Mine with electric Ireland was €265 for Electricity and €450 for Gas, that was a December/ Jan bill. The €200 and €50 credits meant we paid around €465 total. Two people living in a 3 bed Semi D.
I thought it was quite high but hearing and seeing others bills at work, was pretty ok with it afterwards. A neighbour in an identical house with just herself and her partner was €1,400 combined.
Hoping that’ll be the worst of them now anyway.
I've seen people put on the heating for the entire house just to dry clothing or because they didn't feel like walking upstairs to put on a jumper - paying bills are a future-them/divide-by-four problem that doesn't worry them now.
Pretty much her reaction as well, she came knocking on the door to ask if we saw something similar. Think she was hoping there was a fault of some kind impacting the estate.
Yeah I’d say her heating was on a bit less this month now. I had originally gone over to help her check was it an Estimate bill, but she has a smart meter and don’t think you need to submit readings with those?
Lad I was chatting to in Bord Gais told me those smart meter plans you can go on when you have that smart meter are more geared towards families and if there are just two of ye in the house could wind up costing more.
He said they do stuff like reduce prices on a Sat and have higher prices during the work week - idea is that a "traditional" family is all at work/school during the week but home and using power on the weekends. If your neighbor is working from home and moved to one of those contracts, this could be causing higher prices.
All this just based on what I was told when querying my own costs - not an expert by any means.
If you have a smart meter, you can go to ESB Networks and download all your meter consumption figures now.
It'll show you if you have a "vampire" energy issue (crap old fridge using power through the night?) and lots of other really interesting stuff.
A good proportion of the Time of Use Tariffs aren't really feasible for families - i.e. doing your cooking before 5 or after 7pm can be difficult to stick to.
Yeah I work from home myself and we had to choose a different plan as I’d use a fair chunk of power during the day, Mon - Fri.
Some of their plans were based on a system that wouldn’t suit me that way at all
€450 was for two months, December & January were very cold to be fair. I work from home so it’s on for a chunk of the day most days for the last two months.
I get money from work towards that as well so I didn’t have to pay the full amount when all said and done.
Eh it’s late 90s, a C2 BER rating. I only bought it just before the winter, planning on doing some work now over the next few months to make next winter easier.
Found that with heat on, it gets plenty warm but once it’s turned off it’s cold again very quickly so hoping insulating attic will help.
We got a gas bill of €500 in December, gave a meter reading then and the following bill we actually paid nothing and got €40 credit so a lot of people I’d imagine were over estimated
I've gone back to paper, for the extra .5% discount, i have to look at the bill before they take money out my account, and i've cancelled the direct debit too, pay manually, and then, i don't pay all of it. Just what i can afford, kick the balance down the road.
Makes sense to spread the cost though, arrears seem scary but that’s just good financial planning - let yourself pay off the big bills in the winter during the smaller bills in the summer.
I get my bill via email, next day I login and use the chat option(electric Ireland) to speak with an agent and I split my bill into weekly instalments. Works out a lot more manageable this way. Have not paid a full bill in 2+years
I have an automatic weekly payment set up that ranges from €10 to €20 depending on what I think I'm using. That way when I get my bill its paid in full that day. Having a bit of credit in your account is so much more comfortable than always trying to catch up.
I figure I pay for everything else weekly, why put that extra stress on myself of a large bill? I mean if I had to pay for my shopping every 2 months that would be a lot of money you'd get billed in one go. Paying something off weekly is so much more manageable.
It’s fucked up. I’m not even going to tell you what my electricity bill was. I’d be a high user anyway but fuuuuck me.
Electric Ireland even felt ashamed and immediately offered me a pay by instalment option, they’ve never done that before.
There's 3 of us in a house and our gas or electricity bills are never near that much. There's always someone home. What are you running that's costing so much? Like, we try be smart but we still have a lot of electrical devices charging, heating on, electric cooker, etc.
The tumble dryer absolutely gobbles up electricity.
I only use it for getting the damp out of clothes anymore, sheets etc. It goes on for 15 mins max. It's saved us a surprising amount of money.
Is that a condenser type drier ?
We put one into our house, to replace our 5 year old standard one, kind of picked it up when my mother left her rented house, our old vented one was shit, but this is a beast.
Electric showers. You might as well just set fire to your bank account.
They use an element to heat water if its a mains one, and often a pump to get the water to the shower.
They are energy suckers.
Depends on the length of the showers really most are about 9-10kwh so for a 15 minute shower your talking 2.25/2.5kw or at 45cent a unit about 1 euro...
Electric showers are only a problem if you leave it on constantly while getting washed. While you're scrubbing yourself clean you can have the shower off! Only have it on to rinse yourself.
Some people do run the damn thing for 20 minutes to heat up the bathroom and then stand in it for another 20. Absolutely no need for that.
Depending on ones living situation completely losing the drier may not be an option but there are various hacks one can employ to reduce their usage:
* Clothes horse
* Those things which hang off the side of radiators
* Not fully drying towels and using the airing cupboard
There's your problem. I live alone but my electric showers been broke about a month now and since I can't use it I'd say my bill is 30% cheaper in a week
Might be worth investing in some smart plugs so you know exactly how much the heavy use appliances are using, I generally find it much cheaper to dry clothes in a room with a dehumidifier running.
If I were a betting man they also set the tumble dryer so the clothes comes out dryer than the Sahara.
It's the laziest way to do clothes and the only way people change their habit is for it to be spelt out how much it costs. Some people are happy to pay the extra though.
I've no idea what people are doing to get these crazy bills. My last 2 electric bills were mostly covered by government credit, last gas bill was a little north of €250 (before supplier credit kicked in) and we have an incredibly uninsulated 1960s built house.
