Electricity bill - average for 3 bed bungalow on farm

Viserion

Hi all, I am hoping someone can help me figure out what may be causing my husband and I to receive such high electricity bills.

Our electricity bill received on Monday was approximately €310.00. On the bill it said the last 2 bills have been estimates so my husband called up and gave the meter reading over the phone. We got our new bill today and it was for €290.00 approximately so no major difference there. We are usually very good about ringing up with our meter readings but we got married at the beginning of August so we were a bit preoccupied.

So our details -

- an old small bungalow - up until January of this year the house was not insulated whatsoever and was thus, freezing all of the time. We had the attic insulated and the walls pumped in January and since then the house is always roasting which is amazing but it makes me think that our high electricity bills couldn't possibly be coming from having the heating on because we have turned the thermostat way down since we got the house insulated, we do not have the heating on as much and then also there is the fact that we have had such a great summer and we had our heating turned off completely for the past 3-4 months. We have oil heating.

- there are 3 bedrooms (2 of which do not function as bedrooms, one is my husband's office so there would be quite a lot of computers etc. in there and the other is basically my wardrobe, I do have a computer in there but would not use it for more than 2-3 hours per day), and then our own bedroom, in which we have a tall lamp, a large tv, saorview box and my husband will connect up his laptop so we can watch movies through the tv.

- we have a gas hob and we would cook on the hob far more than use the electric oven, and all the usual appliances, nothing unusual.

- we have a sitting room which we do not use.

- we have an electric shower in our bathroom.

Aside from the house, the other information that I think may be useful is the fact that we live on our own farm. The farm itself, i.e. the buildings etc. do not function as farm buildings and we merely use them for storage so although there are lights etc. in the buildings, we would very rarely have them on. However, we do have a small freezer in one of the outhouses which we use for our own food, I don't think that would use a massive amount of electricity.
Then I'll move onto our land, on which we have a constant water supply going to horses over about 40 acres. Obviously the water is supplied through our pump which would use electricity.
But, the only problem with pointing to this as the culprit is because up to about a year ago, our bills were approximately €180.00 - €240.00 depending on the time of year.

There was a leak in one of the fields about 6 months ago which we fixed. We noticed the leak because the light at the pump was coming on all the time and at odd hours of the night so since we fixed the leak, the light is not coming on all the time.

I would really appreciate it if someone could possibly shed some light on what they think may be causing these high bills. As it is coming into the winter months, we are thinking about when we will have the heating on again so we are hoping to find and fix any problem before then otherwise we could be looking at electricity bills of around €400.00 or more with the heating on.

Thanks.

Cerco

I would think you have two options:

1. Get an energy monitor installed.

2. Get a competent electrician or electrical engineer to survey your installation and usage.

I would get the monitor first and try and determine the high consuming devices. Start by searching this forum for "energy monitors". There were quite a few posts here some time ago. You could also google for more info.

goldenhoarde

how much is "be quite a lot of computers etc"

I would guess that these are on 24/7 so this could potentially consume a lot

Devices in standby use a lot of electricity so try to have all switched off

As cerco says an energy monitor would be the way to go to see if you can isolate the highest user of electricity

Viserion

Cerco wrote: »

I would think you have two options:

1. Get an energy monitor installed.

2. Get a competent electrician or electrical engineer to survey your installation and usage.

I would get the monitor first and try and determine the high consuming devices. Start by searching this forum for "energy monitors". There were quite a few posts here some time ago. You could also google for more info.

Thanks very much Cerco. I had never heard of an energy monitor. I will look into this.

goldenhoarde wrote: »

how much is "be quite a lot of computers etc"

I would guess that these are on 24/7 so this could potentially consume a lot

Devices in standby use a lot of electricity so try to have all switched off

As cerco says an energy monitor would be the way to go to see if you can isolate the highest user of electricity

Hi goldenhoarde, yep he would have the computer with two screens going at least 10+ hours everyday.

Thanks, I'll definitely look into an energy monitor so.

I have just downloaded an esb app to my phone which might help somewhat too.

BadCharlie

I don't think a computer on with even 2 screens working for 10hours a day is the problem. Lets say they are using 200watt total. That would be 2units a day = about 38cents to run each day. And I think im very generous in that. So in a month about €11.40 or every 2 months if you get billed that way it be €22.80.

Is your pump running 24hours a day? that is what I would test first.

Make sure that the pump, computers, tv, kettles ect... are using what they claimed to only use. You don't want a pump that is only meant to be running at 200watts but when you check it out its infact using 500watts 24/7.

Things can go faulty.

Viserion

BadCharlie wrote: »

I don't think a computer on with even 2 screens working for 10hours a day is the problem. Lets say they are using 200watt total. That would be 2units a day = about 38cents to run each day. And I think im very generous in that. So in a month about €11.40 or every 2 months if you get billed that way it be €22.80.

Is your pump running 24hours a day? that is what I would test first.

