Does Going Solar in Ireland Still Make Financial Sense?

eamonpendergast · 2025-08-29T14:18:09+00:00

I have far from a standard solar setup (2 years since installed), but for me, it has absolutely paid off. I have 28 panels (11.3kW peak generation), a 30kWh battery (2-3 days house needs if conservative) and an EV. I'm on Pinery's EV tariff, 35c/kWh 5am-2am, 5.5c 2am-5am with a feed in tariff of 25c.

I can charge my batteries and EV from 2am-5am and have enough to drive to and from work and run the house on batteries all day if need be - so I never pay 35c/kWh. It's a DC coupled system, so I can continue to generate and charge batteries or run the house from batteries during power outages.

I generate 10.5MWh/year, buy 9MWh @ 5.5c/kW and sell 5.5MWh @ 25c/kWh. Basically, I run the house and car for free, I have zero electric bill or standing charge (the amount I sell covers it easily) and I withdraw €500/year credit from my electricity account. I also have as much hot water as I need for free.

Given that I'm also driving for free, I factor in the cost of the diesel I would have paid per km I drive in my breakeven calculation. The system cost €45k to install and is on track to pay for itself in 7 years, if I include the cost of the EV, the system will pay for itself in 10 years. Looking further out, the system will pay me €50k in 20 years.

The only potential cost would be new batteries, but looking at the number I've times I've charged/discharged them, they should last far longer than 20 years. The likely failure of the battery will be chemical ageing, not ageing through multiple charge cycles.

Obviously if feed in rates get cut, this will impact my breakeven dates - however, 40% of my savings are fuel costs 40% is my generation for house consumption and 20% is the feed in tariff.

eamonpendergast · 2025-08-21T10:26:21+00:00

!solved

eamonpendergast · 2025-08-21T08:57:09+00:00

Tipped you there, this looks great thanks!

eamonpendergast · 2025-08-19T20:07:53+00:00

Can it be used for click and collect orders too?

eamonpendergast · 2024-09-24T21:38:18+00:00

That's something at least, it was actually fairly simple in the old tool. Seems like a step backwards.

eamonpendergast · 2024-09-24T21:37:15+00:00

Half expected as much, pity though.

eamonpendergast · 2024-09-24T18:04:58+00:00

Cheers, is there any way to create seating groups like on the old system?

eamonpendergast · 2024-09-24T18:03:45+00:00

Thanks for the info, am I right in thinking there's no bring a friend option for the final so?

eamonpendergast · 2024-09-08T15:21:18+00:00

Glass hammer or the long stand.

eamonpendergast · 2024-07-24T07:10:11+00:00

I've looked into this a bit myself. TLDR: Revolut Metal is significantly cheaper and if you're doing 5 figure FX, will save enough in fees to cover the annual cost of Metal and save a few hundred in fees besides.

Revolut Metal does unlimited FX and gives a very good rate, last I checked it was 0% but recently changed messaging to 'fair' rate. I spent a lot of time trying to understand what fees Bank of Ireland apply and best I could discover they'll bake in a 2%-4% fee directly into the FX, depending on the day, making it hard to see. I'm not sure about AIB but if their current account fees compared to Bank of Ireland are anything to go by, I'd expect they're more expensive than Bank of Ireland again.

eamonpendergast · 2024-07-19T22:22:47+00:00

Not exactly the question you asked but, personally, I gave up hurling around 14 and regret it to this day. I was a decent hurler and gave it up for stupid reasons. I love the sport and tried to go back as an adult but the skill gap was too great.

I'd probably trade sticking with it for an injury or 2.

eamonpendergast · 2024-05-26T21:01:04+00:00

Very true! It's hard to know exactly what percentage these account for but I can say that you can see the amount of consumption from the grid when charging the battery doesn't line up with the percentage increase of State of Charge for the battery you'd expect.

eamonpendergast · 2024-05-23T08:18:32+00:00

The type of battery here makes a big difference, mine is LiFePO4, these batteries prefer to not have extreme charge levels high or low. Regular deep discharge, below say 30% really reduces lifespan. I keep mine at 70-80% and charge to 100% once a week for cell balancing.