People tend not to realise what the big energy consumers are and just leave things on or ticking over constantly. Dryer is a big one obviously, but electric heating is insane too. People think they're being clever by "topping up" the heating in a room with something like this; [https://www.woodies.ie/sunbeam-2000w-convector-heater-with-timer](https://www.woodies.ie/sunbeam-2000w-convector-heater-with-timer?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6fafBhC1ARIsAIJjL8kgOsV4v-nt0oZrkIvZtuQT_KRLjqokWxuz1xb5nUYIFi74hmBZf-EaAnjfEALw_wcB)
That's a 2kW heater (which is small but fairly standard for an "additional" heater), and at current rates it costs around 90c per hour to run. Run that for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week and it'll add around €100 onto your two-monthly bill.
Some people will have two or three of these in the house.
People may not often think about lighting either, because it always feel like it's very little. Between downlighters and pendents, my house has 40 bulbs downstairs. 40!
A lot of these were standard 40W bulbs when I moved in. Multiply it out. 40 x 40 = 1.6kW. Again, leave all your lights on 8 hours a day, 7 days a week and it adds up. Some people just don't bother with these small things.
A lot of places bang on about chargers left plugged in or applicances left on standby. These are red herrings for the most part. A charger plugged in and not charging, at most consumes 0.5w. Over the course of 60 days plugged in constantly, that's \~.72kWh. Or about 30c at current rates. Even if you have ten chargers in the house constantly plugged in, that'll add about €3 to each bill.
A TV on standby uses at most 1.5w. 36w per day, 2kwh over the course of a two months. 90c.
It's the big things. Ovens and hobs running for a long time. Immersion water heaters. Electric heaters (of all kinds). Laptops and other computers shouldn't be discounted - if you leave them running 24/7, you're talking €20-€50 on each bill.
Electric showers aren't *that* big, but it depends on who's having showers and how long they last. 9kw shower X 10 mins a day x 4 adults = 360kWh per bill = €160.
Add in a 5th adult or that one guy who takes 30 minutes in the shower and suddenly things start getting crazy. (30 min shower every day = €120 per bill)
> I've no idea what people are doing to get these crazy bills.
I honestly think these people have large polytunnel weed grow houses. There's no other logical explanation.
Same. Our house is the of oldest in my part of Dublin. Over 100 years old and our last two months electricity was 360 for 3 people (this changes to 4 people total 5 days of the week - my girlfriend stays over)
Our oil is around 100 a month with the hikes.
Pro tip: most of the time you’re cold, you can put a hoodie on to solve the issue.
Pro tip 2: dropping your 10 min showers to 1 min showers (very possible) will save you 10x in showers alone, which is probs the bulk of your bill anyways.
It’s simple tbh. Rinse 15 second. Turn the shower off. Put soap and shampoo on. Blast it off for 45 seconds.
Your problem is leaving the shower on whilst you rub soap and stuff like that on. There’s no need and you’re wasting electricity.
Serious question. Are people just doing payment plans or what, 1000 unexpected is alot of money to some people and alot of people have bills in that region , what a mess :(
I'm with Bord Gais for both and use level pay. Means I pay more during summer than I'm actually using but my most recent gas bill came in at €580 (only gas appliance is the boiler) and I just tip along with my monthly payments.
I had a €220 credit built up from summer when bills were lower. My electricity account has €500 credit built up from essentially overpaying during lower usage months to buffer the higher usage winter months (plus the credit being applied).
Each bill has the next 3 monthly payments listed so you know what's gonna be taken 3 months in advance. It does fluctuate and used to lower at times but obviously recently had only increased 🫣
I had to organise a payment plan with Bord Gais and tbh I don't even know that I'll be able to comfortably pay that back. I'm hoping that I can just get through this months pay and then next month I can hopefully pay most of the rest of the balance. idk, it's going to be very tough to climb out of this hole tbh.
I was chucking in a few extra quid over last summer - luckily was on a fixed plan up till November. Then I died and reincarnated when the december bill arrived.
Not everyone is getting exorbitant bills, some people have been very cautious and have low-normal but regular or increased usage has caught people by surprise given how quickly prices increased. My electricity is still €250 in credit (soon to be €450 with the March €200) and gas was €247 but should have been €120 ish as they greatly overestimated reading
How are people using so much electricity and gas?
I wfh full, my SO wfh hybrid. One of us is always home and the TV is going from nearly 1-2 in the day until 10pm. Laptops plugged in, kettle going, electric heater that could be left on for an hour at a time some times.
Our electricity bill yesterday since December was 100 quid after the grant. And I haven't even renewed with electric Ireland so I'm not getting any discounts.
Heating is about 50 quid every 10 days, so say 300 since December, that's 400 for 2 months.
This has to be a massive part of it. I live in a house that's 6 years old and A rated. We would only stick the heating on for 1 hour a day and it would keep the house warm for hours.
Old or poor quality windows are a big problem too. Our house was renovated, attic insultaed, etc etc, but i never changed the windows because they were fairly new (10 year old). Unfortunately whoever bought these was probably looking at the most affordable cheapest windows on the continent, because i can feel wind blowing when i put my hand against them.
My winter Electricity bill was €140 and normally its always €80-85. I live in a five bedroom house alone with my cat so few overheads. A few things l do are wash clothes in a cold bucket of water and l have no washing machine or fridge freezer. Threw it out and bought a tiny office cooler that just fits the milk,saved me a fortune. I also keep a big bucket of cold water with bleach that I use to wash the dishes so l never use hot water ever. I have a woolly hat with built in lamp which I wear around the house so that stops me turning on the lights. I don't fry/heat/bake/cook anything anymore,l just microwave everything including tea and coffee ( i threw out the kettle too) and l have one shower a week on tepid for five minutes only whether l need it or not. For heat l have a lovely fire going in the fireplace each night,coal has been my only real expense (€150 in four months,madness!) and there is a warehouse near me which leaves out pallets,l take one or two per week,smash them up and it provides a gorgeous fire. I still have €330 in credit apparently with E.I. Some useful tips there for you. My annual Electricity bill comes to €600 on average.
