Huge electricity bill

Gisty

I'm posting this here as I can't find anywhere else that makes sense for me to put it. Feel free to move if its in the wrong place

Our night time electricity usage has absolutely skyrocketed between january and march and I'm posting here to try and get some advice on what can be done to get to the bottom of it and how likely it is to be a meter issue as we're with Airtricity.

We live in a 2 bed flat that has 3 electric storage heaters and an immersion for the hot water. We use the heaters only when its absolutely freezing, so once a month at the very most. They're almost never used. The 3kw water heater is on a timer every night for 4 hours. Up to january we were using between 800 and 900 night time units per month, and our bill was 180 euro each time. Give or take a few quid.

We switched to Airtricity in January and they're saying that we've used 3500 night time units between january and march. That's 55 odd units per night. According to a few hours of research online, an average number of units for a household is about 15 per day. We're using about 4 times that, just at night. Suffice to say I am absolutely baffled by this. We have changed nothing in the flat. Nothing. Same people, same appliances, same usage patterns. Only the immersion, the fridge and the internet router are on at night. We'd have to have the immersion and the heaters humming all night to get anywhere close to the figures being thrown around.

I've had my uncle, who is an electrician give the house a quick once over and he didn't find anything obvious amiss. He told me that all the appliances like heaters and the immersion a designed to fail safe if there is a fault with them, so its highly unlikely that its them causing the issue with our bill. He's convinced that it is an issue with the meter

I've checked the meter, and the figure on the meter shows a jump of 3000+ units. I originally thought the meter had been misread. We were billed for a reading of 18000 units when a reading of 15000 units would have been in line with our regular usage (look at an 8 and a 5 on a calculator type screen, very similar, right?), but when I checked the meter myself the screen is showing 18000 units. Now the reason I'm posting here is to see if anyone else has had a problem with the digital screen on their meter being faulty?

I've taken readings with the immersion off overnight, and will be checking in the morning to see what the usage is with it left on and it all seems fine so far. 2 night time units with the immersion switched off, and 12 units with it on last night. Nothing even approaching the 50+ units per night that we were billed for.

I've been onto our landlord about it, and they're as confused about it as I am. 50-60 units per night is an absolutely obscene amount of electricity to be using.

If anyone can point me in the direction of the people I need to contact about this I'd really appreciate it.

kneemos

Is it a prepay meter.These can be adjusted by the landlord.Is the 180 a quartly amount,seems high for a flat.The immersion could be the culprit.Is it lagged by the way.

robertpatterson

If youre with Airtricity why are you asking in Electric Ireland?
Looks to be more a problem with your provider if nothing else has changed

Gisty

kneemos wrote: »

Is it a prepay meter.These can be adjusted by the landlord.Is the 180 a quartly amount,seems high for a flat.The immersion could be the culprit.Is it lagged by the way.

Its not a prepay meter.

180 is for 60 odd days. The 3 of us in the flat have completely different schedules, so leaving the immersion on the timer every night is just easier for us. We accept the higher bill for the sake of having hot water available no matter what time of the day or night.

But the current bill is 420. Its more than doubled.

And it can't be the immersion. Its a 3kw device, running for 4 hours per night. That's 12 units per night. That's leaving 45 odd units unaccounted for per night. Its also been checked out and is absolutely fine. Same with the timer. Even if the immersion was running all night it would only use 36 units, which still leaves 20 odd units unaccounted for.

Its bloody strange. We're using almost a week's worth of electricity per night for some reason. Can't figure out why. It has to be the meter

Gisty

robertpatterson wrote: »

If youre with Airtricity why are you asking in Electric Ireland?
Looks to be more a problem with your provider if nothing else has changed

It seems to be a meter problem. EI take care of the meters. Well, Airtricity say they do anyway. Plus I couldn't find anywhere else to ask.

kyle123

Could be the meter happens in my previous house but turned out my neighbour was stealing power from several houses on street and was growing weed in his house lol

Gisty

kyle123 wrote: »

Could be the meter happens in my previous house but turned out my neighbour was stealing power from several houses on street and was growing weed in his house lol

That was one of my first thoughts, but I've looked myself and had the electrician check around the meter and can't see anything along those lines.

kyle123

Well then I doubt its that it's clear as day when it's done I just never thought of it till I was told by the guards lol. I'm no expert so I can't think of nethinbar a meter but iv never heard of a faulty one but sure anything can be faulty but then why is just since you've changed provider

Gisty

I know, but how would switching provider make our appliances use more power though. That's what baffles me about it.

