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How we decide what's cheapest
“Cheapest” is only meaningful if you say cheapest by what measure. Here is exactly how we rank suppliers — and why we refuse to play the headline-percentage game.
The metric: your real cost in euro, per year
We rank every plan by one number — the total amount it would cost youover a year, in euro. No relative percentages, no “up to” savings. The calculation is simply:
What goes into the ranking
- The unit rate(s) per kWh — day, night, peak and EV bands where they apply
- The standing charge, by your actual region (urban DG1 vs rural DG2)
- Welcome credit / cashback, amortised across the first year
- Clean Export Guarantee payments, subtracted for solar homes
- Your real usage — entered, or read from your ESB half-hourly export
What we refuse to do
- Quote a headline percentage against a fictional “average” home
- Rank a NightSaver or EV tariff as cheapest for a daytime household
- Hide that a “cheapest” price is a year-one new-customer rate
- Take supplier commissions that bias the order of results
The questions every “cheapest” claim should answer
“Cheapest” — measured how?
When a supplier says it's the cheapest, the honest follow-up is: cheapest at what annual usage, on which tariff, for a new customer or an existing one, and in which region? Change any of those and the ranking changes. We make all four explicit and let you set them to your own situation.
Why we don't trust the “Save 27%” headlines
Those percentages are calculated against a fixed reference consumption figure — often the supplier-friendly 4,200 kWh. If you use more (and most modern homes do), the percentage is meaningless for you. We never lead with a percentage; we show your euro cost per year.
New-customer vs standard rates
Most cheapest claims quietly use year-one discounted new-customer rates. We let you toggle between the new-customer rate and the standard rate an existing customer pays once discounts end — because that's what you'll actually be charged in year two.