ESB Bill

peustace

Hi guys,
Myself and my housemates were going through ways to cut down costs and we turned out attention to our ESB bill. We're on Profile 1 Urban 24 Hour Tariff and we were considering changing to another to see if it would save money. I havnt done any calculations or anything but basically the most amount of time we'd use the electricty would be between 7-11.30 in the evening time. We have talked about putting the Dryer and washing machine on post 12 while asleep to cut back.

Any advice on changing plans and what might be the best to go for?

Or alternatively any good tips of saving money with respect to the ESB bill??!!


Thanks!

Jev/N

I'm not really sure about changing tariffs but putting the dryer on later won't make a difference unless you're on the urban nightsaver. I think 10.30 or 11 is the start of off-peak so the dryer is the only thing you can put on later and possibly the immersion, if there is one and on a timer. With regard to saving money look to cutting down on time using electricity heavy appliances like dryers (air dry clothes if possible), ovens (use microwave where possible) and electric showers

Davy

If you were to change to nightsaver plan, you would be paying slightly more on standing charges (€7 extra bi-monthly) also the day units are 1cent higher. Night rate hours are 11pm to 8am in wintertime and 12am to 9am in summertime, so if you can use more during these hours, you will save money.

Also simple things like changing the bulbs to cfl or leds can be a quick and cheap fix to reducing the energy bill.

luckat

Or you could switch to Airtricity.

Davy

luckat wrote: »

Or you could switch to Airtricity.

Last time i checked airtricity was 10% more expensive than ESBCS

foggy_lad

throw out the dryer as they eat electricity using even more than a two bar electric fire! and your clothes will last longer if dried on a clothes line saving even more money

S. Papardello

I recommend you to use the ESB appliance calculator, you can find it on ESB's website. You will be able to see what appliances cost the most over two month period and take actions accordingly. I did it and I am paying now about 80-100 per bill (depending on the season) instead of 150-160 euro, ie saving more than 350 euro/year.

beertons

Could you live without the dryer? The house I'm in at the moment has no dryer, or dishwasher. Our last esb bill, for xmas, was €30. Two people living in my house. We have oil for central heating, no plug in heaters, they're the pits. We light a fire nearly every day, the only room we really use is the sitting room, so central heating is only on for about 90 mins per day. The house is still toasty when we get up the next morning.

Cabaal

If you want to track usage I recommend something like this http://www.cabaal.org/log/2008/07/energy-monitoring.html

Very useful to find out whats using the most amount of power

ongarite

Cabaal wrote: »

If you want to track usage I recommend something like this http://www.cabaal.org/log/2008/07/energy-monitoring.html

Very useful to find out whats using the most amount of power

Looks like a great device Cabaal. None in stock at the moment in the shop on your blog so bought one from elsewhere for slightly cheaper.

Sinall

Airtricity have an offer on at the moment where you can save 10% on ESB costs. Myself and my flatmates have just changed over.

They have a comparison chart on their website https://www.airtricity.com/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/airtricity_your_airtricit/

Cabaal

ongarite wrote: »

Looks like a great device Cabaal. None in stock at the moment in the shop on your blog so bought one from elsewhere for slightly cheaper.

Its a useful device alright, I've been using it for about 7 months now and its nuts to see what some devices use, easily install too.


I heard on the last word last night that Board Gas should be done residential electricity shortly, details are due in next two weeks

Lastly the ESB now do on-line billing which when you sign upto it you no longer receive a paper bill, only thing is they should offer you atleast something off your bill as they no longer have to print or post bills for you anymore. Abit of a laugh

Cabaal

Sinall wrote: »

Airtricity have an offer on at the moment where you can save 10% on ESB costs. Myself and my flatmates have just changed over.

