Are you missing a trick when it comes to smart meters? About two million of us have them installed in our homes, but data published this month shows many of us aren’t sure exactly what to do with them.
The meters were installed by ESB Networks and we were told they would help us find cheaper electricity tariffs. But there seems to be an information gap about what happens next. Just having the meter itself won’t give you cheaper electricity, householders need to take further action to achieve that. And that’s the bit that’s missing.
Almost six in ten of those with a smart meter are “unaware” they need to move to a smart meter price plan to get the benefit of it, according to Electric Ireland’s Sustainability Index, a nationally representative survey of one thousand people by Red C published this month.
While 63 per cent of those surveyed said they have a smart meter, only three in five of those respondents said they had moved to a smart meter plan, according to the survey.
Irish households don’t seem to have made the link between having the meter and the potential it has to lower your bills. Until we do, these meters remain a piece of kit on a wall.
So, how can your smart meter help you lower your bills? The meter keeps information about how and when your household uses most electricity. If your home heating, water heating, tumble dryer and dishwasher are usually going gangbusters at 6.30pm before slumping at 8pm, your meter logs this. This will allow you move some of your usage to a time of the day when electricity is cheaper, or use the data to switch to a price plan that better matches your usage, and you can lower your bills.
First step: Set up smart meter account
The first step to using your smart meter to find savings is to create an account at esbnetworks.ie. Once you’ve set up an account, or logged in, you’ll need your “MPRN” – this unique ID is located at the top of your bill. It’s a different number to your account number. Once you’ve created an account, you’ll have direct access to your usage data, as stored by your smart meter.
You’ll see a breakdown of your electricity usage by day of the week, or at different times of the day – for example, “peak time” is 5pm to 7pm and “night time” is 11pm to 8am.
By knowing how your household is using electricity, you can make more informed decisions about your consumption. Do you really need to start the dishwasher at 6pm, or could it wait until 9pm when you can pay less for the same thing?
Some savings you can only achieve with behaviour changes – like swapping energy-guzzling tumble drying, dishwashing, water heating, or car charging, to lower cost times. On the right plan, doing this can save you a significant amount on your bills, without compromising on your comfort, says Electric Ireland.
Second step: Use a comparison tool
The second way you can save money is by uploading your smart meter data to one of the many free electricity plan comparison tools to find the cheapest tariff for your usage. With almost 60 tariffs available from a dozen energy suppliers, your meter data allows you to make an evidence-based decision.
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities recommends using free price-comparison websites to shop around for the best plan. It approves bonkers.ie, switcher.ie, powertoswitch.ie and energyswitch.ie.
There are other tariff comparison tools too, including ones from energypal.ie and kilowatt.ie, which is useful for EV and solar panel users.
DCU’s Research Centre for Data Analytics offers a tool , and so too does UCD’s Energy Institute, in collaboration with the Sustainable Energy Authority Of Ireland.
Step three: Find the right tariff
The best tariff for you might be a smart tariff; a day/night rate, or a fixed 24-hour rate – you can use your individualised smart meter data to find out.
If you have a smart meter, you can switch to a “time-of-use” tariff. This is where you pay different rates at different times of day. This differs from a traditional “flat” tariff, which charges the same rate at all times of day.
With a time-of-use tariff, you will typically pay a higher rate for electricity during peak hours, like late afternoons and early evenings when people return from work and many businesses are still open. It costs more to provide electricity during these peak hours.
You will pay a lower rate during offpeak hours, such as overnight – this is to encourage you to shift your energy consumption to times of lower demand.
You could choose something like a “night” plan which provides ultra-low electricity rates while you are sleeping, making it ideal for electric vehicle owners, households with heat pumps or anyone able to shift their usage to offpeak times.
Smart plans will be most beneficial to those who can shift usage to cheaper times. If you’re working from home and can put on a wash outside of peak hours, great.
Step four: Enjoy the savings
But will all of this really make a difference to your bills?
Wholesale electricity prices fell by 18.5 per cent in October compared with the same period last year, data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.
The price was 74 per cent lower when compared with the peak that occurred in August 2022 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was, however, up 6.6 per cent compared with the previous month.
While wholesale prices have eased considerably over the past 12 months, retail prices for consumers remain high.
Flogas, SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis Energy, Pinergy and Energia have all increased electricity prices by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent on average, which will add about €200 to the average annual bill for their customers.
On the flip side, Yuno Energy, PrepayPower and Electric Ireland have announced they are freezing electricity prices for the next few months at least.
Several thousand households have found a cheaper tariff by using its comparison tool, says DCU.
The cheapest annual bill for users of the DCU tool averaged just under €1,600 while the most expensive averaged €2,750. That’s a difference of more than €1,150 a year for the same household, the same energy usage, just by choosing the wrong tariff, says DCU.
There are other benefits to smart tariffs too. Time-of-use tariffs don’t just enable you to save money; moving to a cheaper, offpeak time also makes room for renewable power in our national grid, says the CRU. This cuts our CO2 emissions and lowers our reliance on fossil fuels.
We’re not incurious about our electricity usage – eight in 10 households in Ireland say they are interested in receiving an annual review of their energy consumption, while seven in 10 want to get tips on how to reduce their usage, according to the Electric Ireland data.
So next time your electricity contract is up for renewal, instead of blindly renewing, use your smart meter data to analyse your usage and find a better tariff.
Let the recent cold snap focus your mind. If you do one thing to save money in 2026, use that piece of smart kit on your wall to get cheaper electricity.
You can contact us at OnTheMoney@irishtimes.com with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week’s newsletter by Siobhán Maguire on what pension autoenrollment means for workers, you can read it here
