Pay as you go electricity is driving me crazy

DeadMoney

Hi, I am a student and have recently moved in to a cheap room in a house which is sectioned off in to two parts. I share my part with one other person and the landlord lives in the other side of the house with her family. In each room there are meters where you insert a €2 coin to power on all plug sockets. I have been living here about 3 weeks now and I seem to be putting €2 in to the kitchen meter every single day as this is just enough electricity to cook a dinner. I didn't quite like the idea of having to always insert coins in to meters when I first saw the place but the landlord assured me that I'd only need to top them up like twice per week.

On top of the €8 per week I pay for other utilities I seem to be pumping €2 coins in to the 3 meters I use every day. Its becoming both a nuisance and is proving to be expensive. I'm on a really tight budget and took this house because the rent was cheap but considering the size of my room and the fact that it is usually freezing, I think I could be living in a much nicer place for what it is working out as when you include pumping money in to meters just to boil a kettle.

Sorry I know this post seems like I am an incredible cheap skate but I'm just not happy since I feel I was mislead by the landlord to get me to take a room and I did emphasise my concern over the meters when I viewed the place. I would much prefer to be able to just receive a normal monthly ESB bill and not have to worry about the power going out in the middle of making dinner. Has anyone ever had a similar set up to this and do you think I should just talk to my landlord about it?

who the fug

Suggest you whinge to the landlord, ask her if there be a problem with her meters

Jo King

It is illegal to charge more for electricity the the cost from the supply undertaking. The chances are that the meters are either set to make a profit or there are appliances connected to your meter which you do not use but which you are paying for. You will have to investigate what the situation is and tell the landlady you want a refund of the excess you have been paying.

futonic

or you could try the old frozen ice mold, in the shape of a coin. Is it a metal slot?

DeadMoney

futonic wrote: »

or you could try the old frozen ice mold, in the shape of a coin. Is it a metal slot?

Haha now that would be amusing if she went to collect her coins and found that I was putting ice in. Why how could that even work?? Just out of interest of course

futonic

well i wouldnt advise it, not even sure if it would work with modern coins, but...from London lad,

"Re 50p. Showing my age again here. When electricity meters used to take coins the oinks would drill a small hole in the bottom of the coin box and then make ice 50 pence pieces in plasticine moulds in the freezer.
Put the ice 50p through the meter and then it melts in the coin box and drains out of the hole so no evidence left in the coin box. "

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?106158-Lockpicking!/page2

fds

That does seems really excessive. If you have in fact been paying €2 a day for 3 weeks that equals €42.

Just to put it into context for you, in our 1 bed apartment where we used electricity for everything but the gas powered radiators (immersion, ceramic hob, oven, fridge, tv, one computer on for 5-8 hours a day, a few laptops on and off all the time, dvd player, wii, wifi router, lights, dishwasher, washing machine, chargers, printer etc...)

Our bill was always around €75 euro, for two months and for two people. A few euro less in the summer, and few more in the winter.

We are pretty strict about powering things off when we aren't using them and only use CFL bulbs, but STILL, between the dishwasher, washing machine and the hot water tank alone there is no way in hell you are using more electricity than we would if you are only powering one major appliance (the oven)

Do the meters give you a read out of the units of power being consumed? if they do keep a note of it, you can look up the rates for the power very easily (don't forget to factor in the cost of the daily standing charge) and see if they tally.

Latchy

OP can sympathise with your prediciment and sounds like your meter is designed to be on a high tarrif .I had similar problem while staying in a flat on holiday in Dublin a few years back were upon in the morning /evening we would switch on the shower and after 20 seconds water would turn cold . This seemed to happen a lot no matter what we used ie, microwave, iron,kettle,heat etc regardless of amount of coins we put in and I wasn't having it when landlord said we neded to put more coins in because being on holiday and out most of the day /night , we were hardly in the place to use up large amounts of electricity .But I got it resolved in the end .How ? ...by making a complaint to the Irish tourist board of which she was registered with but it was more her attitude of ie , '' put up and shut up '' which was just as annoying than anything and why we went ( as a very last resort I might add ) and complained as we did .

