PV Feed In Tariff

Nice💪

Anybody here with Waterpower that has been paid FIT, and is it any good?

It's definitely being used to get people over to a smart contract. I can't see FIT being anywhere near import this time next year.

Hi.

Maybe someone has a quick answer here please:

I had understood that if you switched supplier, you would still get paid for the period since your last microgeneration payment received. I've just contacted Electric Ireland and they're saying if I switch to them, I only get paid for my microgeneration from the date of switching.

So is it the case that in my closing bill from SSE Airtricity that they will still pay me for the period up to the closing/switching date? In normal circumstances, Airtricity only pay out twice a year, in May and November.

Thanks a million!

/M.

Fair point.

Got Airtricity. They say they make the calculations every 1st May and 1st November only. They claim that they will work out my generation from May 1st to my switching date and send me a cheque (!) for the amount owed in December.

Just wonder has this happened for anyone yet? I really don't want to stay with Airtricity until November, but they now already owe me ~€150 for May and June. If I thought I would never see it after switching, then I'd have to consider staying with them til Nov. Yuck ….

Thanks!

Because we have a quango and not a regulator. 😎

Gah! Just moved to them from Energia two months ago. The .24c was a factor. Wonder will existing customers in contract remain at 24c. Think I know the answer …

What's the best option for load shifting now? My energy situation is:

Im going to break my dual fuel contract with EI which gives me 22% of D/N rate.

Currently have smart meter installed. No smart tariff entered into yet.

We use an average of 40kWh per day (14,000kWh per year) based on last year.

5kW solar installed in March. 5kW inverter. Planning another 5kW solar this year and a DIY dumb inverter.

15kWh battery last month. Another 15kWh to be added next month with aim to stop using day rate from grid.

Our EV consumption is about 15kWh per day, which is about the max allowed on Energia cheap rate before penalty rates kick in. Any battery storage charging would then be at the higher cheap rate, so need to keep that in mind for any such restrictions.

If the paid export makes sense, I would like to dump to the grid for the last hour or two of the expensive rate.

I haven't matched anything up yet, but Energia, Pinergy and Bord Gais are the ones coming to mind. Help me out.

For a new homeowner, who just moved in, what's the best deal right now?
The house has a smart meter and the owner intends to install solar + battery asap. No EV

Quiet a large roof so intends to max out on solar where possible.

I am leaning toward Pinergy because I don't think there is a limit built into the number of units one can draw at the cheap rate, right?

My only handicap is that I am limited to 5kW into the house via the inverter, so any loads beyond 5kW will be supplemented by the grid at very high rates. I will need to look into ways to mitigate this, such as getting rid of the electric shower!!

While that extra hour is nice, the real limiting factor is the 1000kWh limit per 2 months. This is just 16kWh per day when you break it down. I use this daily for my commute, so anything else being drawn from the grid during the cheap rate of 7.54c to 10.2c per kWh. My batteries charging, the dish washer, washing machine and the low loads would all be charged at this higher cheap rate, so I am not seeing it as making sense. We are talking about a daily load outside of the EVs of 25kWh, so it could add up if we only considered the 2c extra per unit over a year.

With the Pinergy plan, all going well, I could top up the main EV (Tesla M3 RWD) to 100% every night because LFP batteries like being full. The other EV (40kWh Leaf) could be granny charged. Unfortunately we can't set this to 80% like the old model, but I could use a smart plug and time the charge. It's a little more flexible as it's the run-around and rarely needs a full charge.

To charge 2x15kWh batteries, I would need to install an AC-DC battery charger, but need to look at the loads I would be pulling too. At 5kW per battery, plus 7kW for the car, at 240V, that's over 70A and I currently have an 80A main fuse. Getting the meter clamp on the home charge point would be a priority at that stage, because it wouldn't take much more to hit the fuse limit. Granny charging the car with the base house load would be above 80A I reckon.

Damn I need to get my supply increased! I need MORE 😁

Yes, that's right, thanks. I was looking at the without discount price. The extra hour takes some pressure off and it ultimately comes down to whether or not I can sustain the house load at below the 5kW limit. I'm pretty sure that the 30kWh of storage would cover our needs outside the cheap rate with very little consumption beyond 5kW at a time. This would be showers mainly. Triton T90 seems to draw about 7kW, so 2kW over, realistically 3 over on average with other loads. Say 8 showers per day at 15 mins each = 2 hours use = 6kWh per day at the high rates.

I'd call that a good incentive to invest in a proper thermostatic pumped shower. We already have the whole house 3 bar pump, so a bigger tank would be our main requirement. Heating water at around 2kW would keep us under the 5kW limit most of the time. The typical difference between the energia rate per day would be as much as:

Energia - (15kWh @ 7.54c = €1.13) + (25kWh @ 8.67c = €2.17) = €3.30

Pinergy - 40kWh @ 5.45c = €2.18

Difference of €1.12 per day, or ~€400 per year.

Obviously that's very rough and I don't take into account solar generation, or FIT which would benefit me more with Pinergy I would expect. I would plan to dump the last hour or two (or more, lets see) onto the grid to offset anything I might have taken at the expensive rate. I'm guessing I would be dumping 10kWh per day directly from the batteries, if not more more, because the solar would be helping during the day most days, even if only a small amount. With a FIT of 25c per unit, that's over €900 per year.

Does that look about right to you?

I may have a solution for sale shortly for your 5kw limit, well at least bump it to 8.8kw 😉

That's 24kwh into the batteries in the 3 hour pinergy window

I'll have to watch the for sale section.

Just mind those smart plugs as most wouldn't be suitable for 10 amps continuous load.