Here, in the Republic of Ireland, it's refreshing that politicians, however much flack they get from the general public, do not waste time obsessing about stupid stuff, like woke versus anti-woke and other tribal issues of irelevance to people's everyday lives. One good, relevant and timely thing the Irish government did some years ago was to pay for the replacement of every home's old-fashioned electricity meter with a smart meter.
What does a smart meter do that the older type of meter does not? It can handle a mix of different electricty prices, so it can support the power company offering you massively reduced electricity costs at off-peak times. These rates are sometimes referred to as "EV tariffs" because they are ideal for electric car owners with a home charger they plug into overnight. But if you have solar with a battery, you can charge the solar battery on the cheap rate. Our cheap rate is in fact only a fifth of the normal daily rate, so it's a no-brainer.
The smart meter also does what a traditional meter cannot; it can detect electricity flowing in reverse, like in the summer when you will be exporting power back to the electricity company. We make 500 - 600 Euro per year from electricity exported from our eighteen solar panels in this way.
The final advantage of a smart meter is it sends its readings automatically every hour, so the power company can provide you with a downloadable chart showing your hour by hour usage throughout the day, information for better managing your energy consumption. For example, our highest peak rate is between five and seven o'clock in the evenings, so it's good to see how much electricity we are using then and if we need to reduce it, like not switching on the washing machine and tumble dryer in those hours.
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