Airtricity Bill €400+ every 2 months!?

CelticRaven163

I am having a dispute with my landlord over my electricity bill. I'm a student and at the end of the year was handed an electricity bill for 1630 (Split between the 3 tenants) for 8th months usage from Oct-May. This seems massively high. I'm a 4th yr medical student and have never paid more than 200euro for an academic year. My landlord simply repeats "thats what the bill says" and "i'll just take it out of the security deposit". Because I'm not the bill payer (it's in the landlords name) I can't get anywhere with airtricity. Does any one have any ideas to help or am I screwed?

Deco99

CelticRaven163 wrote: »

I am having a dispute with my landlord over my electricity bill. I'm a student and at the end of the year was handed an electricity bill for 1630 (Split between the 3 tenants) for 8th months usage from Oct-May. This seems massively high. I'm a 4th yr medical student and have never paid more than 200euro for an academic year. My landlord simply repeats "thats what the bill says" and "i'll just take it out of the security deposit". Because I'm not the bill pay (it''s in the landlords name) I can't get anywhere with airtricity. Does any one have any ideas to help or an I screwed?

Ask him for a copy of the bill first.

CelticRaven163

The best I got was fuzzy mobile phone photo's from the landlord. No where in the pictures i was sent does it indicate if the bills are estimates or actual readings.

brembo26

Doesnt seem that high to be fair. Most of your usage was in the winter season. How were ye heating the place?

CelticRaven163

There was a storage heater but this was turned off in early February and the bill was still 200+ a month afterwords. also in December the house was empty, heating was off, no tenants and the bill was still 220 for that month..

brembo26

Sounds like there may be estimates involved. Tell him to forward on a copy of each bill. If he tries to take it from the security deposit I would be contacting the PRTB.

Those storage heaters are expensive though. Me and another guy rented a 2 bed apt which had 2 storage heaters on over the 2 month billing period and ended up costing us in around €350. We were both working so we were only watching tv, using laptops and cooking for a short time each evening.

The_Morrigan

Tell the landlord you want a legible version of the bill or bills before you will pay towards the bill...if he refuses and deducts from your deposit start the PRTB process against him for refusing to return your deposit.

shruikan2553

Thats not really expensive. In act I would see it as very cheap. Storage heaters are pricey. No idea how you were getting away with 200 for academic year.

ted1

Its expensive but not excessive. Really the bills should be in your names and paid every time that they arrived

The_Morrigan

shruikan2553 wrote: »

Thats not really expensive. In act I would see it as very cheap. Storage heaters are pricey. No idea how you were getting away with 200 for academic year.

ted1 wrote: »

Its expensive but not excessive. Really the bills should be in your names and paid every time that they arrived

200 euro a month isn't expensive? Taking into account that for one month they should really only have the standing charges as the place was unoccupied - making the monthly cost even higher.
There are two of us living here (I'm unemployed so home all day too) and the electricity & gas bill are never more than 100 per month - granted we do not have storage heaters.

ted1

The_Morrigan wrote: »

200 euro a month isn't expensive? Taking into account that for one month they should really only have the standing charges as the place was unoccupied - making the monthly cost even higher.
There are two of us living here (I'm unemployed so home all day too) and the electricity & gas bill are never more than 100 per month - granted we do not have storage heaters.

I said expensive but not excessive.

My bill is 140 every 2 months but 4 students could unwillingly rack up a bill of 200 a month.

If they didn't move the bill to their name they would not be receiving te discounted rate suppliers offer. If they are using incandescent lamps and old appliances, if the immersion is keftvin and other electric heating is on its quiet believable.

Ger Byrne 1

it seams a bit high but if heaters and immersion going all the time no problem

Grandpa Hassan

You need to see the actual bill, for sure. And make sure it's not estimated

But I agree with the others. It's on the high side, but I can see how a bill like that can be easily racked up

makeorbrake

The_Morrigan wrote: »

Tell the landlord you want a legible version of the bill or bills before you will pay towards the bill.

