What energy plan to move to after solar installed

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Nicetoknow

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Hi. I'm at a bit of a loss as to which energy plan to move to now that we have solar panels. Our contract is up with Energia at the end of the month. We just installed 12 solar panels and a battery that will charge overnight from the mains. We have gas heating (currently both our elec and gas are with Energia). In terms if energy usage, we are a family it 4. We dont work from home but we have young kids that are in the house every afternoon. We don't have an EV to charge.

Any advice very welcome as I'm finding it hard to assess the different plans on offer now that we have the night charging battery (and potentially extra power to give back to the grid).

We have a smart meter but were not on a smart rate. I think we were anticipating getting a night rate to charge the battery over night (if not already full from solar)...but I've just copped that we'd need a night meter to avail of lower cost energy at night.
 
Last edited:
Nicetoknow said:
Hi. I'm at a bit of a loss as to which energy plan to move to now that we have solar panels. Our contract is up with Energia at the end of the month. We just installed 12 solar panels and a battery that will charge overnight from the mains. We have gas heating (currently both our elec and gas are with Energia). In terms if energy usage, we are a family it 4. We dont work from home but we have young kids that are in the house every afternoon. We don't have an EV to charge.

Any advice very welcome as I'm finding it hard to assess the different plans on offer now that we have the night charging battery (and potentially extra power to give back to the grid).

We have a smart meter but were not on a smart rate. I think we were anticipating getting a night rate to charge the battery over night (if not already full from solar)...but I've just copped that we'd need a night meter to avail of lower cost energy at night.
Click to expand...
They don't check whether you have an EV. You've missed their fixed for 12 months prices (ceased 21 Sep). You may be able to keep a 10% discount if you say you'll move if they don't give it (their new customer discount amount, and I think there's 5% for using direct debit). The EV has the best rate but you need to be on a day night meter to get it. You can request a change from ESB Networks but if there is subsequently a meter failure you will have to pay to go back to a smart meter. If you do a search on the Irish Solar PV & Battery systems owners group on facebook you will find several spreadsheets of the different rates from different operators to help you figure out any other options.
 
The smart meter allows day and night options not just smart so you are ok there.

I was looking at this some suppliers seem to be better than others on pay in

Have seen about 14c to 24c
Bonkers could with adding this info to there site.

I am looking at a system
Currently heat the water with gas

Thinking Battery is probably not worth it, payback too long
Eddi to heat water maybe not as buy back and gas are roughly the same price.
So payback on the Eddi is infinite.
 
Nicetoknow said:
We have a smart meter but were not on a smart rate. I think we were anticipating getting a night rate to charge the battery over night (if not already full from solar)...but I've just copped that we'd need a night meter to avail of lower cost energy at night.
Click to expand...

When was the smart meter installed?

You could track the usage over a set period of time to find out your typical usage. For example, ours was installed last January and I reckon that the usage is 70/15/15% for D/N/P. I just took a blended rate for the smart plans, D/N plan and the 24h rate in order to compare. The D/N rate was the lowest blended rate but the higher standing charge negated the saving over the year.

If your battery has the capacity to offset the peak usage and partially offset the day use, then a smart plan may offer some value on a blended basis. Ideally you would consume all your solar during the day and charge the battery at the lower night rate (I think Energia have a EV plan with an ultra low rate for a few hours during the night?). I have 8 panels and expect to export 1000 kWh surplus over the year, no battery.
 
On smart meters you can scroll through yhe readings and get the following T1, T2, T3, just push the green button with line from 12 to 6.

Mine was total 2728 T1 476, T2 1865, T3 386,

Don't know which relates to n8ght, day, peak, suppose could look to see which changes over the next hour, but would think T3 night, T1 peak and T2 other,
 
Looking at electric Ireland website, they haveca how do I read my smart meter section

The Ts relate to day, night, peak but not sure what they classify as T2 as this is 68% of my usage since Feb, but wouldn't think this is night time use vs 476 for Day/evening
 
Further down the document ir shows
T1 as night
T2 day
T3 peak,

That makes more sense on my figures
 
I'm with energia and all their smart plans have a higher cost than I have on a non smart 24hr plan with a 40% discount, the cost is 44.44 or 26.66 ex vat after discount, cheapest smart rate incl disc and cat is 28 night, then 52/52 day and peak, so much more expensive than standard 24hr rate
 
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