How much are your bills?

cooper_man

Just trying to work out our bills for the house and thought you guys could help! Literally just Groceries, ESB and Gas

We just moved into the house and trying to estimate. There is nobody in the house 9-6 any day so elec is only like the TV/Kettle/Washing machine etc in the evening for a few hours.

Gas is on about 1-2 hours a day in the evenings. All radiators are off except one in living room, kitchen and main bedroom. (does this make a difference?)

anyway, just trying to make an average on bills, anybody any insight?

dame

cooper_man wrote: »

Just trying to work out our bills for the house and thought you guys could help! Literally just Groceries, ESB and Gas

We just moved into the house and trying to estimate. There is nobody in the house 9-6 any day so elec is only like the TV/Kettle/Washing machine etc in the evening for a few hours.

Gas is on about 1-2 hours a day in the evenings. All radiators are off except one in living room, kitchen and main bedroom. (does this make a difference?)

anyway, just trying to make an average on bills, anybody any insight?

Yes, having radiators in unheated rooms would make a difference. Is there a thermostatic control on the storage tank so that the water for space heating is only heated to a certain level and then stops or does it keep boiling away for as long as the heat is turned on? That would help also. The gas boiler does not need to be on its' hoghest setting...somewhere around the middle should be fine.

You could put the washing machine on at night instead. Evenings are peak time for energy usage with more needed to be produced, so it's better for the environment to use electricity at off peak times instead where possible. If you find the washing machine too noisy at night you could always load it up at night and leave it ready to push the button as you go out the door in the morning.

Just some suggestions.

We have gas heating too but use a tank so our bills will be a bit different. Sounds like yours is mains gas? In our tank we use about E650 of gas per year.

Our ESB bills would be about E150/160 roughly but can sometimes be a lot more or a lot less.

Groceries really depends on what you like to buy and where.

bugler

Currently:

ESB: €60-100 every two months. Last month's was around 100 which seemed a bit high, meant to look into that now that I think of it...

Gas (mains): €50 supply charge every two months regardless of use, which is a bitch. Now that it's winter and we'll actually be using it I'd expect it to be a bit higher, probably around the same level as the ESB.

For what it's worth there are two of us in a 2 bed apartment and we keep similar hours to yourself.

ixoy

Throwing our stuff in -
2 bed appt, working pretty much the same hours as yourself. I belive gas bill was about €80 for the last two months, which included a standing charge but also covered all of our heating.

ESB was under €100 for the two months, which just shows how utterly wasteful my last flat mate was when she drove bills up to €400!

Groceries - depends entirely. We tend to do a large monthly shop that costs about €200 and then pick up other necessary items in between.

Raekwon

bugler wrote:

ESB: €60-100 every two months. Last month's was around 100 which seemed a bit high, meant to look into that now that I think of it...

I usually get charged between €60-80 every two months from the ESB but this month is was a whopping €168 (even though I was away for 10 days and had everything switched off).

I defo have to get that sorted this week!

MysticalSoul

Gas standing charge has decreased, and is now roughly €55 standing charge per year, plus usage.

My last bill for 2 months was less than €60

ESB generally is around the €100 mark, with the exception of the one Dec/Jan one, as in the house more.

ciaran76

ESB was €47 for 2 month bill.
Gas €43 a month.

Groceries are around €50-€60 a week.

I live in a 2 bed house work similar hours to yourself and there are 2 of us in the house.

bugler

ESB was under €100 for the two months, which just shows how utterly wasteful my last flat mate was when she drove bills up to €400!

I'd be very suspicious of a bill that high. I had to run some industrial plant equipment off my mains for several 24 hour periods and my bill didn't even reach half of that. I'd be very curious as to what she could possibly have been doing to drive bills that high. Could be worth checking with the ESB, they are not adverse to over-charging.

