# ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??



## Saudi (7 Feb 2006)

Hi

I've just received an ESB bill for November - December (I think it's for those months, arrived mid Jan), it came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280.  Is this excessive??  

I live in a two bed apartment with my girlfriend, the heating is one storage heater and then one electric radiator in the bedroom which isn't on much.  The water is heated and pumped by electricity too.  We are reasonably careful with usage, lights are never left on neither are radios or tvs if we aren't using them, never use the dryer, use the dishwasher sparingly.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Eoin


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## ClubMan (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*

Perhaps your bill was (over) estimated? If so you can [broken link removed] to get a corrected bill. 

This thread might be of interest to you. I will try to update my spreadsheet/graph referenced in that thread later this evening.


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## Saudi (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*

Cheers Clubman, your esb graph is helpful.  

Unfortunately this wasn't an estimate, get the feeling that something is drawing from my electricity which shouldn't be, possibly the storage heater on the wrong timer.  I know the bills have gone up since January, wanted to get a feel for how out of kilter our bill was compared to normal.


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## ClubMan (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*

Even if the bill is not estimated you should double check the readings on the bill against your meters (day and night meters) to sanity check them.


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## Leo (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*

Sounds very high to me. Were the bills based on readings or estimates?
Leo


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## CCOVICH (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*

We had a similar situation recently (bill in the region of €300), but it actually made sense when we carefully analysed vs. other months.  I think that it generally evens out over time (some times being worse than others......)


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## Sue Ellen (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*

Saudi,

The bill does seem excessive.  Perhaps a read of the key post on Storage heaters might give some advice.


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## Carpenter (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

This certainly seems excessive- we received our bill today and it amounted to €135, which I thought was a little on the high side. Last years bill for the same period was about €115, so allowing for increased unit Kw hour cost this is about right. We live in a 4 bed with oil fired heating but we do a lot of cooking; otherwise we would be very careful with our energy usage and I'd be very suspicious of a bill such as yours. If you have a bill for previous usage which differs very significantly you can contact ESB and ask them to investigate- they will do this if unusual meter readings are being produced.

(Even €280 is an awful amount- considering you have only 1 storage heater)


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## Max Hopper (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

Hmm. Perhaps you live on the ground floor? Over underground parking? Are we heating the carpark? I have seen this numerous times. Best move to the first floor.


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## brodiebabe (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

Switch the electricity off at the tripswitch and see if the meter is still going up.  I have heard of apartment meters being wired wrong and neighbours ending up paying for each others supply.


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## Ash (7 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

There was an increase in ESB prices in January - both units & standing charge I think.
Did you get any new appliances which are frequently left on stand-by?  Apparently this uses up a high percentage of the energy used when the appliance is actually on, e.g. the television - or numerous televisions.  
Our ESB bills had risen steadily over the years, it takes careful switching on/off just to try and keep the bills down.


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## ClubMan (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bills*



			
				ClubMan said:
			
		

> This thread might be of interest to you. I will try to update my spreadsheet/graph referenced in that thread later this evening.


 I have updated that spreadsheet/chart now - see here. If you still see the old one (up to January 2005) then please press _Ctrl + F5 _to force a refresh to get the new one (up to January 2006).


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## onekeano (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*



			
				Carpenter said:
			
		

> This certainly seems excessive- we received our bill today and it amounted to €135, which I thought was a little on the high side. Last years bill for the same period was about €115, so allowing for increased unit Kw hour cost this is about right. We live in a 4 bed with oil fired heating but we do a lot of cooking; otherwise we would be very careful with our energy usage and I'd be very suspicious of a bill such as yours. If you have a bill for previous usage which differs very significantly you can contact ESB and ask them to investigate- they will do this if unusual meter readings are being produced.
> 
> (Even €280 is an awful amount- considering you have only 1 storage heater)




WOW Carpenter, that seems extremely low to me. I have about 1500 sq. ft but bill came in just over €300 - having said that we wouldn't be that careful, but no storage heaters or anything like that. Did I see over the last few days that British Gas prices are going up by ANOTHER 25%? If so between that and the lads down on Poolbeg wanting to get their  snouts in the trough again I could see the bill going from €300 to €400 this time next year.

Roy


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## Carpenter (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*



			
				onekeano said:
			
		

> WOW Carpenter, that seems extremely low to me. I have about 1500 sq. ft but bill came in just over €300 - having said that we wouldn't be that careful, but no storage heaters or anything like that. Did I see over the last few days that British Gas prices are going up by ANOTHER 25%? If so between that and the lads down on Poolbeg wanting to get their snouts in the trough again I could see the bill going from €300 to €400 this time next year.
> 
> Roy


 
I suppose it's not too bad really, my ESB bills during the summer would average at around €70- 80!  I'm not mean with the juice but I am prudent:
1. Absolutely no electric drier (plenty of free air outside, clothes airer inside if it's wet- with adequate background ventilation, Heinbloed!)
2. Bulk cook meals at weekends to save time during the week (advised for anyone with young children), curries, chillies, stew/ casseroles etc, all packed in the freezer!  This is the best time, energy and effort saver of all, guranteed.
3. Nothing left on standby- except VCR (when was the last time that was even used?)
4. Lower wattage bulbs/ CFLs where possible.
5. Only fill the kettle with as much water as you NEED! (genrally never more than half full)
6. I try and buy "A" rated appliances where possible.
7. Generally use lower temperature wash cycles on the washing machine, dishwasher is always fully loaded.
8 In general I have boosted the insulation levels in the attic, insulated pipework in the hotpress, minimised draughts and heat losses where possible.
9. Showers in the house are gravity fed from the Hot Water Storage Cylinder (which is heated by oil burner)- no electric showers.
10. External security lights (PIRs) are fitted with 150 watt lamps as opposed to the standard 200- 300 watt variety.


