Major Airtricity bill issue! (need advice/help)

iPaddyM

Moved into an apartment with a friend on Dec 3rd '11.

Our first bill was €319.70 on 18th Jan '12.
Second bill was €1363.11 on 16th Mar '12 with an overdue amount of €299.70
Third bill was €1614.31 on 16th May '12 with an overdue amount of €1363.11
Forth bill was €1175.82 on 19th July '12 with an overdue amount of €914.31
Fifth bill was €914.31 on 14th Aug '12 with an overdue amount of €614.31
Sixth bill was €1275.44 on 17th Aug '12 with an overdue amount of €614.31

How is our bills so high and random amounts? We got disconnected on Tuesday and made payment of €400 that day and then received a bill last night for €1275.44.

We got a bill of €914.31 on the 14th then a bill for €1275.44 yesterday (only 3 days since last bill) after paying €400 on the 14th!

Madam_X

Estimates. Submit an accurate meter reading to them ASAP for a true reflection of what's owed.

iPaddyM

Madam_X wrote: »

Estimates. Submit an accurate meter reading to them ASAP for a true reflection of what's owed.

After our bill in March we rang them and they said they sent one of their engineers to check the meter which they said was fine. We live in a large apartment block and we'd have to arrange with our maintenance guys for us to view the meter as it's in a secured area.

2011

The solution to this starts with you seeing how much electricity you are using in real time. Therefore I would suggest an energy monitoring meter such as the Owl. Google is your friend, check it out. It will cost you about €60

Recessionbust

Looks like you may be paying for someone elses electrical bill or the wrong meter was read, with them type of figures its possible you are been charged for public areas.
Problem with these guys is they are not regulated so you need to chase it up even if it means contacting a solicitor!

ted1

Did you submit a reading when you moved in? Have you confirmed your looking at the right meter? Pull the main breaker go to meter and ensure it'd not spinning or displaying usage. Take a reading, take a reading again the following day and see what a daily usage is.
Get the meter serial number and ring mrso to ensure it matches with the mprn for your address.

Was there money outstanding by previous tenants?

Ask airtricity for a free meter so you canverify the load.

ted1

Check to ensure that they are crediting your payments. Also ensure immersion is off.

celticbhoy27

Recessionbust wrote: »

Looks like you may be paying for someone elses electrical bill or the wrong meter was read, with them type of figures its possible you are been charged for public areas.
Problem with these guys is they are not regulated so you need to chase it up even if it means contacting a solicitor!

think this is the most likely, there's no way in hell you could be using that much electricity.

dingding

A lot of overdue ammounts which are adding to the bill.

Is it possible that the bill was not cleared each month.

You would need to find out how much electricity you were using as the overdue ammount is skewing the figures.

Is it possible to post up the bills here with your account details and name and addressed hidden.

Also storage heating can be expensive and depending on whether the useage was during the day / at night

Without getting more details on the readings / arrears it is impossible to be more precise.

Can you edit the first post and detail how much you paid each month.

Then it will be possible to know how much new electricity there was each month and how much was arrears.

Were you expecting a flatmate to pay some of the bill and perhaps they didn't.

For example your first bill was 319 and you were carrying forward a balace of 299 so only 20 eur was paid of the first bill. Most of the problem looks like arrears being carried forward without electricity usage.

dingding

mushroom_mario wrote: »

Moved into an apartment with a friend on Dec 3rd '11.



We got a bill of €914.31 on the 14th then a bill for €1275.44 yesterday (only 3 days since last bill) after paying €400 on the 14th!

Why did you get the second bill, did you send in a reading or something.

.G.

The second bill is skewing the amounts used on all the other bills. You went from 319 to 1363. Allowing for the fact that 299.70 of that carried over from the first bill your usage on that bill amounted to over €1000. Unless you were powering a small rock concert in that time something is very wrong there.

All the other bills are high because the outstanding amounts on the first two bills were never cleared fully.

Without the arrears your usage appears to be between 200 and 300 per bill which is still on the high side I reckon by hard to know for sure without a proper picture of your usage habits.

Query the second bill, that's where your issue began

Doodoo

Was in a house once where the tenants were complaining of high bills. It wasnt until half the fuse board melted that i discovered that behind the main fuse was an old 20p coin which the electric from the whole house had to run through. Apparently it was in it for years until xmas day when xmas dinner was on along with an electric shower as well as everything else.
Bills dropped massively after repairs.

stoneill

mushroom_mario wrote: »

Moved into an apartment with a friend on Dec 3rd '11.

Our first bill was €319.70 on 18th Jan '12.

There is no way you could have used €320 worth of electricity in one month.

Either someone is piggybacking on your meter or they are reading the wrong meter. The MPRN number on your bill should indicate what meter is being read, this should tell you if they correct meter is being used.

confusedeire

Doodoo wrote: »

Was in a house once where the tenants were complaining of high bills. It wasnt until half the fuse board melted that i discovered that behind the main fuse was an old 20p coin which the electric from the whole house had to run through. Apparently it was in it for years until xmas day when xmas dinner was on along with an electric shower as well as everything else.
Bills dropped massively after repairs.

the 20p coin wouldnt cause the high bills it was only used as a conductor

Cedrus

confusedeire wrote: »

the 20p coin wouldnt cause the high bills it was only used as a conductor

It might if it was causing a short circuit, a 20p coin is a lot bigger than a fuse so it could have been conducting to a secondary load (ie Earth Fault).

I have major problems with Airtricitys online bills, they show everything I've used since last november as owing and give no credit for the bills paid, but when the paper bill comes out it's OK (a bit high, but they all are these days).

dingding

stoneill wrote: »

There is no way you could have used €320 worth of electricity in one month.

Either someone is piggybacking on your meter or they are reading the wrong meter. The MPRN number on your bill should indicate what meter is being read, this should tell you if they correct meter is being used.

This would be about 10 euro per day which would equate to 40 units.

This could be used if there was storage heating in use for the month, it is a cold month and if the immersion was heating the water a lot together with washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers not to mention lighting.

Consumption probably dropped after this month because of the shock of the bill reducing consumption.

RoundyMooney

Cedrus wrote: »

It might if it was causing a short circuit, a 20p coin is a lot bigger than a fuse so it could have been conducting to a secondary load (ie Earth Fault).

Presumably it was a DZIII main fuse, minus the gauge ring. Even so, it still has to dissipate energy in the form of heat, to the tune of what was recorded on the meter, and that's assuming a partial short. It's more likely that the householder exercised caution and diligence in the use of their electricity as a result of their experiences.

confusedeire

Cedrus wrote: »

It might if it was causing a short circuit, a 20p coin is a lot bigger than a fuse so it could have been conducting to a secondary load (ie Earth Fault).QUOTE]

direct earth fault would cause a fire in no time or blow the 80amp esb fuse