5000 Euro electricity bill

flaneur

Well, over a few years, if the estimates were way off, it’s not impossible.

The concern I have is they may be paying for another part of the property eg maybe heating left on to keep unoccupied areas warm or maybe even another home.

Without being able to verify the meter and the circuits connected to it, you can’t be sure of anything.

The OP could call in their own electrician to check that out and inspect the system. They would obviously need access to the board and the meter.

While the landlord could prevent them modifying or repairing the system, it’s perfectly reasonable to have it inspected by a professional to ensure that there’s no “mistakes” that might be resulting in them paying for someone else’s energy use.

Honestly, I think the best approach is to talk to ESB Networks (not Electric Ireland or your energy company) about what to do about having no access to the meter.

Just ring them up and have your MPRN code ready and explain they you have never had access to the meter and you have concerns etc.

They do not allow things like using one meter to cover two dwellings - a speedster standing charge and individual meter has to be used once it’s an apartment with its own address.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Everything is pure supposition until the OP gets a reading, talks to her supplier, and gets the issue checked. It could be right, it could be a mater reading error, it could be a wiring issue, usage could be exorbitant (I know people from eastern Europe who when here first had room heaters and water heating going constantly as they were used to at home), metre could be faulty, there's little point assuming anything until it's investigated.

server down

flaneur wrote: »

The clue is in the “hot press” anything that’s throwing out that much heat is costing you a lot of money. Your typical old style Irish immersion heater is a simple uninsulated copper tank with no insulation or at best a loosely fitted fibre glass jacket. That’s basically like turning on a 3kW kettle and leaving it on all day as the heat will dissipate into the air.

If it’s a well insulated modern water heater, they loose very little heat (as little as 1° per hour) so once the tank is at temperature they’ll just shut off the heat. In other words, you’re paying only for the water heating you actually use. The “classic type” are basically just working as a radiator.

A lot of people aren’t familiar with such old school technology and assume hot water systems are insulated. That’s where you can get a bills shock in Ireland with the old primitive immersion systems.

Also storage heaters and peak demand radiant panels cost an absolute fortune to run relative to gas.
1kWh is 1kWh whether you’re using gas or electricity.
On my plan 18.26 cent for electric peak and 8.75 c off peak.

Vs 5.17 cent for gas !

Yet I have still had problem trying to tell me that heating with electricity is somehow cheaper due to their notions about efficiency and unscientific thinking!!

Electricity at peak rate is more than 3.5 times more expensive to heat with than natural gas.

Well the storage heater should only store heat off peak

flaneur

Step one is to alert the energy company that you’re paying that there is an issue an query the bill. Simultaneously, step two, is to talk to ESB Networks in Cork on
021 238 6555

(They’ve an 1850 number too but typically it will be charged at a non geographic number outside your mobile / landline bundles and cost a fortune)

flaneur

server down wrote: »

Well the storage heater should only store heat off peak

That is a common problem too - I’ve seen two apartments where the landlord had removed dual tariff metering for some weird reason and the storage heaters were charging at full standard rate power.

They also often cheap out and only out storage heaters in the living areas with on demand non storage heating elsewhere.

The time clock can also go out of whack and bring them on at peak rate.

Again, that is why it should be inspected by a professional.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

server down

Fred Swanson wrote: »

Plenty of storage heaters are wired incorrectly to the 24 hour supply. Also many storage heaters have a boost function which is connected to the 24 hour.

Well the boost would obviously have to draw more power on demand. That’s hardly a flaw.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

crossmolinalad

eurasian wrote: »

When you started renting you should have taken meter readings for bos electricity and gas.
If you didn't, you have strongs grounds to negotiate with landlord. If you did, then there's a real problem unless it's technicals faults somewhere on the lines.

rented couple of years ago an appartement it was a complete horror story to get the meters read
Caretaker of the building was never there or never wanted to come in on a evening to open the door for a meter reading
Finally after two months I found a little paper in my mailbox with the readings on it
Two weeks later I saw the care taker in the hall and ask him if I could read the meters myself
Answer was no Its the space of the ESB and B G and tenants / home owners were not allowed in those rooms
Only because I was not allowed to read my meters myself in moved out after 4 months

flaneur

What a load of absolute nonsense also the gas isolation valve is on the meter and needs to be accessible.