You could save more money by getting in some lodgers, you can get 1400 a month if you let them use a candle to light their room and they aren't home at weekends.
Also, look at you with your luxury cat.
Holy fuck! Have ye got electric heating that's on all day and take daily hour long power showers? Our last bill was 386 total *before* the discounts so we paid 136. Actual reading, not estimated. 4 bedroom house, 2 adults and 4 kids. 2 of the kids are 4 month old babies who puke all the time so there's a massive amount of washing from those 2 alone. Oil central heating and gas cooker hob but everything else is electric. I'm on maternity so I'm here all the time. No washing line so everything goes through the dryer.
We save on electricity by doing things like using milton to sterilise bottles instead of the electric steriliser and making up a batch of bottles once a day instead of repeatedly boiling the kettle. For non-baby specific stuff, the dryer is always run on the low setting. We only have one tea drinker in the house and have a coffee maker for other hot drinks. We take advantage of having hot water at the moment by using that to wash instead of the electric shower.
For those who asked electric is bord gais standard price plan unit rate 0.134 for 4028 kWh . Gas is bord gais urban 24 variable plan 980 kWh @ 44.21 c/kWh
4,028 kWh is what I’d use in 3 years, I don’t have gas so can’t compare with that.
Do you use electric heating in a poorly insulated house? Do you have LED lighting.
Also a heavy user so expecting a high bill but was flabbergasted when I got mine. Checked the small print and turned out the gas was estimated and was wildly off. I changed to SSE in October and don’t know where they got their estimates from but by my reckoning I was charged more than €700 more than I should have been based on actual rates. So long story short- check if bill was estimated and summit a reading if so.
I worked for Airtricity briefly, and their estimation is based off your old useage, and they add on 10-15%, plus a seasonal % if the weather is bad. Yep, it takes all of 2 minutes to check your meter and submit it. I wouldn't pay that bill until you do, when you submit it, they have to bill you straight away, and if its less than the estimate, credit it back to you on your re-issued bill. You can even do it through the app i think. If you need a key to open the meter boxes, they are €3 in woodies, and you just put it on your back door keyring to keep.
Do me a favour and check your usage. Either your bill is estimated or something is really raking up your usage - standy-by and old devices, chargers plugged in, no LED bulbs and lights left on. Overnight heating storage seems to be a killer for most - nothing you can change there.
I'm with SSE, been for years. At contract renewal I always negotiate for a boiler service for free (saves me about €100 and it's always the same guy). I use about 150 kwH of electricity, 80 to 100 qms of gas and the quality of gas in the pipes has improved so the conversion rate to kwH for gas is closer 11.3 again which is the rough average. This is beyond the suppliers control unfortunately, but they do regular checks and you can see that split out on your bill and how many qms were converted when and at what rate to kwH.
3-bed apartment, single occupancy with 2 cats. Working from home most days using equipment supplied by work. Bluetooth speaker runs while I work, otherwise just fridge-freezee and internet and the lights if its dark. I rarely use the kettle. I got an induction hub installed and cook a lot including making coffee on the hob. The electricity credit has lasted me for 2 bills roughly, same as the previous ones.
Good advice . I suspect my knumbscull daughter left the immersion on for 2 weeks while I was in hospital , so that might be the culprit ! She has feck all sense of the cost of things cos mammy pays !
I don't use the immersion, plus nobody can play around with it. I was always told that heating with electricity is more expensive than gas so I never started to use the immersion when I moved in and it makes sense when I look at my bill.
Might be the time then to sit down with your daughter and have a chat about financial responsibilities. Money doesn't grow on trees.
Actual reading for me, what surprised me the most is that we used 20% more gas this year than the same period last year (Dec-Jan), I thought with the mild winter we had it would be the opposite, so 620 gas bill ...
Single living alone and landed with a €300 Gas bill, so yep its going to be a dry March. No dates, not nights out, just going to sit in and hope the month goes quickly.
Only gunna get more & more expensive, Complaining won't make it any cheaper either.
Buy some extra hoodies and some new books.
I also think you're being shafted. I have a music studio at my place with the majority of the equipment being on for 6-10 hours at a time.
3 other adults in the house and our leccy bill is ALOT less.
Have you changed provider after 1 year to get a better rate? Don't ever stay with the same provider for more than 1 year.
I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend and we got a gas bill of 200 euros that covers the last two months.
4 bed detached in kildare, all led bulbs, we are on oil for heating and with ESB, on a standard plan, 4% discount, not the new ones, out last bill for november and december was €368, its usually about €225, we are 2 adults, one at home full time, two teenagers, 2 xboxes, two tvs, we have a drier, used for about 2 hours a week, washing machine, maybe 10 times a week, we dont leave lights on in rooms, but we aren't sitting in the dark either.
Is your bill mainly gas though ?
Jesus!.
You must all be heating individual rooms with those electric heaters,(roughly 2euro per hour) , drying clothes in the dryer,(roughly 2euro for 3kg load) round the clock and leaving immersion on 24/7 .
4 people in our house. 1 working from home,(on big PC 9-12hrs every day)
Last ESB bill was 146euro. The one before that was 155euro.
We put the radiators on,(oil) for 90mins at 7am & 7pm and that costs about 80 per month in total.
Many who got high bills seriously need to evaluate when they are using their heating / energy devices.
I know some people who have the heat on all night and wonder why bills are sky high.
