The Spark #029: Every Supplier Has Now Hiked and the Budget Eyes Heating Oil
Shamrock Electrical
Welcome to Issue #29. The 2026 energy price sweep is complete: Bord Gáis and Energia both announced increases this week, meaning every major supplier in the State has now raised prices this year, and nearly all of it lands on October bills. At the Ploughing yesterday the Government all but promised Budget help on home heating oil, which is up 44 per cent in a year, and that number is exactly why electric radiators get this week's spotlight. There is even a small mercy in the middle of it all: copper finally eased.
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Bord Gáis and Energia Complete the Sweep: Every Major Supplier Has Now Hiked in 2026
Two more in one week. Bord Gáis, the State's largest gas supplier, is raising electricity by 8.8 per cent on a typical bill, around €177 a year, and gas by 9.3 per cent, around €140, from October 9th, with some dual fuel customers facing over €300 a year extra. Energia, the last major holdout, followed on Thursday: electricity up 4.73 per cent, gas up 9.38 per cent, dual fuel around €230 a year, from October 12th, its first gas increase since 2022.
That completes the set. Electric Ireland moved in May, then Yuno, PrePayPower and Flogas through the summer, SSE Airtricity and Pinergy as we covered in recent weeks, and now Bord Gáis and Energia. Add the CRU's €41.25 network charge rise on October 1st, which applies to every bill regardless of supplier, and October is the month the whole country opens a worse envelope.
What it means for you: There has never been a better month to be the person who shows up with answers. The homeowner who shrugged at an LED upgrade in March is doing the sums in October. Heating controls, zone valves and smart immersion timers, kitchen and hall lighting swapped to LED, a night-rate load plan for anyone with a smart meter: put a simple menu of these on one page with rough annual savings, and hand it out on every call this autumn. The fittings side of that list is on the website, and the controls and switchgear side is available in-store at Greenogue, with trade pricing on all of it: 01 401 9907.
The Budget Eyes Heating Oil, Up 44 Per Cent in a Year
Speaking around the Ploughing yesterday, the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister Jack Chambers all pointed the same direction: Budget 2027, three weeks today, is likely to carry relief on home heating oil. Kerosene is up 44 per cent in twelve months, it carries 13.5 per cent VAT against 9 per cent on gas, and the options being weighed are a carbon tax cut on kerosene or bringing the VAT into line. Chambers said the Government is "specifically seeking to respond" on kerosene and home heating oil; nothing is decided yet, and the separate question of extending the road fuel supports is still open too. At the pumps, September has been steadier: petrol averaging €1.87 and diesel €1.94, though some forecourts have diesel over €2.
What it means for you: Roughly 700,000 Irish homes heat with oil, and every one of them just had their most expensive year. That is the backdrop to a conversation the trade is well placed to have honestly: not every oil home is ready for a heat pump, but nearly every one of them has rooms where targeted electric heating, proper controls and better lighting would cut the oil burn meaningfully. If the Budget does move on kerosene, it eases the pain without changing the direction of travel. The direction of travel is electric, and it is your trade.
⚖️ Watch List: Copper Breathes Out, 77,000 at Screggan, and the Review That Never Comes
Copper. At last, a down week. LME copper closed around $14,065 a tonne on Monday, its lowest since late August and its first weekly loss since June, as exchange stocks finally rose. Keep it in perspective: that is a breather off the record run we covered last week, not a reversal, and supplier price lists are still catching up with the highs rather than the dip. If you held off buying autumn cable, this is a better week to ring for a price than the last four were.
The Ploughing. 77,000 through the gates at Screggan on day one in the sunshine, with the final day running tomorrow. Worth a mention from the trade's corner: ESB Networks is on site all week pushing farm electrical safety with Agriland, overhead lines and ever-bigger machinery being a lethal combination that kills people in this country most years. If you do agri work, their guidance is worth passing on to every farm customer.
The apprentice review. The independent review of the Phase 4 and 6 exam papers was due "by the end of July". It is now seven weeks past that, with nothing published, while the affected apprentices sit their fee-free repeats this month. We will keep asking. If your apprentice is sitting a repeat, the supports and the helpline are still live: 1800 794 487 or apprenticeship@solas.ie.
One to watch: the CSO's Q2 planning permissions figures are due any day. We will have them next week.
🌿 The Heating Enquiries Start This Fortnight
The first proper cold mornings of the autumn do something reliable: they turn last winter's grumbles into this winter's phone calls. The boiler that limped through March, the freezing home office, the box room the rads never reached, the granny flat with no heating at all. Those calls start in the next fortnight, and with oil up 44 per cent and every electricity supplier hiking, this year they come with a sharper question behind them: what is the cheapest way to be warm?