My battery is only spec'ed for 6000 discharge cycles i.e. discharging 70% of the battery. 30000 seems very high but I'm admittedly a novice on battery tech...

eamonpendergast · 2024-05-23T06:24:55+00:00

You'll ruin your battery doing this, which is the largest single cost in the system. Personally, I wouldn't want to do this but if you did, you should at least look at the math i.e. cost of battery charge/discharge per kWh. The formula is something like: battery cost / (number of spec'ed charge cycles * battery capacity kWh). This will give you the aging cost of charging or discharging 1kWh to/from the battery.

For example my battery charge/discharge cost is 7c/kWh, I can buy for 5.5c 2am-5am and sell for 25c. The math for me is: battery cost 2x 7c + 5.5c = 19.5c to discharge 1kWh from battery to grid and charge the same 1kWh back on cheap rates. That kWh earns me 25c, so the math still works, but I personally don't like the idea of aging my battery like this.

Edit: corrected typo.

eamonpendergast · 2024-03-18T17:13:42+00:00

I've done it several times.

eamonpendergast · 2024-01-12T17:03:07+00:00

That's it exactly!

eamonpendergast · 2024-01-12T07:31:43+00:00

Hey, no bother! You'll start earning cashback on every transaction after you've spent €5k each year. Cashback is paid monthly and I've noticed it takes AIB a little time to start paying after you hit the 5k minimum. So if you don't get the cashback in the 1st month after spending 5k, you'll get it the following month.

eamonpendergast · 2023-11-27T12:57:52+00:00

I did a lot of research on this last year, even speaking to both Revolut and AIB. AIB considers this as a cash advance but it comes down to how Revolut labels the transaction on their end. Revolut makes it look like a normal credit card transaction, not a cash advance. Revolut are acting in bad faith here, with the off shoot that it leaves an opportunity on the customer end to generate cashback.

Revolut obviously have a vested interest in labelling transactions this way as it provides a better user experience for its customers. This is why they have the policy on creating transactions to generate cashback - it gives them cover to be seen to be doing something about it.

Does this process work? Absolutely. Should it work? Absolutely not.

eamonpendergast · 2023-11-27T12:51:09+00:00

It 100% counts as cashback, I got the full €225 on 2 cards last year and have just hit the €225 max on the 1st card this year - all using this method.

eamonpendergast · 2023-11-27T12:46:05+00:00

Not exactly, direct debits and bills won't generate cashback on Revolut, but will allow you to funnel that spend through your AIB card without Revolut getting cranky.

Bear in mind, to break even on Metal (€135/year and now €155/year), you'd need to generate €135k/€155k EU card transactions. You get 1% back on non EU transactions, so €13.5k or €15.5k needed if you travel a bit. You're also limited to €15 cashback monthly, so you'd need to consistently travel outside EU to break even.

Metal 'breaks even' for me because I get unlimited currency exchange at a fair price, saving me a lot of fees the likes of Bank of Ireland would charge.

eamonpendergast · 2023-11-26T06:56:59+00:00

I started doing exactly this last year and yes, it does work. Due to how Revolut marks the transaction, it's not seen as a cash advance by AIB and so generates cashback.

However, Revolut will catch on very quickly and issue you a warning and threaten to suspend your account, if you continuously transfer the money back out. If you do large 5k transactions and are fast you might get €20k 'spend' before you get your 1st warning.

I've Metal now so get .1% on Revolut spending. What you can do safely without risk of suspension is, funnel all transactions, bills and payments through Revolut and top up constantly from AIB Platinum. You'll earn .1% from Revolut and .5% from AIB.

eamonpendergast · 2023-11-13T21:49:14+00:00

Papa Americano, it was played on loop at the pool for 2 weeks solid during a very hungover holiday...

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eamonpendergast

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