Elderly Parents with super high bills (over €1500 for two months!)

Jewelsster

Hi, 

I'm writing on behalf of my elderly parents who are at their wits' end with the price of their bills which are over €6000 annually (if not more!).  They are currently with Bord Gais but are considering changing but really need some advice on what to do about the price of their bills.

To give some background on their usage and habits: they live in a large-ish house in the country but only use about half of it (kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and TV room). They both sleep in separate bedrooms as my father has to sleep downstairs and he tends to listen to audio books rather than watch TV while my mother will watch TV in the evenings. There are 5 storage heaters that are used in the house, a fridge-freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer (not used too often) and a chest freezer. They have the storage heaters on during the winter months (Dec - mid-March) from 12 midnight - 8am. They have two emersions - one for the kitchen and one for the bedroom area and an electric shower - the water emersions are only on for an hour early morning. They have a water pump but have been told it doesn't use up too much electricity. 

They have bills of €1700/per two months for the winter months and €600 - 700/per two months during the rest of the year.

We just got the electrician in from Electric Ireland to check the meter and he said that the estimate is out by €200 but the bills still seem extortionate! My mother has had in electricians who have checked the appliances are running okay and we have been told that everything is running fine, though perhaps the chest freezer will need to be replaced (which she is doing).

Everyone agrees that at those rates, it's like a commercial property (I assure you it's solely a domestic property!) and added to this there is a multiplier of 60 on the bill as they slowed down the meter as it was turning over too fast but I'm wondering if this is the correct multiplier that has been applied? 

I find it incredulous that they are paying over €6000 (if not more!) annually so I figured perhaps the multiplier that they have (60x) is miscalculated perhaps? I'm not sure of how to check that and my mother forgot to draw attention to it when the electrician came in to check the meter. They also use a calor gas heater and gas imitation fires to heat the house!!

I would really appreciate any help with this issue as for an elderly couple this is most frustrating for them and I'm not sure where to go next or who can help with this issue.  They would be willing to pay for a contracter to check the validity of their usage but they have already had someone looking at it a number of months ago (a former colleague of my father's) but he couldn't come to any conclusion why their bills were so [font=arial, sans-serif-light, sans-serif]exorbitant[/font].  They hazarded a guess that it was due to the storage heaters but then why are the bills so high when they don't have any heaters on during the summer?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions and feedback!

Electric Ireland: Una

Hi Jewelsster,

Thank you for contacting us here on Boards.ie.

Just to advise: the technician that assessed the meter would not have been from Electric Ireland but ESB Networks, as sent to the property following a request by your parents' electricity provider. The ESB Group includes ESB Networks (which maintains the electricity infrastructure, such as power-lines and meters, nationwide) and Electric Ireland, billing provider - therefore we would not have any general information to offer further to the suggestions already given by the customers' electricity provider.

We would suggest contacting an electrician again regarding the multiplier, as well as ESB Networks (via the account-holders making a request through their electricity provider). The first tip we give customers who are unsure as to what is causing high consumption is to check whether it is an internal wiring issue, by powering off everything, and then powering each item back on one by one, checking the meter activity for each item individually. If there is irregular meter activity for one particular item, this indicates a wiring issue. Following such a check, we recommend having a private electrical contractor check the electrics. And the final step (if necessary) would be to send an ESB Networks technician to check the meter.

Unfortunately we have no way of knowing what devices specifically cause units consumption as we can only advise as to what the units usage is when the meter is read by ESB Networks or the customer. Internal wiring and appliances need to be checked by the customer at a basic level, keeping safety paramount, and by an electrician at a more in-depth level.

We would also suggest putting your query to the Electrical forum here on Boards.ie for suggestions.

Kind regards,
Una

Digital Society

Why cant you just switch things on one by one and see what makes the meter spin?