That's reasonable. However, I assume you can access the meter in the house? I also assume a reading was taken upon moving in to the property? Between that and checking the unit rates on the bill, you can figure it out quite easily.


Presumably, estimates have caused this issue. It's a shame - as this could have been avoided. Not with airtricity right now but when I was with them, they sent me email and txt reminders to submit a reading. It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to do this- and have deadly accurate billing as a result.

shruikan2553

The_Morrigan wrote: »

200 euro a month isn't expensive? Taking into account that for one month they should really only have the standing charges as the place was unoccupied - making the monthly cost even higher.
There are two of us living here (I'm unemployed so home all day too) and the electricity & gas bill are never more than 100 per month - granted we do not have storage heaters.

oops sorry, thought he meant over the 8 months. Was wondering how he managed that.


That amount every 2 months is quite high. Our never went above 250 euro with 3 people and that was winter with water and storage heaters.

You need to look through the bills and see where estimates were made.

BonkeyDonker

makeorbrake wrote: »

That's reasonable. However, I assume you can access the meter in the house? I also assume a reading was taken upon moving in to the property? Between that and checking the unit rates on the bill, you can figure it out quite easily.


Presumably, estimates have caused this issue. It's a shame - as this could have been avoided. Not with airtricity right now but when I was with them, they sent me email and txt reminders to submit a reading. It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to do this- and have deadly accurate billing as a result.

The one thing that would really annoy me was the fact that the LL did not come looking for it regularly, as A) it would have been for smaller amounts and B)you would probably have been more aware of the cost of electricity and used less, resulting in even lower bills.

When i was with Airtricity I found that unless I sent in the meter reading they just guessed (and always guessed high) the readings.

As for the bill itself - I share an apartment which is all electric and my bills are @100-110 per month (that's level pay). However, we do not use the storage heaters as we are on the third floor, and luckily heat rises - for that bill we usually get 2-3 showers a day (over night heating) and the usual cooker/lighting/tv etc etc.

I can easily see an additional person upping this, especially if you use space heaters as they are very expensive.

Like the above posters said get a physical copy of the bill first.

makeorbrake

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

When i was with Airtricity I found that unless I sent in the meter reading they just guessed (and always guessed high) the readings.

I bet - doesn't surprise me. Although I wanted to submit readings anyway (initially, there as a need to share the bill), later when there was no such need, I stuck to the routine of always submitting readings. I had a fair idea that otherwise, they would go for a high estimate rather than a low one (as it means they can hold all that excess cash on account - and have the opportunity value of all that cash...over their entire customer base, it must add up to a fair amount).

Sarn

Strangely enough Airtricity estimated my usage over three months as zero units of electricity used. That's the problem with living somewhere where you don't have access to the meter. The bill was still €54 with standing charges and levy alone.

the_syco

Whilst living there, did you have access to the meter?

Mrs OBumble

shruikan2553 wrote: »

That amount every 2 months is quite high. Our never went above 250 euro with 3 people and that was winter with water and storage heaters.

Agreed.

Two person apartment, storage heating and immersion (no elec shower), our worst was E180 over winter.

We're on the cheap side 'cos it's the middle of the city, lots of ambient heat from surrounding buildings. But still.

Grandpa Hassan

The two tenants in my flat in Dublin ran up a €300 bill for March and April. When I investigated, it was because of two things. The timer had been moved as was heating water in the daytime rather than at nighttime and a short boost in the evening. I have subsequently fixed it so that it can't be moved.

But the biggest thing was that the shower head was old, and was letting through too much water, emptying the tank and needing more use of the immersion. The purchase of an eco shower head has made all the difference and the bill for the last two months was under €100.

So my advice: check your shower head

Michael D Not Higgins

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

The two tenants in my flat in Dublin ran up a €300 bill for March and April. When I investigated, it was because of two things. The timer had been moved as was heating water in the daytime rather than at nighttime and a short boost in the evening. I have subsequently fixed it so that it can't be moved.

