esb bill of €540!!!!

flynnbin

Iv just gotton an esb bill for €540 for 2months!!!
Its a rented house with myself and another girl there,we work during the day and go home at the weekends so we are never there and when we are it cannot be possible to use this much electricity can it????
Is there anything i can do to ????
My landlord is insisting its right and that we must be leaving things on but were not!!!!

Sleipnir

Is the bill estimated? Was the last one?

flynnbin

yeah it says estimate and customer reading on it,
it has customer reading amount then estimate amount and then it multiplied by the unit cost i think and that gives me my bill

seamus

Depends on what type of heating you have an so forth. My last bill came to €400 for the two months. Seems ridiculously high until you take into account that everything in my place is eletric - storage heaters, cookers, everything - and when you think back about the bitter coldness of January and February.

I would suggest you go down and read the meter to see if the estimate is way off. That's what I did, and it turns out that I used a little more than they'd estimated
I'm also on a nightsaver rate, if I wasn't I would imagine my bill would easily have been €600 for the last two months.

flynnbin

So what happens if there estimate is wrong and i didnt use that much at all,can i ring them and give them the proper reading and tell them to send me a new bill?>?

seamus

I think you can, there's a place online to submit an actual reading.

You can also pay the whole bill and any overpayment is credited against a later bill when they go and read your meter. Of course, if you don't have €270 to hand, that may not be the desirable option

Davy

flynnbin wrote: »

So what happens if there estimate is wrong and i didnt use that much at all,can i ring them and give them the proper reading and tell them to send me a new bill?>?

You have to act fast to get a new bill. If you don't submit the reading within a day or two from when you get the estimated bill, a new bill wont be sent out.

So do it straight away... either Online HERE or by calling them 1850 337 777.

What you need to submit a reading

* Name on ESB account (found on ESB Customer Supply bill)
* Your ESB account number (found on ESB Customer Supply bill)
* MPRN (found on ESB Customer Supply bill)
* Meter number (found on meter)

RoundyMooney

My mum was inclined to moan about her bill.

That was until I pointed out the 16 GU10s (yes, I put them there, but in my defence, it was well before CFLs of that size were available) in the kitchen, as well as the six wall lights, SOX outside light, three televisions, one PC, OFCH, tumble drier and dishwasher, immersion (seperate system to the heating), radio, and electric shower all running more or less simultaneously (in the case of the lighting, it is pretty much continuously on-in daytime).

Load without shower is in the typcal order of 15 to 20A.

I was back there a few days later, and nothing had changed.

My point being, that while estimated bills can result in anomalies (particularly in a newly occupied building-as in one that was vacant, with low consumption for a period-or following such estimation, when a reading corrects the shortfall), and often do, the meter never lies, and if you're getting steady high bills, then you're obvously burning the energy.

10-10-20

I just saw a household ESB bill for €800. Not estimated!
That's about 4100 kWh.

All down to two teenagers, playstations, Xboxes, electric showers, a bad habit of leaving lights on and such and such...

Board Walker

if your last few bills were estimated then after a while they go over the estimated ones and look at the actual kwh's used and then the next bill will either be the estimate plus what ever extra you owe or else minus.

i had to work out a bill before for 10,000 odd. but that was a petrol station and it was correct. had to go over the meter and look at the last few bills and do a bit of calculations but it was spot on.

you could ring them and get them to audit it to make sure its right. the chances are that its right

John mac

I don't feel so bad now mine was €215 and i thought that was excessive.

even went and bought an OWL to see what was using all the juice.

RubyXI

€150 for 1 month.
Not an estimate. I phoned it in.
I live alone.
Onle here 5 days a week.
Shower once a day
heating on from 7pm-11pm (5 days)- 2 heaters
boil kettle once or twice a day.
rarely use cooker
washing machine, maybe once a week
Seems an awful lot?

10-10-20

If your heating is electric, that will account for >~60% of it.

RubyXI

10-10-20 wrote: »

If your heating is electric, that will account for >~60% of it.

yes but its only on for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week
Surely thats not much

bubski

Get the meter reading & ring it in to the ESB, if it is a true reading and you owe €540 they will do it over a period of time. I just had to call them today and the were really nice about it. I have to pay over €500 as well. they are taking an extra €50 on each bill which was sound i think.

10-10-20

phi3 wrote: »

yes but its only on for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week
Surely thats not much

Well, it depends on what you are heating.
If you have a 1kW heater on for an hour, that will consume 1 unit of electricity (€0.15).
Multiply that by the amount of heaters and then by the amount of hours, and you will soon see.

1x 1kW @ 4 hrs x 5 days a week = 20 kW hours per week.
@ 15c = €3 per week for one heater.

RubyXI

10-10-20 wrote: »

Well, it depends on what you are heating.
If you have a 1kW heater on for an hour, that will consume 1 unit of electricity (€0.15).
Multiply that by the amount of heaters and then by the amount of hours, and you will soon see.

1x 1kW @ 4 hrs x 5 days a week = 20 kW hours per week.
@ 15c = €3 per week for one heater.

that would still be less than €30 for the two heaters for 1 month.
Where is the other €120 coming from
It doesnt make sense

Menas

What is the rating of your heater?
Also, how old are they and what condition are they in? Older heaters are not as efficent and will use more energy then is listed on the label.

RubyXI

The radiators may be old, but i had similar radiators in my previous flat and it was on more because that house was freezing.
However i look at it €150 for one month for one person seems crazy.

Hector's House

John mac wrote: »

I don't feel so bad now mine was €215 and i thought that was excessive.

even went and bought an OWL to see what was using all the juice.

'Scuse my ignorance, but what's an OWL?

mikemac

Electricity meter

http://ecologics.ie/online-store/energy-saving-devices/?gclid=CIHxgJ3Z7ZkCFUU_3god4yMVRg

Live alone, bills were always around 90 euro.
But from November to March they went to 210 and 190 and the only thing that changed was electric heaters.

The things cost a fortune!
Warmer weather now so I don't expect to use them, probably max one hour or two now and again.

I expect to see a sharp decline in my ESB bills.
In fact, when you get to 80 euro level, the majority of your bill is levies and VAT, it's pretty difficult to go any lower

John mac

I got mine from here

Max Power1

flynnbin wrote: »

Iv just gotton an esb bill for €540 for 2months!!!

10-10-20 wrote: »

I just saw a household ESB bill for €800. Not estimated!

First step is to change to airtricity! 13% savings, i really dont understand how anyone can complain about their ESB bill when there is a really obviously cheaper alternative.

The first step is here http://www.airtricity.com/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/

RoundyMooney

The CER's (mistaken in my view) MO here in tying ESBCS into an artificially high energy price is in order to allow the likes of Airtricity and Bord Gais to gain a foothold in the market, to gain critical mass in order to compete effectively with ESBCS.

As of now, BG are losing a packet on every customer they connect, and hope to gain cheaper energy when they bring generating capacity on line.

The fact is, ESB could drop the price by 30% in the morning, and still operate effectively, but they are not allowed to by the CER, in the pursuit of competition, and *cough* value for the consumer. Ridiculous, isn't it?

Hector's House

mikemac wrote: »

Electricity meter

http://ecologics.ie/online-store/energy-saving-devices/?gclid=CIHxgJ3Z7ZkCFUU_3god4yMVRg

Thanks! I'll look tha up. On another note, has anyone any tips on how to better regulate storage heaters (apart from just turning them off)? They seem to consume a lot of electricity, while heating the house during the day when we're out...