Another massive Electricity Bill

Are you submitting readings / have a smart meter; or were one or both bills estimated?

Do you have a well water pump by any chance that could be malfunctioning?

When i sent them a reading it was way below the estimate, so they applied a low usage charge, so ended up paying an extra 2.50 when i thought i was due a refund.

And how have you been heating water recently?

Forget that red herring about who your provider is and just, for now, look at the units you are using to reach that cost.

I had a PV solar panel system installed towards end of April.

My bill in 2021 for 2 months of June & July was €268. My bill for the same period in 2022 (since panels were installed) was €68. The saving of €200 in a 2 month period has exceeded my expectations of the system. The kWh data usage over both years for the same period is represented on my most recent bill which arrived this week.

This

How many kWh are used and what type of meter are the key

After that start looking around at what is consuming electricity

For the sake of comparison, I've 2 EVs, a heat pump and electric cooking and I'm paying €182 per month, so €364 per billing cycle

I would average around 1,000kWh per month roughly 40% on night rate

OP mentioned electric heaters and coolers not being used, so unless the immersion has been on the whole time it seems like either very high usage or they're being fleeced on price

The circular thing is the controller for the night storage heater I think. It's a bit like one of those mechanical timer plugs, it'll spin throughout the day and will switch between the day and night meters

I think you should look through your previous bills and to find the recent 2 actual readings. They might have an A beside the reading, estimated readings should have an E beside them

Use that to work out your daily average kWh usage

The digits in red are decimal points and can be ignored. Let's see what they look like tomorrow.

You don't use very much night rate electricity it's half the cost of daytime. I'm a dairy farmer and my bills are around 550 per month atm. I use more night rate electricity than day time .

Okay, so you're using a lot of day rate electricity which is the most expensive. If possible can you shift things to the night rate, like laundry and dishwashing?

You'll also want to look at changing supplier next month, check out a website like bonkers.ie to compare prices. A quick look said SSE were like €300 cheaper per year than what you're paying

With the heating and cooking off (how are you eating btw???) then your usage seems kind of high

Are there any electric heaters or immersion heaters going?

It might be worth getting one of those plugin electricity monitors to plug into your appliances and check how much they're consuming per day. Possibly one of them is out of whack

I knew someone in an apartment who started getting huge bills. Eventually after much dispute (they were students) they managed to establish that somehow the meters for themselves and another apartment had been wrongly wired so they were paying each other's bills. This was not too much of a problem till a new tenant in the other apartment decided to install a 'growing system' for his collection of 'house plants'. It did eventually get sorted. Not saying this is your problem, but it can happen.

The white and red clock tells you when you are moving from day rate to night rate. So from 11pm to 7 am you are at the lower rate per kw. .it looks like you can adjust your timer(bottom left where you see your time is nearly 2100 hours. You can put your heating on sooner but you will pay day rate. Move the button to the left from 2100 to 2200 on your picture.

You have night storage which can be expensive. If you own you can change to a lower energy heaters?. I left the old system there and added a few heaters. Now for 2bedhouse, at the moment the electric is 50 per week and that is not using the most effective way e.g washing and dryer on during the day and not from 11pm to 7am in the morning. . Could be cheaper if put on a timer to start.

If you have a fan on with the heat we have had if it is an oldish fan it may not be as efficient.

Have you changed fridges? The American type ones use quite a bit of energy. Check if you have bought anything recently that could have changed the usage.

Also if you are an apartment you may have a pump to force the water up to your apartment? You could have a drippy shower or sink and the pump is going on all the time to keep the water levels right. The motor could be on all the time. I have a drippy shower and once I got that fixed it saved 30 per month.

Take a reading today and then the same time for the next few days. Write down your main usage. If you were washing or ironing etc. See what the usage is from day to day.Switch off all lights and sockets when not in use. Make sure you have energy saving bulbs in the apartment.

just to let you know my usage is down based on last years figures by my electric cost me more than last year.