The real cost of a unit of electricity

koura

My bill was €146.95 and units Usage was 556
So is the real unit cost is 0.2642 cent not the cost quoted on my bill of 0.1659.
I want monitor some appliances.

EI: Aoife

Good morning Koura,

Thank you for your message.

The figure of 0.1659 is the standard unit price, but there is also standing charges, the PSO levy and VAT at 13.5% that you need to take into account. This would also be part of the total bill of €146.95. If you would like us to go through your bill with you, please send us a private message with your full name, account number, full address and telephone number or date of birth. You would also need to confirm that you are the account holder.

Do let us know if we can be of assistance.

Regards,
Aoife

koura

Electric Ireland: Aoife wrote: »

Good morning Koura,

Thank you for your message.

The figure of 0.1659 is the standard unit price, but there is also standing charges, the PSO levy and VAT at 13.5% that you need to take into account. This would also be part of the total bill of €146.95. If you would like us to go through your bill with you, please send us a private message with your full name, account number, full address and telephone number or date of birth. You would also need to confirm that you are the account holder.

Do let us know if we can be of assistance.

Regards,
Aoife

Hi Aoife,
Thanks for replying, I don't have a problem with my bill.
I want to enter reasonably accurate cost in the monitor to see what appliances are not energy efficient.
Would it be reasonable to say that the real cost of a unit is 0.26 cent.

Thanks.

EI: Aoife

Hi Koura,

Can I ask how you got the figure of 0.26 cent? If you divided the amount of units into the full price of the bill this would be incorrect as it would not take into account the standing charge, PSO Levy or VAT.

As the unit price of 0.1659 cent appears on your bill, you have a 24 hour standard electricity meter. A unit of electricity on this meter is 0.1659 cent, but with VAT applied that reaches 0.1883 cent. A customer with a NightSaver meter is charged 0.1772 cent per unit during the day hours (0.2011 cent including VAT) and 0.0876 cent during the night hours (0.0994 cent including VAT). This is what you are being charged per unit. Everything else on the bill is charged regardless of usage. You would still be charged a daily standing charge no matter how much or how little usage you use. Without your actual bill I am unable to advise you what your standing charge is as that depends on a number of factors. The PSO Levy amounts to €64.37 excluding VAT and €73.06 with VAT annually and this also appears on your bill.

If you would like monitor your usage, we would suggest that you check out our appliance calculator. There is a web app or an app you can download for your smart phone. You can find it here. The biggest users of electricity are anything that has a heating implement in it such as the immersion, electric heaters, tumble dryer, dish washer and washing machine. This can give you guidance on what you are using that is a high user.

There is an appliance check you can do by turning off everything in your property and going to the meter. There will either be a spinning disk or a red light on your meter. The disk moves or the red light flashes when your electricity is in use and should come to a stop once everything is turned off. If it does not stop, this may indicate a fault somewhere in your supply. Your electrical contractor can check for an internal wiring fault and we can investigate only once this has been ruled out. If the meter stops, you can proceed to check your appliances by turning them on one by one. If any of the appliances makes the meter spin or flash very fast or erratically, there may be a fault with one of your appliances or it is a very high user of electricity. The appliance calculator will help you check what the average cost per bill would be for that appliance alone.

I hope this helps. Do let us know if you have any other queries.

Regards,
Aoife

koura

Hi Aoife,
Thanks for the Advice.
Koura.