Ridiculous ESB Bills

Roobee

Hi, is anyone else getting really high ESB Bills all of a sudden. I live in a one bed tiny apt and my ESB Bill is €240. This seems crazy to me, any ideas...:mad:

Mr Magnolia

Is it estimated? Have a look at the unit's recorded does it have an 'e' beside it? this would imply they didn't read the meter they just guessed. I heard a few people going nuts on the ray d'arcy show earlier in the week. If it's estimated read it yourself and call them with the reading if it's off considerably

Rates have gone up but that sounds high for a 1 bed.

Edit/ welcome to boards

pwd

This happened to me as the result of the flat being incorrectly wired, and is still not fully resolved.
Details here:http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055063978

kmick

Do you use boost on your heating a lot? Also do heat a hot tank a lot. Theses can be very expensive. I live in a three bed house and mine is around 120 which is half of yours. Apart from that you need to get the ESB to check your meter.

ixoy

Our last bill for a 3bed apt (4 people) was a whopping €420. I think people over-using certain appliances during the day (e.g. dishwasher) hasn't helped nor has heating being on too much.

On such bills, do people know how much electricity extractor fans use? The one in the bathroom is always being left on.
Additionally, are electric showers considerably cheaper than heating up the water tank? I'd assume as much but don't know offhand.

Kimbot

ixoy wrote:

Additionally, are electric showers considerably cheaper than heating up the water tank? I'd assume as much but don't know offhand.

AFAIR its cheaper to have the electric shower than heat up the tank all the time!!

Mr Magnolia

ixoy wrote:

On such bills, do people know how much electricity extractor fans use? The one in the bathroom is always being left on..

Feck all tbh, nearly no load at all, I'd still turn it off though

ixoy wrote:

Additionally, are electric showers considerably cheaper than heating up the water tank? I'd assume as much but don't know offhand.

Depends, you don't need to heat the whole tank for a shower, assuming your talking about the 'mains' water shower and not the Triton T90 for example; these showers heat the water themselves.

If your using your immersion to heat the water you only need to heat the top of the tank. Use the 'sink' switch on your immersion.
If you use your home heating to heat the water, gas in my situation, I isolate the radiators, there's a valve in the hotpress for this, then put the heating on. The heating then only heats the tank, cheaper IMO than the immersion, going on experience here. A lot of people forget to put the immersion off when they're finished, this is a costly error, running an immersion is probably a simalar load to running an electric kettle.

If you provide me with your details I might be able to explain further what i mean

cornbb

There was a discussion about this on the radio this morning - its happening quite a lot apparently. My own household recently got a bill for over 900 squid! This happened because they had been estimating the bill for ages (over a year I think) even though they are supposed to do 4 readings per year. They grossly underestimated it so when they finally did a meter reading we got landed with that whopper.

The dude on the radio this morning said that in such cases, customers would be given roughly the period of estimated billing in which to pay the bill - eg if your bill had been estimated for a year, you will be allowed a year to pay off the massive bill.

Still a complete pain in the hole though. I've had to run around scavanging money off former tenants of my house and everything. What a nightmare.

MisterAnarchy

My bill went up dramatically this Winter.
The cost per unit has gone up but also the number of units.
So I have tried a few cost cutting measures.
I switched to CFL lighting.
I made sure unnecessary items were unplugged when not in use.
I installed an electricity Saving box which I bought off Ebay.
I used the central heating sparingly (Oil)
I have no electric heating and yet despite all these changes the usage rate is still the bloody same ,about 18 units per day.
I'm beginning to suspect foul play at this stage.

Mr Magnolia

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I installed an electricity Saving box which I bought off Ebay..

What's this?

galah

it's interesting, the March/April bill is ALWAYS the highest of the year (I checked all my bills for the past 3 years, and there's definitely a pattern there...). I can't explain why, though...(for example, last year, I had all the storage heaters on full blast, this year I didn't - still got bills for about the same amount though...very strange!)

dudara

The cost of electricity went up a few months ago, but the bills are only coming through now. Combine that with an estimated reading, and all of a sudden you've gotten a whopper you weren't expecting.

Roobee

Hi everyone

Thanks for all the replies, I was never on here before- it's really good .

