Electricity Bill €5000!!!

Aurora. D

HELP! I need some advise, I have been paying my bill based on estimate readings for the past 28 months, I have been paying on average €150 every two months. ESB took a metre reading on the 10.01.17. The reading isn't far off the estimated reading.
*****3194 24Hr 1 11-Jan-2017 22-Jan-2017 68,807 Customer Reading 356 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Nov-2016 10-Jan-2017 68,451 Networks Reading 2,717 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Sep-2016 07-Nov-2016 65,734 Estimated Reading 2,238 kWh

Myself and my husband and two small children live in a two bedroom terraced house, we have been hit with a bill of nearly €5000!! Is this possible? Any advice please

Colser

Aurora. D wrote: »

HELP! I need some advise, I have been paying my bill based on estimate readings for the past 28 months, I have been paying on average €150 every two months. ESB took a metre reading on the 10.01.17. The reading isn't far off the estimated reading.
*****3194 24Hr 1 11-Jan-2017 22-Jan-2017 68,807 Customer Reading 356 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Nov-2016 10-Jan-2017 68,451 Networks Reading 2,717 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Sep-2016 07-Nov-2016 65,734 Estimated Reading 2,238 kWh

Myself and my husband and two small children live in a two bedroom terraced house, we have been hit with a bill of nearly €5000!! Is this possible? Any advice please

How many units are they billing you for since your last bill?

Mr E

Hi Aurora. D - I've moved your post to the Consumer Issues forum - a better place for your question.

Fuzzy Clam

Aurora. D wrote:

HELP! I need some advise, I have been paying my bill based on estimate readings for the past 28 months, I have been paying on average €150 every two months. ESB took a metre reading on the 10.01.17. The reading isn't far off the estimated reading. *****3194 24Hr 1 11-Jan-2017 22-Jan-2017 68,807 Customer Reading 356 kWh *****3194 24Hr 1 08-Nov-2016 10-Jan-2017 68,451 Networks Reading 2,717 kWh *****3194 24Hr 1 08-Sep-2016 07-Nov-2016 65,734 Estimated Reading 2,238 kWh

Aurora. D wrote:

Myself and my husband and two small children live in a two bedroom terraced house, we have been hit with a bill of nearly €5000!! Is this possible? Any advice please

This may seem like a stupid question but have you asked the ESB about it?

Aurora. D

Yes, they said that we can get a chap to look at the metre for €180. They really weren't very helpful.

Colser

Aurora. D wrote: »

Yes, they said that we can get a chap to look at the metre for €180. They really weren't very helpful.

That doesn't make sense....can you see where the calculation is on the bill...how many units are they billing you for and was there arrears on your bill?

Bazsutto

Aurora. D wrote: »

HELP! I need some advise, I have been paying my bill based on estimate readings for the past 28 months, I have been paying on average €150 every two months. ESB took a metre reading on the 10.01.17. The reading isn't far off the estimated reading.
*****3194 24Hr 1 11-Jan-2017 22-Jan-2017 68,807 Customer Reading 356 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Nov-2016 10-Jan-2017 68,451 Networks Reading 2,717 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Sep-2016 07-Nov-2016 65,734 Estimated Reading 2,238 kWh

Myself and my husband and two small children live in a two bedroom terraced house, we have been hit with a bill of nearly €5000!! Is this possible? Any advice please

Looks like you have being under paying the whole time. Even the estimated reading above is 2200 kWh, which would work out at just over €400 every 2 months. Your usage seems very high for a 2 bed terraced house.

As Fuzzy Clam said, contact the ESB. Or your electric supplier and they should work out a payment plan for you.

Bazsutto

You can try troubleshoot a fault by turning everything in the house off. The meter should stop turning if it functioning correctly. If it does then one of your appliances could be to blame.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Your readings given show only 5300 units which is about €900. How is the €5000 shown on the bill?

The readings also show about 32 units per day which while high is not exorbitant.

Aurora. D

We have contacted them, they just said it was an estimated reading and the outstanding amount is €4800, but I cannot get my head around this.

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Total electricity charges 411.08
Standard charges and other items
Correction of previous reading (s) 02/08/14 to 07/11/16 3768.22

€0.3514 / day 22.49
PSO Levy Nov/Dec 11.80
VAT 13.5% on
€4213.59 568.83

slovakchick

Aurora. D wrote: »

We have contacted them, they just said it was an estimated reading and the outstanding amount is €4800, but I cannot get my head around this.

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Total electricity charges 411.08
Standard charges and other items
Correction of previous reading (s) 02/08/14 to 07/11/16 3768.22

€0.3514 / day 22.49
PSO Levy Nov/Dec 11.80
VAT 13.5% on
€4213.59 568.83

That's a small mortgage ffs

Aurora. D

Hi Srameen, yes when I worked it out I got 35 units a day?? I am so confused and ESB are really unhelpful -just keep saying that we were paying based on estimate readings but we have been paying our bill each time

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Aurora. D wrote: »

We have contacted them, they just said it was an estimated reading and the outstanding amount is €4800, but I cannot get my head around this.

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Total electricity charges 411.08
Standard charges and other items
Correction of previous reading (s) 02/08/14 to 07/11/16 3768.22

€0.3514 / day 22.49
PSO Levy Nov/Dec 11.80
VAT 13.5% on
€4213.59 568.83

That makes no sense against the readings shown as there's an actual reading on 7th November that shows no disproportionate jumps from the previous estimated reading.

Ask then for the KWhs making up the €3768.