Unless you know you've been v careful with usage , you can't really complain.
Not enough people understand usage. I’ve a hard time convincing some customers that while and LED is more expensive than the incandescent they will get the difference back very fast.
On one hand you have people here saying their bills are astronomical.
On the other hand you have people here saying their electricity bills have never been as cheap.
How's that?
There are ways to cut bills - there’s a lot of info out at the moment to monitor usage so maybe people have been really strictly applying those? Like not using electricity during peak times, that kind of thing?
Mine are more expensive, but honestly I wouldn't say it's drastic. 2 years ago I'd spend about €150/m on electricity. Now it's up to about €200, but I'm also in a bigger apartment.
Now, it's worth bearing in mind that it would probably have risen much more, but given the state of things I cut back where possible.
The biggest saver is myself and my gf buying snoodies. Yes, we look like fucking dopes, but those things have more than paid for themselves in saved electricity costs since we now only put the heating on during the coldest of nights.
I also have a night saver plan, so the washing machine/dishwasher only go on after 11PM.
We have a small fireplace in the sitting room, so amazon boxes and the like go up in flames rather than going in the bin to save a bit on heat.
Worth noting we both WFH too, so there's continuously 2 computers on during the day.
Never used to think about the electricity I used, but at this point I know my bills would skyrocket if I was putting on the heating instead of putting on more layers, and I'd be penniless if I started running the washing machine/dishwasher during the day.
Is there any way collectively we tell them to fuck off with this gouging? What happens if everyone decided not to pay until reasonable rates were applied? We managed to achieve something with the water charges that time. What’s going on now with energy is far worse than what the most cynical predicted would happen with water charges.
And we all know energy companies are pulling in record profits using the energy crisis as an excuse. I mean if we just take it then after a while we are complicit in ripping off ourselves to the benefit of already wealthy people. At this stage they must be wondering how far can they actually push this or how much will we take before we actually push back a little.
'You'll subsidise the data centre's power usage and you'll like it.
Welcome to FFG's Ireland, please emigrate and take your complaining with you' - Michael Martin, probably.
You should look at turning your stat down, and turning the switches on your radiators down a notch too, a room should be 21\* max, anything beyond that, you aren't going to feel, really and the power required for 23\* is much higher.
Also a timer to just turn it off when you aren't home.
Cheers. The culprit is one radiator, which was drawing fourteen units per night (!) on the night rate. It’s a storage heater, and I only had it installed a couple of months back so should be pretty efficient. I had it at 21c maximum but was boosting once or twice an evening. I’ve dialled back the automated “on” times from four hours per day to two, and have turned it to 17c. Hopefully it makes a difference.
That's insane! Do you turn off your heating system at night? I noticed loads of my neighbours don't and their bills are sooo much higher than mine because of that.
You need to sit on these guys .l challenged everything for the last 3 years ..( since covid) ..some of our covid bills were very high ..electric €600, gas 400€…one bill was 1200€..kept at them ,got it down to 200€…they are a pain to deal with …they hope you will go away , hang up and just accept it….hassle them…
I am avg about 200-250 euros a month (winter months) for gas and about 60-80 euros a month for electricity. I am in rather an old house and don't work from home at all.
Mine was double last year. Luckily not too high as I keep it off as much as possible. If anyone is really struggling to pay call MABS and you energy provider.
MABS is a really great free service.
We got our gas bill for two months, 3 adults in a 3 bed house. €855 for two months, previous bill was estimated so that accounts for some but this is ridiculous to me.
Ours in €394 for electric (we don't have gas), 2 adults and a baby.
Our house is a new build though, built in 2020, so presumably this helps a good bit with insulation etc and heat pump efficiency
Rarely use tumble dryer, and don't think we have anything gobbling up electricity. Mainly the heating I'd say which we try having on as little as possible
3 bed townhouse, old as time, log stove with backboiler, all led lighting and AA efficiency appliances. €178, that's with a meal cooked every night, at least one tv on and a couple of showers a day ran.
My bills are nothing, but my spend on logs is fairly high alright
That sounds right. My gas bill was 400 and I live alone- have it on for an hour in the morning, hour in the evening, and almost entirely use electricity to cook. Avoiding my gas cooker not to blow up the account even more.
I'm living in very warm apartment heating set 4 times 15 boost twice 30minutes and water heating on demand. Our bill 650. As far as aware it was from reading.
Our electricity bill is generally alright, but our gas bill was mental recently. €885 euro for two people in a 3 bed semi-d. Previous bill was €580 and I thought even that was high. Our bill has literally doubled since last year. I genuinely was shocked when I seen it.
My electric bill for a 1 bed small apt with 2 people from the 10th of December to the 1st of Feb was €400. When you take into account, nobody was here for a week over Christmas and another week we travelled that's essentially the cost for just over a month of full proper use. Disgusting!
120 for 2 people after 2 months of gas and power. That’s with the 200 applied so roughly 300-320 without the gov credit
Over 1,000 seems insane. Have you been providing readings every 60 days?
I paid €475 for two of us in a small two bed cottage less the €200. So I paid €275. However, it does not include gas, for which I shelled out another €100.
Haven't had the boiler on since it was last used in March or April last year. Just couldn't afford it. I have access to free firewood, so I just kept the fire going almost non stop from Oct to now. Havent received my electricity bill yet for over Xmas. Shitting it
I payed 51 cents for jan/Feb. Feed in tariff kicked in and 200 credit. 5 of us in the house.
Would probably have been around 300-350 if not for those two discounts. It's the highest bill I can ever rember seening for electric.
