Average Electric Bill

joeysoap · 07-09-2021 11:31pm

5200 kw per year. That’s above average. Bills under €200 per 2 months (thanks to switching yearly 41% off this year).oil heating a definite saving ( buckets of hot water) from sept - May ( cost of oil expensive though) led lighting where possible. I have an ‘outhouse’ with an oil filled radiator on a timer in winter. I can ‘estimate’ usage at any time ( between actual bills)

notAMember · 07-09-2021 11:37pm

That's high alright.

Our average is around 80 per month. 3 bedroom B rated house.

4 people, 1 working from home full time. 90% + meals cooked at home. Electric car. We use oil heating, and have pumped tank-fed showers.

We have a dryer but rarely use it, mostly dry our clothes on a clothes line with a perspex shelter over it.

delly · 08-09-2021 12:02am

As others have outlined OP, something is amiss. I've a 4 bed house, gas heating, electric cooker. Hot water is via the gas, but I do use the clothes dryer a few times a week, as well as the dishwasher and washing machine going on a daily basis. I've pasted in my daily use in both cost (before vat) and kWh to give you an idea, but 15 kWh or €2.50 per day is my average.

Bobeagleburger · 08-09-2021 8:58am

Track what applicances are causing the consumption. Electric showers are a killer if there's a few people using them every day, particularly those who like long showers! They use 9/10 kW per hour!

Also, get pv solar panels.They cut my electricity unit usage by 90% May-Aug. Currently at about 80% coverage for September.

magicbastarder · 08-09-2021 9:02am

we're fairly high for a household of two - bills around €180 per billing period, so that's just over a grand a year. our shower is electric, we rarely use hot water from the tank for that.

home heating is around €700 for the gas and occasional hot water; we've a honeywell system though which balances nicely against the small stove we light and that's maybe an extra €200 in wood.

OU812 · 08-09-2021 9:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117861172#Comment_117861172

Combination of estimated readings (which *kind of* balanced out) and also coming out of contract and not noticing.

Gooser14 · 08-09-2021 5:52pm

Is your payment 170 every month? If it is you have probably signed up to a level pay plan where your supplier is taking a set amount from your bank each month. You need to check your electricity bill to see whether your account is in credit.

BlackEdelweiss · 18-09-2021 8:11am

Is there any benefit to switching to pay as you go electricity?

Creamy Goodness · 18-09-2021 8:13am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117906958#Comment_117906958

No, like everything pay as you go. It’s much more expensive per unit for the exact same energy coming into your home

but if you’re struggling with cash flow it could be useful but exhaust other avenues first like finding the source of high energy usage, move your billing dates of other things to times when cash flow isn’t an issue etc.

dublin49 · 20-09-2021 7:20pm

my bi monthly bill is around 220 but let my deal with provider slide and lost discount so this month is 280,will be driving hard for the 41% discount on offer posted on bonkers,My average for 4 bed including gas is normally circa 2400.

20-09-2021 11:10pm

I was with BG for electric only for 9 years.. Started ar 80 a month then went up to around 97 4 months ago. 2 adults 4 kids.

Then someone told me I should switch every year, so did that very thing. New deal looked great average estimated bill was to be 800 or so, which for some reason translates to 145 euro per month. With panda power. Patiently waiting for the day I can never give them another penny.

Muahahaha · 21-09-2021 4:52pm

Has anyone got an email or letter from Energia saying that their prices are going up? Saw it mentioned on Claire Byrnes show last night but I havent got any email from them. The segment said that they only increased prices in June and are now doing so again, this time by 17% iirc.

I only signed up with them 3 weeks ago and specifically asked the agent if they were planning to increase prices and was told on the phone "no, we have no plans to increase prices". That was the hook that made me sign up.

dublin49 · 21-09-2021 10:15pm

i rang my provider ,my deal had lapsed and my electricity rate was up by 70%,i noticed on bonkers they had a retention deal of 40% discount on electricity which I got along with 39% for Gas.My new rate for elect is .1417 ,Anyone doing better than this as I have 14 days to cancel.Not sure if its ok to name provider.

