Electric card/meter boxes

We had ours installed by Tony 685 361 794. He will set your rate on the meter, so that you can just break even on the electric costs, or he can set it so that you make a profit. We chose a break even rate as we are just looking to stop abuse, rather than make money.  Doesn't seem to put people off booking as we are pretty much fully booked for the summer and autumn.

Thanks for that info, that's what we are after, just let to friends and family and always been respectful, but we've just been shafted by a 'friend' who used the oven and air on constantly, run all the gas off and now we have a big electric bill. How much do these costs? Are they coin meter, if not, how do the cards work? Does it effect the electric bill?.....we have no idea.

It was Done in March and cost us 125 Euros. Its a card meter and you get, I think it was 750 Euro worth of cards with the installation (Best check with him before hand). They are 10 Euro cards and are very easy to use, you just push them into a slot and they register. After they run out you can purchase more from Tony, I think they were 25 cents each. When we were here in the winter we probably used around 6 Euros worth a week, with cooking most nights and using the Air Con for hot air. We looked into coin meters at the time, but all the quotes for them were at least double the card price.

They are installed in your property, usually close to the fuse box. Probably around 8 x 6 inches, they look a bit like the old fashioned black UK electric meters. They do not affect your electric at all, they are just a means of getting back the cost of electricity used by guests. Just to point out you will in effect be paying 25 cents for the 10 Euro card when you use your own electric, there is no way to by pass the meter. When guests stay, you will pay 25 cents for each 10 Euro card. So if you were staying a lot in your property and using plenty of electric its something you need to consider. As I posted in my earlier post, you can ask for a slightly more expensive rate though that would take care of the costs of the cards when you rent out.

You can purchase these card meters from the UK quite cheaply and some come with the option for owners to have a plastic card that allows them to use electric for free. So if you trusted the person renting your place you could give the plastic card to use. Other than the plastic card they work the same way as described above. Some of the ads I've seen in the UK also allow you to buy cards cheaper than 25 cents each. So the cheapest way to install a meter is to bring one from the UK and get a local electrician to install it, which also gives you more options.

We are glad it was installed as it gives us peace of mind.

Mine is a coin meter. It takes €1 and €2 coins. Personally I didn't like the card idea as I was told it's hard to get the cards. I bought mine in the UK and brought it over in hand luggage.  I used AMPS to install it. If I remember right it was costly to install. I can bypass it to get electric without paying but thats defeating the object of having a meter.

When you rent out do you offer free electricity to your tenents and after that limit they are asked to pay, or do you ask for full payment. Im just asking as I was told by a letting company I must pay the first €10 and the tenents pay the rest. 

To be fair I couldn't get my head around that one.

Lori, so you bought a Euro coin meter in the uk?  I wouldn't have thought it would be expensive for a sparky to connect up. That's a good idea though, I think I prefer the coin concept.

Dan from AMPS advised me on which one to buy. Found the company had an Ebay page and bought though it paying by Paypal.

We always make sure there is a minimum of 20 Euros for each week. They also get any existing credit below 10 Euros on the meter that the last tenant has not used. So in effect if they are lucky they could end up with 29.90 credit for one week. If there was still say 10.90 on the meter unused, we only add 10 Euros to take it up to the 20 Euros minimum.

I spoke to Tony, says 125 fitted with 25€ of cards, extra cards are 50cents??  Having a meet with him next weekend.