# ESB - Paying someones else's usage!



## Jack2008 (26 Jan 2009)

Not sure if I'm posting in the right place - Mods feel free to move it!

We live in the country and moved into our house 5years ago.
We bought the house off a farmer who at the time asked if he could temporarily leave his electric fencing for the farm plugged into our outside ESB supply.
We said no problem as money was not really an issue at the time.
Circumstances have changed a lot in recent months and when looking at our ourgoings to see where cutbacks can be made we started looking at the ESB situation as bills very high.
Does anyone have any idea how to value this usage, don't want to plug it out in case cattle get out! But can't really afford to keep paying someone elses bill! 
Can anybody quantify it for me - Its approx 8-9 acres of electric fencing and is plugged in 24/7!

Up until this christmas he made no attempt/mention of this and he arrived with €60 in a Christmas Card!!!!!!!!! This really brought it to my attention and annoyed me! I felt insulted that he values what we do so little that €60 covers the last 5 years of ESB and would love to put a true monatary value on the usage as I attend to approach him and ask for a true contribution or I will have no option but to "pull the plug"!

Sorry the post is so long but I am really annoyed over this!


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## Padraigb (26 Jan 2009)

Farmers frequently leave their electric fences turned off. Once the livestock have become accustomed to them, they avoid contact with them.


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## Jack2008 (26 Jan 2009)

No, sure its plugged in in my house!
How would be be able to turn it off without access to the plug?

So your telling me I am paying for his electric fence and that there is no need for it?
Sure thats worse again!


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## Padraigb (26 Jan 2009)

What I am suggsting is that you can unplug it.


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## MaryBe (26 Jan 2009)

Maybe this is a solution........We had reason to erect an electric fence on a friends land who let us have the use for our horses.  We did not connect to his ESB - we bought an *ordinary car battery* and it did the job.


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## Liamb (26 Jan 2009)

As an electrican who worked on electrical installation for farms about 10-15 years ago the amount of electricity used by these fencers was very low but I can not remember the figures. In some farm situation where land was a good distance away from the house ESB would install an unmetered supply if a a suitable ESB pole was close by. They just charged once of year fee and I think it was about40/50 € per year


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## Paulone (26 Jan 2009)

I think you might find that you won't be able to break out the cost of the fence separately. Maybe you don't want to raise this as an issue either...  I could be wrong but isn't electricity for commercial (&farming) purposes billed differently? Could lead to ESB looking for more money and pursuing either you or the farmer, with all the subsequent buck-passing about who's liable...

If I were you, I would be kicking myself that I let this informal situation go on so long - it should have been resolved years ago.  If you accepted the €60 then the farmer might be able to say that you have accepted this as the payment should you go a legal route.

I would approach the farmer now, clearly and directly, and say that you want it sorted within (for example) a month, and then take action to get the fence switched off after that.


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## Liamb (26 Jan 2009)

ESB is charged at the same rate on farms as in domestic situations


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## Clerragh (26 Jan 2009)

[broken link removed]

try this website.
under Miscellaneous goto Livestock Fence energiser. As far as I can see it only costs €4.09 per 2 months.
I think its as good an estimate as you can get, unless you actually install a meter on your outside plug


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## askU (26 Jan 2009)

Tell him to get a battery version!


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## cobalt (26 Jan 2009)

If you use a plug-in power monitor like this, you can see exactly how much electricity it's using.


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## Sandals (27 Jan 2009)

My neighbours have tapped into my dads farm power supply, I often see the neighbour hook a black pipe thing with a hook onto either end over my dads wire. It handy for him as the neighbour's main farm (own power base) is accross the road and so it would be an work to power this single field. From what he said its a tiny fee for eSB and the neighbour always unhook the gadget when no stock in that field. We had a monitor that read our unit use when we "borrowed" power from my parents house when we had a mobile home. To be honest the amount we used in two months was between 8-12 euro and one would be ashamed to hand only that over.


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## joeysully (4 Feb 2009)

just found this appliance calculator and thought of this thread
[broken link removed]

Electric fence on constantly costs ~ 4.09 euro for 2 months. so ~25 euro a year at the latest rate of electricity. 
so for 5 years would be somewhere in the region of 100 euro given the cheaper cost of electricity over the past years


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## Clerragh (4 Feb 2009)

Joesully,
Did you find it on this thread???
Looks like deja vu to me anyhow


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