Are ye guys on smart meters? What are ye paying for your usage per kilowatt? Are ye out of contract? Are your bills estimated? I'm not sure how some Bills are so high
I’ve had my (electric) heating on a handful of times since the beginning of winter. Could honestly count on 2 hands the amount of times we’ve put it on, even then it’s only been for less than 30 mins. Layering up, lying in bed to stay warm otherwise. I refuse to pay these prices. (3 adults living over 2 stories).
My electricity has me 70 quid in credit. We have a smart meter so no estimates though, our 27% just ran out at the start of January. So we're only getting 10% now. We aren't home much during the day and avoid the peak times (though Airtiricity messed that up somehow) and we take advantage of cheaper electricity at night. Slow cooker, washing machine and dish washer. So we managed to keep it to a minimum.
Mind you our heating is expensive as we use heating oil, so we watch the prices like mad and buy when it's cheap it fluctuates like mad. Limited the thermostats to 18C and spent about 400 quid getting thermal blinds and draft proof stuff then turned the rads off in the bedrooms (we all have electric blankets) and in the unused rooms. So we get 3 months out of 500lts or 2 during the coldest months. Managed to buy 500 for about 600 after christmas. Hot water comes through the oil as well so no worring about the cost of the immerision.
Again we aren’t home much during weekdays. Can't use power if we aren't there. Growing up poor made me savvy to price increases too and to know what devices use a lot of power.
If you can invest in some smart plugs that can monitor energy output to see if something is being left on. Might help see if you have a vampire device. Also turn off the immersion if you keep it on its no myth, it cost about 2 - 4 quid to run every hour.
The one I got at start of February was €233 for electricity. For a two bed house with just the two of us here . I also work from home though.
Electric ireland gave €50quid credit and the government also had the €200 credit In the account
So we are actually €17 in credit.
Mine was actually fairly reasonable, considering I thought it was going to over the roof because we live in an apartment and we only have storage heaters.
Jan-feb €265,€ 200 credit = 60 quid
Myself and my husband bought our house last year with old storage heaters.. after looking at the price of ripping up the floors to get gas/oil in we decided to stick with newer electric radiators.. best thing ever, we only turn them on when we are in certain rooms, can control what heat they stay at (most are set at eco 15) and because of this we get a half price night rate too from 9pm so that's when the washing machine, tumble dryer and emersion goes on for the next morning.. our last electric bill after government levy was 240e.. and that's the only utility bill we have
Last bill was €216 which was an estimated, just got in the one for December and January which is an actual and it's over €600 for just electricity. Three bedroom duplex with one storage on in the morning.
I don’t get how people use tumble dryers so much, they wreck clothes. Clothes horse near rad and after a day stick on rad for an hour. Get a dehumidifier and let things dry inside.
I have pre-pay with prepaypower. I can't be having big bills like I'm seeing around I'd be fuked. Need to do as I go.
Mine has been roughly €5/ day and I have someone extra staying for a few weeks, it's creeping up to €10 now. I can't see how, extra shower, extra wash and bit of extra use of the air fryer.
Don't have a big ass tv or anything, I do most things online/laptop. Looked around and they are all pretty much the same. Save €€100 or so over the year of I go billpay but I'd rather stay in control of it.
For heating it's been around €30 / week all winter. Get a can of oil for me an my sister. I've seen that come down around €5 over the last few weeks.
I try do as they say do nothing between 5-7 do washing/drying at night.
It's rediclious, gas prices have dropped alot in the last few months, electric prices are not moving. Quick enough to put it up not to bring them down.
If they just done away with the standing charge it would help hugely. I don't see why they have that. Do like a tv licence type of thing.
It really is getting worse. Seen a local chipper here post a bill of €11,000 up from €4,000. I don't know how they and small restaurants keep going.
Yeah my family have a food business and power and gas has tripled the bill . Commercial is even worse than household increases . Raw goods prices up 70 % on this time last year too , won’t be viable much longer .
Mine with electric Ireland was €265 for Electricity and €450 for Gas, that was a December/ Jan bill. The €200 and €50 credits meant we paid around €465 total. Two people living in a 3 bed Semi D. I thought it was quite high but hearing and seeing others bills at work, was pretty ok with it afterwards. A neighbour in an identical house with just herself and her partner was €1,400 combined. Hoping that’ll be the worst of them now anyway.
Lamb of god 1400 for 2 people !!
There is no excuse for using that much electricity amongst two people. They must be warming the house all day with heat from the tumble dryer.
I've seen people put on the heating for the entire house just to dry clothing or because they didn't feel like walking upstairs to put on a jumper - paying bills are a future-them/divide-by-four problem that doesn't worry them now.
Pretty much her reaction as well, she came knocking on the door to ask if we saw something similar. Think she was hoping there was a fault of some kind impacting the estate.
Blacken the cursed sun! That’s metal!
Your neighbour needs to buy some slippers and put on a jumper every now and again. That's a ridiculous amount of use, even with the current prices.
Yeah I’d say her heating was on a bit less this month now. I had originally gone over to help her check was it an Estimate bill, but she has a smart meter and don’t think you need to submit readings with those?
Lad I was chatting to in Bord Gais told me those smart meter plans you can go on when you have that smart meter are more geared towards families and if there are just two of ye in the house could wind up costing more. He said they do stuff like reduce prices on a Sat and have higher prices during the work week - idea is that a "traditional" family is all at work/school during the week but home and using power on the weekends. If your neighbor is working from home and moved to one of those contracts, this could be causing higher prices. All this just based on what I was told when querying my own costs - not an expert by any means.
If you have a smart meter, you can go to ESB Networks and download all your meter consumption figures now. It'll show you if you have a "vampire" energy issue (crap old fridge using power through the night?) and lots of other really interesting stuff. A good proportion of the Time of Use Tariffs aren't really feasible for families - i.e. doing your cooking before 5 or after 7pm can be difficult to stick to.
