The short version: tell your current supplier your moving date and take a photographed closing read at the old house on the day you leave. At the new house, take an opening read the moment you get the keys and open an account against its MPRN (electricity, 11 digits) and GPRN (gas, 7 digits) — with your existing supplier or a brand-new one. Set it up before move-in and the supply carries straight through; it is the account that changes, not the wires.
Shopping fresh for the new address? Start with best energy in Ireland or the 30-second find your energy matcher. matched.ie is not a CRU-accredited comparison site — the accredited comparators are listed on cru.ie.
Is moving house the same as switching energy supplier?
No — and the difference decides everything else on this page. With broadband, you ring the provider, they check the new Eircode and they physically move your plan to the new line (we cover that circus in the broadband guides). Energy does not work that way. Your electricity account is tied to the old house’s MPRN — the 11-digit meter-point number that starts with 10 — and your gas account to its 7-digit GPRN. Those numbers belong to the building. They cannot travel with you, so neither can the account.
What happens instead is a clean break and a fresh start: the account at the old address closes on a final meter reading, and a new account opens against the new house’s numbers. Suppliers file it as a change of occupancy or a new account, not as a change of supplier — which is why none of the switching machinery you may have read about in how to switch applies here. There is no 2–4 week change-of-supplier registration, no cooling-off tangle with an old contract, and no need for the old and new account to even be with the same company.
That fresh start is also quietly the good news. Because you are opening a new account no matter what, you get to make the supplier decision all over again — and this time as a new customer at the new address, which is exactly the status Irish suppliers reserve their best discounts for. More on that below.
What should I do in the week or two before moving?
The whole job is six actions spread over about two weeks, and none of them takes longer than a phone call. Here is the timeline we would follow ourselves.
| When | What to do | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| ~2 weeks out | Get the new house’s MPRN and GPRN — from a seller’s bill, or from ESB Networks and Gas Networks Ireland. Our MPRN and GPRN guides show every route. | You cannot open an account without the numbers, and solicitors are slow the week of closing. |
| ~2 weeks out | Decide the supplier for the new address: keep your current one or take a new-customer deal from the ranking. Check what meter the new house has first. | The plan must match the meter on the wall — NightSaver and smart tariffs do not follow you to a house without the right meter. |
| ~1 week out | Ring your current supplier: give the moving date, a forwarding address, and — if the new house is disconnected or long-vacant — start the reconnection conversation now. | Booking the close in advance means the account ends the day you leave, not the day you remember. |
| Moving day — old house | Photograph every meter and submit the closing reads. | The closing read is where your bills stop. Without it, the final bill is an estimate. |
| Moving day — new house | Photograph every meter before you use anything, and give the opening reads to the new account’s supplier. | Everything on the clock before that read belongs to the previous occupant — the photo proves where their usage ends and yours begins. |
| Week after | Check the old account’s final bill against your photo, collect any credit refund, and confirm the account shows as closed. | An account nobody closed keeps charging standing charges on an empty house — the one genuinely expensive mistake on this page. |
How do I close the energy account at my old house?
One call or one web form to your current supplier, ideally about a week before you go. They will want three things: the date your responsibility ends — usually the day the sale closes or you hand over the keys — a forwarding address for the final bill and any refund, and a closing meter reading for each fuel, submitted on the day itself.
The closing read is the piece worth doing properly. Photograph the meter with the digits legible — our electricity and gas meter reading guides cover the fiddly dial-and-decimal cases — and submit it the same day. On a smart meter the supplier can pull the read remotely, but the photo is still your evidence if the final bill looks wrong. Skip the read and the account closes on an estimate instead, and estimates drift — you could end up paying for units the next owner burns.
Expect the final bill within the following billing cycle. It should run from your last normal bill to the closing read, include any final standing charges, and refund any credit you have built up — especially likely if you pay by level direct debit through the summer. If the account was mid-contract, this is also where an early-exit fee would appear, and that is worth a section of its own below.
How do I set up electricity and gas at the new house?
The new account hangs off the new house’s numbers, so job one is having them ready: the MPRN from any of the routes in find your MPRN — a seller’s bill, or ESB Networks with the address — and, if the house has gas, the GPRN via find your GPRN — a bill, or Gas Networks Ireland with the address, Eircode or meter serial. If you are not even sure who currently supplies the house, who is my supplier shows how to find out, though for an owner-occupier move it rarely matters: you are opening a new account, not joining the old one.
Then sign up — online or by phone — with whichever supplier you chose, giving the MPRN and/or GPRN, your opening meter readings from the day you got the keys, your name and the new address, and an IBAN if you want the direct-debit discounts. Ask for the account to start from key day. Because the connection is almost always already energised, there is no engineer, no appointment and no waiting period in the normal case — the account starts on paper, and the lights were never off.
Two wrinkles to check while you are at it. First, the meter decides the menu: a NightSaver plan needs a day-night meter at the new address, and smart time-of-use, EV and dynamic plans need a smart meter — see NightSaver vs smart before you order a plan the house cannot run. Second, if the new house has a prepay meter a previous owner installed, you can use it or ask about moving to bill pay — prepay vs bill pay covers which is dearer and why.
