PV Feed In Tariff

While I'm sure that your right to some extent about ESB networks working with Electric ireland, there's actually some laws around that, where they have to be careful about colluding. When they spun off Eircell from Eircom in the 90's into the cell phone market, there was similar grievances from 3, etc at the time and they had to operate on a "fair level playing field". Course we all know that behind the scenes, where Mick knows Paddy for 20+ years when they were a part of the same company this is more of a token nod, but yeah.....

The thing is though, is that ESB networks....the guys pushing the smart meters don't directly get a penny more than the wholesale cost (as far as I am aware - please correct me if I'm wrong). If SSE or Energia can charge €0.80/kwh and get customers willing to spend that, more power to them.

I like the concept of Smart meters. It's just the tarrifs that are the issue. To be fair though, most of us with solar and now FIT.....we're pretty insulated from the shite prices anyway. Many of us import zero or close to zero for 7-8 months of the year.

Absolutely in your case it makes perfect sense. You however have a massive array with a great orientation producing a lot of surplus units that I for one am very Jealous off.

It may be the case that in the long run it makes sense for me to go that way I don’t know yet I’d have to see yearly production to see if the gain from fit would offset my winter usage. Like you we are all electric but no EV. Then of course the elephant in the room, what’s going to happen to day/night meter anyway!! Oh that and revenue.

Energia told me that they're halting all microgeneration payments pending info from ESB. Even for deemed customers which is daft.

I'm perfectly happy with deemed export. I've exported around 40kWh since september - most of that was in a couple of days before my batteries were installed - but have been paid for hundreds. Long may it last.

I'm not surprised by that comment from Energia, @DrPhilG , as they still havent fixed my bill from last month. The deemed fit was fine but the unit rates for actual use was off.

Yeah but since Energia paid me the deemed rate last bill, what more are they waiting for from ESB?

LMGTFY : "smart meters environment"

"This next generation of digital electricity meters will benefit us all. Smart meters will help us all become more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly."

I dunno about smart meters being energy-efficient. I mean if your washing machine needs 2Kwhr to function, not sure how a smart meter is going to make that more energy efficient. People will use what they need to use (or save) irrespective of introduction of smart meters.

However, it is fair to say that they will improve environmental aspects. Why/how? Well, typically the % mix of renewables in the grid generation is greater at night. This is why we get better night rates, so if you force someone to move their washing machine from 6pm where it's being provided for by coal/gas powered electricity generation to wind, then that does indeed make it more environmental - but yeah, the comment about energy-efficient is questionable.

Perhaps where they are going there is that knowledge breeds change, so if you know what's using what you might turn off the lights etc.

Couldn't agree more on this. You'd be stunned at how many people have only a vague idea that a washing machine will use "x" units or that the tumble dryer is to be avoided if you can. To be fair though, the recent advertising initiatives about "when is a good time" does highlight some of the more power hungry devices, so they are on the right track there IMHO.

Understanding what this value means - still requires "math" that the average person is just not going to spend any time thinking about it.

Could they take that energy label - and apply local costing for the country where its sold?

It wouldnt take much effort to pull out average cost of cooking - based on each appliance rating. This might encourage someone to buy an A rated more expensive appliance versus buying a cheaper D rated device.

Big reveal coming… 😊

Most people have never needed to care about energy prices as they have been low (cheap fossil fuels). This year is the first major ramp up in prices I remember. Sure, prices have been slowly tipping up for years, but it’s been a slow rise. So they never had a reason to bother, the ‘why to care’ was missing. They have now.

Up to now, energy costs per house service have been a low-ish % of people’s overall cost of living (in general). Typically 3 energy bills per house: 1) electricity, 2) home heating - gas / oil 3) ‘motion lotion’ - petrol / diesel. But many here now when we add them all, it’s a larger %.

And there are more exciting areas to spend limited time on. Going to bonkers is what a lot consider to be ‘saving’ – which it is, to be fair. Won’t reduce usage or load shift, but reduces costs.

Sure, I’m a geek about it and we’ve many other geeks here - and I mean that in a positive way in the sense we’re interested in it and can save money for our families.

For other recurring bills (like health insurance say) I spend a relative amount of time on the renewal yearly (more cost is more time I’ll spend, so less on bins, more on family health costs). So get a better cost, better fitting plan…. But I don’t obsess. Strangely I do obsess with energy. I like seeing my habits make it more efficient. Small changes add up  😊

Regarding heat transfer, it very much depends what kind of house you live in. I'm building a passive house at the moment which will have a gas hob. This is partly because where the house is suffers from blackouts in stormy weather (an electric hob ain't much use in a blackout), partly because I prefer to cook with gas but one of the main reasons is that it contributes to space heating (heating demand will be just 2,361kWh/a according to my PHPP).

So in essence what I'm saying is the less inefficient gas hob doesn't lose the heat produced in a passive house as it would in a non passive house.

Do everything now if you can. Less hassle later on.