# Is the cost of electricity going down



## Conshine (19 Jan 2009)

I have my ESB bill and the reading is an estimate.

But they have under estimated.

If electricity will be going up in price, I will contact them and get the reading corrected now.

If its going down, I will leave it.


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## gipimann (19 Jan 2009)

The unit cost of electricity has gone up since 1 Jan, however there's an offset deduction of approx 2 euro per bill to be applied to all bills from 31st January.

I got my (also estimated) bill, and it has most units charged at the old rate, some at the new.

Edit: see correction in my next post - deduction is approx €2 per month, not per bill.


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## Taydo (19 Jan 2009)

Gone down by 2.5 % according to the examiner newspaper.


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## gipimann (19 Jan 2009)

From the leaflet sent out by ESB with their current bills:

_"The commission for energy regulation has approved an average decrease of 0.6% in regulated household electricity prices from 1/1/2009"_

_"The average price decrease results from the combined impact of the following"_

_- ESB's contribution of €300 million to all customers_
_- An increase of 2.7% in electricity unit charges_
_- proceeds from sale of certain ESB generating plant (the PSO Related Rebate)"_

The PSO related rebate is worth €1.91 per month (not per bill as I said earlier), so depending on your electricity usage, the rebate might be wiped out by the increased unit costs.   

The rebate is only applied to bills with meter readings from 31/1/2009, however the increased unit charge came into effect from 1/1/2009.


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## MacTheKnife1 (19 Jan 2009)

Given that ESB workers are the only workers in the country to get a pay increase is it any wonder we have to pay more?


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## Taydo (20 Jan 2009)

Off the beaten track a bit but has anyone ever heard of an ESB meter reading incorrectly and is there anyway to check usage versus meter reading. A friend of mines bill with slightly above average usage is consistently around the 400 euro mark. With a similar usage neighbour registering about 100-120 euros less on the ESB bill. Any thoughts ye wise ones of the AAM.


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## MacTheKnife1 (21 Jan 2009)

Taydo said:


> Off the beaten track a bit but has anyone ever heard of an ESB meter reading incorrectly and is there anyway to check usage versus meter reading. A friend of mines bill with slightly above average usage is consistently around the 400 euro mark. With a similar usage neighbour registering about 100-120 euros less on the ESB bill. Any thoughts ye wise ones of the AAM.



400 euro bill - so 200 a month? That seems very high. But if they have electric heating on all the time, or if they have a hot water tap leaking and water heating is electric, then I suppose it could happen.

Need more details - sort of space heating (electric or not), water heating(electric or not), lighting used (CFL or not), how many people in the house etc etc. 

Also is it possible the previous bill was an estimate and so they have now gotten a higher bill to compensate for a lower bill the previous time.


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## RSMike (21 Jan 2009)

Taydo said:


> Gone down by 2.5 % according to the examiner newspaper.



Is this true, I can't find anything on this?


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## Taydo (21 Jan 2009)

Small Article. Cannot remember what day it was and also read it online so I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to give you a page number.Sorry.

As for the Electricity meter issue. 4 people in the house. Immersion used infrequently as they have electric shower, slightly above average usage of standard electrical appliances. Neighbours estimated usage seems to be higher but bill is less. Last bill was a reading.


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## MacTheKnife1 (21 Jan 2009)

Can you get the amount of the last two or three bills - just to see if there was a low estimate bill followed by a compensating high bill.

400 seems very high. Sure there are no electric heaters??


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## RSMike (21 Jan 2009)

Taydo said:


> Small Article. Cannot remember what day it was and also read it online so I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to give you a page number.Sorry.



No problem, sounds promising anyway, hopefully it might put pressure on Bord Gais to drop their prices also, I guess their rate must be way over priced at this stage.




Taydo said:


> As for the Electricity meter issue. 4 people in the house. Immersion used infrequently as they have electric shower, slightly above average usage of standard electrical appliances. Neighbours estimated usage seems to be higher but bill is less. Last bill was a reading.