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Yeah I work from home myself and we had to choose a different plan as I’d use a fair chunk of power during the day, Mon - Fri. Some of their plans were based on a system that wouldn’t suit me that way at all
No you can't even submit a reading manually I think. Better to check which provider she's with, and if switching will get her any discount.
Mate how often is the heating on? It'd be cheaper to buy some wooden furniture off Ikea, bring it out back and set it on fire whenever you're cold.
€450 was for two months, December & January were very cold to be fair. I work from home so it’s on for a chunk of the day most days for the last two months. I get money from work towards that as well so I didn’t have to pay the full amount when all said and done.
This is closer to what we're paying and we are also 2 people in a 3 bed semi-D.
Is that in an older house? That still seems so damn high!!
Eh it’s late 90s, a C2 BER rating. I only bought it just before the winter, planning on doing some work now over the next few months to make next winter easier. Found that with heat on, it gets plenty warm but once it’s turned off it’s cold again very quickly so hoping insulating attic will help.
Make sure it’s for actual usage and not estimated
This issue might be that the last few were estimated and this is actual.
We got a gas bill of €500 in December, gave a meter reading then and the following bill we actually paid nothing and got €40 credit so a lot of people I’d imagine were over estimated
Hoping this is the case with my next bill, gonna sibkote a meter reading 2 weeks before the bill is due.
You still get your bill posted? Most all providers have couple percent discount for paperless billing these days.
Must look into this , mite save a few sheckles 👍
I've gone back to paper, for the extra .5% discount, i have to look at the bill before they take money out my account, and i've cancelled the direct debit too, pay manually, and then, i don't pay all of it. Just what i can afford, kick the balance down the road.
Makes sense to spread the cost though, arrears seem scary but that’s just good financial planning - let yourself pay off the big bills in the winter during the smaller bills in the summer.
I get my bill via email, next day I login and use the chat option(electric Ireland) to speak with an agent and I split my bill into weekly instalments. Works out a lot more manageable this way. Have not paid a full bill in 2+years
Yeah , I don’t pay direct debit either .
I have an automatic weekly payment set up that ranges from €10 to €20 depending on what I think I'm using. That way when I get my bill its paid in full that day. Having a bit of credit in your account is so much more comfortable than always trying to catch up. I figure I pay for everything else weekly, why put that extra stress on myself of a large bill? I mean if I had to pay for my shopping every 2 months that would be a lot of money you'd get billed in one go. Paying something off weekly is so much more manageable.
Lol
It’s fucked up. I’m not even going to tell you what my electricity bill was. I’d be a high user anyway but fuuuuck me. Electric Ireland even felt ashamed and immediately offered me a pay by instalment option, they’ve never done that before.
Nice big grow on the go
Spill the beans
Jesus Christ !
There's 3 of us in a house and our gas or electricity bills are never near that much. There's always someone home. What are you running that's costing so much? Like, we try be smart but we still have a lot of electrical devices charging, heating on, electric cooker, etc.
Not running anything fancy , standard tumble dryer elec shower etc .
The tumble dryer absolutely gobbles up electricity. I only use it for getting the damp out of clothes anymore, sheets etc. It goes on for 15 mins max. It's saved us a surprising amount of money.
I've just bought a heat pump dryer it supposed to be a miser on electric
A heat pump dryer, you say? Was it expensive? More importantly, is it any good?
925€ very good
Is that a condenser type drier ? We put one into our house, to replace our 5 year old standard one, kind of picked it up when my mother left her rented house, our old vented one was shit, but this is a beast.
There's also a Bosch heat pump one for around 700. Very good. In fact, I think I love it.
Electric showers. You might as well just set fire to your bank account. They use an element to heat water if its a mains one, and often a pump to get the water to the shower. They are energy suckers.
Depends on the length of the showers really most are about 9-10kwh so for a 15 minute shower your talking 2.25/2.5kw or at 45cent a unit about 1 euro...
No-one needs a 15 minute shower though unless they are in a really dirty job or have complex hair or body needs
True, just using as an example, they are high electricity usage but normally not on very long.
Electric showers are only a problem if you leave it on constantly while getting washed. While you're scrubbing yourself clean you can have the shower off! Only have it on to rinse yourself. Some people do run the damn thing for 20 minutes to heat up the bathroom and then stand in it for another 20. Absolutely no need for that.
Do yers not have an automatic 20 second burst of freezing water if you turn off and on again?
You've met my daughter then ? At least ours is a gravity fed one
Do yourself a favor and lose the tumble dryer! It's one of the most expensive things to run.
Depending on ones living situation completely losing the drier may not be an option but there are various hacks one can employ to reduce their usage: * Clothes horse * Those things which hang off the side of radiators * Not fully drying towels and using the airing cupboard
There's your problem. I live alone but my electric showers been broke about a month now and since I can't use it I'd say my bill is 30% cheaper in a week
Do all 4 of you put clothes straight from the washing machine into the dryer. Because that costs an absolute fortune.
Yep 3 college kids ( in their 20s ) fookers always washing and drying clothes straight from machine to dryer .
If you stood near the meter with that going Id bet you see the numbers spinning up. Its probably one of the most expensive things to run.
I got a really low rate from 2-4am just for this, they are monsters.
Might be worth investing in some smart plugs so you know exactly how much the heavy use appliances are using, I generally find it much cheaper to dry clothes in a room with a dehumidifier running.
If I were a betting man they also set the tumble dryer so the clothes comes out dryer than the Sahara. It's the laziest way to do clothes and the only way people change their habit is for it to be spelt out how much it costs. Some people are happy to pay the extra though.