Make sure that the pump, computers, tv, kettles ect... are using what they claimed to only use. You don't want a pump that is only meant to be running at 200watts but when you check it out its infact using 500watts 24/7.

Things can go faulty.

No, the pump is just used as normal. The way we can tell this is by the light coming on and going off. The way we knew there was a leak a few months ago was because the light was on nearly all night long.

However, I think I may have found the culprit, well 3 of them -

the kettle - most people probably don't use their kettle as much as my husband but he drinks at least 30 cups of tea a day and boils the kettle everytime. I have just calculated how much this usage would add up to and alone, it's nearly €100 per bill. And to be honest, there are days when my husband could use the kettle even more than that and also added to that would be times when I'm using it, i.e. a kettle of water to wash the floor or something.

the shower - we have an electric shower and I didn't realise how much these cost but I added up our usage and it's approximately €50 per bill.

and here's the one that I'm going to kill himself for!
a small oil filled electric heater!! he uses this a lot during the winter but even on the warmest days over the past few months he has had it on sporadically. I have calculated his usage at 15 hours per week but that is a very very low estimate, in the winter it would be way more than that, and that comes in at around €50 per bill so I can only imagine what it would be during the winter.
That is THE END of the oil filled electric heater!

So I think I have gotten to the bottom of it

2011

Viserion wrote: »

- there are 3 bedrooms (2 of which do not function as bedrooms, one is my husband's office so there would be quite a lot of computers etc.

As BadCharlie has said, I would expect this to cost very little to run.

in there and the other is basically my wardrobe, I do have a computer in there but would not use it for more than 2-3 hours per day), and then our own bedroom, in which we have a tall lamp, a large tv, saorview box and my husband will connect up his laptop so we can watch movies through the tv.

Ditto

- we have an electric shower in our bathroom.

Large (expensive load) but not on that much of the time, so overall a low running cost.

However, we do have a small freezer in one of the outhouses which we use for our own food, I don't think that would use a massive amount of electricity.

As this is on 24/7 the running cost could be significant.

Then I'll move onto our land, on which we have a constant water supply going to horses over about 40 acres. Obviously the water is supplied through our pump which would use electricity.
But, the only problem with pointing to this as the culprit is because up to about a year ago, our bills were approximately €180.00 - €240.00 depending on the time of year.

This may be a contributing factor. Has your water consumption increased (more livestock ?). Perhaps the pump is not as efficient as it was due to wear and tear?

a small oil filled electric heater!! he uses this a lot during the winter but even on the warmest days over the past few months he has had it on sporadically.

Bingo! Large load (could be 3kW) and on frequently.

Part of the problem may also be an increase in electricity costs.
Perhaps it is time to shop around for a new supplier.
Check out Bonkers.ie

Viserion

2011 wrote: »

This may be a contributing factor. Has your water consumption increased (more livestock ?). Perhaps the pump is not as efficient as it was due to wear and tear?



Bingo! Large load (could be 3kW) and on frequently.

Part of the problem may also be an increase in electricity costs.
Perhaps it is time to shop around for a new supplier.
Check out Bonkers.ie

No increase in livestock and several parts of the pump were replaced last year when we had the leak and it is a-okay now.

Thanks for that, definitely going to get himself to try to cut out the oil heater completely and shop around, hopefully we can find a cheaper deal somewhere.

dfdream

The key thing when tracking electricity usage is to look at any device that does heating or cooling and how much use they each get and come up with a plan to reduce.

Things like Tumble Dryer, electric cooker, kettle, electric shower, electric heater, toaster etc are massive power draws and 1 day on them might be a year on a TV or chargers etc...

The next thing is to replace bulbs with CFL or LED starting with the ones used the most often.

Plug in monitor in a very obvious place will also help as you will get used to readings depending on whats in use.

Bruthal

2011 wrote: »

As BadCharlie has said, I would expect this to cost very little to run.

PC`s probably use 2 or 300 watts, so 10 hours a day can be slightly above the very little to run type item.

As this is on 24/7 the running cost could be significant.

The freezer will be plugged in 24 hours a day, but the compressor will be running for a very short time out of the 24 hours. A typical fridge freezer probably uses a unit a day, and probably less for a freezer which is opened less often, assuming its working properly.

dfdream wrote: »

Things like Tumble Dryer, electric cooker, kettle, electric shower, electric heater, toaster etc are massive power draws and 1 day on them might be a year on a TV or chargers etc...

The tv is likely to be on multiple hours per day though, while the shower is only on for a few minutes at a time. 15 minute showers however, by several users per day would be significant alright.

Plug in monitor in a very obvious place will also help as you will get used to readings depending on whats in use.

The monitor would help determine what the base load is, as in what wattage is used during the night when all usual items are off. As an example, in my house its about 70 watts during the night, which would be items like the alarm and one or 2 other items that are always on.

2011

There is quite a useful table in this article (only approximate of course).

efb

Kettle- big user!

2011

Bruthal wrote: »

PC`s probably use 2 or 300 watts

Generally far less.