Note: Results include Urban tariffs for all meter types, based on typical usage [details].
If you’re serious about saving money, run a custom price comparison. This will give you personalised results, so you get bigger savings.
💸 How much can you save?
Most households in Ireland can save €200 to €600 each year by switching to a cheaper electricity deal. But for households with high usage, savings above €1000 are not uncommon.
Either way, a custom electricity price comparison maximises the amount you can save.
Important note! Discount periods usually last only 12 months. So mark your calendar to switch again next year as well.
⏰ The cheapest times to use electricity
With the roll-out of smart meters, you can now get an “electric vehicle (EV)” tariff with a deeply discounted unit rate late at night. As the name suggests, these rates are great for electric car owners. But not only!
If you choose an EV tariff, you can boost your savings further by shifting some of your usage to the “EV” time band. Some ideas:
- Get a cheap (€30) timer switch for your immersion heater and set it to run during the “EV” band. You can heat a full cylinder of water for abut 70c using this method.
- Set a timer to run appliances like dishwashers and washing machines on the cheap rate
You can also load shift on other tariffs types (like Day/Night). Savings can still be substantial, albeit less dramatic than with EV tariffs.
☀️ Solar panels for the cheapest electricity
Solar energy can work out cheaper than buying from even the lowest-cost suppliers.
Take a 7 kW solar panel system for example. This will generate about 6,000 kWh per annum in Ireland (138,000 kWh over 25 years, accounting for panel degradation). With an installation cost of about €6,000 after grants, and assuming €1,000 of lifetime maintenance costs, cost per kWh works out at around 5.1 cents over the system lifetime. This is cheaper than even the lowest-cost EV tariff.
Check how much you could save with solar with our solar panel financial modeller.
💡 Pro tip: Check your home for energy vampires
Switching to the best electricity tariff is the easiest way to save money on your electricity bills. But for additional savings, you should also try to find and fix electricity wastage in your home.
To get started, you need to understand where electricity is going in your home. You can do this for free by viewing your smart meter data online.
Plugging the leaks can save you hundreds of euros extra per year.