Airtricity Bill €400+ every 2 months!?

L1011

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

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

The water is cooled significantly in the shower head by the aeration process - distance has nothing to do with it. These things work entirely by putting air in to the water stream, which cools it, requiring more hot water. No two ways about it - they use more hot water despite using less water overall.

You have either changed other habits relating to water consumption or time in the shower; or you've managed to violate the laws of physics - the Nobel Prize has a nice cash element if you want to go for it :pac:

edanto

@celticraven163 - tell us a bit about the storage heaters.

Do you use them just on the 'storage' setting where they charge up on night electricity and then release during the day OR do you use them on the boost setting where you just flick the switch when you want heat and they heat up instantly like radiators? The second way uses a lot more power, and if a few of them were on like that for a few hours each evening (or left on in one persons room), you could easily reach €200/month

On top of that then you have immersion - how many hours is it timed to come on for each night, was it accidentally left on sink/bath for a few hours/days a few times?

Presuming it's a house (since there's 3 of you), is it old or well-insulated?

At the very least, you should have a meter reading from when you moved in (normally recorded on the lease) and then you can check the current reading. I think it would be stupid for a landlord to lie about meter readings since they could so easily be found out, but anythings possible.

Can you give more details about typical power use in the house/apartment?

brembo26

edanto wrote: »

Do you use them just on the 'storage' setting where they charge up on night electricity and then release during the day OR do you use them on the boost setting where you just flick the switch when you want heat and they heat up instantly like radiators? The second way uses a lot more power, and if a few of them were on like that for a few hours each evening (or left on in one persons room), you could easily reach €200/month

Never even thought to ask this, very good point. A lot of people dont know how to use storage heaters properly.

Michael D Not Higgins

brembo26 wrote: »

Never even thought to ask this, very good point. A lot of people dont know how to use storage heaters properly.

I even rented a place in Dublin before with storage heaters that didn't have a night rate electricity meter. Useless.

Firstly they never warmed the place properly and secondly they cost a fortune. I've avoided storage heaters like the plague since.

CelticRaven163

@edanto There was two storage heaters. They had no boost function. They charged at night. The storage heaters were turned off on the 14th Feb onwards and the bills were still 200+ a mth afterwards.

As for the immersion when we moved in the timer was broken for the first month. It was fixed by the landlord but the timer we did not have access to. It was supposed to heat for 2hrs in the early morning 5-7am. All we had access to was the booster function (So the immersion was not on all day). We never checked the meter when we moved in we were told by neighbours that their electricity last year was ~€120 each(4 in an apartment) for the academic year the year before and they had storage heaters and the same immersion system we had. We used that as an estimate of how much ours would be, so I put 200 aside just in case and then got this bill for €421 =( .

The apartments less than 10 years old, very well insulated (hence why the heaters went off in Feb). Me and my girlfriend both study in the hospital and have to be in from 8am not getting back til 9pm+ so we were sitting around all day watching a flatscreen etc. The 4th tenant dropped out in Feb (he was a 1st year) and was barely in the house before that.

We've all been out of the house since mid may and were given this bill when we asked for the security deposit so I have no access to the meter. I will be more diligent in future I guess.

Anyways Guys and Girls thanks for all your time. The Landlords agreed to query the bill but has assured me it'll come back the same =[, unless there a miracle i'm just gonna have to take this as a lesson learned.

brembo26

Well something is amiss somewhere. I hope it gets sorted for you or at least get provided with a breakdown of the bill.

The_Morrigan

Folks, could you please take the eco shower discussion to it's own thread or pm, you're derailing this thread.

Thanks

Mrs OBumble

CelticRaven163 wrote: »

@edanto There was two storage heaters. They had no boost function. They charged at night. The storage heaters were turned off on the 14th Feb onwards and the bills were still 200+ a mth afterwards.

Something seriously wrong there.

Rips

I'm having a similar problem with them, but I've given up and I'm paying off the bill and switching suppliers.

Our storage heaters were on timers, as is our water heater ( over the winter it was for 1hour at 5am) We have no washing machine/tumbledryer.

We've been billed for €1200 worth of use for the first two months of the year.
Airtricity agree this amount of usage is something a commercial business would struggle to attain, and suggest our metre has been tampered with. It hasn't that we can see. Every customer service agent has a different story.
One even tried to tell me there was a balance carried over from the previous tenants underestimations!!

We were charged €200 total from a period extending from August to December, and in Janaury, without any metre readings, we got a bill estimation for €1600, and then it turned out the actual bill was €1200

You tell me how that works.

melekalikimaka

Rips wrote: »

I'm having a similar problem with them, but I've given up and I'm paying off the bill and switching suppliers.

Our storage heaters were on timers, as is our water heater ( over the winter it was for 1hour at 5am) We have no washing machine/tumbledryer.

We've been billed for €1200 worth of use for the first two months of the year.
Airtricity agree this amount of usage is something a commercial business would struggle to attain, and suggest our metre has been tampered with. It hasn't that we can see. Every customer service agent has a different story.
One even tried to tell me there was a balance carried over from the previous tenants underestimations!!

We were charged €200 total from a period extending from August to December, and in Janaury, without any metre readings, we got a bill estimation for €1600, and then it turned out the actual bill was €1200

You tell me how that works.

moving suppliers because of high readings doesnt slove the problem, you are aware of this, your issue is with networks.

Rips

melekalikimaka wrote: »

moving suppliers because of high readings doesnt slove the problem, you are aware of this, your issue is with networks.

