#HomeTruths: Electric Ireland customers’ energy usage revealed in hidden camera series

Welcome to Electric Ireland’s Home Truths, a new digital-first series that empowers customers to take more control of their energy usage. 

The video series, available on electricireland.ie and across our social media channels (#HomeTruths), features three households with very different lifestyles. 

Electric Ireland were invited into our customers’ homes to monitor their energy consumption – from kitchen appliances, to central heating to electric vehicle (EV) chargers. 

Electric Ireland programme manager Susan Whyte inspected each room of our customers’ homes and took note of the appliances before we set up hidden cameras in each home. The cameras allowed us to closely monitor how each of our households used energy. 

Meet our customers 

Jess Family 

Mum Amy, dad Steven, kids Calum and Cora and a new pup are all under one roof in a 1960s terraced three-bed. Like most young families, they enjoy a busy and active lifestyle. And like most young families, they have a wide range of technology and gadgets around the house that make up a large part of their energy usage. 

Dad Steven is working from home full-time, meaning his laptop and accessories are constantly plugged in. Young Calum and sister Cora enjoy TV time after school, while mum Amy loves nothing but a daily vacuuming session – something she blames on new addition to the house - the puppy. 

If this sounds similar to your own lifestyle, why not find out how much energy the Jess Family are using – and how much energy they could save, by following our Home Truths series on social media this week, using #HomeTruths? Sometimes simple changes can make a huge difference.  

House share  

Matthieu, Sarah, Wale and Ophélie are all renting together in a three-storey end-of-terrace house that dates back to the 1950s. 

Between working from home, cooking for four, cleaning for four and maintaining laundry for four, the house share’s kitchen is by far the busiest room in the house. 

Sarah thinks Ophélie uses the most energy ‘because she’s always cooking’, but Wale believes Sarah’s hairdryer uses the most electricity. Matthieu is busted for forgetting to turn the hot water off when he’s finished using it. 

But the house also has single-glazed windows towards the back, which account for a high level of heat loss. Who do you think fared best when Electric Ireland monitored the home’s energy usage? Follow #HomeTruths on social media for the next video.   

McCoy Family

Caitriona, Kyle and daughters Ciara and Cailyn have recently moved into their three-bed home. They are in the middle of retrofitting the home so that it is insulated enough to achieve a BER rating of A. Still to be completed is swapping out the single-glaze windows for double-glaze and a few interiors projects.  

Caitriona and Kyle, however, have taken steps to ensure their family home and lifestyle is as environmentally friendly as possible by investing in a smart thermostat, which controls their heating, and an EV, which they use daily. Find out if these eco-friendly smart technologies have saved the McCoys money by following along on social using #HomeTruths.  

For energy-saving tips, see here. 

Use #HomeTruths to follow the series on social media, where we’ll be monitoring our customers’ energy usage and sharing daily snippets of what we found.  

Follow Electric Ireland on social media: Twitter: @electricireland Facebook: @ Electric Ireland Instagram: @electricireland