Three conversations worth being ready for:
- "Can you heat just this one room?" Yes: a wall-mounted electric radiator on its own switched spur, sized to the room, with a built-in timer and thermostat. No plumbing, no boiler upgrade, fitted in a morning.
- "The heating is on but the bills are savage." Controls first: room stats, zone timing, a smart immersion switch so the hot water is not heating the attic all day. Cheap fixes, visible savings.
- "We're thinking about getting off oil altogether." The honest answer is staged: controls and targeted electric heat now, insulation next, heat pump when the house and the budget are ready. Being the electrician who says that builds the kind of trust that gets you the whole journey.
🔥 Product Spotlight: Electric Radiators
With oil at record prices, our electric radiators range earns its first spotlight of the season. Slim wall-mounted panels with built-in thermostats and timers, sized from the small box-room panel up to units that will hold a good-sized living room, and every one of them is a straightforward electrician's install: a switched spur, a neat fix to the wall, done.
Where they win the job:
- The rooms the heating never reached: attic conversions, garden rooms, home offices and extensions where running pipework costs more than the radiator.
- Landlord and rental work: individual room heating with no boiler to service, no gas cert, and a timer the tenant cannot lose.
- The oil-home top-up: heat the two rooms the family actually lives in electrically, and let the oil boiler work a short day. With kerosene at this year's prices, the sums have never looked better.
Trade pricing: Website prices are retail. On a rental block's worth of panels or a whole-house fit, ring the counter on 01 401 9907 or email sales@shamrockelectrical.ie and we'll price it properly. Spurs, RCBOs and the board work behind them are available in-store at Greenogue.
💡 Contractor Tip of the Week: Getting Paid on Time When Everyone's Bills Are Rising
Every October bill that lands on your customers this month is competing with your invoice. Late payment creeps up on the trade every winter, and the fix is a system, not a temper. Six habits:
- Terms on the quote, not the invoice. "Payment within 7 days of completion" written where the customer sees it before they say yes. Nobody can be surprised by a term they signed.
- Invoice the day the job finishes. Every day between finishing and invoicing tells the customer it is not urgent for you either.
- Day seven: the friendly nudge. A one-line text works better than a formal letter: "Hi John, just flagging the invoice from last week, any issues give me a shout."
- Day thirty: pick up the phone. Emails get filed, calls get answered. Stay pleasant, ask if there is a problem with the work, and agree a date before hanging up.
- Stage payments on anything over a few grand. Deposit on booking, a payment at first fix, balance at handover. If a customer baulks at staging, that is information worth having before you start.
- Know your rights on commercial debts. Business-to-business, you are entitled to statutory late payment interest and compensation costs, and the Small Claims procedure handles consumer disputes up to €2,000 for €25. Mentioning either, politely, is usually the last step you ever need.
📅 Dates to Know
- Thursday September 17th: Final day of the Ploughing at Screggan.
- Wednesday September 23rd: CIF Annual Conference, Croke Park.
- Thursday October 1st: CRU network charges up €41.25 a year on every bill.
- Early October: SSE Airtricity increases take effect.
- Tuesday October 6th: Budget 2027. Watch for the heating oil move.
- Friday October 9th: Bord Gáis increases take effect.
- Monday October 12th: Energia increases take effect.
- Sunday October 25th: Clocks go back.
- Sunday November 1st: Fuel excise restoration begins: petrol up 5c, diesel up 7c.
- Every Wednesday: The Spark lands in your inbox.
That's it for this week. Get the one-page savings menu ready for October, ring for a cable price while copper is drawing breath, and if the heating questions start early, the radiators are on the shelf. Trade counter is open Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 9am to 1:30pm.
The Shamrock Electrical Team
Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin
01 401 9907 | sales@shamrockelectrical.ie
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📖 Previous Issues
- Issue 028: SSE hikes 9 per cent, copper sets records, and the new 50m LED site lighting reel
- Issue 027: The excise reprieve is signed, the summer that cooked Irish homes, storm season opens, emergency lighting
- Issue 026: September's fuel excise hikes scrapped, Dublin's 80,000 home pipeline, wall lanterns and the Fumagalli range
- Issue 025: The eclipse rattles the grid, construction PMI back to growth, copper near record, schools are back
About Shamrock Electrical Supplies
Shamrock Electrical Supplies is an electrical wholesaler and retailer based in Greenogue Business Park, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. We supply professional electrical contractors and homeowners across Ireland.
Contractors who open a trade account get competitive trade pricing, reliable stock availability, and a team that knows what they are talking about.
Find Us
Shamrock Electrical Supplies
Unit 22, Block 613, Jordanstown Road
Greenogue Business Park
Rathcoole, Co. Dublin, D24 TX98
Opening Hours
Monday to Friday: 7am to 5pm
Saturday: 9am to 1:30pm
Sunday: Closed
Get in Touch
📞 01 401 9907
✉️ sales@shamrockelectrical.ie
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