ED E

Aurora. D wrote: »

Hi Srameen, yes when I worked it out I got 35 units a day?? I am so confused and ESB are really unhelpful -just keep saying that we were paying based on estimate readings but we have been paying our bill each time

If you'd submitted your own readings then you'd have avoided this mess.

Aurora. D

Hi, that's what I can see, no huge difference from the estimate reading to the actual reading taken, I am so confused!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

ED E wrote: »

If you'd submitted your own readings then you'd have avoided this mess.

And can you explain the charges based on the readings??

Aurora. D

Thank you for your helpful advise, good citizen.

Cupatae

ED E wrote: »

If you'd submitted your own readings then you'd have avoided this mess.

Isnt that the esbs job to send someone around to read the meter?? i mean u are paying them after all!

Thats a fair mental bill, id ring em back and demand abit more detail... 5k is abit much to be casually throwing u aside!

Red Kev

Op, when did you move into this house?

When was the last time that you had a bill based on a meter reading?

gordongekko

Cupatae wrote: »

Isnt that the esbs job to send someone around to read the meter?? i mean u are paying them after all!

Thats a fair mental bill, id ring em back and demand abit more detail... 5k is abit much to be casually throwing u aside!

They call 3 times a year. If the meter isn't outside then how do you want them to read it?. It's noted on all bills they you can ring in with an actual reading if you want to.

brightspark

Laney Shallow Spark wrote: »

The readings also show about 32 units per day which while high is not exorbitant.

I'd consider 32 units per day very high, considering normal average usage is about 5,300 or just over 14 units per day for a 3 bedroom house.

A bit late now for pointing it out but 28 months is too long to rely on estimates, I thought they aimed to get an actual reading at least every four months, (I recently got a note from the reader that it had been over a year and he had to get a proper reading for a house I control)

There was a news article before Christmas about a small failure rate in a certain type of meter that caused high readings before they failed completely, it's unlikely but maybe you have that type of meter?

Do you have a lot of filament lamps on all day? Electric heaters? Immersion, esp if not insulated? Water pump? Electric heat pump?

As others have said, turn everything off and check the meter stops in case someone has illegally tapped into your supply.
Then turn on a known load such as a 2kW heater and see how many units accumulate (if it's an older meter you can tell quite quickly by how fast the wheel spins)

The Hurricane

Why did the ESB not read your meter for 2 years ? Allegedly they are meant to do it four times a year, but I know our guy does not. I complained to the Esb and they said he did. We got a big bill of 900 euro back from our honeymoon because of this.

Hope you get to the bottom of it.

PS I do remember seeing a story recently about the ESB discovering some meters were faulty - hopefully that's the case.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

What does strike me is that you seem to use about 35 units a day but were only paying €150 every two months. That would be about €275 short every two months x 14 billing periods is over €3800.

But the bill just doesn't look right. Are you with Electric Ireland? If so use the Talk to... forum here to get it investigated and explained further.

mcneil

Have you got teenage kids or is your husband a weed smoker. Go check the attic to see if you've lots of HPS lights and a jungle up there

beechwood55

Our electricity meter is inside the house. Which is why I send in actual readings when we get the estimated bill. OP - is the meter accessible to the meter reading person?

brightspark

Aurora. D wrote: »

HELP! I need some advise, I have been paying my bill based on estimate readings for the past 28 months, I have been paying on average €150 every two months. ESB took a metre reading on the 10.01.17. The reading isn't far off the estimated reading.
*****3194 24Hr 1 11-Jan-2017 22-Jan-2017 68,807 Customer Reading 356 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Nov-2016 10-Jan-2017 68,451 Networks Reading 2,717 kWh
*****3194 24Hr 1 08-Sep-2016 07-Nov-2016 65,734 Estimated Reading 2,238 kWh

Myself and my husband and two small children live in a two bedroom terraced house, we have been hit with a bill of nearly €5000!! Is this possible? Any advice please

Had you fully paid in November based on the estimate reading of 65,734?

In that case you should be owing the difference between 65,734 and the current reading of 68,807 = 3,073 units ~ €553 (plus usual standing charges)

Samuel T. Cogley

mcneil wrote: »

Have you got teenage kids or is your husband a weed smoker. Go check the attic to see if you've lots of HPS lights and a jungle up there

Just about to ask if there were any funny smells coming fromupstairs/next door.

The_Valeyard

That does seem bizzarly high unitwise. Could be defective meter or appliance like a fridge freezer. My mate had a fridge freezer where the motor was taking in far more electricity than needed and overpowering itself. Eventually figured what was happening, by checking appliances and disconnecting various items to see which was sending the meter spinnin.

He still had to pay over 2700 owed. But worth out a deal of paid instalments with each bill.

Skid X

You should check the meter yourself to take a reading.

The ESB messed up my reading once (they recorded something like 32941 instead of 32491) which led to a huge bill until I rang them to correct it.

L1011

Have you got previous bills? There's a correction going back to 2014 shown there so presumably they were estimates or self-reads since then.

Its also not impossible that you were submitting self-reads on the wrong MPRN...

lucernarian

Even if some previous readings are incorrect, if the latest reading is accurate at the time of recording then there won't be much way around paying the difference from the last (estimated) meter reading the ESB have to hand.

What I'm wondering is what kind of deal they'd make for anyone in this situation? I know some folks who have had their meter blocked off by an old wardrobe for 3 years now and the meter man only calls during the daytime when no one's there.

They reckon the meter reading is behind by several thousand units...