Best Electricity Plan for new EV Owners

Heat pumps seem to be a big drain on electricity.

I was considering one but I'll definitely hold off for as long as I can.

I know that alright but oil ( plus solid fuel for the fire) is roughly €1k a year for me.

The upfront cost and then the yearly electric cost seems high to me. Plus, I suspect our house may not be airtight enough. It's A3 rated but realistically a B3 due to the ratings jump from solar panels.

Solar panels were a no brainier at the time, best thing I ever invested in, and basically will mean a near net zero electric bill. Fantastic technology.

I'm not bought on heat pumps yet.

our house was a new build 6 years ago so was A3 without solar so its heatpump appropriate it guess.

My total energy costs for 2022 to include all heating, car fuel and powering the house was a net of 2,700 (there was some grant last year as well wasnt there from the govt so you could add that back?)

doesnt seem too bad.

The heatpump manufacturers claim a COP of about 5 these days. So, if I understand correctly, each kWh consumed results in 4-5 kWh of heat in the house. Compare this with resistance heating's 1 or boiler's 0.75-0.90 depending on whether is a condensing one or not. You'd want pretty low gas vs electricity price to match the HP vs boiler running costs.

And those COP 5 figures are very optimistic, under ideal circumstances in a house dedicated for it (like underfloor heating throughout and no radiators). Also once the outside temp goes below zero, there is no chance of those range COPs even in a perfect new passiv house setup or a complete ground up deep refit of an existing house.

And your point is pertinent. Even if you get an average COP of 4, then with an electricity price of 35c and a gas / oil price of 10c, you have zero savings. And an enormous install bill that is not even starting to pay back for itself. For now. No doubt electricity will become cheaper and gas / oil more expensive over time

Unless you either get a massive subsidy (way higher than current levels) and / or you do it for environmental reasons and / or you have extremely cheap night rate and a large battery and / or you can get the A2W heatpump hardware relatively cheaply and you can do the install DIY, I wouldn't go there myself

Aye. Perfect if you have a combo of several of the above. Like huge battery, powerful inverter and super cheap night rate. I have all that and certainly plan to not replace my 10 year old gas boiler when it goes. But the €8-9k cost of materials alone for an A2W heatpump is way too high for me. I will settle for an A2A system costing a fraction of that with a real life COP of maybe 2-2.5 rather than an A2W with a real life COP of maybe 3.5-4

That Flogas Certa offer is mad.

Sure they already have a fixed rate electricity offer cheaper than that

Discover our best gas and electricity rates and prices | Save with Flogas Energy

Pity no tempting night rate to go along with that, then it would become interesting.

Considering the lack of demand for electricity at night in general, why are we not seeing more competitive night rate offers?

Energia made an absolute killing on their 7/8c right rate that swept thousands and thousand of customers into the fold.

Good value D/N rates? How about Pinergy. I pay 5c for any unit I want to use. As long as I use them between 2AM and 5AM. Best rate we've seen around for years 😁

Yep, you'll probably need a battery setup tbh.

Outside of the fantastic 3hr window it's gouging rates. Will suit some people (people with batteries, low daytime usage) , but not the majority.

BTW, the 5c rate is 3hrs, not 4.

Indeed. But if you do calculations you will find that for people who think the 4 hour Energia window gets them by most days, almost all of those people would be better off with the narrower 3 hour Pinergy slot. Even though they would then regularly run out and pay the gouging rates. The huge discount of 5c vs 8c for the vast majority of units, plus the €100 welcome cash bonus, more than compensates for running out

Although it is gutting to see yourself running out, you have to stay rational about these savings overall 😁

For myself, it is getting uncomfortably close on December days like the rainy, dark day we had today. My problem is more my 12kVA connection though. I would be laughing with 16kVA. Also I could shift hot water heating from electricity go gas, then I would never have to worry about running out of the 5c rate

Ah maybe I wasn't clear in my last post. Apologies, when I make this argument I almost always mention it: those 3 or 4 hour super cheap night rates with gouging day rates only suit people with EV / battery, who will consume a very significant percentage of their electricity in that slot.

https://www.energia.ie/guide-to-smart-meters/smart-ev or if you can charge enough in 3 hours to do you the next day if you have a large battery set up for the 5c Pinergy night rate.

It really doesn't take much management.

It can be significant savings with not a huge amount of effort.

Is there anyway to set up battery storage without the solar panels?