Gas bill >€500 WTF

brk3

We moved apartment last November, just got my first gas bill for ~4 months and its over €500. Please someone tell me this can't be right or I'm not going to be able to sleep!

The gas heats the water+rads here but it's pretty efficient we only have it on around an hour a day.

maglite

For 5 months, including the winter period, Doesn't seem that massive.

High maybe but I don't think its alarming, Any idea of units used?

brk3

Units used is 3873.

The part of the bill that doesnt make sense (th large part!) is where they multiply the supply charge of 16.44c by the units used. Shouldn't the supply charge just be by the number of days?

Cabaal

Errr so you dont think they charge for actual units used?

angel01

Why would you not have paid a bill by this stage anyway?

Nody

brk3 wrote: »

Units used is 3873.

The part of the bill that doesnt make sense (th large part!) is where they multiply the supply charge of 16.44c by the units used. Shouldn't the supply charge just be by the number of days?

It is the same as electricity, telephone etc.; you get charged for how much you use, not only how many days you used it...

brk3

Cabaal wrote: »

Errr so you dont think they charge for actual units used?

Of course I know that. But afaik the daily service charge is different to the charge per unit. They're listed as seperate items.

ScouseMouse

brk3 wrote: »

We moved apartment last November, just got my first gas bill for 5 months and its over €500. Please someone tell me this can't be right or I'm not going to be able to sleep!

The gas heats the water+rads here but it's pretty efficient we only have it on around an hour a day.

edit: bill is actually for only 4 months

My two month gas bill for the winter is €230.

Your FIVE month bill is €500. I think thats about right.

dudara

Four months, €500, over the winter period seems about right.

Del2005

brk3 wrote: »

We moved apartment last November, just got my first gas bill for 5 months and its over €500. Please someone tell me this can't be right or I'm not going to be able to sleep!

The gas heats the water+rads here but it's pretty efficient we only have it on around an hour a day.

edit: bill is actually for only 4 months

Did you take a meter reading when you moved in and send it to the gas company? Is it estimated or a reading?

If you didn't send a meter reading then it could be you're paying for the last tenants gas, not much you can do now.

If it's estimated then take a reading and send it in.

greeno

In our Apartment we use gas for heating and water also. Be's on about 2 hours a day one in morning one in evening and during winter a bit more obviously.

We got a bill in for 2 months @ 180 EUR so this seems pretty normal OP.

90 quid a month aint a bad price to pay for a fully heated apartment and hot water when want it. 3 quid a day.

Venom

Hate to say it OP but as others have already posted the €500 sounds right. If it was an estimated bill it would be in around the €1500 mark I reckon.

snugglebear

yeah that seems about right ours was €237 over winter with a broken bolier for 2 weeks and €67 euro for the last 2 months

Morlar

It is a fairly scandalous charge but as others said probably correct.

mrsbyrne

sorry op but you must have had some idea that if you ddint pay this bill for 5 months it was going to be high.if you didnt then i would presume that you are fairly recently moved out of home. if this is the case, welcome to the real world. was it not on your mind at all that you hadn't paid for any of this heat or hot water? Ive oil central heating and im conscious of it being on all the time that its on.i imagine the oil tank emptying and piles of five euro notes quite literally going up in flames. the good thing about oil is that you pay up front. look at the bill is it estimate or an actual reading? if it is an estimate then you can take the real reading yourself, but be wary the real bill may be actually more?! best practice with utility bills is to pay so much per week 52 weeks a year. its just a question getting organised. if its bord gais you can pay in the post office or any outlet that has paypoint. if you haven't got the 500 euro (who has?) ring them straight away and make arrangements to get it paid off as soon as you can manage. youll have to negotiate with them and youll probably be sitting in with a cheap bottle of plonk for the next couple of weeks. going forward, as i said pay so much every week and put a reminder on your phone to take a reading every 2 months and phone it in. its spring now but winter wont be long about coming around, and it would be great if you were actually ahead of yourself. ring straight away today, get it sorted.

maxer68

I'm sure there are plenty of people with higher oil / gas bills afer last winter.

With water temps coming into the system close to freezing, the amount of gas / oil used to heat the rads to room temp is a lot higher than normal.

A "normal" winter will see ground temps of 8 - 10 degrees, so water needs to heat from this level to temp of rads. The difference between 1 & 8 is quite substantial, so it will add substantially to your bill.

Your best bet is to go on a 12 month payment plan, so you pay the same every month rather that a huge amount in winter ad small amount in summer.

Also drop the temp setting to 20 degrees / 68f

RangeR

OP, rather than the disparaging remarks by some, take some solace in the following.


Yes, you owe Bord Gais €500. However, they are VERY good in payment plans. Just make contact with them and offer to pay them what you can. If they see a reasonable effort in place, they won't take action against you.

Don't lose sleep, just don't ignore your debt.

brk3

RangeR wrote: »

OP, rather than the disparaging remarks by some, take some solace in the following.


Yes, you owe Bord Gais €500. However, they are VERY good in payment plans. Just make contact with them and offer to pay them what you can. If they see a reasonable effort in place, they won't take action against you.

Don't lose sleep, just don't ignore your debt.

Cheers for the probably the nicest/most-helpful post. Unfortunately it seems some people here on boards are quick to condescend, even the mods.

An update, I just got a call back from Flogas to say they had made an error with the supply charge, and the actual bill is only just over €200.

Also, I had not been ignoring the bill, they had been extremely slow to set up the new account since we moved in only asking for the original reading just after Christmas.

galwaygirl2

We live in a housing estate and there is one huge tank suppling all the houses but all have separate meters. We moved in 16 months ago the builder took a meter reading that day and we thought nothing more. We didnt hear anything back from calor gas. We sent them two emails asking why we have received no bills and they never replied. Then last week we got a letter saying we will be cut off if we dont pay our outstanding bills but we never received any bills. It seems the bills are still in the name of the building company and were going to them all along. Why they didnt pass them I dont know. We arent the only ones in the estate in this situation. We are now facing a bill of approx 3k!!! My partner lost his job and Im a stay at home mum. Dont know how wel pay it. Just wondering if this has happened to anyone else???