But the biggest thing was that the shower head was old, and was letting through too much water, emptying the tank and needing more use of the immersion. The purchase of an eco shower head has made all the difference and the bill for the last two months was under €100.

So my advice: check your shower head

I hate those dribbly showers. You have to run around to get wet.

Grandpa Hassan

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

I hate those dribbly showers. You have to run around to get wet.

Eco shower's aren't dribbly!! I think you are thinking of something else. They are brilliant. They use less water as they mix air into the water jets. They are as good as any power shower

Michael D Not Higgins

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

Eco shower's aren't dribbly!! I think you are thinking of something else. They are brilliant. They use less water as they mix air into the water jets. They are as good as any power shower

Fair enough, maybe the newer devices are better but anything purporting to save water/energy for a shower I've used before has been woeful.

L1011

Aerated showers use more power as the water needs to be hotter in the first place as the ambient air cools it - they save on water, absolutely not on energy. They're also less thermostatically stable as the air warms up in the room during the shower meaning you end up needing to fiddle with the dial during it.

Grandpa Hassan

MYOB wrote: »

Aerated showers use more power as the water needs to be hotter in the first place as the ambient air cools it - they save on water, absolutely not on energy. They're also less thermostatically stable as the air warms up in the room during the shower meaning you end up needing to fiddle with the dial during it.

That is not necessarily true. It depends what kind of water heating system you have. If you have a tank, which heats up overnight, then the aerated shower uses less hot water = less use of the immersion when the hot water runs out if the shower is being used a couple of times a day = much lower electric bill. Has certainly made a big change to mine.

And most apartments have water tanks

L1011

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

That is not necessarily true. It depends what kind of water heating system you have. If you have a tank, which heats up overnight, then the aerated shower uses less hot water = less use of the immersion when the hot water runs out if the shower is being used a couple of times a day = much lower electric bill. Has certainly made a big change to mine.

And most apartments have water tanks

No... you have to increase the flow of hot water so you use more hot water. It is not physically possible for it to use less hot water.

You have obviously changed other habits in relation to immersion use as otherwise you are breaching the laws of thermodynamics.

Sleepy

How's the insulation on the house? Double Glazing?

For an old 3 bed terrace with a family of four we pay an average of 400 every bill because our heating is old fashioned storage heaters and the insulation is terrible.

Grandpa Hassan

MYOB wrote: »

No... you have to increase the flow of hot water so you use more hot water. It is not physically possible for it to use less hot water.

You have obviously changed other habits in relation to immersion use as otherwise you are breaching the laws of thermodynamics.

Why would you increase the water flow? The whole point of them is that they decrease the water flow. 60% less according to Which magazine in some cases. We must be talking about different things

Whats the point in switching your shower head for one that uses more water?

L1011

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

Why would you increase the water flow? The whole point of them is that they decrease the water flow. 60% less according to Which magazine in some cases. We must be talking about different things

Whats the point in switching your shower head for one that uses more water?

We're not talking about different things.

They decrease the overall water flow, by introducing air to the mix. That air is room temperature - which is much colder than you're showering at.

This means that you need to significantly increase the proportion of hot to cold water to regain the same temperature as you had before.

Effectively you use more hot water and less to no cold water. They do nothing for heating bills at all, if anything they make them worse.

Grandpa Hassan

MYOB wrote: »

We're not talking about different things.

They decrease the overall water flow, by introducing air to the mix. That air is room temperature - which is much colder than you're showering at.

This means that you need to significantly increase the proportion of hot to cold water to regain the same temperature as you had before.

Effectively you use more hot water and less to no cold water. They do nothing for heating bills at all, if anything they make them worse.

In my case I have hot water now for 4 or 5 showers rather than 2 before the hot water starts to run out. Old shower head was obviously letting through too much water. In the 4 inches between the shower head and my body, I doubt the water cools too much