Irish electricity prices remain among the highest in the EU, and with the average household spending €1,200–€1,500 a year on electricity alone, even a 20% reduction is worth €240–€300 back in your pocket. The good news is that the most effective saving doesn't require any investment at all — it takes about 15 minutes online. Below are the highest-impact actions you can take right now, ordered roughly by the size of the saving they deliver.
Switch Supplier First — It's the Biggest Lever
No behavioural change, appliance upgrade, or insulation project comes close to the saving available from simply switching electricity supplier. Irish suppliers offer new customer discounts of 20–35% off their standard unit rate for the first 12 months. On an average annual bill of €1,300, a 30% discount is €390 saved — for filling out one online form.
The key things to know:
- Discounts apply to the unit rate, not always the standing charge
- They last 12 months, after which your rate reverts automatically to the standard tariff
- There are no exit fees on variable-rate tariffs and no interruption to supply when you switch
- You should switch every year — or at minimum, check whether a cheaper deal exists when your discount period ends
Most households are not on the best available tariff because they switched once and forgot about it. Repeating the comparison annually is the single most reliable way to keep your electricity bill low.
Get a Smart Meter and Use Night Rate
If you don't have a smart meter, request one from your current supplier — installation is free through ESB Networks and typically takes a few weeks. A smart meter records your consumption in 30-minute intervals, which unlocks access to time-of-use tariffs unavailable to standard meter households.
Night rate tariffs charge a significantly lower unit rate overnight (typically 11pm to 8am or 9am) and a modestly higher rate during the day. For households that can shift a meaningful portion of their usage to the off-peak window, the saving stacks on top of any new customer discount.
The loads most worth shifting overnight:
- EV charging — set a scheduled start time at 11pm; this alone can save €150–€250 a year for typical EV drivers
- Dishwasher — delay start for a late-night cycle
- Washing machine — overnight cycle using the delay function
- Immersion heater — put it on a timer between 2am and 6am
- Heat pump — configure to heat the home and hot water cylinder overnight
Night rate only saves money if you genuinely shift usage. If most of your consumption remains in daytime hours, the higher day rate will outweigh the overnight discount.
Cut Standby and Phantom Load
Appliances left on standby or idle draw power continuously — sometimes for 20 or more hours a day. This so-called phantom load accounts for an estimated 10–15% of the average Irish household electricity bill. The fix is cheap and requires no ongoing effort once done.
High-impact standby culprits:
- Televisions, set-top boxes, and soundbars left on standby
- Games consoles in rest mode (can draw 10–15W continuously)
- Desktop computers and monitors not fully switched off
- Phone and laptop chargers left plugged in without a device attached
- Older broadband routers and network switches
Smart plugs with scheduling (available for under €10 each) let you cut power to entertainment systems and home office equipment automatically at night without manually unplugging anything. A single smart plug on a TV/set-top box/soundbar cluster can eliminate 300–500 kWh of wasted consumption a year.
Heat Water More Efficiently
Water heating is typically the second largest use of electricity in Irish homes after space heating. Most households heat more water than they need, more often than they need it.
Practical changes that reduce immersion and cylinder usage:
- Insulate your hot water cylinder — a jacket costs around €20 and cuts heat loss by up to 75%
- Lower the cylinder thermostat to 60°C (hot enough to kill legionella, low enough to avoid unnecessary reheating)
- Heat water once in the morning rather than leaving the immersion on continuous
- Use a timer — 45–60 minutes of immersion heating is sufficient for most households; continuous heating wastes the surplus
If you have a heat pump or solar panels, configure the system to use generated or low-cost electricity for water heating rather than running the immersion on peak-rate power.
Improve Lighting and Appliance Efficiency
Lighting and general appliance use represent a smaller but controllable portion of the bill. If you still have any halogen or incandescent bulbs, replacing them with LEDs is the fastest payback upgrade available — LEDs use 80–90% less electricity for the same light output and last years longer.
For appliances, the largest consumer after heating is typically the fridge-freezer, which runs 24 hours a day. An appliance more than 10–12 years old may be using twice the electricity of a modern A-rated equivalent. When replacing appliances, prioritise the fridge-freezer, washing machine, and dishwasher for the biggest impact on your baseline consumption.
Dryers deserve special attention — a single cycle uses roughly 2–3 kWh. Line-drying where possible, or using a heat pump dryer (60–70% more efficient than a condenser model), reduces one of the most energy-intensive household tasks.
Compare Your Tariff Before Anything Else
Every tip above delivers a real saving, but none of them works as fast or as reliably as reviewing your tariff each year. A household that switches supplier annually, uses night rate for EV charging, and has eliminated standby waste can realistically cut their electricity bill by 35–50% compared to a household that does none of these things.
GoSwitch compares all live tariffs across Ireland's seven electricity suppliers — standard rates, night rate, and green options — ranked by projected annual cost for your actual usage.
Enter your annual kWh to see every available deal ranked by what you'd actually pay. Switching takes about 15 minutes, there's no interruption to supply, and the saving starts from your next bill.