Whats eating my Electric?

fatboypee

Wonder if any opinions/advice out there ? (appreciate your time)

Just got an ESB Bill which IMHO is way off what it should be.. we're very conservative, no unessential lights, 2 washes per week at night time..

as well, we do use electricity for:

1. Cooking
2. biocycle macerator/agitator and pump
3. Water pump from the well
4. immersion for 1 bath per night (on for about an hour and a half)
5. immersion for 1 shower in the mornings (on for about 3/4 of an hour)

the bill is 189 euro for 2 months :eek: ...
whats eating it all up?

Cheers..

FBP.

billy_beckham

189 is not dear! How big is your house? Price increase has kicked in also. Are meter readings accurate? ie is the bill estimated??

fatchance

Have you had a baby recently? Our kettle never seems to be off!!!!!!!! Heating bottles, water for bottles, boiling soothers etc etc etc......

I'd imagine the price increase didn't help, check you usage against an old bill, the units used should be around the same if your habits have'nt changed.

Have you an outside halogen light working off movement sensors? Since we adjusted thw few we have it has helped.

sundula

My guess would be water pump. It might be running constantly - split pipe of faulty pressure swith, but 189.00 doesnt seem excessive.

fatboypee

Thanks for your replies... 189 not dear ??? I thought it was mad.. thats 95 euro a month... thats alot for what I use (that I'm aware of)...

No new baby, house is 2700sq ft but the only bits I'm aware may kill me are the two pumps and the biocycle...

Expect it maybe the immersion but we're sooo cost conscious these days..

As for accuracy, I got a whopping bill (489) from the ESB late december as the meter hadn't been read for a long while (yes, right before Christmas and they refused to adjust the direct debit to soften the blow :mad: ) the meter reading has "P" after it so expect its been read again....????

No Halogen's on sensor, one 500watt one on the back door we use to see in and out of the house then switch straight off.....

FBP.

fatchance

Get a baby then, it'll take your mind off everything, including money issues:D

Victor

fatboypee wrote:

4. immersion for 1 bath per night (on for about an hour and a half)
5. immersion for 1 shower in the mornings (on for about 3/4 of an hour)

Having a bath every day is a bit much, how about a shower instead?

It is a big house - twice the size of a 4-bed estate house.

fatboypee

fatchance wrote:

Get a baby then, it'll take your mind off everything, including money issues:D

3 kids already ....

Wife suffers from chronic back pain so uses the bath as a method of pain relief...

Could maybe do the shower in the evenings.... and run the hot water entirely from the back boiler....

one other Q, our hot water tank is one of them sealed ones (foam insulated), would a lagging jacket over the top make much difference ?

FBP.

patrickolee

Our bills in or around the same. We think it was the electric shower for us, so we're starting to use the immersion shower instead. The kettle doesn't help either.

pbergin

Thats a low esb bill. Ours was normally 150-180 but this month we got a whopping bill of over 300, it seems to be estimated so Im hoping there is something wrong with the estimation because it is WAY off our normal bill.

Stoner

Electric showers use a lot less juice then an immersion, typically in a house an immersion is the second heaviest load after the cooker, and putting a lagging jacket over a foam covered tank would make little difference IMO, how about checking the hot pipes to see if you could get some additional lagging on them.???

Stoner

Electric showers use a lot less juice than an immersion, typically in a house an immersion is the second heaviest load after the cooker, and putting a lagging jacket over a foam covered tank would make little difference IMO, how about checking the hot pipes to see if you could get some additional lagging on them.???

fatboypee

how about checking the hot pipes to see if you could get some additional lagging on them.???

Good Idea, I use the exposed pipes in the hotpress to heat the hotpress but can maybe do without as much heat if it 'ups' my thermal efficiency...

Thanks to all for your comments..

fBP.

zenith

Hi,

Similar square footage, similar kit (biocycle, water pump, daily showers) but not particularly conservative usage - Christmas, power washing - and got a bill for e249, so don't think you're doing badly.

zenith

dingding

Would it be possible to get a night rate meter and do some of the pumping at night.

Does not seem to bad. do you use a tumble dryer.

Reyman

The immersion's costing you about €60 every two months.