They have a comparison chart on their website https://www.airtricity.com/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/airtricity_your_airtricit/

Interesting, I may have a look into this, the fact they offer a discount for ebilling is progressive atleast

I pay ESB by direct debit already so potentially Direct Debit and ebill could save 9% which ain't bad,

foggy_lad

my sisters house has been empty since 2nd january and the esb are insisting that her recent bill is correct with over 60% of her units charged in january at the higher rate! also the bill was estimated at almost double the actual usage meaning approximately €8 more for the ESB when their "pro-rata" increase is calculated. they are riping people off and the regulater is hopelessly toothless!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Cabaal wrote: »

Lastly the ESB now do on-line billing which when you sign upto it you no longer receive a paper bill, only thing is they should offer you atleast something off your bill as they no longer have to print or post bills for you anymore. Abit of a laugh

D'ah. If you look on-line it's a copy of the bill you'll see. The bill still has to be produced and uploaded to your account on-line. Want the 55c saved on postage? Surrender it for the costs of maintining your account details on-line.

Saruman

Airtricity take consumers now? Thats new... used to always be business users only.

Cabaal

Saruman wrote: »

Airtricity take consumers now? Thats new... used to always be business users only.

They used to be business only, they are accepting home users for some time now

Miranda Orange Guano wrote: »

D'ah. If you look on-line it's a copy of the bill you'll see. The bill still has to be produced and uploaded to your account on-line. Want the 55c saved on postage? Surrender it for the costs of maintining your account details on-line.

Ah ok I get it, the ESB can afford a 3% payrise for its employee's but it can't give a discount for paperless billing like other company's can manage in Ireland and around the world.....strange that

Arcee

I found that leaving chargers plugged in was a big problem in my house. There was ALWAYS something charging - phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, laptops. Multiply each of those devices by 5 (the number of people in the house) and you can guess how much energy was being wasted.

Most devices actually only take between one and three hours to charge but I used to just plug everything in overnight so it would actually be using power for 8-10 hours. You can cut down a good bit by only charging for the required time and making sure chargers are plugged out when finished.

The immersion was another big power drain. Only put that on a little while before you need it or make sure it's on a timer rather than permanently on.

The obvious one is lighting - it's a well worn saying but there really is no point in leaving lights on in a room if you're not in it.

There's loads of websites that give energy saving tips. I think change.ie and power of one sites are worth looking at. There's probably some tips on the sustainable energy ireland site too.

EDIT: The one thing that is hard to do when there's a good few people in the house is to co-ordinate your activities. Everyone has to participate or you won't see results. If you can make a list of things you're going to do and make sure everyone sticks to it then you should save a few bob

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Cabaal wrote: »

Ah ok I get it, the ESB can afford a 3% payrise for its employee's but it can't give a discount for paperless billing like other company's can manage in Ireland and around the world.....strange that

Sorry to OP for the drift off topic but you should familiarise yourself with costing structures and with the impact of ESB's pay bill on Electricity prices. A 10% reduction in the total pay costs would reduce electricity by 0.8%. They appear to have the lowest labour cost to Unit cost in Europe and among the lowest worldwide.
Added to the fact that they are only 1 of almost 60 companies in the private sector who have already paid the National Wage Deal (with many more coming due between now and the end of May), your reference to their pay rise is immaterial and misleading to the discussion in hand.

Back to the on-line billing. The process for printing more than 2million bills (some monthly, others bi-monthly) is an automated one, as is the enveloping and franking. The only saving in real terms in the postage cost of 55cent and a bit of stationery. The cost of maintaining your personal account on-line (with billing history, unit history etc from what I can see so far) is well in excess of the cost of postage.
There's always the option of switching Supplier if you can get a better deal and with Airticity back in and Bord Gais now entering the domestic market you'll have great chioce, considering how small the total marketplace is here. Use your right to shop elsewhere is you feel you are being ripped off. You may not get another supplier who will accept payments in instalments in Post Offices etc but who insist on direct debit payment in full but that's for you to investigate when changing supplier. Each of them offers different things but if it's all about price you may get reductions away from ESB Customer Supply.

