Massive ESB bills

eth0_

I'm at the end of my rope with ESB bills in my house. The last two bills have been around the 400 euro mark. I've never even seen a bill for more than 170 or so before I moved to this house!

There's three of us in the house but we all work. We had a real problem with one person using the tumble dryer excessively but she has cut down a lot. We use the dishwasher maybe twice a week. We have electric radiators which I know cost quite a bit but to me it doesn't explain these bills. The immersion is on for about 3 hours a day.

Can an electrician easily check to see if some device is drawing too much power?

Eurorunner

eth0_ wrote: »

I'm at the end of my rope with ESB bills in my house. The last two bills have been around the 400 euro mark. I've never even seen a bill for more than 170 or so before I moved to this house!

There's three of us in the house but we all work. We had a real problem with one person using the tumble dryer excessively but she has cut down a lot. We use the dishwasher maybe twice a week. We have electric radiators which I know cost quite a bit but to me it doesn't explain these bills. The immersion is on for about 3 hours a day.

Can an electrician easily check to see if some device is drawing too much power?

Immersion and rads for sure...

ixoy

Had similar bills in my previous apartment - knocked right back down when bf and I moved out to our own place. I reckon it was excessive tumble dryer use combined with electric storage heating and too much use of the immersion. Are your heaters electric?

mike65

3 hours for the immersion?

Is it on bath or sink setting (assuming it offers a choice), put it on sink for everything and it should be hot in 20 mins (lagging jacket?)

Mike.

eth0_

Not sure about immersion, will check later. I keep turning it off completely because I dont mind waiting 30 mins for hot water, but my housemates don't like this.

The_Conductor

Electric radiators murder your bill- more than anything else.
That said- what on earth is your immersion on for 3 hours a day? A normal immersion will heat a bathfull of water in 20 minutes flat.

My last ESB bill was EUR 47, but my previous one was EUR 160. Then again, my heating is gas (which is another 80 a month in the wintertime (but nada from May to October)).

S.

mike65

Your previous bill may hav been an estimate they only check the box every other visit I belive. I actually got a 70 euro credit last time (I knew the "autumn" bill was foolishly high).

Mike.

astrofool

It's the electric rads, the upside is that you have no gas/oil bills, however, electric are not as efficient as gas/oil.

Just be sure you are using the storage heaters (the big ones with bricks in them), and not the convection heaters (usually in the bedrooms), the convection heaters should be run as sparingly as possible, and is like heating a room with a hairdryer.

Victor

Unless you have cheap night time electricity, no electric heater is any cheaper to run than any other.