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Night meter - keep or get rid?

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  • 27-02-2019 7:15pm
    #1
    adocholiday
    Registered Users Posts: 1,903 ✭✭✭


    Sorry if this isn't really the appropriate forum, but seemed like the best place.

    I have just had all of the electric heating in my house replaced with oil fired central heating. The house has a day/night meter rather than just the standard. As I understand it, there is a €200 charge to replace the dual tariff meter with a standard one.

    Is there any benefit to me keeping the dual tariff meter or will it eventually pay for itself so to speak to pay the €200?


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    #2
    antiskeptic
    Registered Users Posts: 9,555 ✭✭✭antiskeptic


    adocholiday wrote: »
    Sorry if this isn't really the appropriate forum, but seemed like the best place.

    I have just had all of the electric heating in my house replaced with oil fired central heating. The house has a day/night meter rather than just the standard. As I understand it, there is a €200 charge to replace the dual tariff meter with a standard one.

    Is there any benefit to me keeping the dual tariff meter or will it eventually pay for itself so to speak to pay the €200?

    I thought it was €400. At least I thought that's what I paid last time I had one taken out.

    I did the calcs on it once as a single man and figured with dishwasher/washing machine/dryer run at the night rate as best I could remember to, it saved money over just day meter. With a family now that calc would be a no brainer if the surcharge/standing charge costs were the same

    Now if you buy an electric car...

    Do the maths in any case. You need some heavy elec users at night to make it worth. And have the discipline to run them only then


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    #3
    rolion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,362 ✭✭✭rolion


    Call your electicity provider.Then give a call to ESB.
    Until you have the answer that you like ... ;)

    There is no need to replace the meter,as a physical unit but rather for ESB techie to call out to read the counter(s) and supply that info to your provider.
    Once they have it,they will switch you free of charge, once a year.

    The curent meter has the dual tariffs preprogrammed already,T1 and T2.

    The €400 charge is for replacing the physical unit with a new one digital or to get an export /import meter.

    Take care.


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    #4
    antiskeptic
    Registered Users Posts: 9,555 ✭✭✭antiskeptic


    rolion wrote: »
    Call your electicity provider.Then give a call to ESB.
    Until you have the answer that you like ... ;)

    There is no need to replace the meter,as a physical unit but rather for ESB techie to call out to read the counter(s) and supply that info to your provider.
    Once they have it,they will switch you free of charge, once a year.

    The curent meter has the dual tariffs preprogrammed already,T1 and T2.

    The €400 charge is for replacing the physical unit with a new one digital or to get an export /import meter.

    Take care.

    Some kind of work need be done to prevent switching between meters. Else your into providing/provider taking ongoing readings from both meters and charging them under a single tariff.

    In my own case, they removed the night meter and switch/clock, leaving just the original day meter


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    #5
    Sleeper12
    Registered Users Posts: 17,100 ✭✭✭✭Sleeper12


    Your service provider should be able to tell you what is the best option. We're very heavy users in our home. I enquired with our service provider about night rate and they said we'd pay more with the night rate.


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    #6
    adocholiday
    Registered Users Posts: 1,903 ✭✭✭adocholiday


    Thanks all! I had just read somewhere online that it was €200, €400 is a lot! I'll give airtricity a call to see what they say so but thanks for all of the input.


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    #7
    DesperateDan
    Registered Users Posts: 1,584 ✭✭✭DesperateDan


    I think the figures are usually if you can keep 30% of your usage in night hours you are breaking even. The average house uses about 14kwh per day. Have a look at what is using electricity in your house and what can be pushed to after midnight. The electric shower, toaster and kettle would be the biggest users, If an electric shower is running for an hour during the day, that's around 7kwh. The dishwasher and washing are only around 3 or 4 kwh a cycle.

    My electric car is often hoovering up 40kwh in one night so it would be foolish to have a regular 24 hour meter for me.

    So I would say if multiple electric showers are being had in a day, and you are never ever going to get even a plugin hybrid car then it would probably be about the same cost and you can run the appliances whenever you want. However the time it would take to recoup the €200 (because you're only saving an extra 2c by switching to a 24 hour day rate) could be 2 years easily.


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    #8
    adocholiday
    Registered Users Posts: 1,903 ✭✭✭adocholiday


    DesperateDan wrote: »
    I think the figures are usually if you can keep 30% of your usage in night hours you are breaking even. The average house uses about 14kwh per day. Have a look at what is using electricity in your house and what can be pushed to after midnight. The electric shower, toaster and kettle would be the biggest users, If an electric shower is running for an hour during the day, that's around 7kwh. The dishwasher and washing are only around 3 or 4 kwh a cycle.

    My electric car is often hoovering up 40kwh in one night so it would be foolish to have a regular 24 hour meter for me.

    So I would say if multiple electric showers are being had in a day, and you are never ever going to get even a plugin hybrid car then it would probably be about the same cost and you can run the appliances whenever you want. However the time it would take to recoup the €200 (because you're only saving an extra 2c by switching to a 24 hour day rate) could be 2 years easily.

    I spoke to Airtricity who've said that the standing charge is over €50 per year cheaper on the anytime rate and the charge to change the meter is €195. So on the standing charge plus the electricity usage the meter would pay for itself over a reasonable time frame.

    The electric car thing however is an interesting one because while I don't see myself getting one in the next couple of years I'm probably going to get one when the current car reaches end of life. Then I'd be looking at reinstating the night rate meter. Might have to think about this one for a bit longer!


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    #9
    Sleeper12
    Registered Users Posts: 17,100 ✭✭✭✭Sleeper12


    adocholiday wrote:
    The electric car thing however is an interesting one because while I don't see myself getting one in the next couple of years I'm probably going to get one when the current car reaches end of life. Then I'd be looking at reinstating the night rate meter. Might have to think about this one for a bit longer!


    Get rid of the night meter.

    Get it back in years to come when you need it


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