No, but we might get some transparency in our billing, its taken 5 months of phonecalls, having various copies of bills and receipts for payments sent out to us to reach an agreement. Not to mention that every time we called, despite remaining polite and civil we were treated like the scum of the earth for having an outstanding bill.

I've received numerous incorrect bills (online billing) and the customer service agents can't keep their story straight.

(Edit: I was withholding payment until the matter was clarified)

melekalikimaka

Rips wrote: »

No, but we might get some transparency in our billing, its taken 5 months of phonecalls, having various copies of bills and receipts for payments sent out to us to reach an agreement. Not to mention that every time we called, despite remaining polite and civil we were treated like the scum of the earth for having an outstanding bill.

I've received numerous incorrect bills (online billing) and the customer service agents can't keep their story straight.

(Edit: I was withholding payment until the matter was clarified)

What might I ask wasn't transparent from your original bills?

ted1

melekalikimaka wrote: »

moving suppliers because of high readings doesnt slove the problem, you are aware of this, your issue is with networks.

Airtricity are prone to misbilling so it actually might

Michael D Not Higgins

ted1 wrote: »

Airtricity are prone to misbilling so it actually might

They can only misbill if they're working off estimates. In which case, submitting meter readings would prevent that.

ted1

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

They can only misbill if they're working off estimates. In which case, submitting meter readings would prevent that.

No, Airtricity are extremely incompetent and do misbill even if given the correct t details. I do a lot of bill verifications for large energy users and see it often

Caliden

ted1 wrote: »

No, Airtricity are extremely incompetent and do misbill even if given the correct t details. I do a lot of bill verifications for large energy users and see it often

What's the best way to verify a bill then?

I submit meter readings as often as I can but can't shake the feeling that I'm getting over charged.

Rips

Billing for the wrong period, and just plain and simple misbilling. On their website, the payments or balances on the account are shown on a different page to the usage, and they are often errors.

I've had emails for totally random amounts then as well.

Not to mention that after the account was open for a year, they automatically credited the security deposit back onto the account with no notification (just before the winter) meaning the balance of the bill we received was negligible, leaving us to believe we were in good standing, when infact we had used a considerable amount of energy €300+ and since we didn't know, and didn't make any attempt to conserve energy, or change our timers etc and our next bill was quite a surprise.

In my experience you have to spell it out for them. I requested receipts for payments I had made over the phone etc and emailed screen shots of the errors... this is one example;

melekalikimaka

Rips wrote: »

Billing for the wrong period, and just plain and simple misbilling. On their website, the payments or balances on the account are shown on a different page to the usage, and they are often errors.

I've had emails for totally random amounts then as well.

Not to mention that after the account was open for a year, they automatically credited the security deposit back onto the account with no notification (just before the winter) meaning the balance of the bill we received was negligible, leaving us to believe we were in good standing, when infact we had used a considerable amount of energy €300+ and since we didn't know, and didn't make any attempt to conserve energy, or change our timers etc and our next bill was quite a surprise.

In my experience you have to spell it out for them. I requested receipts for payments I had made over the phone etc and emailed screen shots of the errors... this is one example;

they are shown on different pages to take reversals into account? pretty standard practice by all supplier. as for the deposit, you clearly were not reading your bills correctly, all the information was clearly liad out in your bills, but you did not read them, thats not misbilling or over estimating, its lack of monitoring, do you expect them to send a letter everytime a read is reversed or deposit taken off? why was the deposit removed? i assume it was due to dd details?

Rips

melekalikimaka wrote: »

they are shown on different pages to take reversals into account? pretty standard practice by all supplier. as for the deposit, you clearly were not reading your bills correctly, all the information was clearly liad out in your bills, but you did not read them, thats not misbilling or over estimating, its lack of monitoring, do you expect them to send a letter everytime a read is reversed or deposit taken off? why was the deposit removed? i assume it was due to dd details?

As I said it was automatically credited onto the account with no notification.

I don't want letters at all really, I'd prefer if they would keep their online billing correct and transparent. The only reason I have requested paper bills and receipts is to clear up misbilling issues, because the online account is randomly changed.

I've just had a look actually and my account has been recently been credited by €208.

There is no justification for this at all, anywhere on the account, our last payment off the bill was for €138. Made just last week (also noted) and this €208 credit doe not include that amount.

It makes no sense.

I've just rang them to get the credit clarified and 'they can't see that amount'. They went through all the last payments (payments I made and understand) but its like this €208 which has been CREDITED off my existing balance, does not exist. They've just given me money, which they claim they can't see.
I did the maths for them, on the phone, I said: Our balance X, we paid Y, and the remaining balance is €208 short of the amount we should owe. No response.
I explained why I was concerned about random credits on the account, 'well I can't see that amount to be honest' was the response. Its like talking to a brick wall.

As far as I can see, this is an adjustment of the bill, due to overbilling, which they won't acknowledge.

HelpImAlive

Rips wrote: »

In my experience you have to spell it out for them. I requested receipts for payments I had made over the phone etc and emailed screen shots of the errors... this is one example;

I don't see any error there though?

Your usage was 3841 kw/h? Your bill obviously goes from the previous reading, not the actual reading, so that's an error on your behalf.

Rips

HelpImAlive wrote: »

I don't see any error there though?

Your usage was 3841 kw/h? Your bill obviously goes from the previous reading, not the actual reading, so that's an error on your behalf.

Except that I'd paid and cleared the balance off the account at the beginning of February ???

HelpImAlive

Rips wrote: »

Except that I'd paid and cleared the balance off the account at the beginning of February ???

Which would have been up to your previous reading, yeah? So then the balance there is from that reading on, ie: a new billing period.

Ger Byrne 1

is it an estimate