21-09-2021 11:16pm

I have always found it to cheaper to change provider once the year has passed. They will offer deals to stay but the best savings are always from changing once the contract is up.

naughtysmurf · 28-09-2021 8:24pm

Agree with 2011, currently with Energia, my welcome letter / email is 10/10/20, on the 11/10/21 I’ll be gone

joeysoap · 28-09-2021 11:09pm

look up the first bill. It will show the date electricity is from, the welcome letter is dated much later ( maybe 2/3 weeks).my ‘welcome ‘ Lerner is 10th May .bill says 27 aprril

joeysoap · 28-09-2021 11:10pm

Letter

april

Sleeper12 · 29-09-2021 12:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117859034#Comment_117859034

It's worth remembering that an electric shower is A energy rated. It's cheaper to have a 5 minute shower in an electric shower than a 5 minute shower heated by oil, gas or the immersion. The only way to have a cheaper 5 minute shower is with water heated by solar & even only then after the solar has paid for itself after 10 years or more.

29-09-2021 1:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117953644#Comment_117953644

That's fine if you have no other form of heating but anyone on oil or gas will save a lot of money using the hot water already in their copper cylinder which I presume is the vast majority of People in Ireland. + the majority of electric showers have low pressure and the powerful ones will definitely chew up the leccy no matter how efficient and electric shower there's no question that using hot water from the heating is much more efficient, in this case making the electric shower 100% inefficient because all it's power would be going to heating water that's sitting in the copper cylinder going to waste.

Sleeper12 · 29-09-2021 2:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117954159#Comment_117954159

They pay to heat the water in the hot water cylinder. There is no such thing as free hot water just because the heating is on. The cost of putting this hot water into the cylinder while the heating is on cost much more than heating water for a shower using an electric shower

Most homes have zoned heating systems. Hot water is a separate zone. You can have heating on but hot water off. Old systems where you can not control hot water, upstairs & downstairs heating separately are very inefficient. Think about it, constantly heating the hot water cylinder compared to only heating the water you need. It's not free because as you use it in the shower, your oil or gas has to heat the water used from the cylinder. If you have this type of setup you should look into getting it zoned. There is still a grant for upgrading you heating controls. Worth around €750 I think.

29-09-2021 2:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117954234#Comment_117954234

I seriously doubt most homes have zoned heating, perhaps newer homes in the last 5-10 years and some retrofits but I bet the vast majority of homes are using bog standard heating with no zones and all radiators fed on a ring.

I sure am on a 40 year old heating system that was originally used with solid fuel and converted to oil, still mostly use original radiators. I expect the vast majority of homes, my mothers Gas powered home built around 2003 and many homes even after that are much the same.

We need to do a lot of work in the house and a complete upgrade is what we need but to replace the heating would be a very costly job needing to make tracks in the floors etc. Cost of upgrade vs cost of oil probably take years to pay back, however at some point we need a complete renovation of some sort that you're talking probably 100K and to be honest being mortage/rent free to having to spend such money isn't very appealing nor is moving out, but perhaps we could do work in stages without having to move. It wasn't an option to have all this done before we moved in 4 years ago.

Sleeper12 · 29-09-2021 6:15pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117954425#Comment_117954425

I am a plumber & I can assure you that most homes do indeed have zoned heating. The grant available can cover the cost of getting the zones in many cases. I can also assure you that an electric shower is in fact the cheapest way to shower with the exception of solar heated water but the solar system would need to be 10 to 20 years old to be actually putting out free hot water. Using water from the hot water tank while the heating is on has to be replenished. If you use 20 liters of hot water from the cylinder while the heating is on then you will heat 20 liters with your oil or gas to replenish this "free" hot water that your heating creates. This costs more than using an electric shower. This may be slightly off topic but it's important to keep these threads factual

Bobeagleburger · 29-09-2021 7:03pm

Solar heating aside, electric showers are not the cheapest way to shower. That is completely incorrect.