Should I keep my supplier or shop around when I move?
Run the comparison — because a move is the one time shopping costs you nothing extra. You are opening a new account whichever name goes on it, so the usual friction of switching has already been paid. The only question is which account to open.
Keeping your supplier is one phone call: they close the old address and open the new one, your direct debit carries on, and some brands will re-offer a discount at the new address — ask, do not assume. It is the right answer when you are mid-discount on a rate you like, or when moving week has no room left in it.
Shopping fresh means opening the new account as a new customer of somebody else — and new-customer discounts in Irish energy are large precisely because suppliers know most people never move off them. If you have been with your supplier more than a year, you are probably on their standard rate, and almost any year-1 deal beats a standard rate. Compare on best energy in Ireland — which shows year-1 and year-2 cost, because the discount dies at month 12 — or answer a few questions on find your energy. And whichever way you go, diarise month 11: the new-address discount has the same cliff as every other one.
Do I pay an exit fee if I move house mid-contract?
Maybe — and this is the one answer on this page we will not give you as a hard rule, because it genuinely varies by brand. The background: most Irish energy deals are 12-month fixed terms, and leaving early normally costs €0 to €150 per fuel depending on the supplier — Community Power charges nothing, most big brands charge €50 per fuel, Yuno €100, SSE Airtricity €100 on fixed-rate plans, Prepay Power up to about €135 on electricity, and Pinergy a flat €150 ex VAT. The full per-brand table lives in how to switch and the fine print in the exit fees guide.
A genuine house move, though, is often treated differently from walking to a competitor. Many suppliers waive the early-exit fee when the account closes because you are leaving the property — and some waive it only if you open your new account with them at the new address. The conditions live in each brand’s terms and change without ceremony, so we will not tell you your fee is waived. Ask your supplier directly, before you book the movers, and get the answer in writing. If the fee does stand, weigh it the same way you would any exit fee: against what the new-customer deal at the new address saves you in year one.
Will the electricity and gas be on when I move in?
In the normal case, yes — and it is worth understanding why, because it takes the panic out of moving week. The companies you pay are retailers; the wires belong to ESB Networks and the pipes to Gas Networks Ireland, whoever the occupant is. When the previous owner closes their account, nobody drives out to pull a fuse — the connection stays energised and the address simply waits for its next account holder. Set your account up for key day and the handover is entirely administrative: the same electrons, a different name on the bill.
The edge case is the property that has been physically disconnected — common when a house stood vacant for a long time, was a new build never energised, or had the gas meter capped or removed. Reconnection is a network-operator job: ESB Networks re-energises electricity connections and Gas Networks Ireland uncaps or reinstates gas ones, usually once a supplier account exists for the address. Fees apply — confirm the current charge with the network operator — and a long-vacant property can need additional safety checks before re-energising, which adds lead time. If the estate agent mentions the house has been empty for years, or you cannot find a live meter, make this call two weeks out, not on moving day.
What does the moving-day checklist look like?
Print this, or screenshot it. Left column before you lock the old door for the last time; right column the moment the new keys are in your hand.
| Old house — before you leave | New house — when you get the keys |
|---|---|
| Photograph the electricity meter (and gas, if any) with the digits legible | Photograph the electricity and gas meters before you switch anything on |
| Submit the closing reads to your supplier — app, web form or phone | Send the opening reads to the supplier opening the new account |
| Confirm the account closes today, with a forwarding address on file | Confirm the new account starts today, against the right MPRN/GPRN |
| Note any exit-fee answer you were given, in writing | Check what meter type is on the wall — it decides which plans you can have |
| Leave the keys — not your name on the bills | If a prepay meter is fitted, check the balance and how to top up before tonight |
What is the one mistake that actually costs money?
The two-homes trap: leaving the old account open. An open energy account keeps charging standing charges every day — plus the PSO levy on electricity — even with the house empty and every switch off, and estimated bills can keep landing on top of that. Move without closing the account and you are quietly paying for two homes; leave it long enough and unpaid bills in your name can age into arrears. The whole defence is one call: moving date, closing read, forwarding address. Five minutes, done.
The mirror-image mistake at the new house is smaller but real: using the supply for weeks without opening an account. The units still get metered against the MPRN, and the eventual first bill can arrive as an unfriendly estimate with no opening read of yours to anchor it. Open the account from key day and the photo of the meter draws the line for you.
What if I am renting rather than buying?
This page is written for owner-occupiers changing Eircode. If you are a tenant moving into a rental — or a landlord handing a house over — the mechanics rhyme but the details differ: the account must sit with whoever pays the bill, a previous tenant’s arrears cannot debt-flag you, and landlord-fitted prepay meters bring their own questions. That all lives in the change of occupancy guide, and the supplier shortlist for short leases and low exit fees is best energy for renters.
Where to next?
- Best energy in Ireland — the ranking to shop the new address against, with year-1 and year-2 cost.
- Find your MPRN and find your GPRN — every route to the new house’s numbers when there is no bill to hand.
- How to submit a meter reading — where the closing and opening reads actually go.
- Energy exit fees — the per-brand fees and when they bite.
- How to switch energy supplier — for the change-of-supplier process once you are settled in.
