Cost Of ESB

maeve49 · 01-06-2005 11:19am #1

HI there,
I am just wondering if anybody else feels that they are paying a huge amount for ESB. I am living in an apartment on my own with electric heating (Storage) and electric emersion (on timer), but my esb bills are massive, I have been living there for a year now and the average cost of the bill every two months is €200. I think this is way too high, I live in a block of apartments and was looking at the meter when I noticed that an apartment on the same floor as me has only recorded 100 units over a year and there is a couple living in that apartment, I cant help thinking that somethings not right, could I be paying their ESB or has the cost of ESB just gone up, this is my first time paying esb myself but I know from chatting to other people that mine seems to be very high.
Has anyone else experienced this or any advise??
TKS

dudara · 01-06-2005 11:22am

It does seem very high. I share an apartment with storage heaters and immersion heating, and in the winter, when bills are highest, it's about E120 for two months. In the summer it drops back down towards E50 for two months.

Have you got two different meters, one for peak and one for off-peak usage? That can make a big difference

Andrew Duffy · 01-06-2005 1:06pm

Storage heating is useless if you aren't in the house all day and very expensive - turn off both switches until you want to warm up the room, in which case it will do so very quickly. The same goes for the small timer heaters. There was another thread recently about the same topic, and someone suggested turning off and unplugging everything electrical, then looking at the meter; the wheel should be moving very very slowly if at all.

Another thing to check is the water heater; make sure the time is correctly set on it as some models aren't very clever about the two power supplies.

maeve49 · 01-06-2005 4:27pm

Thanks for that guys.
I do have a day and night meter, and I am out all day, only back in the evenings for a couple of hours. I really don't want to turn into some mad eccentric person plugging out everything, but I just am not sure how else I can reduce the bill. We just got notice in the building that our water heater (Grasslin QE7) was being recalled as it was faulty, I wonder would this have any impact? could it actually be running up the bill while off? I rang the ESB for advise and they said to me that if there was anything faulty plugged in it would run up the bill?

Any advise would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Ardent · 01-06-2005 4:32pm

Maeve

You wouldn't happen to live in an apartment complex on Marrowbone Lane in Dublin 8 would you (I saw the same note about that timer in my place)? If so, we are neightbours - I also find that my electricity bills are unusually high.

maeve49 · 01-06-2005 5:53pm

Hi There,
No my apartment is in Clonsilla, but I think that many of the apartment complexes use that particular type of water heater. Have you had high ESB bills I think that it would be really difficult to prove that this faulty water heater was increasing my bill, but I would really like to find out how to reduce the bill, I really never expected ESB bill to be so high, at this stage I feel like I should have shares in the company! rolleyes:

lomb · 02-06-2005 8:59am

sounds a little dear, but remember u are heating ur house as well as powering it. try turning the INPUT down to zero on all the storage heaters. u dont need them sapping juice this time of year. u can monitor easily the meters. note the units on it now, and then look tomorrow and see how much theve increased by. alternatively turn everything off, and c it comes to a halt, then plug in a 2000 watt heater for 15 minutes and se does it increase by exactly 1/2 unit. if it does all is well on the peak meter.

to c if the off peak is the biggest cost look at ur esb bill, it will tell u how many units were consumed. the storage heaters and water heater are what run the off peak up. even appliances/lights that are on plugged in at night are on the peak meter. only specially fitted appliances like storage heaters and water heaters are connected to the off peak. a defective water heater wont increase ur bills. if the thermostat fails then u will hear the water physically boiling by 2 am. the otehr thing is the esb estimate bills sometimes based on past use and the meter reading is 'made up' it will say E next to it if this is the case

Borzoi · 02-06-2005 9:03am

maeve49 wrote:

HI there,
I am living in an apartment on my own with electric heating (Storage) and electric emersion (on timer), but my esb bills are massive, I have been living there for a year now and the average cost of the bill every two months is €200. Has anyone else experienced this or any advise??

Does seem massive - I've a large two bed (though only me there atm) and my winter bill is about €220 dropping to about €100 in the summer.

It could be down to the set up of timers and thermostats that you have. eg I only heat the hot water for 4 hours at night rate - gives me enough for shower in the am and still loads for washing in the evening. I generally put the washing machine on at night,and very rarely use the drier.

I only put the bedroom heaters on for the evening and morning to suit when I'm up and around.

Main heaters on living room, hall etc are set for max input, min output, so that they still have heat when I get back from work

lomb · 02-06-2005 9:06am

Borzoi wrote:

I generally put the washing machine on at night,and very rarely use the drier.

doesnt make a monkeys of a difference it will still be on the peak meter, unless u get a guy to wire u anotehr set of plugs of the off peak, then ul have to switch plugs durning the day time if u want to use it............

maeve49 · 02-06-2005 9:30am

HI
Thanks for that, I will definately try out that test for the peak meter, the off peak is not as high on the bill as the peak meter (about half) so I guess that sounds right, I suppose its not as bad as it seems, I am heating and powering my apartment and I will just have to be more careful, its just that they did an actual reading last week and the last reading was done in December so they sent me a bill for €450 as a readjustment which naturally enough sent me into a right ole panic. Glad to hear the advise on the water heater, I definately never hear the water boiling so at least I know that its not running up the bill.
Thanks again

irlirishkev · 02-06-2005 1:58pm

I've a 1 bedroom apartment with storage heating, and I've completely stopped using it (the storage heater that is). It's just too expensive. My bills were coming in at over 170euro per two-month period, which is a hell of a lot for one person. I'm not there during the day, so I never felt the benifit. ESB Storage Heating can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.
I rang up ESB Networks, and they said that the units I was using for storage heating was about average.
So I stopped with the Storage heater, and bought a little plug in oil heater, and my last bill was 90euro for the two months. I reckon I can bring that down some more though by keeping an eye on my water heater aswell..