Unless you are using an electric shower on night rate at a very cheap electric rate maybe you'd have a valid argument. Even then oil is possibly cheaper.

Heating water with an oil boiler is incredibly cheap.

29-09-2021 10:05pm

Gas is also way cheaper than day rate electricity.

Sleeper12 · 29-09-2021 11:00pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117955620#Comment_117955620

This is fact. A 5 minute shower is cheaper using an electric shower than gas, oil or an immersion. A 5 minute electric shower uses 15 to 20 litres of warm water. It only heats the water used. It is 100% efficient. Heating water with the oil boiler or gas boiler has a dead leg of of many litres of water. If I run the hot water at my kitchen sink and measure the water until it gets hot I will get 6 litres of cold water before the hot water hits the tap. This is a dead leg of 6 litres. When I turn off the tap I leave 6 litres of hot water in the pipe between the hot water cylinder and the kitchen tap to go cold. You have a dead leg between the gas boiler and the hot water cylinder and a bigger dead leg between an oil boiler and the hot water cylinder. You have another dead leg between the hot water cylinder and the shower itself. You could have a dead leg of up to 20 litres of water. This 20 litres of wasted water is the equivalent of a 5 minute electric shower with absolutely no dead leg. Most showers that aren't electric showers have a pump and are classified as power showers. These will pump out 10 to over 20 litres of warm water per minute. So even the weakest power shower putting out 10 litres of water per minute will put out 50 litres for a 5 minutes shower. 2 and a half times the amount of the electric shower. This is the weakest power shower and doesn't take into account the 10 to 20 dead leg I mentioned above.

I don't make this stuff up. We study things like this in the plumbing trade. Personally I specialise in showers so have done dedicated courses covering these things. I need to have these facts to hand when advising clients on the most sensible shower for their needs. Oil, gas and immersion are far more expensive for a 5 minute shower than an electric shower. The cost isn't even close. Electric shower is far cheaper to run. Power shower is far more pleasurable than an electric shower. My own puts out around 23 litres per minute. I have an electric shower downstairs that I never use but I know that it's far cheaper to run. It's just not as enjoyable to use.

rainbowtrout · 29-09-2021 11:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117954234#Comment_117954234

My house was built in 2003 and none of the houses on my estate have zoned central heating unless they went for a retrofit since then. Anyone I'm friendly with in the estate doesn't have it. Plenty of rural housing heat the house off burning turf in a range.

c.p.w.g.w · 29-09-2021 11:26pm

Semi D house, with myself and OH...average bill is €127...that's every 2 months... annually that is €762

Sleeper12 · 30-09-2021 8:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117957190#Comment_117957190

You wasting €100s by not having a zoned system. As explained already the "Free" hot water that appears in the hot water cylinder isn't actually free. When you use it for a shower the oil or gas boiler then has to replenish it. You most likely don't have heating on 6 or 7 months of the year. With a zoned system you can set it to heat water only during the summer

lisasimpson · 30-09-2021 8:44am

Definately check to see if you can switch providers. Our bill jumped massively in the last few months but we were die to switch and it bought it back down again even with 2 working from home full time

Also check all your appliances to make sure there is nothing faulty. After that its then back to basics of turning off lights in room noone is in plug out items not in use and turn switches off in the wall

rainbowtrout · 30-09-2021 11:28am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117957620#Comment_117957620

This is Ireland. People have heating on from September to May. The notion that people don't have heating on for 7 months of the year is laughable.

I use very little hot water. When the central heating is on, I can use that for a shower at night. I don't have much other use for it. So once it is replenished after the shower, it doesn't make much difference to me. I also have solar and produce surplus solar than what I need, so I can use the surplus solar to heat the water in the tank at no extra cost to my electricity bill.

Average Electric Bill

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