Cabaal

Miranda Orange Guano wrote: »

Back to the on-line billing. The process for printing more than 2million bills (some monthly, others bi-monthly) is an automated one, as is the enveloping and franking. The only saving in real terms in the postage cost of 55cent and a bit of stationery. The cost of maintaining your personal account on-line (with billing history, unit history etc from what I can see so far) is well in excess of the cost of postage.

Again pretty strange other companys can offer a discount but the ESB can't, perhaps they just don't want to and would rather keep any savings they make?

There's always the option of switching Supplier if you can get a better deal and with Airticity back in and Bord Gais now entering the domestic market you'll have great chioce, considering how small the total marketplace is here.

I'd have to agree, while Airtricity has been around for some time its not picked up many companys however Bord Gais are a well known brand and are likely to make a much bigger impact...lets hope

Use your right to shop elsewhere is you feel you are being ripped off. You may not get another supplier who will accept payments in instalments in Post Offices etc but who insist on direct debit payment in full but that's for you to investigate when changing supplier. .

You clearly have not been a new ESB customer in the past 1-2 years, the ESB now look for a 300e deposit if your a new customer and you wish to not opt for the direct debit option and instead pay as you want at post offices etc....not such a great option when you factor this in.

Sure they might offer none Direct debit options to older customers but your basically screwed if your a new customer.

Saruman

Interesting thread this.. i thought we were stuck with the ESB but now it seems i have choice. I take it the cost of the electricity can increase with oil prices even with airtricity as it is coming from the national grid? Is that right?

Arcee

Saruman wrote: »

Interesting thread this.. i thought we were stuck with the ESB but now it seems i have choice. I take it the cost of the electricity can increase with oil prices even with airtricity as it is coming from the national grid? Is that right?

Saruman, you might be interested in this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055483357

RedXIV

Got a bill for a flat in college there from 4th of dec till the 4th of Feb at €360. :eek:

We've never had a bill this big and the flat was empty for 2 weeks over Xmas too we aren't the worst when it comes to electricity, admittedly, the computers would be on for most of days (students after all). but lights would be out and heating is all gas heating. only thing i can think of is i know the switch for the electric shower is left on sometimes by a housemate but that still shouldn't justify doubling our bill???

Cabaal

RedXIV wrote: »

......only thing i can think of is i know the switch for the electric shower is left on sometimes by a housemate but that still shouldn't justify doubling our bill???

Funny thing is I keep being told to pull the pullstring so our shower doesn;t have power going to it because it costs money etc, thing is my energy monitor proves it uses no extra power if its on compared to off...unless of course the electric shower is actually in use

RedXIV

Cabaal wrote: »

Funny thing is I keep being told to pull the pullstring so our shower doesn;t have power going to it because it costs money etc, thing is my energy monitor proves it uses no extra power if its on compared to off...unless of course the electric shower is actually in use

Really? in that case i've NO idea how my bill is at that level

praying its an estimation (landlord has bill, just text to ask what we were at)

Arcee

RedXIV wrote: »

Got a bill for a flat in college there from 4th of dec till the 4th of Feb at €360. :eek:

We've never had a bill this big and the flat was empty for 2 weeks over Xmas too we aren't the worst when it comes to electricity, admittedly, the computers would be on for most of days (students after all). but lights would be out and heating is all gas heating. only thing i can think of is i know the switch for the electric shower is left on sometimes by a housemate but that still shouldn't justify doubling our bill???

Electric showers (when they are actually in use) are fairly big energy consumers afaik. Anyone taking extra long showers? I don't know about doubling your bill but it's probably responsible for a big part of it. Having the computers on all the time would be a contributor too. If you can make sure everyone turns their computers off overnight that should help. As I said, chargers were a big problem in our house too. Laptops don;t need to be plugged in at all times.

To be honest, it's not usually one big thing that is using up all your electricity, it's mostly a combo of a lot of small things. Making a few changes accross the board rather than just changing one element of your usage is usually the best approach

Musha

RedXIV wrote: »

Got a bill for a flat in college there from 4th of dec till the 4th of Feb at €360. :eek:

We've never had a bill this big and the flat was empty for 2 weeks over Xmas too we aren't the worst when it comes to electricity, admittedly, the computers would be on for most of days (students after all). but lights would be out and heating is all gas heating. only thing i can think of is i know the switch for the electric shower is left on sometimes by a housemate but that still shouldn't justify doubling our bill???