If it turns out that there's nothing wrong with the meter and the wiring in the house Electric Ireland will be getting another customer coming back to them.

Should never have let the girlfriend talk me into switching

kneemos

Has anybody else moved into neighbouring flats recently ,that could be leeching power.

Gisty

Not that I'm aware of, no. The landlord is checking that out though.

EI: Una

Hi Gisty,

This would require contacting your supplier.

With regards to the information you have received relating to Electric Ireland and meters - our colleagues ESB Networks (who do not have a presence on Boards.ie) carry out/process meter readings for all customers but your supplier would be your first port of call with regards to the increase.

In addition, ESB Networks can be contacted here.

Regards,
Una

drum!

I could be way off here but i'll tell you my similar story nonetheless.

When i switched to Airtricity, i had been getting very normal bills for about 7 months until the 7th month when i got a bill for 700 euro( normally 100 and something).I checked the meter and our usage had jumped about 3000 units than what it would normally be.We couldn't figure out what happened, i cut off all power at the fuse box to all appliances to see if the meter was still running (to check if someone was stealing our power), i checked different appliances etc and nothing.We just couldn't explain it.Airtricity were useless and said it was probably just our storage heaters and demanded payment promptly.

After looking over the old bills and checking the meters again i figured it out. Airtricity had been estimating all of my bills.This isn't usually a problem (it certainly never was a problem before with ESB) as it balances out and there certainly wouldn't be a difference of that many units between actual read and estimate.The problem was, Airtricity didn't actually change the number of the night time meter so their "estimates" were useless as there was 0 usage every month according to them. The meter read stayed the same as it was when i gave it to them first when i set up the account.

So, check all your previous bills and make sure they didn't just create blank estimates for every one of your bills like they did for me. If that's what they did, prepare for a fight.When i went to customer service they were useless and after begging for a payment plan, the lowest they could go would be 90 euro a month on top of whatever else we used.I'd just been made redundant from my job too so it was pretty sucky timing.

TL;DR Check your previous bills for blank estimates, this would explain your massive usage increase. Also, Airtricity are terrible.

EI: Una

Hi Drum,

If the customer can access their meter also, they can submit readings to their supplier, which eliminates estimates.

Regards,
Una

drum!

Airtricity at the time didn't allow you to do it for your first 6 months (maybe they still do?) which is why when i submitted the reading at the first opportunity i was allowed, the bill went mental.

Gisty

Thanks for that Drum, that's very interesting. My only issue is that this is my first bill with the feckers so I've nothing to compare to. Also, they claim that its an actual reading even though I was never consulted on the first reading to verify it. Stupid of me I know, but nothing that can be done now about it.

Honestly, if ESB networks check the meter and say its fine I'll just cancel my account and go back to Electric Ireland.

Gisty

Electric Ireland: Una wrote: »

Hi Gisty,

This would require contacting your supplier.

With regards to the information you have received relating to Electric Ireland and meters - our colleagues ESB Networks (who do not have a presence on Boards.ie) carry out/process meter readings for all customers but your supplier would be your first port of call with regards to the increase.

In addition, ESB Networks can be contacted here.

Regards,
Una

Cool, thanks a million Una.

EI: Una

No problem Gisty.

kneemos

Electric Ireland: Una wrote: »

Hi Drum,

If the customer can access their meter also, they can submit readings to their supplier, which eliminates estimates.

Regards,
Una

What the op is saying is that the number of units has increased by over 3000.

Gisty

kneemos wrote: »

What the op is saying is that the number of units has increased by over 3000.

Yep, and I have taken readings over the last 3 nights.

Night 1 - No immersion, no heaters, just the fridge on - 2 units

Night 2 - No heaters, just the immersion and the fridge on - 12 units

Night 3 - All the heaters, the immersion and the fridge - 66 units.

So to meet the claimed usage of 3614 units over 64 days we would have had to have the immersion on for 4 hours and the heaters on for 10 hours per night, every single night for 64 days. (Average power used per night - 56.5 units. 3kw immersion for 4 hours would use 12units, 4.5 kw of heaters for 10 hours would use 45 units giving a total of 57 units per night)

Which simply did not happen. Hence my confusion. After testing the meter, it seems as though its working properly. To add to the confusion, only the night time units have increased, they day units are right where they should be.

