High electricity bills - where are we going wrong ?

S

Setanta12

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We're a couple living in a 2-bed second-floor of three apartment.

We were with an alternate electricity provider but switched to Bord Gais about a year or so ago for both gas and electricity.

I know, I know, I know - usual story of not checking bills and a cold Winter but recently we've noticed our huge electricity bills. They're running to about e250 now, bill just in the door - this despite being away on holidays for a fortnight having turned off everything (and I mean everything)!

Our bills read 'A' for actual reading of the meter so we haven't checked this just yet, under lock-and-key with management cmmttee.

We don't have excessive or even normal 'anything', we even sometimes like to sleep with windows open and water is luke-warm-to-warm.

Where are we going wrong ?
 
That sounds very high, although prices have gone up recently.

Sounds like someone is stealing your electricity, doesn't it?

ONQ.
 
Agree- that sounds very high... there are "consumption calculators" out there... [broken link removed]

Haven't used them so can't comment on their accuracy... Just wondering on how the apartments are split up in relation to the electric usage? Each has it owns board? wonder if you are being charged for someone elses use? Were your builds always "higher than expected / normal"?
 
1: the A means they read the meter so the estimated could have been behind the actual.

Call BG and get the actual bills since you joined them.

Also get bills from previous supplier.

I presume the 250 is for 2 months?

You need to ensure that the meter number assigned to you is the correct one, when u get access to the meter room bring your camera and foto the meter, making sure u can read all the numbers.

If push comes to shove u need to have the power cut at the meter and make sure the power to your apt gets cut.

However it does not mean that there is not a second apt on your meter so what u need to do there is ensure that every thing in your apt is off, the wheel on the meter should not be moving

You say nothing about what uses the elec is put to?
Underfloor heating
storage heaters
fan heaters
Old fridge freezer
no timer on immersion in HP
no lagging jacket on immersion
air con:)
 
to get a clear picture of whats happening you need to dig out the last 3 or 4 bills- go back to the last actual reading taken. what could have happened was you had a few estimated bills which were on the low side- so when they took an actual reading the next bill you got was massive to bring your account up to date . or they could have taken a wrong reading so bill is wrong- this happened to me last year i nearly had a heart attack - got bill for 600 odd euro !!!

if thats not the case then hasta la vista s advice is spot on
 
This last bill was e265 - and we were abroad for two weeks of these eight weeks. Previous bill was e340.

Two bed apartment second floor of three floors. Had a shower tonight and waited for water to naturally warm up i.e. wasn't boiling flowing out of the taps. No storage heaters - no heat full stop !

Bord Gais will send someone out to check ... for a fee of e220 before VAT!

Hmmm ... our meter is under lock-and-key but we're arranging to inspect it ourselves. All readings have been 'A' i.e. Actual readings.

Dumb question - we have a large TV, UPC box, and DVD player - could these on stand-by be causing it ? But not that much, surely !? (We always even make sure our phone-chargers are never on standby!)
 
The big users of electricity are things that heat up water.So:
Is your shower electric and how long do you use it
Do you use the immersion and if so for how long a day
Do you use a tumble drier
How often do you use the washing machine
These items use huge amounts of electricity (shower about 1.50 an hour)
If you took 4 15 minute showers a day,that would be not far off 100 on a bill!
I looked up typical standby power consumption for tv dvd etc ,and in the context of your bills,its immaterial.
 
I use an emersion at the moment to heat hot water, I have it on a timer to com on at night for the shortest time possible to make enough hot water for 1 big bath a day... I have monitored my electric usage and i am still supprised I use 150 units a week 50 of these units are for the hot water.

that give you a good idea how much they cost to run
 
hastalavista said:
...Old fridge freezer
Click to expand...

Interesting you should mention this. We have a modern fridge freezer and a quite modern chest freezer but we also have a 25 yr old fridge freezer and enormous electric bills. Could the old FF be behind a lot of this? Slim
 
Slim said:
Interesting you should mention this. We have a modern fridge freezer and a quite modern chest freezer but we also have a 25 yr old fridge freezer and enormous electric bills. Could the old FF be behind a lot of this? Slim
Click to expand...

Why would anyone need three freezers ?
 
we need to distinguish between an appliance that uses a lot of power but only for a short time. I agree the big power users are the ones that consume the mula if used a lot however:

elec kettle 2000w for 5 minutes: 66 watts Correction this should have been 166 see my later post
versus an old fridge freezer which could be on 24/7 at 250-275w. 6,000 watts

In addition, navel gazing with the fridge door open costs loadsa because even for a modern fridge the estimate is that it takes 7 minutes of recovery time for each minute the fridge is open.
The numbers for the freezer section is higher.

How many times do you see teenagers looking in the fridge, texting and moaning about there is nothing to eat.
An energy saving tip for the RWC: take the beer out of the plastic wrap or box before putting in fridge so you can just grab and go rather than struggling with the plastic with door open
 
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hastalavista said:
elec kettle 2000w for 5 minutes: 66 watts
versus an old fridge freezer which could be on 24/7 at 250-275w. 6,000 watts

An energy saving tip for the RWC:
Click to expand...

Yes, that is frightening, especially as the freezer section does not close properly anymore and ices up considerably. will think about disposal.

BTW, what is an RWC?

Slim
 
Slim said:
Yes, that is frightening, especially as the freezer section does not close properly anymore and ices up considerably. will think about disposal.

BTW, what is an RWC?

Slim
Click to expand...

Rugby World Cup: sorry:)
 
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even with freezer your bill is still very very high.
If I was you i'd be beating down the door of the management committee demanding to check out meter number against one on the bill. also take a meter reading yourself today and take another reading yourself a week later- you need to start gathering hard facts as its not even cold yet- what happens when you need the heating on !

Also check with your neighbours in the apartment block- what are their bills like ?
 
hastalavista said:
elec kettle 2000w for 5 minutes: 66 watts
versus an old fridge freezer which could be on 24/7 at 250-275w. 6,000 watts
Click to expand...

This is meaningless, and doesn't make sense.

A 2KW kettle uses (generally) 2KW's of power continuously from the moment it is switched on until its turned off, nothing more, nothing less. However what you are charged for is amount of energy used per hour ie. KiloWatt hours (KWh). Known as "units"

So a 2Kw kettle on for five minutes will use 0.166666 of a unit.

(IE. 2Kw for one hour equals 2 units........2Kw for 5 minutes, 1/12 of an hour will use >> 2 divided by 12 = 0.166666 of a unit)

As for the reference to the freezer using 6,000 W.......I won't even go there.......
There are too many variables to work it out properly without more info.
 
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