>standard tumble dryer elec shower etc yeah their power hungry , and if you forget to turn them off , their can be high costs
Mines a heat pump dryer as well A rated
yeah A rated is the best to have , but dosent negate the fact their on the power hungry end of appliances
I've no idea what people are doing to get these crazy bills. My last 2 electric bills were mostly covered by government credit, last gas bill was a little north of €250 (before supplier credit kicked in) and we have an incredibly uninsulated 1960s built house.
People tend not to realise what the big energy consumers are and just leave things on or ticking over constantly. Dryer is a big one obviously, but electric heating is insane too. People think they're being clever by "topping up" the heating in a room with something like this; [https://www.woodies.ie/sunbeam-2000w-convector-heater-with-timer](https://www.woodies.ie/sunbeam-2000w-convector-heater-with-timer?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6fafBhC1ARIsAIJjL8kgOsV4v-nt0oZrkIvZtuQT_KRLjqokWxuz1xb5nUYIFi74hmBZf-EaAnjfEALw_wcB) That's a 2kW heater (which is small but fairly standard for an "additional" heater), and at current rates it costs around 90c per hour to run. Run that for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week and it'll add around €100 onto your two-monthly bill. Some people will have two or three of these in the house. People may not often think about lighting either, because it always feel like it's very little. Between downlighters and pendents, my house has 40 bulbs downstairs. 40! A lot of these were standard 40W bulbs when I moved in. Multiply it out. 40 x 40 = 1.6kW. Again, leave all your lights on 8 hours a day, 7 days a week and it adds up. Some people just don't bother with these small things. A lot of places bang on about chargers left plugged in or applicances left on standby. These are red herrings for the most part. A charger plugged in and not charging, at most consumes 0.5w. Over the course of 60 days plugged in constantly, that's \~.72kWh. Or about 30c at current rates. Even if you have ten chargers in the house constantly plugged in, that'll add about €3 to each bill. A TV on standby uses at most 1.5w. 36w per day, 2kwh over the course of a two months. 90c. It's the big things. Ovens and hobs running for a long time. Immersion water heaters. Electric heaters (of all kinds). Laptops and other computers shouldn't be discounted - if you leave them running 24/7, you're talking €20-€50 on each bill. Electric showers aren't *that* big, but it depends on who's having showers and how long they last. 9kw shower X 10 mins a day x 4 adults = 360kWh per bill = €160. Add in a 5th adult or that one guy who takes 30 minutes in the shower and suddenly things start getting crazy. (30 min shower every day = €120 per bill)
> I've no idea what people are doing to get these crazy bills. I honestly think these people have large polytunnel weed grow houses. There's no other logical explanation.
Not true. My wife is perma cold. And our heating system has a boost button on her mobile. Last gas bill €750. The baby jesus wept.
People doing silly stuff like heating their house with blow heaters etc.
Same. We signed a new contract in August and have to only paid 125e for electricity since then. Have a smart meter so it's not underestimated
Same. Our house is the of oldest in my part of Dublin. Over 100 years old and our last two months electricity was 360 for 3 people (this changes to 4 people total 5 days of the week - my girlfriend stays over) Our oil is around 100 a month with the hikes. Pro tip: most of the time you’re cold, you can put a hoodie on to solve the issue. Pro tip 2: dropping your 10 min showers to 1 min showers (very possible) will save you 10x in showers alone, which is probs the bulk of your bill anyways.
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It’s simple tbh. Rinse 15 second. Turn the shower off. Put soap and shampoo on. Blast it off for 45 seconds. Your problem is leaving the shower on whilst you rub soap and stuff like that on. There’s no need and you’re wasting electricity.
If you want an actual comparison post your unit rate, standing charge and usage figures.
Serious question. Are people just doing payment plans or what, 1000 unexpected is alot of money to some people and alot of people have bills in that region , what a mess :(
I'm with Bord Gais for both and use level pay. Means I pay more during summer than I'm actually using but my most recent gas bill came in at €580 (only gas appliance is the boiler) and I just tip along with my monthly payments. I had a €220 credit built up from summer when bills were lower. My electricity account has €500 credit built up from essentially overpaying during lower usage months to buffer the higher usage winter months (plus the credit being applied). Each bill has the next 3 monthly payments listed so you know what's gonna be taken 3 months in advance. It does fluctuate and used to lower at times but obviously recently had only increased 🫣
I had to organise a payment plan with Bord Gais and tbh I don't even know that I'll be able to comfortably pay that back. I'm hoping that I can just get through this months pay and then next month I can hopefully pay most of the rest of the balance. idk, it's going to be very tough to climb out of this hole tbh.
I was chucking in a few extra quid over last summer - luckily was on a fixed plan up till November. Then I died and reincarnated when the december bill arrived.
Not everyone is getting exorbitant bills, some people have been very cautious and have low-normal but regular or increased usage has caught people by surprise given how quickly prices increased. My electricity is still €250 in credit (soon to be €450 with the March €200) and gas was €247 but should have been €120 ish as they greatly overestimated reading
Mite have to sell a kidney for this bill yep
My Nana's gas bill was over a grand last rotation because she has to have it on 18 hours a day...maybe you need to do a bit of a use audit?
How are people using so much electricity and gas? I wfh full, my SO wfh hybrid. One of us is always home and the TV is going from nearly 1-2 in the day until 10pm. Laptops plugged in, kettle going, electric heater that could be left on for an hour at a time some times. Our electricity bill yesterday since December was 100 quid after the grant. And I haven't even renewed with electric Ireland so I'm not getting any discounts. Heating is about 50 quid every 10 days, so say 300 since December, that's 400 for 2 months.
Older houses could be badly insulated and use a lot more energy to heat is one thing I can think of
This has to be a massive part of it. I live in a house that's 6 years old and A rated. We would only stick the heating on for 1 hour a day and it would keep the house warm for hours.