Very expensive to heat a bathfull of water ! It could pay you to go on the night rate electricity, but it wouldn't save you much.

As the other posters are saying '€189 is cheap' , mine is a lot higher

Reyman

Oh --- tell your wife to try the 'McKenzie method' for her back. And reduce your bills !

dingding

I saved 20 to 30 euro per bill since I moved to night rate.

pmmon

Hi, I'm just new to boards.ie but I have a gripe. I just got my ESB bill today - almost €262. I got my Gas Bill last week - almost €300. I live in a 3 bed terraced house with my husband and 2 of our children.
I knew the Gas was going to be higher and I knew the ESB got another hike but I never expected both to be so high.
I noticed my ESB bill was estimated for the time before the charges were increased i.e. 19 days before 31st December. This is Christmas time when people are on holidays using television, cooking, heating, lighting etc. I also noticed this was not taken into account as the Bill showed the same percentage charge for this period as for after Christmas.
I rang the ESB and spoke to a very nice girl there. She quoted "but that would only make a difference of about €15!" I said, "yes, for every person in the Country". She said I should have taken a reading on the 31st December, the last day of the old rate. I said I would have if I had been told and there is no way I can prove I used more electricity at Christmas now. She said she would "log a complaint".
I am so angry about it I thought I would share it with as many people as I can so everyone who reads this might get onto the ESB and complain also.
Hope you all do!!!

franksm

I got a monster bill last week too - EUR230 (three bed terraced house, 2005 vintage). It's usually EUR160. Mate in Galway tells me his bill is usually EUR90 for two months !!

The only thing I added between the two bills was a PC in the livingroom that's running 24x7 (doing the same job as a video-recorded/Sky+ box). Can't believe it's chewing that much power though.

Altogether, I have the following running 24x7

PC for CCTV cameras
PC for TV-video
4 x CCTV cameras (1A PSU each)
ADSL router
NTL digibox
minimal lighting in the house (none of which is on permanently)
burglar alarm
fridge

Everything else is switched off unless needed (incl. TVs, cooker, etc. We have gas central heating that's used for about 3 hours in the day, total.

I'm going to buy one of these power-meters and go around to see where my money's going (I still can't believe it's the 2xPCs and the 4xcameras)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38343

Reyman

franksm wrote:

I got a monster bill last week too - EUR230 (three bed terraced house, 2005 vintage). It's usually EUR160. Mate in Galway tells me his bill is usually EUR90 for two months !!

The only thing I added between the two bills was a PC in the livingroom that's running 24x7 (doing the same job as a video-recorded/Sky+ box). Can't believe it's chewing that much power though.

Altogether, I have the following running 24x7

PC for CCTV cameras
PC for TV-video
4 x CCTV cameras (1A PSU each)
ADSL router
NTL digibox
minimal lighting in the house (none of which is on permanently)
burglar alarm
fridge

Everything else is switched off unless needed (incl. TVs, cooker, etc. We have gas central heating that's used for about 3 hours in the day, total.

I'm going to buy one of these power-meters and go around to see where my money's going (I still can't believe it's the 2xPCs and the 4xcameras)

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=38343

€230's a small bill these days, but you wouldn't get near it using PCs , TVs and cameras. I'd say you maybe have an iimmersion, an electric cooker, or even a storage heater in your house - they are the big power users

franksm

Could be the cooker I guess ! Big halogen thing.
Dishwasher is on two or three times a week, washing machine is on once a week. We don't use the immersion more than once a month, I think.

I'll try that Maplins meter just out of interest anyway

looksee

Oct - Nov bill €110
Nov - Jan €141

Gas cooker, no immersion (oil central heating heats water all year round), electric shower, no dishwasher. Some energy saving bulbs. 4/5 bed 1970s (rather draughty) semi, wall insulation, 4in attic insulation (yes I know).

We were on the system where esb average out the bills, but last summer they suddenly announced that our future direct debit would be about twice what we had been paying. I rang and asked why and was told a convoluted tale about winter charges being higher, and these would average out, but I couldn't make any sense of it so we have gone onto paying for whatever electricity we use each month, and those are the last two.