Huge Gas Bill-How can people cope.
- Thread starter IsleOfMan
- Start date
My last bill was €450. A week later, Airtricity came to the door offering me an incentive to switch. Deal
!The period of the bill covers 'The Big Freeze' and all of us being at home over Chistmas.
"you commit to being on that tariff for a Year which is clearly in the terms and conditions."
I was with Bord Gais for a few years on the winter tariff and they still 'stung' me.
I would strongly advise people to keep away from the prepayment metering system and to switch from Bord Gais to Flogas or even Airtricity.
You sound like you work for Bord Gais Manto.
I was with Bord Gais for a few years on the winter tariff and they still 'stung' me.
I would strongly advise people to keep away from the prepayment metering system and to switch from Bord Gais to Flogas or even Airtricity.
You sound like you work for Bord Gais Manto.
That there is your issue.
Our house is 1400 sq ft, 1970s build, inefficient boiler, rubbish insulation, big windows and skylights (double glazed admittedly) and would expect a €300+ bill for the couple of months around christmas - €400+ if we weren't being as careful.
This is based on being away for a week at christmas and only using it for 1hr in the morning and maybe 3 hours in the evening.
I've done the maths and replacing the boiler before it packs in or getting some serious cavity insulation, etc is actually not cost efficient over any reasonable time frame.
For a 2500 sq feet house a €400+ bill would not seem outrageous during the height of a bad winter.
The only good advice I can think of is to install a fuel efficient stove in the room you spend your evenings in for winter and adjust the radiators to an optimal level i.e. full on in the living area and main bedroom(s), half on in smaller rooms and completely off in rooms you don't spend more than a few minutes in.
I'm sure your full annual bill is not much more than €1500. Cutting €300 or 20% off that would hardly be worth the few grand in large scale insulation works.
Dont work fot Bord Gais, as i already said Yes you can change supplier to avail of cheaper rates. I am only pointing out prepayment meters are one way to manage your costs but obviously would not be preferable to everyone.
Out of curiosity, what did they charge you extra for if you were on the tariff for the full period?
My house is circa 2500SqFeet and my last gas bill was €540. Add to that the fact that I forgot to pay the last one and now I owe then over €800. We use the gas for heat, water and cooking (hob). There's six in the house and there's someone there all day most days. New boiler, good insulation, 4-zone system with a timer in each zone that can be set to go on and off three times a day.
The trouble is that Mrs. Purple is always freezing so the house is like a bleedin' sauna half the time.
The trouble is that Mrs. Purple is always freezing so the house is like a bleedin' sauna half the time.
Our gas bill was only 250 for same period. Our house is approximately 2000 sq feet. We have a solid fuel stove ob our siting room and had the heating on an hour in the morning and evening. Use gas for cooking as well. Our gas bills used to be huge before the installation of our stove.
Our heating system and cooking system is run off a Stanley cooker. It's about 17 years old. It would be horrendously expensive to replace this.
Empty rooms have heat either turned off or reduced to barely on.
Main living room is beside kitchen where the Stanley is and we also have a gas fire in that room that is used only to heat up the area initially. So these rooms are warm and cosy. Generally it is brass monkeys in the rest of the house. I agree I don't think that it would be worthwhile to spend further on insulation. We had thought of taking out the gas fire and putting back in place a traditional fire or wood burning stove. However the gas fire is so convenient and clean.
A smaller house would be ideal but that's another thread altogether.
I wouldn't rule out getting our insulation work. If the insulation cost €3,000 and he saved €300 a year it would have paid for itself in 10 years and his house would be warmer.
We got an extension done last year and while we were doing it we got the existing house internally drylined and we changed from oil heating to a high efficient gas boiler with thermostat controls on the new rads.
Our house is 1,550 sq feet and out heating bill for 4 months (Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan) was €440 and my wife was at home all the time on maternity leave.
Maybe the OP can check the HALO scheme from ESB. They come out and asses your house for free and advise what work would be required, cost and potential savings on heating bill.
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PetrolHead
Registered User
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IMHO your bill sounds way too high for everything to be right.
Get your boiler serviced and have the thermostats and zones (if you have them) checked. Also, how are you running the hot water? All day or just for short periods at the same time as the heating?
Check the level you have the thermostats set at too. If they are at 22deg could you stand them being turned down to 19deg for example.
Also, check your previous bills. They may have been estimated for the last two or three billing periods and then actually read for this one making up the difference where you have underpaid for your previous usage. Alternatively, this bill may have been estimated and you have been overcharged in which case call your provider with the correct reading and they will issue a new bill (or leave it be and effectively 'pre-pay' your next one).
Last house I lived in was less than half the size of that house and our bill for sameperiod last year was 465 and electricity used to always be over 100 euro. We didnt have the gas on much either and didnt leavethings on standby
Just got mine, 495e..House 3000 Sq Ft..And have a stove in two rooms.One of those rooms is quite big so the stove is very inexpensive to heat that room,obviously we turn the rads off in this room,cant turn off rads in other rooms as there tends to be kids in each one of them at any one time.
Also oven is gas.
Does anyone know if it is right to have to heating in some rooms?
Would it cause dampness?
Also oven is gas.
Does anyone know if it is right to have to heating in some rooms?
Would it cause dampness?
PetrolHead
Registered User
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Isleofman - foxylady - thedaras -
How can you have used well over 9000 kwh of gas in two months?
I have an 1800+sqft house with underfloor heating on the ground floor (on for two six hour periods each day) along with the upstairs rads (morning and evening), hot water (morning and evening) and hob in use every evening and we only used half that.
How can you have used well over 9000 kwh of gas in two months?
I have an 1800+sqft house with underfloor heating on the ground floor (on for two six hour periods each day) along with the upstairs rads (morning and evening), hot water (morning and evening) and hob in use every evening and we only used half that.
Is the billing period longer than normal over Christmas? I thought we normally got a bill every 2 months but our last one was for almost 3 months (86 days from November to February) for €441 (8,895 kwh). We thought it was a bit high but it covers the big freeze and Christmas when there were more people at home during the day so it's probably about right.
Beats me - last property was arental one so god knows how old the boiler was but we certainyl didnt have it on all the time either
That was the price from December 9th until Feb 11th,so I can only think that it was during the really cold spell.
It says units used are 10.123 kWh.
Standing charge is 10.50,
Carbon tax is 28.04.
Vat is 58.94 that all costs e97.56.
The bill prior to this one was 349e..
Lex Foutish
Registered User
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Is that for 2 months? We had gas in our last house but I have oil where we live now. It sounds a lot. I reckon we use about 1500 litres of oil per year. House about 1,800 sq. ft.
I don't think you'd have dampness by not turning on the heat in some rooms but you might have a bit of cold bridging, whereby the cold rooms absorb the heat from the warmer ones. Maybe you could barely turn on the rads in these rooms........
Lex Foutish
Registered User
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Yep, Dec 9th to Feb 11th..
I have a VERY cold husband though,which might explain it!