Bottom line is, ESB Storage Heating is a blatant rip off. A big decision factor in the next place I buy will be wether it's ESB or GFCH.

K.

maeve49 · 02-06-2005 4:11pm

Hi,
I can't believe that the storage heating was running up the bill so much, I have switched all mine off now, as it was heating up the place during the day when I wasn't even there! The thing is they have this boost switch anyway which heats up automatically when you turn it on, so I didn't need to have them switched on at all when I wasn't there!! I guess I am learning, I would definately go for a place with GFCH again, it would be a big factor in any future place I would buy.

Beats · 03-06-2005 1:57am

Live in an apartment. Had a bill the other month for an extortionate 200+, and I have Gas Central heating. Rang Esb to complain. Turned out bill was estimated, and was massively over-estimated. Checked meter and rang in reading. Turns out they'd sent someone to check, so I suspect a number of neighbours had similar problem. So if you get an out of the ordinary large bill, I'd read meter and call it in.

Bogger77 · 03-06-2005 12:24pm

maeve49 wrote:

Hi,
I can't believe that the storage heating was running up the bill so much, I have switched all mine off now, as it was heating up the place during the day when I wasn't even there! The thing is they have this boost switch anyway which heats up automatically when you turn it on, so I didn't need to have them switched on at all when I wasn't there!! I guess I am learning, I would definately go for a place with GFCH again, it would be a big factor in any future place I would buy.

our storage heaters have boost, but it works like a standard convection heater, more expensive.

It's summer, you wont need storage heating, get a Dimplex oil heater and use that for heat the room ur in if you get cold. If weather forecast is for cold weather, then set the storage heaters.

jhegarty · 03-06-2005 1:40pm

maeve49 wrote:

HI there,
I am just wondering if anybody else feels that they are paying a huge amount for ESB. I am living in an apartment on my own with electric heating (Storage) and electric emersion (on timer), but my esb bills are massive, I have been living there for a year now and the average cost of the bill every two months is €200. I think this is way too high, I live in a block of apartments and was looking at the meter when I noticed that an apartment on the same floor as me has only recorded 100 units over a year and there is a couple living in that apartment, I cant help thinking that somethings not right, could I be paying their ESB or has the cost of ESB just gone up, this is my first time paying esb myself but I know from chatting to other people that mine seems to be very high.
Has anyone else experienced this or any advise??
TKS

to check , turn off everything in your flat (by triping the master fuse)... then check if the meter is still going up.... if it is , something dogey going on...

when you do this , don't forget about your fridge .....

lomb · 03-06-2005 6:40pm

maeve49 wrote:

Hi,
I can't believe that the storage heating was running up the bill so much, I have switched all mine off now, as it was heating up the place during the day when I wasn't even there! The thing is they have this boost switch anyway which heats up automatically when you turn it on, so I didn't need to have them switched on at all when I wasn't there!! I guess I am learning, I would definately go for a place with GFCH again, it would be a big factor in any future place I would buy.

turn down the INPUT to zero on all ur storage heaters and the OUTPUTS to zero as well, the boost is very dear, storage heaters take electricity at night at half the normal rate and put the power into heating bricks in the heater, the input controls how much juice it uses at night the output how much heat it gives out at any point.

The_Conductor · 26-08-2005 12:45pm

I'm in a 3 bed apartment in Lucan.
Our electricity bill works out at about 240-260 in the winter, but in the summer it drops back to about 150-160.
I really don't know where the electricity goes- as the heating, including water heating, is all gas...... My gas bills are similar to my electricity bills

(with the exception that they go down to virtually nothing in the summer- apart from that fecking connection charge.....)

Victor · 26-08-2005 9:47pm

Two people, two bed flat, no gas. €70 for 2 months in the summer.

Do you want to check if you have a Grasslin water heater or are providing the power supply for street lighting?

Jumbly · 01-11-2006 2:57pm

your bill does sound *way* too high. However, I also believed that I had a neighbour nicking my electrons until I decided to check my usage with one of these plug in meters: http://www.energyliberators.com/Products/BrennenstuhlMeters.php

After about a day I found that I was using the following *way* too much:

kettle (constantly boiling and reboiling)
coffee maker (left on almost constantly)
microwave (its a very powerful model)
fan heater (convenient but expensive)
dryer (too lazy to hang the clothes out to dry)
dishwasher (not bothering to fill it before I switch it on)

You get the picture...Anyhow, the €35 I spent on the meter is the best €35 I'm likely to spend this year

Cost Of ESB

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