My parents live in a bigger house and their ESB bill wouldn't be much higher- years of "turn off that light if you're not staying in the room" paid off!

Carpenter


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## Leo (8 Feb 2006)

€300 seems very high, my combined electricity and gas bills for an old 2 bed eot was about €225 for each of the last two billing periods. 



			
				Ash said:
			
		

> Did you get any new appliances which are frequently left on stand-by? Apparently this uses up a high percentage of the energy used when the appliance is actually on, e.g. the television - or numerous televisions.


Not generally true. My own TV is rated at 340W when in use, and less than 3W in standby. So it'll need to be in standby for around 350 hours to use a single unit of electricity. There was an advertising campaign some time ago encouraging people not to leave things in stanby which has led a lot of people to believe this. I even had a guy swear blind to me that the little orange light on a power socket used significant power when in fact they're generally about 0.1 watt!!! 
Leo


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## Winnie (8 Feb 2006)

Wow that does seem very high.........we are in 3 bedroom semid 1200sq ft & even taking into account the highest bills ever for combined heating (gas) & electricity this would come to max of €200 a month & this is only in winter.  Generally ESB is between 60 and 80.............


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## fobs (8 Feb 2006)

It does seem high to me. Got my bill for 180 for last bill and 135 for this bill. We have a 5-bed detached house and we have gas heating. We have 2 electric showers and heating on quite a bit. Never leave appliances on standby but i would check out what is causing the bill to be high and see if it is legit or not. Have you tried phoning the ESB to enquire if it seems high for an apartment?


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## demoivre (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

The most expensive ESB bill for us was €230 for a 2500 sq ft house with oil heating and the usual appliances like hob, ovens , dishwasher, tv and washing machine on daily.


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## MB05 (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

A friend of my sisters and her boyfriend had a similar problem.  They used to rent a 2 bed apartment and found their ESB to be a lot higher than they thought it should be.  Her boyfriend had lived in a different apartment the year before they moved in together and knew something wasn't right.

From what I know they set about trying to find the source of the problem by process of elimination.  They unplugged/disconnected everything and watched the meter's reaction as they reconnected things.  They said they tracked it down to the electric shower switch (the switch/light that needs to be turned on before you can get instant hot water).  They used to always leave it on and once they got into the habit of turning it on and off as needed there bills went down.

I find it hard to believe something so small and insignificant was causing it but they put it down to it.  Maybe it wasn't fitted correctly as we often left our's on and my ESB bills are about €450 a year for a 1750sq.ft house.  (We are out most of the day, hob is gas/oven and grill are electric. We usually only use the electric shower in summer as we have a more powerful shower which feeds off the hot water and we have plenty of that in winter.)


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## ClubMan (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*



			
				MB05 said:
			
		

> They said they tracked it down to the electric shower switch (the switch/light that needs to be turned on before you can get instant hot water).  They used to always leave it on and once they got into the habit of turning it on and off as needed there bills went down.
> 
> I find it hard to believe something so small and insignificant was causing it but they put it down to it


If you mean the electric water heating component of the shower then this is not small or insignificant in terms of electricity usage/load. Chances are this is a 1kW+ load which means a unit per hour. In most cases if your bill is too high then (a) it is estimated incorrectly (b) you are using high load appliances too much or more than you think or (c) there is some fault with your system/meter (least likely cause in most cases). In our house the loads in decrasing order of signifance/cost would be something like night rate storage heaters (at least in winter - off in summer), immersion (night rate) and then stuff like fridge (D rated appliance), oven, kettle, microwave, lighting, _TV/PC _etc. From our graph above you can see how, over the years, the costs dip significantly in summer (due to the heaters being off and holidays etc.) and the cost has remained largely similar whereas in winter it peaks and has been increasing.


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## argolis (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

Myself and gfrnd in a two bed apartment w/ storage heating, reasonably economic on ESB. Our highest bill so far was 108 recently for over the winter partially because the overnight storage wasn't working and we were relying on turning them one on during the day which supposed to be a killer. Usually around 60-70 though.

I've heard that it's possible to have two apartments connected to the same billing meter by accident or design - perhaps someone else in the know could confirm this. Then it would be something an ESB engineer could check for you?


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## Saudi (8 Feb 2006)

*Re: ESB Bill: came to €360 or previous 2 mth bill was €280. Is this excessive??*

Really appreciate all the responses.  Going to get on to ESB and figure out what's been going on as the more I read everyone's responses (particularly the last poster whose apartment sounds similiar to mine) the more sure I am that something is going on.

Cheers


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