DeadMoney

fds wrote: »

That does seems really excessive. If you have in fact been paying €2 a day for 3 weeks that equals €42.

Just to put it into context for you, in our 1 bed apartment where we used electricity for everything but the gas powered radiators (immersion, ceramic hob, oven, fridge, tv, one computer on for 5-8 hours a day, a few laptops on and off all the time, dvd player, wii, wifi router, lights, dishwasher, washing machine, chargers, printer etc...)

Our bill was always around €75 euro, for two months and for two people. A few euro less in the summer, and few more in the winter.

We are pretty strict about powering things off when we aren't using them and only use CFL bulbs, but STILL, between the dishwasher, washing machine and the hot water tank alone there is no way in hell you are using more electricity than we would if you are only powering one major appliance (the oven)

Do the meters give you a read out of the units of power being consumed? if they do keep a note of it, you can look up the rates for the power very easily (don't forget to factor in the cost of the daily standing charge) and see if they tally.

I have a desktop computer in my room which is on for about 6 hours a day and I also have a small lamp. However this meter only needs to be topped up about every 4 days which is totally fine. The bathroom then isn't too bad either and runs out about ever 4 days too (depending on how long of showers I take). The kitchen/living however is basically a TV set which I very rarely switch on, a microwave which I use for about 1 minute every morning for oatmeal, cooker which I use every day, and washing machine which I use once per week. I should add though that the washing machine seems to be the biggest drain of the power and one wash is the equivalent of €2. The other person who shares the house does use this a lot more than me and I am pretty much paying for his washes but I am going ask him to leave out money for this in future when he is doing a load.

Yesterday though after he did a wash the meter ran out and I put a new €2 coin in. Then after using the oven for 20mins, and just one hob for about 25mins, and boiling the kettle a few times the thing ran out again today. Since the other person doesn't ever use the kitchen facilities and hadn't done another wash, it is pretty clear that this was just for using the cooker and kettle for less than a full day which just seems crazy. I'll have a word with the landlady for sure and just explain things. I'm not on a lease or anything so if it persists there are plenty of other cheap rooms around here since it is a student area.

Thanks

tatli_lokma

although it does seem excessive, as others said it could be the tarrif its on, or the appliances themselves. my sis got a new hob and if it is on at the same time as the extractor or oven it literally eats units.

What about contacting ESB yourself, telling them you have a coin meter but think that there may be a 'fault'. Perhaps enquire about getting a card machine rather than coin one?

doolox

A unit of electricity is 1 kilowatt/hour.

ESB charge around 14 cents per unit.

A kettle is rated at 1.8 kw

A ring on a cooker is about 2 kw.

The elements on a cooker can vary between 3 and 5 kw.

2 euros should buy about 12 units of electricity, allowing an extra cent or two for standing charges,vat etc.


So if you had the ring on for about 20mins = 0.7 kw

Oven on for 25 mins, say 1/2 hour and 5kw element = 2.5 kw

Kettle on for say 1/2 hour and full kettle (rarely done) = 0.9 kw.

This rough estimate only comes to 4.1 kw...........

But you've paid for approx 12 units at ESB rates.

DeadMoney

doolox wrote: »

A unit of electricity is 1 kilowatt/hour.

ESB charge around 14 cents per unit.

A kettle is rated at 1.8 kw

A ring on a cooker is about 2 kw.

The elements on a cooker can vary between 3 and 5 kw.

2 euros should buy about 12 units of electricity, allowing an extra cent or two for standing charges,vat etc.


So if you had the ring on for about 20mins = 0.7 kw

Oven on for 25 mins, say 1/2 hour and 5kw element = 2.5 kw

Kettle on for say 1/2 hour and full kettle (rarely done) = 0.9 kw.

This rough estimate only comes to 4.1 kw...........

But you've paid for approx 12 units at ESB rates.

Thanks for this!