justifying cost of Eddi installation?

The short answer is "No".

The longer answer is that an Eddi will never pay for itself. If getting an ROI on the device and seeing if €800 is worth it....then the answer definetely is no. The reason is that you will get paid for units you export to the grid. At the moment, this is €0.20 / unit. So you would be better off exporting any excess electricity and getting paid for it than using it to heat water, which you could do with either night rate electricity €0.10-12/unit, or via your gas boiler for probably in about the same cost.

All that said, I have one and it's kinda nice having it even though I know it's technically not "saving" me money. The reason is, when I got mine they were about €500 each, and there was no feed-in-tarrif, so exporting excess we didn't get paid for it. So it made complete sense back then. I've since gotten used to the hot water available on demand for 8-9 months of the year.

I sold mine and bought it again 😂 I have solar thermal so thought I didn't need it.

I have a night rate so actual export doesn't come into it.

So it's cheaper for me to heat the water in the winter with night rate immersion rather than oil

The Eddi gives me the controls to do this easily.

if you have the old meter and on deemed FIT (like me!) the eddi means I heat water for free, which makes the pay back quicker

On a separate note is there talk of being forced into smart meters soon and deemed FIT ending on a specific date ?

Your sort of right. But as Graememk mentions above there's a vast number of us out there at the moment on "deemed export". Meaning that we have the non-smart meters and get paid an estimated amount based on the size of the inverter. So if I export say 1000Kwhr or 0 Kwhr I actually get paid EXACTLY the same. So it makes sense to use every kwhr of power that the panels generate, be it on bitcoin mining, heating the house, into the eddi etc

So for these people (incl me) an Eddi is paying for itself as it's helping me use all that power I'm getting paid to export, but not! :)

When this "deemed export" situation ends, the fiscal feasibility of an Eddi will most likely change to non-starter. Why? Well i sort of mentioned it above, for people on D/N smart meters, whenever they get that tariff sorted. They could heat up the water at €0.10/kwh at 8am. If it's a decent insulated tank that will keep the water hot for 12-16 hrs or so, or at least hot enough for a shower. Then during the day I'd export the excess power and get €0.20 for it. The alternative is I don't heat my tank from night rate and heat it from "excess", but then I'd lose out on the extra money from the FIT.

If the Eddi was €500 I'd probably buy one again in the morning (and still lose money). For €800 I'd pass. it's too much for just the convience factor.

For IE, Kellehers in Cork are selling cheaper than MyEnergi direct, was onto MyEnergi and their business model in IE is to sell more expensive than wholesalers.

Do you have a 24hr meter (not a D/N one) and you still get deemed FIT? CRU told me in writing I wasn't entitled to it for my 24hr meter when I went chasing why I didn't get it when NC6 was submitted. Do you have any comms from CRU or anyone on it so I could ask CRU to reconsider it? I never refused a smart meter, their rationale is smart meters are available so I don't get paid FIT until I move to one.

Beyond having a timer/schedule thats nothing like an Eddi, it's just an expensive smart switch for an immersion. One of the biggest selling points for the Eddi is that it can variably divert whatever is being exported to a resistive load/immersion heater so it will never import to heat the water.

Yeah that smart switch while good amp rating wise for an immersion as tnegun said it lacks the ability of the Eddi to scale energy in to the immersion to match what would otherwise be exported.

On / off is one thing.... The Eddi is like a dimmer for the immersion with the automation to match the level to export built in.

There's a value to that convenience and while technically if you could source a variable output with the right amp rating that was smart you could roll your own, is that worth the effort Vs an end user ready to go product with warranty etc? I dunno. It would have to be €100 or less for me Vs approx 500 for the Eddi.

The new Eddi has wi fi capabilities so doesn't need a harvi afaik. The old one has one antenna and the new one has two. Disregard that information! See below.

Sorry, mixed up the harvi and hub there I think.

Ah my bad I didn't click you were referring to the OP.

Yeah I was thinking of something like this:

It obviously doesn't have the a partial load capability of an Eddi as described above, but I reckon for a tenth of the price, it will achieve about 75% of the savings.

I looked at getting an Eddi. I was told by a supplier that basically all it does is turn on the immersion once a preset amount of electricity is being generated by your PV panels.

So unless you set your threshold at/above the amount needed to run the immersion, you are using electricity from the grid as well as your PV panels?

Is that understanding correct? If so, it doesn't really make sense to use an Eddi unless you can generate enough solar electricity to more than cover the immersion load.

I have a D/N, but you should get deemed FIT for 24

Deemed fit is only for MCC02 D/N now. They changed it

I have the old type mcc01 meter and just got my deemed fit for last month.

Is the change only for newer PV installs?

Regarding cell coverage. Any idea what the situation will be for those who cannot have a smart meter installed due to poor cell coverage?

Are they likely to be denied FIT once the deemed export scheme ends?

My new house has iffy cell coverage at times. All to do with rolling hills and forestry between the house and the nearest mast. If I'm denied a smart meter then the argument for a large battery bank becomes stronger. I'm just wondering as I'll be moving into the house in the autumn.

Sadly nope. CRU confirmed to me in writing that 24hr meters are not eligible for FIT. There reason is I could change to a smart one if I wished.

True - being on a D/N tariff with deemed export does help. I'm on it too so exporting (or not exporting and using those units via the Eddi) I get paid the same regardless. However, this to be fair is only a short term situation, but the end of 2024 or sooner, we'll all be on measured export via smart meters. So the "savings" you'll generate via the Eddi will be short lived. Certainly not enough to recoup the cost of the device and installation. They are about to start rolling out a new smart meter which is capable of doing the D/N tariffs. Certainly it's coming in Autumn 2023 anyway.

If I was buying today, for €500 I'd think hard about it, but probably would purchase it. For €800 I think I'd pass. The cost is just too exorbitant for the benefits (however convenient they are) for it to be worth it.

I've just signed up to the 12 month Flogas night saver tariff. I hope that the deemed export will be guaranteed for the length of the contract.

Gotcha. So in theory my D/N meter might only be in a wet week before being swapped out for a smart D/N.

I'm not overly bothered as I like the idea of the Eddi.

AFAIK you need to pay to change to a smart meter from a D/N. That's what Energia told me about a year ago but person I was talking too didn't seem sure. Said it was free to move from 24hr to D/N. But then have some charge for the smart meter change install. So that might be true or might not. No harm for people to ask their provider if that's the case and the cost if moving to a D/N now.