall 12 month cost estimate.

Also in 2023 this thread started out with people thinking Smart Plans are no cheaper than regular Day/Night plans. I suppose everyone's usage data is different but it appears to me that Smart Plans can be cheaper now than the old Day/Night Plans.

I paid €950 in the last 12-months with Airtricity SmartSaver Day/Night (not a smart plan) and EnergyPal is telling me based on that last 12 months usage I could expect a bill of €617 with Yuno 24-hr Smart plan. There is only one non-smart plan in the top 9 recommended plans which is third on the list.

I think I will favour a plan with lower unit rates over the higher cash bonus in case my usage goes up.
 
CharlieMac said:
Also in 2023 this thread started out with people thinking Smart Plans are no cheaper than regular Day/Night plans.
Click to expand...
They weren't in many or most cases. I think that this changed about a year ago though. That was definitely the case in my own specific situation.
 
Dinarius said:
I've just switched from a Yuno smart plan (37c, 43c, 24c - we had drifted out of contract and I think we were paying too much) to an SSE Airtricity 24 hour rate of 26.73c with a €115 cashback.

I found the SSE guy I spoke to informative. First thing he said was that ESB recommends that if you don't use 38% of your electricity at the night rate, you should be on a 24 hour fixed rate plan not a smart meter plan.
Click to expand...
I think the pertinent question there isn't what your actual use is but what it could be - if you have a particular need to use more electricity during the day and it cannot be moved to night time usage then absolutely yes, a 24 hour rate is better for you.
But if you can move some usage to nighttime - for me for example that means running immersion heating, 3d printing and washing/drying to the night, then you can take advantage of the cheaper rates. Originally night time savings were introduced to accommodate people with electric only heating for hot water and night storage heaters which actually consume a lot of electricity to save money overnight. The ESB version was called "The Night Saver" and the UK version was Economy 7 (or just e7).
Smart plans are mostly now "time of use" - with a peak rate at 5-7pm, and otherwise generally following the day-night rates principles.
 
ClubMan said:
They weren't in many or most cases. I think that this changed about a year ago though
Click to expand...
They were not when the original smart meter roll out happened, looking at energypal yesterday things are quite different now but in general most plans are very similar to day/night plans
 
CharlieMac said:
It's interesting the effect of the standing charge and cash bonus (?Sign up bonus) on the overall 12 month cost estimate.
Click to expand...
Its highly distorting. If you are using Energy Pal look at the import column because that is your actual price - you'll see several companies are offering huge one off sign ups to compensate for the fact that they are charging nearly 1/3 extra for the actual electricity. This means when you come off the annual sweet heart deal your electricity bill goes up by a large sum.

Look at standing charge also - there is a bit of variance there between suppliers.
 
lff12 said:
This means when you come off the annual sweet heart deal your electricity bill goes up by a large sum.
Click to expand...
True, but you can avoid this by switching every year. I never stay with my existing provider as there is always a much better deal available elsewhere as a new customer.
It could not be easier, I will have done my research, the day after my existing contract ends, I sign up with my new provider and they will do the rest.
 
lff12 said:
but in general most plans are very similar to day/night plans
Click to expand...
Last time I looked most or all smart tariffs were day/peak/night plans. Some with special options such as EV, free weekend periods, etc. I guess that these are MCC16 and MCC12 respectively? I switched from an MCC02 "legacy" day/night plan to an MCC16 smart plan last year as, based on EnergyPal analysis of my smart data, it offered better value for money for my needs/usage. I have a night immersion and storage heaters and most of my usage (up to 60-70%) is at night.
 
Des Pondent said:
I never stay with my existing provider as there is always a much better deal available elsewhere as a new customer.
Click to expand...
I wonder how long do the providers take in to account that you were previously a customer of theirs?

Could you go from Electric Ireland to Flogas and back to Electric Ireland and then be considered again a new customer? There are a lot of electricity providers but after some years you might have been a new customer of each of them at least once!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top