Energy bills in Waterford

Kotek Besar

Having recently moved into a 3 bedroom semi on the outskirts of Waterford city centre, I'm expecting my first gas and electricity bills in about a month or two. Anyway, I'm trying to plan in advance and budget for them. Could anybody in a similar type of property share what their average bi-monthly bills are? I'd like to gather this info so I know more or less what to expect, as I'd rather not have any nasty surprises when those first bills come! It's a 3 bed semi with gas central heating and hot water, electric cooker and a dishwasher. Any ideas? Thanks!

Aquos76

A bit more info is needed here,

How many are living in the property, Is it a timber frame house, and is your wife/partner a perisher;)

Kotek Besar

Aquos76 wrote: »

A bit more info is needed here,

How many are living in the property, Is it a timber frame house, and is your wife/partner a perisher;)

lol.. Apologies. Just two of us in the house, both of us working full time. Two of the many radiators are on roughly 12 hours a day, while the rest of the radiators remain permanently off. I think it's a timber frame house, but not entirely sure. It about 3 years old as far as I know.

I know this thread is asking a bit of an odd question, but times are hard and I'm trying to prepare! lol..

mike65

I'd budget about 60/70 euro per month leccy and 50/60 for gas during the next 5 months. Pray for a long warm spring/summer! If you want to free up some money, cancel eircom and NTL, get wireless BB and an FTA box/dish

Mike.

Kotek Besar

mike65 wrote: »

I'd budget about 60/70 euro per month leccy and 50/60 for gas during the next 5 months. Pray for a long warm spring/summer! If you want to free up some money, cancel eircom and NTL, get wireless BB and an FTA box/dish

Mike.

Hi Mike, thanks for the tips. I'm glad to read those figures actually. In my head I was imagining about €100 per month for each utility, so if it's more like the figures you advise then I'll have a pleasant surprise.

I don't and won't have Eircom, much too overpriced imo.. Instead I have a Blueface VoIP setup, using a QoS controlled ATA / router. NTL is my ISP, just the 1mb line though for me.. FTA satellite setup?.. Hmm. Great tip, but convincing my wife to live without Sky+ may be the biggest challenge of my life!

Thanks again for the tips Mike.

mike65

I see you have two rads on for 12 hours, is that sort of 5-9 am and 4pm-midnight? Otherwise it sounds like waste of energy.

(tip) The annual one-off waste collection charge (140 euro) can be written off against tax, sadly the weekly tags can't be.

Mike.

Kotek Besar

mike65 wrote: »

I see you have two rads on for 12 hours, is that sort of 5-9 am and 4pm-midnight? Otherwise it sounds like waste of energy.

They're on from about 7pm right through to 7am. I know, it's for sure a waste of energy. Problem is, the timeswitch is broken and I'm waiting on it being fixed / replaced by the landlord. In the mean time, it's either permanently on or permanently off (manually controlled). Once it's fixed I shall set it as you suggest.

mike65 wrote: »

(tip) The annual one-off waste collection charge (140 euro) can be written off against tax, sadly the weekly tags can't be.

Mike.

Didn't know this. Once again Mike, thank you! I'll get on to this right away..:)

Kotek Besar

You're right Mike, about €150 per bi-monthly bill is what they're coming in at, both gas and electricity.

By the way, because I'm that into budgeting (and possibly rather sad), I made a spreadsheet for forecasting ESB and Bord Gáis bills. They're pretty accurate, even if I say say myself! In fact, the ESB one has been bang on, but the Bord Gáis might be a few cent out (literally), due to the fluctuating conversion factor. Pretty handy I think!

Help yourselves..

mike65

I'm shocked!

Mike.

Not The Real Scarecrow

keep an eye on the meter readings yourself too.Some times they send out estimations that are usually way over the top.We got stung by the gas a year ago, were getting bills around the 30 squid mark for a while then all of a sudden got a bill for 800 euro, called them up thought might be a leak or something.The guy that came out told me about the estimate thing said he knew a few people in similar boat.Gas company were **** about it and demanded the money almost instantly, needed to get a loan to pay it all off.Have no respect for them and esb are just as bad.Heard a while ago that new company opening soon dealing with both and claim that they wil be charging less than half of current price.Hope its true and it puts both those ***** out of business.The monopoly they have in Ireland is ridiculous.

mike65

Speaking of which I got two bills in the latter half of 07 whihc were crazy for the time of year - 135 euro each so I suspected guestimates - sure enough my latest bill was a 70 euro credit.

Mike.

Cabaal

benifa, thanks for the Energy bill calculators, I'll be needing them when I move into my new house in a few months

Baby4

This post has been deleted.

Kotek Besar

Cabaal wrote: »

benifa, thanks for the Energy bill calculators, I'll be needing them when I move into my new house in a few months

No bother at all, let me know how you get on. By the way, the ESB one is set for the Domestic Urban tariff, which is usual (so I understand) if your house has both gas and electricity. If you only have electricity then you might be on the Domestic Urban Nightsaver tariff (two meters, night and day). In which case you would need to adjust the spreadsheet to accommodate two meter readings instead of one.

http://www.esb.ie/main/energy_home/your_esb_bill_tariffs.jsp

fricatus

benifa wrote: »

Domestic Urban tariff

I never knew this existed! Another benefit of living in the ciddy...

Kotek Besar

fricatus wrote: »

I never knew this existed! Another benefit of living in the ciddy...

Yup, we save a whole €2.57 per month on the standing charge, compared to the Domestic Rural tariff.