Prepay power.ie

[Joe_90]

We had a guy called this evening offering to install a free prepay meter in the house. He said that we could save hundreds per year by switching to prepay.

He said that it costs 3c per hour to have a TV or microwave on standby and that when you sell the units clocking up you will be much more energy aware. So I gave him the "sounds great I'll have a think about it, good luck"!

I sat down never to consider his comments, and then thought about it, we have 2 TVs and a microwave, that's 9c per hour or €2.16 per day or €60 per month! Our bill is not €60 per month.

Has anyone else heard the 3c per hour standby quoted?

 

[DB74]

The article below is admittedly from the Daily Mail but they claim that if you left the following items on standby for 18 hours a day, 365 days a year, the extra cost to your annual electricity bill would be £76 per YEAR which is about €90. I presume the cost of electricity in the UK is different to here but it would have to be approx 25 times more expensive in Ireland for the claim of 3c per hour to be true (for 2 TVs and a microwave)

Stereo
TV
Video recorder*
DVD recorder
Digital top box
Computer + peripherals
Computer monitor
Laptop computer
Broadband modem
Answering machine
Battery charger
Mobile phone charger

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...-cost-leave-household-appliances-standby.html

* - who has one of these anymore!

 

[callybags]

If they claim it's free, what's in it for them?

Hardly doing it out of the goodness...........

 

[Protocol]

Note that prepaid meters are more expensive than regular elec, see their rates here:

[broken link removed]

They charge 37.5 cent per day fee, that's an extra 137 euro a year.

OK, you won't get any bills, and so can't fall into arrears, but you will pay 137 euro extra.

Plus they simply match the standard ESB rate 19.28 cent per unit - if you shop around you can get discounts off the standard rates.

 

[Leo]

Has anyone else heard the 3c per hour standby quoted?

When coming up with numbers like that, they'll research the most power hungry, out of date appliances and use those for their calculations. Even a modern 50" plasma screen only uses .3W on standby, so will take ~20 days on standby to run up 3c of usage. But they won't let the facts get in the way.

Their message is spend more on electricity, and you'll stop using as much! To use the same approach to petrol/diesel, shop around to only buy the most expensive fuel you can!