Any reason to NOT opt in to 'smart meter services' ..?

T

Tuttlinghorn

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given this appears to be a one way street (once you opt-in there is no opt-out) I am just wondering if there is anything that I haven't considered

I am currently with energia, have a smart meter but just a standard plan
have a plug in hybrid, PV panels for the last 18 months or so.

uploaded HDF data to energypal . seems like a great website. Only thing is that it features Smart Plans only ... and the annual cost estimate looks about 1/3 of what i am currently paying which seems nuts. I used a compare vs Energia's 'cost' history on their site.

am i missing something ?
anyone out there regretting having switched to a Smart Meter Plan ?

thanks
 
You can get a smart meter without being on a smart plan. Apparently there is a certain cohort of PV users who have old mechanical meters whose meters "run backwards" when energy is being generated under certain conditions and these are reluctant to change to ahem, working meters. Other than that there is really no reason not to.

Seemingly the deals available to smart plan users currently are not great. Bonkers.ie did a good article on them end of 2022, and not a lot has changed
www.bonkers.ie

Smart meter tariffs - here's everything you need to know

Smart meters are currently being rolled out to every home, farm and business in Ireland. And with the rollout of smart meters comes smart electricity tariffs. But what exactly is a smart tariff and can they help us cut down on our energy costs?
www.bonkers.ie www.bonkers.ie
The upshot is that you will know exactly how much you typically use so are empowered to actually change your usage habits to get better value.
 
thanks for the replies @lff12 and @Brendan Burgess (nice site btw ;) ) but i probably was not clear

I already have a Smart Meter

I have about 18 months worth of data from it

However I never signed up to a 'Smart Contract' and am now considering doing so as i think i can get a better deal, based on 18 months of usage data.

Just wondering if there's anyone with similar experience ( presumably thousands !) but who can advise on any potential downsides

thanks
 
Here is my own thread on the subject

To Activate Or Not Activate The Smart Meter ??

I'm about to move back to Airtricity from Energia and noticed that now that I have the new smart meter I can opt to use this new meter But looking at the rates going forward I'm concerned if I do activate the meter it will result in slightly higher bills and once you make the move there is no...
askaboutmoney.com

On page 3 post #44 I summarize my first year on the smart meter

Tuttlinghorn said:
anyone out there regretting having switched to a Smart Meter Plan ?
Click to expand...

To answer your question,
No I've no regrets making the switch and believe most people would save on the bills by switching on and over to a smart meter plan
 
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Tuttlinghorn said:
I have about 18 months worth of data from it
Click to expand...
Given the data you have, you should be able to calculate with a high degree of accuracy what the current smart plans would cost you versus your current non-smart plan.

With the plug-in hybrid and solar. it's very likely the smart plans would work out cheaper for you.
 
How far along are ESB networks with the roll out. I'd imagine in time staying off a smart plan will become quite punitive.
 
thanks all
currently struggling with the esb HDF file which seems to be missing my Import data for a number of months after smart meter and PV installed. hopefully i can get past some CSV formatting problems and get an accurate read from energypal ( which seems like a fantastic tool for anyone trying to do this - use data from the smart meter to choose a smart plan )
once i have a data set i can trust it should be easy to compare the Smart plan costs vs a flat rate.
 
Tuttlinghorn said:
given this appears to be a one way street (once you opt-in there is no opt-out) I am just wondering if there is anything that I haven't considered

I am currently with energia, have a smart meter but just a standard plan
have a plug in hybrid, PV panels for the last 18 months or so.

uploaded HDF data to energypal . seems like a great website. Only thing is that it features Smart Plans only ... and the annual cost estimate looks about 1/3 of what i am currently paying which seems nuts. I used a compare vs Energia's 'cost' history on their site.

am i missing something ?
anyone out there regretting having switched to a Smart Meter Plan ?

thanks
Click to expand...
Post in thread 'Another round of Energy price cuts on the way ?' https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threa...rgy-price-cuts-on-the-way.234386/post-1864124

I'm also smart meter but standard plan. I posted this yesterday, on how when I left energia, they eventually convinced me to come.back again within the 14 days with YUNO.
 
Tuttlinghorn said:
energypal ( which seems like a fantastic tool for anyone trying to do this - use data from the smart meter to choose a smart plan )
Click to expand...
bonkers.ie could really do with buying energypal.ie and adding it to their system for providing recommendations, it would be a fantastic feature to help un-bamboozle us all on smart plans!
 
Zenith63 said:
bonkers.ie could really do with buying energypal.ie and adding it to their system for providing recommendations, it would be a fantastic feature to help un-bamboozle us all on smart plans!
Click to expand...

I used to rely mainly on bonkers.ie and switcher.ie to check for deals but have found them to be not so good these days. Could be my imagination but their deals appear to be geared towards more expensive plans with El Irl. It definitely pays to look at all the different company's individual deals on their websites also.
 
Sue Ellen said:
I used to rely mainly on bonkers.ie and switcher.ie to check for deals but have found them to be not so good these days. Could be my imagination but their deals appear to be geared towards more expensive plans with El Irl. It definitely pays to look at all the different company's individual deals on their websites also.
Click to expand...
They are limited in what plans they can sell by the providers - however, they have to show all rates available as part of their licence - so if you are doing a review - make sure you select the option to show all plans, including those not available to sign up on-line.
 
Tuttlinghorn said:
thanks all
currently struggling with the esb HDF file which seems to be missing my Import data for a number of months after smart meter and PV installed. hopefully i can get past some CSV formatting problems and get an accurate read from energypal ( which seems like a fantastic tool for anyone trying to do this - use data from the smart meter to choose a smart plan )
once i have a data set i can trust it should be easy to compare the Smart plan costs vs a flat rate.
Click to expand...
The data doesn't show up for the first two months or so. In my case the metre went in last March but the data only came available from May literally 2 months to the day since installation.
 
Harvard said:
How far along are ESB networks with the roll out. I'd imagine in time staying off a smart plan will become quite punitive.
Click to expand...
Mine arrived last week! Already checking my usage data on ESB networks site - very pleased. I will stay on my current plan for now though. Once I have more data on usage I might be able to calculate clearly my potential savings. I hope to get solar in over the next year or so, with the EDDI diverter, so hopefully that will offset the very large amount of energy I consume through only having electrically heated hot water.
 
Harvard said:
The data doesn't show up for the first two months or so. In my case the metre went in last March but the data only came available from May literally 2 months to the day since installation.
Click to expand...
mine was available within 2 days, but everyone might be different
 
Harvard said:
Stick the data into energy pal and you should see a bit of a pattern emerging even on a months data.
Click to expand...
only had 4 days but I'm still impressed - I did already have some meter info from my Secure e7+ immersion controller, but this fleshes this out fully - thanks for the tip!
 
Harvard said:
Stick the data into energy pal and you should see a bit of a pattern emerging even on a months data.
Click to expand...

How do you download a month's data? Whenever I login to ESB Networks, I'm only offered a 7 days' HDF file. Can these be combined?
 
Marsupial said:
How do you download a month's data? Whenever I login to ESB Networks, I'm only offered a 7 days' HDF file. Can these be combined?
Click to expand...
When you click on the Download HDF Button it should give you all your data going back to inception or when ESB Networks first began sending you the data.
 
lff12 said:
only had 4 days but I'm still impressed - I did already have some meter info from my Secure e7+ immersion controller, but this fleshes this out fully - thanks for the tip!
Click to expand...
No bother. Once you have a month or so of data you will see a clear trend of usage.
 
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