Electricity Costs

jmcc99_98

Hi, I hope you can all help me. I was wondering what the average MONTHLY electricty bill should be for a 3 bedroom semi detached house. 2 Adults and 1 Toddler.

My average bills are about €120 per month (I pat monthly with airtricity) is this about average. There is no-one in the house during the day until about 6 oc. We are not running any huge amount of appliances, the immersion is on a timer and the washing machine, dishwasher and tumble dryer get normal use for 2 adults and a child.

I have looked on the forum for other threads but they are a bit outdated.

Any body any ideas?

jor el

I'd say €120 a month is above norm. I pay bi-monthly, and the last bill (an actual reading, not estimate) was about €120. That's for 3 adults.

Do you have any heating that isn't electricity? Ours is gas. When you have the immersion on a timer, does it come on every day? Do you have it on Bath or Sink?

RangeR

Almost impossible to say. What I will say, however, is this. I was speaking to my mum the other day. She moved over to Airtricity a short while ago. Her monthly bills are now the same as what she was paying ESB every two months. She is not a happy camper.

I'm with Airtricity but haven't checked my bills in a while. However, I'm just a lazy a$$ with money to burn

Jumpy

Does airtricity not set a monthly bill of the same every month which is settled at the end of the year? I thought this is how they worked.

rgfuller

jmcc99_98 wrote: »

Any body any ideas?

Why not use the handy ESB calculator to get an estimate of what your monthly usage should be... It's great...
https://www.esb.ie/esbcustomersupply/residential/energy_efficiency/appliance_calculator.jsp

jmcc99_98

Thanks guys, that is all useful, have been doing a bit of rooting around the web on this stuff and I think I am just using certain things too often, dishwasher, tumble dryer etc. The immersion is also a bit of a killer and I am using it stupidly as the central heating should heat the water during the winter anyway.

The ESB Calculator is excellent, thanks for the heads up on that.

I really need to change some habits that are not needed.

Thansk for the help

trad

How old is your ESB meter?

I've taken issue with the ESB regarding the accuracy of my meter. Their official position is that the meters are 100% accurate.

However after much badgering they came out a fitted a second "test" meter in line with the fixed meter. After about 4 weeks the discrepancy was approx overcharging of 12% to 13%. My old meter was replaced with a new digital meter but the ESB have yet to resolve the issue of overcharging. So check your meter, there is usually a date on it and if it's more than 10 years old I'd insist on the ESB checking or replacing it.

Davy

trad wrote: »

How old is your ESB meter?

I've taken issue with the ESB regarding the accuracy of my meter. Their official position is that the meters are 100% accurate.

Older meters are meant to be better quality so i dont think age is got to do with it. They are built to last at least 30 years+. I believe its extremely rare for meters not to be accurate.

Jumpy wrote: »

Does airtricity not set a monthly bill of the same every month which is settled at the end of the year? I thought this is how they worked.

This was my first thoughts on the situation. Airtricity use a budget style billing where every bill is the same regardless of usage, and the difference is made up at the year end.

cute_cow

our electricity costs, with ESB, used to cost anywhere from €150 - €200 euro per month when we had a night meter as we had storage heating.

Since then, we changed to gas heating, and ESB bills have come down to about €45-€60 per month.

OP do you have a night meter?

Danno

ESB used to hit me for €135 apx every 2 months, switched to Bord Gais and now todays bill is €102!

msg11

Danno wrote: »

ESB used to hit me for €135 apx every 2 months, switched to Bord Gais and now todays bill is €102!

Per Month or 2 Months ?

GerardKeating

RangeR wrote: »

Almost impossible to say. What I will say, however, is this. I was speaking to my mum the other day. She moved over to Airtricity a short while ago. Her monthly bills are now the same as what she was paying ESB every two months. She is not a happy camper.:(

How many units on each bill ???

jack of all

Our bill averages out about €120 every two months, for a family of four in a 4 bed house, which I still think is high considering that almost every light fitting is CFL and most of the appliances have a high efficiency rating! Our heating system is oil so immersion is never used, but with two young children we find the washing machine is running every day, luckily we've managed without a tumble drier thus far. Electricity unit costs have risen so much in recent years that I think it would be difficult for the average homeowner to keep their bill below €100- 120. Our bills used to be €70- 80 just a few years ago, big diffference.

boredofblackroc

Our bill for 2 adults and one child for 2 months came to €490 this time - that's way too much isn't it?

foggy_lad

boredofblackroc wrote: »

Our bill for 2 adults and one child for 2 months came to €490 this time - that's way too much isn't it?

it seems very high but are you using storage heators? what type of house do you live in? or do children have televisions and games consoles in bedrooms? is the fridge often left open by children or is it an older model that might be running inneficiently? do you use a tumble dryer? is cooking done by electricity?

is it an estimated bill or have previous bills been estimated and is this bill correcting poor esb estimates?

ch750536

2 adults 2 kids, 4 bed single storey. I work from home, 3 PC's on whilst working (2 monitors).

Bill is €55 per month with airtricity.

Dry what clothes you can outside, even when cold. Finish them off in the tumble when needed. Tumble always on economy mode.

Heating is on twice a day (1hr max) as we got superb insulation in the loft and dont need it more than that.

All plugs switched off when not in use, nothing on standby.

Cooker is using bottled gas.

Dont use electric shower, use water that has already been heated.

Clothes worn until dirty, cold water washer only as hot water washers are wasteful unless next to the hot water tank.

If cold wear a jumper, if still cold put on heating, heat to 50c only.