# Electricity Bills sky high



## TomDoodle (24 Feb 2021)

Hi,

We renovated a house and moved in just over 18 months ago. Since then our bills have always been on the high side and they are continuing to go up. We installed an air to water system on the understanding that this was a very cost effective way to heat the house (installer reckoned it should heat the house for about €800-€900 a year). But the bills are getting higher if anything. Last bill was €550 and bill arrived this morning for €728. This is simply unsustainable. Any advice on why the bills are so high and what we can do to reduce them. Why are we haemorrhaging €€? Is there a way to establish just what is using up so much electricty?


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## mathepac (24 Feb 2021)

Are these estimated bills or based on meter readings?


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## Blackrock1 (24 Feb 2021)

theres a few things to understand here, what ber rating is your house? also your winter bills for these kind of systems tend to be way higher in winter and way lower in the summer.


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## jpd (24 Feb 2021)

Download this spreadsheet 
https://spreadsheetpage.com/budget/electricity-consumption/ 
fill it in and it will give you an idea of your estimated consumption

You can then compare this to your actual consumption as measured by the meter

You should also check your invoiced consumption to the actual consumption


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## Up Rovers (24 Feb 2021)

Air to water works best on very well insulated houses and I've heard it said that this level of insulation can be hard to achieve on renovated houses. Your BER rating as mentioned above is extremely important in this situation and will have a major bearing on your heating bills if it is not up to required levels.


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## _OkGo_ (24 Feb 2021)

What is the billing period? Monthly or bimonthly
Are the bills estimated or actual?
How much electricity have you actually used in kWh in the last 12 months?
How big is your home in sqm or sqft?
Have you changed provider recently? If not you have probably reverted to standard rates and are paying a lot more than what you signed up for. You should change provider every year
As for the heat pump, it really depends on the quality & level of renovation that you have done. They are generally very efficient when sized properly, used in an A rated home with the correct internal plumbing e.g. low temperature radiators or underfloor heating. To give you a rough idea, we (2 adults) live in a 4 bed semi-D (130sqm) with A3 rating. Our total usage is ~6500kWh per year of which I estimate about 3000-3500kWh is for heating (air to water HP) so our total yearly cost is ~€1,100 with roughly half of that for heating.

It sounds like your problem could be one or all of the following:

Superficial renovation did not address insulation adequately
Internal heating systems not appropriate for heat pump (were new rads or underfloor part of the renovation?)
You are heating your home too much anyway, what are your thermostats set at?
The flow temperature is set too high (see below) and it is making your heat pump terribly inefficient. Heat pumps work best when they operate a 'low and slow' heating cycle. Radiators should never be hot but should be warm for long periods
You are operating it like a gas/oil heating system i.e. you are manually turning it on and off and letting the house cool down too much. Heat pumps work best in a steady state environment so the system should be always on and the thermostats will decide when to heat or not. It is easier for heat to maintain a steady 19°C compared to warming a room back up from 14/15°C
You haven't changed provider recently and are paying 20-30% more than you need to for electricity

From SEAI Heat Pump code of Practice


> The majority of heat pumps have an operating temperature limit of 50°C – 55°C in most applications. Reducing the output temperature required from the heat pump will increase its performance; ideally the flow temperature should be 35°C for UFH systems and 45°C for Fan coil/Low temperature radiator systems


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## Leo (24 Feb 2021)

How is the building insulated? Was air-tightness addressed in the renovation work?


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## TomDoodle (24 Feb 2021)

OK, some great info there. The house is air tight 'in theory' but we do have an issue with our front door (which was never replaced when the house was renovated). Basically there is a gap between the lower part of the door and the frame (the door is slightly warped) so obviously the house isn't actually air tight atm. Obviosly its something we have to sort out but wondering is this something that would have an enormous impact on our heating?


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## jpd (24 Feb 2021)

Possibly - but first thing is to verify that the invoiced amounts are correct and not based on estimated meter readings


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## Leo (24 Feb 2021)

And insulation? Did you get an updated BER rating after the renovation?


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## Micks'r (24 Feb 2021)

TomDoodle said:


> OK, some great info there. The house is air tight 'in theory' but we do have an issue with our front door (which was never replaced when the house was renovated). Basically there is a gap between the lower part of the door and the frame (the door is slightly warped) so obviously the house isn't actually air tight atm. Obviosly its something we have to sort out but wondering is this something that would have an enormous impact on our heating?


As mentioned by others, air tightness is key to this. Was the house tested? What was the result of the air tight test?


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## Live Well (25 Feb 2021)

On the front door gap issue, you could consider installing a door brush for the bottom of the door and it could stop a lot of the air coming in. Five minute job to install one too.

Google - PVC Brush Draught Excluder


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## mike2017 (3 Mar 2021)

Find an energy monitor you can fit that gives you realtime and granular historical readings. Start isolating when the Heat Pump is active and Immersion if used, Electric Showers, Electric Cooking and the largest loads. Find out the idle load and defrost load of your heat pump vs when it is actually heating. With the cold weather recently this could drive up costs in some installations. Getting a more detailed breakdown of what is drawing load vs time would help understand what combination of devices is causing this. You can get plug in meters for sockets but it's likely to be hardwired devices drawing the highest so start there?


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## roker (3 Mar 2021)

Our bill has doubled in the last couple of month, nothing has changed in the house, we put it down to us using the clothes dryer and the boiler running all day


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## jpd (3 Mar 2021)

Clothes dryers are notoriously expensive - what model do you have and how often do you use it?

Gas boiler? that wouldn't use much electricity - well, the pump will use some but not that much, I would imagine


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## meepman (4 Mar 2021)

No expert, but as other posters have said the air to water system is designed for new insulated properties as the heat temp isn't as high.

Electricity is expensive to use for heating at the best of times. Try leaving the immersion on or use electric heaters for a week and see the bills soar.


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