Electricity Bills skyrocketed

Butterflies24

Hi all,

Electricity bill cost has almost doubled when I compare my usage from August last year to this year. Interestingly it seems to have started getting much more expensive since a smart meter was installed. Has anyone else found this?

Who would be my first port of call with this issue - ESB or my provider? Not on a smart meter plan, stuck to the plan we had when it was installed.

€800 every 2 months is not a welcome bill!!

TheChizler

Did you possibly change to a smart plan at the time and use a lot of electricity between 5 and 7pm? Has your actual usage in units gone up or just the bill?

Edit sorry missed that you mentioned your plan

L1011

Some old mechanical meters had very worn springs and massively under-read. Most cases of people seeing a huge increase in unit usage since going to a smart meter are down to this.

Now, are you seeing an increase in unit usage or just in cost?

Have you changed plans within the last year? You really do need to change annually.

If it is in units; faulty meters do exist but its more likely the old one was faulty. Turn everything off and see if the meter stops pulsing, then turn on something with a known medium/high draw to see if its pulsing at the expected rate.

Allinall

First thing to do is compare the number of units used, bearing in mind that last years bill may have been estimated, and go from there.

If the number of units is similar, then look at the cost per unit.

You may have come out of contract and been moved to a standard rate with no discount.

Butterflies24

The cost per unit has actually come down - example, I'm comparing June 2023 & 2024.

June 2023 - 961 day units used. 0.487c per unit. Bill was €560.

June 2024 - 1565 day units used. 0.383c per unit. Bill €870.

It's a massive difference in usage but nothing has changed since 2023, it would be same usage as before!

JamBur

People working from home? What do you have thats a big energy consumer? Heating (water or room)? Do you have an electric vehicle?

Butterflies24

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122531162#Comment_122531162

Hubby works from home 2 days a week. No electrical vehicle. Air to water / underfloor.

Only things that are used on a daily basis would be oven, dishwasher, washing machine maybe twice a week, dryer once a week.

YellowLead

Mine has become more expensive since I got my smart meter a few months ago, I’m with electric Ireland. I’m assuming I just selected the wrong plan for my usage so I’ll see.
To be fair it might balance out in winter because I have storage heaters that come on at night.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365588/electricity-bills-skyrocketed

ignore the cost.
what is your usage in kWh ?

How was last August compared to this August ?

was last August estimated and if so when was the next reading taking ?

ted1

Was last year based on an actualReading or estimation ?

we had the coldest and wettest June on record. You may have use the dryer more, some heating , etc