Must have been a popular number ours was €356 about €150 more than normal i know it goes up abit at christmas with lights, kids of school, etc but thats scandlous

RedXIV

Musha wrote: »

Must have been a popular number ours was €356 about €150 more than normal i know it goes up abit at christmas with lights, kids of school, etc but thats scandlous

I wouldn't even mind but it's the college flat, no one was there for Xmas?! everything plugged out and off


gits :pac:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

RedXIV wrote: »

I wouldn't even mind but it's the college flat, no one was there for Xmas?! everything plugged out and off


gits :pac:

Ok let's accept there has been an increase in the Unit price but not by that amount. Give us the Units used instead of the money for a few bills and see if you're simply using more juice. I pay twice as much for apples in Dunnes than a year ago but I'm eating more apples!:)

Cabaal

RedXIV wrote: »

I wouldn't even mind but it's the college flat, no one was there for Xmas?! everything plugged out and off


gits :pac:

Was the bill estimated or a meter reading submitted by yourself or read by the ESB, if your bills tend to be estimated you may find your last bill was a reading and it was actually correct as you may have been previously underbilled

foggy_lad

my latest bill was estimated with over 60% charged at the higher rate but the estimate was almost double my actual reading and the same period last year was less again so in my opinion the ESB are exaggerating the estimates for the december-january bills to further increase what they are making from the recent price increase! this also happened with my sisters bill even though her house was empty during january.

Saruman

I noticed that too, my more recent bill was over €100 more expensive. I checked the Meter though in my reading is a little over the estimate. Given the few days that would have passed since the bill was generated and i opened it then they seem to have nailed my estimate. Christmas time is the darkest and coldest time of the year so more electricity. Christmas lights are on too.

Of course, just because my Meter reading matched up, does not mean that they could not have charged me more at the higher rate than the lower rate as there is no way for me to prove otherwise.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Got my bill today. Yes it's gone up but not by the figures people are quoting here. It's €240 for a 4 bedroom house, 4 adults living there with electric shower, tumble dryer (never seems to be off), immersion heater, all the usual stuff. The reading was estimated and is maybe 150 units too high but not bad. I still think the bills being quoted by others here must have a huge increase in Units uded in addition to the price increase.

ejmaztec

Miranda Orange Guano wrote: »

Got my bill today. Yes it's gone up but not by the figures people are quoting here. It's €240 for a 4 bedroom house, 4 adults living there with electric shower, tumble dryer (never seems to be off), immersion heater, all the usual stuff. The reading was estimated and is maybe 150 units too high but not bad. I still think the bills being quoted by others here must have a huge increase in Units uded in addition to the price increase.

Do you get staff discount?

Saruman

€240 is less than i was charged and thats a two bedroom with only myself and my wife there. In fact she has been in the Philipines for the last month so just me. I have not used much power, i unplug or swtich off everything except by sky+ box when im not using it, i have all CFL bulbs and again, switch them off when not in that room.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Saruman wrote: »

€240 is less than i was charged and thats a two bedroom with only myself and my wife there. In fact she has been in the Philipines for the last month so just me. I have not used much power, i unplug or swtich off everything except by sky+ box when im not using it, i have all CFL bulbs and again, switch them off when not in that room.

ejmaztec: The answer is No.

Saruman: Ever take a reading of your meter last thing at night and again first thing in the morning to see what's in constant use or of indeed there is a problem?
I've checked with some neighbours (live rural so took a while to contact 5 of them) and the average bill is €285 with the lowest being €210 and the highest €328. All are family homes with the usual appliances. An estate in the town is running a project with SEI to reduce fuel costs and many homes are getting bills for less than €200. Shows it can be done.