From another thread I learnt that you can now see your bill /meter history online with ESB over the last number of years, Its a handy way to check if you have had a sudden unexpected spike in usage, It even gives a graphical representation of the last years bills, very useful:
[broken link removed]
Register at the bottom left of page, You need a bill handy for your account number and MPRN to register, but its otherwise quick and easy.

Also If you don't believe your bill their usage calculator is a good way to do an estimate:
[broken link removed]

Amazing how many small appliances add up, don't forget things that they do not list like Portable/DECT phones that are plugged in 24/7.


I had a sudden dramatic increase in my bill 2 years ago and it was July when I would have expected it to go down, Turned out it was due to an incorrectly wired new immersion switch and a bad earth, basically current was leaking directly to earth causing my meter to whizz around, :-(


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## extopia (21 Jan 2009)

Re electricity prices:

Forget the examiner article. Gipimann's post above is correct.

By the way, the 300m is being used to keep the increase down. ESB claims that prices would have gone up 10% without this "rebate."


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## Conshine (21 Jan 2009)

RSMike said:


> I had a sudden dramatic increase in my bill 2 years ago and it was July when I would have expected it to go down, Turned out it was due to an incorrectly wired new immersion switch and a bad earth, basically current was leaking directly to earth causing my meter to whizz around, :-(


 
What kind of increase did you experience?
How did you find out the reason?
I have had a new immersion fitted recently.
It could explain my bill being higher than expected. It is about €100 more that I expected - Immersion was installed 2 months ago.


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## extopia (21 Jan 2009)

Easy enough to check. Just turn everything off (including the immersion) and check to see if your meter is running.


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## RSMike (21 Jan 2009)

Conshine said:


> What kind of increase did you experience?
> How did you find out the reason?
> I have had a new immersion fitted recently.
> It could explain my bill being higher than expected. It is about €100 more that I expected - Immersion was installed 2 months ago.



How I found out was the light on the immersion switch was very dim, took the cover off and checked the wiring and saw the problem, nobody to blame but myself as I fitted the new switch when the old one failed, obviously was not careful enough
Don't have that bill anymore (Jul 2005) , but looking online I can see my normal July consumption is about 700-800 KwH and it was 1200 KwH that month, so abot 60% up, must have been about €100 at least, Costly mistake


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## killybram (22 Jan 2009)

I called Airtricity last month and they have promised to be 5% cheaper than ESB all the time. I'm thinking of changing just out of principle and just to sicken the ESB. The savings would only be about a fiver a month.


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## RSMike (26 Jan 2009)

killybram said:


> I called Airtricity last month and they have promised to be 5% cheaper than ESB all the time. I'm thinking of changing just out of principle and just to sicken the ESB. The savings would only be about a fiver a month.



Thanks for waking me up to this, I did not even realise they were taking residential customers yet, they sure don't seem to be advertising it very much.

Anyway I got rates from them today by e-mail, they responded within 2 hours, The rates are up to 10% cheaper, To get 10% you have to go on e-billing, Direct Debit, and Flat Payment (equal payments each month), if you don't take these options the discount decreases for each option you don't take, so discount is in the range 3-10%

But certainly possible to get 10% discount, I am tempted, What's the downside?


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## RSMike (27 Jan 2009)

FYI, Not sure how long it has been up but CER now have a Consumer Website

http://www.energycustomers.ie/

Its not bad.


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## bond-007 (8 Feb 2009)

gipimann said:


> From the leaflet sent out by ESB with their current bills:
> 
> _"The commission for energy regulation has approved an average decrease of 0.6% in regulated household electricity prices from 1/1/2009"_
> 
> ...


So for a high user like myself there is no decrease at all just a net increase.


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## wheeler (17 Feb 2009)

killybram said:


> I called Airtricity last month and they have promised to be 5% cheaper than ESB all the time. I'm thinking of changing just out of principle and just to sicken the ESB. The savings would only be about a fiver a month.


 

Is this definitely to be 5% cheaper ALL the time?

So if ESB go down then Airtricity will follow suit immediately?


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