Sadhbh O'Neill

The meter number, essentially, and that's on your bill.

It's on the top right of your bill.

So once you have that data and you put it in, set up an account, you can read the smart meter data.

And it's a lot of interesting information there about your consumption and what times of the day you're using energy more.

Yes.

Exactly.

But that's more information than you would get if you didn't have a smart meter.

And the other thing about having a smart meter is that you can avail of different tariffs.

So if you don't have a smart meter, you have a flat rate essentially that applies at all times of the day and it tends to be higher.

And you may or may not have a night meter, in which case, you know, if you don't have one, you're not able to get the benefit of a lower rate at night time.

So a smart meter allows you to benefit from rates that can vary quite dramatically depending on the time of day.

Yes, it's usually about half the cost.

And that makes a big difference, say, if you compare the cost of charging an EV with the cost of filling a similar model with diesel, especially at the moment.

So even though electricity is expensive in Ireland, there's no question about that.

It's still a much cheaper way of actually getting your car charged.

powered up essentially to take you from A to B. So there's no question about that.

The other thing to say is that you need a smart meter to receive export payments if you have a solar panel.

So you can get solar panels without a smart meter, but you can't receive the export payments, which is a bit of a bummer.

I believe so.

Now, there may be parts of the country where they're pulling them out a bit more slowly.