We do use the boost a lot but we barely use the rads at all and the bill is an estimated one, so I'll get the meter read and take it from there... Thanx!

FX Meister

MisterAnarchy wrote:

.
I installed an electricity Saving box which I bought off Ebay.

I'd love to know what this is too, sounds like a sucker gadget.

Upon further research, it is a sucker box. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ELECTRICITY-SAVING-BOX-AND-SURGE-PROTECTION_W0QQitemZ270107352498QQihZ017QQcategoryZ41499QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Probably just an LED and resistor

lushballs

Sparks400-'If you use your home heating to heat the water, gas in my situation, I isolate the radiators, there's a valve in the hotpress for this, then put the heating on. The heating then only heats the tank, cheaper IMO than the immersion, going on experience here.'

Can you tell me what this valve looks like and how do you isolate the radiators?
Thanks

Mr Magnolia

Roobee wrote:

Hi everyone

Thanks for all the replies, I was never on here before- it's really good .

We do use the boost a lot but we barely use the rads at all and the bill is an estimated one, so I'll get the meter read and take it from there... Thanx!

This could be your problem right here Roobee.

lushballs wrote:

Can you tell me what this valve looks like and how do you isolate the radiators?
Thanks

Mine looks like this:


I just turn it 90 degrees to isolate the rads, your system might not be fitted or plumbed for one, if you're not sure ring a plumber and ask them to come down for a look.

Mr Magnolia

FX Meister wrote:

Probably just an LED and resistor

Agree, I'd put it in the bin MisterAnarchy, up to your though

bardcom

Checking the internet:
Picture of inside: http://kr.img.blog.yahoo.com/ybi/1/43/66/dreamyear33/folder/152551/img_152551_27_0?1169652069.jpg

Explanation of why these don't work at all: http://forums.keeptouch.net/showthread.php?t=65167&page=2

Extract:
These "energy saving" boxes DO NOT WORK. They are capacitors that reduces the Reactive Power draw from the utility company; homes are usually not charged for the Reactive Power (Volt-Ampere-Reactive, or VAR for short) that is drawn, they are only billed for the Actual/True Power (measured in kilowatthour, or kWh) that is drawn as the power companies will handle the reactive current control at both the tranmission and distribution level. Only industries and factories will be billed for their Reactive Power consumption which will be tabulated together as Apparent Power, which will be split into Actual Power (kWh) and Reactive Power (kVar), that is why Capacitor Banks are deployed in their substations to reduce the kVar requirements. Homes do not have such requirements as their energy consumption is low and they take (usually) only single phase 220/110/100V supply.

MisterAnarchy

Sparks400 wrote:

Agree, I'd put it in the bin MisterAnarchy, up to your though

Well i was highly sceptical myself but i got it for less than 10 euro on ebay so I thought it was worth a try for that price.
Have been using it for 2 weeks now and there has been no reduction in usage,slight increase if anything.
Graph of Units v Days over the past 80 days.
As you can see its a very constant rate.

lushballs

Thx sparks400! Unfortunately i do not have one of those levers even though we are a new build! They should be mandatory given that it is one way to save on heating costs, environment etc!

calex71

we have gas heated water and the old immersion at home also , as far as isolating the radiators etc go's is it wise to just hit the boost button when u want to heat the water or is it better to to use the timer. or is there any difference, i was was always of the opinion the the boost button just put the gas on for an hour???

BostonB

Sparks400 wrote:

...
If you use your home heating to heat the water, gas in my situation, I isolate the radiators, there's a valve in the hotpress for this, then put the heating on. The heating then only heats the tank, cheaper IMO than the immersion, going on experience here....

I turn the thermostats off to the heating. Then it only heats the tank. I assume this is the same thing.

ejmaztec

Fellah I knew in England, years ago, bought a shop in some old Coronation Street-like place in Worcestershire. In the course of doing the place up, he decided to have the place re-wired. Up in the attic, the electrical contractor discovered a thick electrical cable going into the neighbouring building. His bills, up until the cable was cut, were huge. After the cable was cut his bills dropped considerably. He never approached the neighbour about the mysterious cable and the neighbour never mentioned it either.

I reckon that half of North Kerry's connected to my f****** meter!