Victor

bugler wrote: »

I'd be very suspicious of a bill that high. I had to run some industrial plant equipment off my mains for several 24 hour periods and my bill didn't even reach half of that. I'd be very curious as to what she could possibly have been doing to drive bills that high. Could be worth checking with the ESB, they are not adverse to over-charging.

Just leave the immersion and heating on 24x7 and you'll be lucky to have a bill that low.

wreckless

Hi all,

ways to keep elec. bills down are simple things like turning off all electrical appliances like the tv, dvd, surround sound, sat at the wall, so there is no red dot (still using power) . Keep all doors and windows closed inside, when the central heating comes on, if its oil or gas, at least it will only heat what ever radiator is on, it will be heating that room and not the whole gaff. if its piped through the copper cylinder, it will be heating the hot water too, so no need for the immersion to be ot the same time, unless u needs a bath full of water, there shud be plenty heated for showers for a housefull of people.

turnings lights not needed in rooms also will keep usage down, and keeping internal doors closed also helps. All heaters are thermostaticall controlled so the more heat escaping, the more it needs to run to replace the lost heat.
Keeping doors closed is also a good idea (and i say this with caution but if a fire breaks out in a house where all dorrs are open inside , it will spread rapidly thu the gaff becoming an inferno very quickly, keepingt door closed will limit the oxygen a fire can have to need to burn, so will hopefully contain it long enuff and in some cases, it will hardly spead, for the fire brigade to arrive and deal with. Make a point to check your smoke alarms this evening all who read thsi!!!)

even turn off the cooker at the wall as why leave it on when its not being used?

unplug all mobile phone chargers too, they burn power when not even charging a phone!!

be carful about electric showers too. We know how the ladies enjoy a good long hot shower, be carful as these are 9KW appliances

boiling a kettle is also one to watch, fill it as needed, if only one cup of tea is needed, boil enuff for one!!! again, kettles can be 2KW appliances, fu**s for power!!!

if there is anymore, i will post again, hope you find this useful anyway.

ixoy

bugler wrote: »

I'd be very suspicious of a bill that high. I had to run some industrial plant equipment off my mains for several 24 hour periods and my bill didn't even reach half of that. I'd be very curious as to what she could possibly have been doing to drive bills that high. Could be worth checking with the ESB, they are not adverse to over-charging.

We did get a final reading on it and there was an adjustment but it's hard to say whether it was for that bill or not - certainly they were always well over €200. This was during the winter season and the heating was electric and posibly left on a lot.
Can anyone say if washing machines/tumble dryers are big electric consumers?

dame

ixoy wrote: »

Can anyone say if washing machines/tumble dryers are big electric consumers?

Yes, especially tumble-dryers. Buy the ones with the best rating if you can at all.

Oh, and if anybody reading this has a combination washer/dryer remember that it can only dry half the load that it can wash. I've seen them with burnt out motors from people putting on a full wash and setting it to dry for 60/90 minutes when the wash finishes. It will burn out and all it will do is keep turning the clothes around, eating power. They will never dry. If you have to dry stuff in it make sure you take out at least half of what was in the wash before you put them on to dry (ie it takes two separate drying cycles to dry one wash-load of clothes).

the_syco

ixoy wrote: »

ESB was under €100 for the two months, which just shows how utterly wasteful my last flat mate was when she drove bills up to €400!

Sounds like an electric heater in the room.

wreckless wrote: »

be carful about electric showers too. We know how the ladies enjoy a good long hot shower, be carful as these are 9KW appliances

boiling a kettle is also one to watch, fill it as needed, if only one cup of tea is needed, boil enuff for one!!! again, kettles can be 2KW appliances, fu**s for power!!!

Agreed. Esp the showers. They burn money.

=-=

Cut your shower down to 5 or 10 minutes, get a clothes line, turn off the rads in unused rooms, and ensure there's no electric heaters to see the electric bill drop.

Also, if possible (as in, your own the gaff), get gas in for heating. It can also heat a tank for cheap enough for a shower.