I cannot for the life of me figure this out. I'm waiting on the landlord to send someone out to turn the place upside down to see where this power is coming from.

melekalikimaka

drum! wrote: »

Airtricity at the time didn't allow you to do it for your first 6 months (maybe they still do?) which is why when i submitted the reading at the first opportunity i was allowed, the bill went mental.

dont think they ever did this, have you any of this in writing or is it heresay?

its most likely estimates as opposed actuals, if the readings on the meter are in line with bills, its a meter fault and you need to get a test done by networks who will reevaluate the readings to be more accurate if its broken, if its not, you must pay a call out charge

kneemos

melekalikimaka wrote: »

dont think they ever did this, have you any of this in writing or is it heresay?

its most likely estimates as opposed actuals, if the readings on the meter are in line with bills, its a meter fault and you need to get a test done by networks who will reevaluate the readings to be more accurate if its broken, if its not, you must pay a call out charge

In a previous post the op's tested the metre and it's fine.

Gisty

The thing is there was a reading taken at the start of this billing period (we'd just switched over) and another taken at the end of the billing period. So its two actual readings.

We had an electrician in the flat yesterday, and he could find no faults with any appliances. He had a look over my figures from all the checks I've done myself on the meter readings and thinks that the meter is working fine. (He's not authorised to inspect the meter for faults, only esb networks can).

He also calculated what we'd have to have running overnight to use the amount of electricity that is being claimed, and reached the same conclusion I did. That we would have to have had the storage heaters running all night, every night from the end of January to the end of March along with the immersion. He said that there's something wrong somewhere, most likely a mistake, but the chances of Airtricity admitting a mistake and adjusting our bill when the meter is proved to be working correctly are slim to none.

He also said that this isn't the first time he's heard of something like this happening with Airtricity.

Looks like I'll be heading back to Electric Ireland after 2 months :pac:

kneemos

Outstanding charges from a previous tenant.?

Gisty

Unlikely, we've been there over a year. It would have popped up by now if tehre we outstanding charges.

I'm just going to have to call them on Monday and see what they say. I don't really think we have any other options left at this stage.

melekalikimaka

Gisty wrote: »

He said that there's something wrong somewhere, most likely a mistake, but the chances of Airtricity admitting a mistake and adjusting our bill when the meter is proved to be working correctly are slim to none.

He also said that this isn't the first time he's heard of something like this happening with Airtricity.

Looks like I'll be heading back to Electric Ireland after 2 months :pac:

have you calculated the units used by the rate, if they are incorrect getting a refund should be easy, if the meter is 'apparently' correct then how can airtricity be responsible for your electricity usage, they cant alter your units

kneemos

melekalikimaka wrote: »

have you calculated the units used by the rate, if they are incorrect getting a refund should be easy, if the meter is 'apparently' correct then how can airtricity be responsible for your electricity usage, they cant alter your units

What's he's getting at is that he's used 3000 Unit's more than normal on the metre.I agree don't know how Airtricity can be responsible for that.

kneemos

Could have been a longer billing period when he changed over to Airtricity.

Gisty

kneemos wrote: »

What's he's getting at is that he's used 3000 Unit's more than normal on the metre.I agree don't know how Airtricity can be responsible for that.

Neither can I.

The way its shaping up is we're just going to have to pay it. The meter readings add up, so we don't really have a leg to stand on if we want to make an issue out of it. We didn't use the amount of units they're claiming, but we have no way to prove otherwise. I'm just waiting on the landlord to get back to me about having ESB networks out to check the meter, but I can't see them finding anything wrong with it.

hohojojo

did you get a final reading when you changed companies as the final bill could have been low

if you are really worried that the meter is out and that you have been over charged you could dispute your bill and look for another meter before you proceed any further they shuld put it in

Gisty

Spoke with someone there. It does actually seem as though there's an issue with the final reading and the changeover.

Looks like its going to be sorted out.

Cheers for the replies everyone

Toby Take a Bow

Gisty wrote: »

Spoke with someone there. It does actually seem as though there's an issue with the final reading and the changeover.

Looks like its going to be sorted out.

Cheers for the replies everyone

Hey. I'm sure you're done with this, but I was wondering who you spoke to in Airtricity about this? Having a similar (ish) issue with my final gas bill when I gave them the meter reading. Really high bill for a period where there was only one person living in the flat (compared to the previous year, when more gas was being used and the bill was less). People I've been emailing in Airtricity have just sent me meter readings and usage numbers, which mean nothing to me.

Congratulations on getting your bill sorted, though!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Post a query on the Talk To... forum here, as Electric Ireland have a very good presence there.