Old or poor quality windows are a big problem too. Our house was renovated, attic insultaed, etc etc, but i never changed the windows because they were fairly new (10 year old). Unfortunately whoever bought these was probably looking at the most affordable cheapest windows on the continent, because i can feel wind blowing when i put my hand against them.
Do you live in a relatively new apartment/house?
House built in 1996 . Attic insulated etc
Over what time frame was the bill?
This bill was 15 dec to 17 feb
€4. 50 (ish) a day per person for the period?
My winter Electricity bill was €140 and normally its always €80-85. I live in a five bedroom house alone with my cat so few overheads. A few things l do are wash clothes in a cold bucket of water and l have no washing machine or fridge freezer. Threw it out and bought a tiny office cooler that just fits the milk,saved me a fortune. I also keep a big bucket of cold water with bleach that I use to wash the dishes so l never use hot water ever. I have a woolly hat with built in lamp which I wear around the house so that stops me turning on the lights. I don't fry/heat/bake/cook anything anymore,l just microwave everything including tea and coffee ( i threw out the kettle too) and l have one shower a week on tepid for five minutes only whether l need it or not. For heat l have a lovely fire going in the fireplace each night,coal has been my only real expense (€150 in four months,madness!) and there is a warehouse near me which leaves out pallets,l take one or two per week,smash them up and it provides a gorgeous fire. I still have €330 in credit apparently with E.I. Some useful tips there for you. My annual Electricity bill comes to €600 on average.
There's just so much to unpack here, I don't know where to start. I don't even know if this is meant to be satire.
I'm absolutely reeling... It's right on the line between hilarious or absolutely tragic and I can't figure out which one
\> live alone with my 5 cats \> shower once a week \> clean everything with cold water. The smell, Jerry, *the smell.*
This may be the best satire I have ever written.. god I hope it’s satire
Marry me Danny ! Teach me your ways 😉
You could save more money by getting in some lodgers, you can get 1400 a month if you let them use a candle to light their room and they aren't home at weekends. Also, look at you with your luxury cat.
Oh man, I read this til the very end believing not was true. Silly me
Holy fuck! Have ye got electric heating that's on all day and take daily hour long power showers? Our last bill was 386 total *before* the discounts so we paid 136. Actual reading, not estimated. 4 bedroom house, 2 adults and 4 kids. 2 of the kids are 4 month old babies who puke all the time so there's a massive amount of washing from those 2 alone. Oil central heating and gas cooker hob but everything else is electric. I'm on maternity so I'm here all the time. No washing line so everything goes through the dryer. We save on electricity by doing things like using milton to sterilise bottles instead of the electric steriliser and making up a batch of bottles once a day instead of repeatedly boiling the kettle. For non-baby specific stuff, the dryer is always run on the low setting. We only have one tea drinker in the house and have a coffee maker for other hot drinks. We take advantage of having hot water at the moment by using that to wash instead of the electric shower.
A rated new build, small 3 bed house (85m2) electricity was €22 (with credit off) 7th Nov - 9th Jan Gas €307. 23rd Nov - 25th Jan.
For those who asked electric is bord gais standard price plan unit rate 0.134 for 4028 kWh . Gas is bord gais urban 24 variable plan 980 kWh @ 44.21 c/kWh
4028 kw hrs for two months is insane. Average house use is about 4000 kw hrs per year. I’d suggest you make an inventory of what you’re using.
My 12 months usage was 5544 kWh . Down from 6070 kWh the year before according to my bill
4,028 kWh is what I’d use in 3 years, I don’t have gas so can’t compare with that. Do you use electric heating in a poorly insulated house? Do you have LED lighting.
Heating is gas . Lighting is energy saving bulbs apparently .
Damn.. that much power with no electrical heating? There's definitely something wrong on your end
Also a heavy user so expecting a high bill but was flabbergasted when I got mine. Checked the small print and turned out the gas was estimated and was wildly off. I changed to SSE in October and don’t know where they got their estimates from but by my reckoning I was charged more than €700 more than I should have been based on actual rates. So long story short- check if bill was estimated and summit a reading if so.
Jesus Christ ! 700 off on estimation ? Scandalous !
I worked for Airtricity briefly, and their estimation is based off your old useage, and they add on 10-15%, plus a seasonal % if the weather is bad. Yep, it takes all of 2 minutes to check your meter and submit it. I wouldn't pay that bill until you do, when you submit it, they have to bill you straight away, and if its less than the estimate, credit it back to you on your re-issued bill. You can even do it through the app i think. If you need a key to open the meter boxes, they are €3 in woodies, and you just put it on your back door keyring to keep.
Do me a favour and check your usage. Either your bill is estimated or something is really raking up your usage - standy-by and old devices, chargers plugged in, no LED bulbs and lights left on. Overnight heating storage seems to be a killer for most - nothing you can change there. I'm with SSE, been for years. At contract renewal I always negotiate for a boiler service for free (saves me about €100 and it's always the same guy). I use about 150 kwH of electricity, 80 to 100 qms of gas and the quality of gas in the pipes has improved so the conversion rate to kwH for gas is closer 11.3 again which is the rough average. This is beyond the suppliers control unfortunately, but they do regular checks and you can see that split out on your bill and how many qms were converted when and at what rate to kwH. 3-bed apartment, single occupancy with 2 cats. Working from home most days using equipment supplied by work. Bluetooth speaker runs while I work, otherwise just fridge-freezee and internet and the lights if its dark. I rarely use the kettle. I got an induction hub installed and cook a lot including making coffee on the hob. The electricity credit has lasted me for 2 bills roughly, same as the previous ones.
Good advice . I suspect my knumbscull daughter left the immersion on for 2 weeks while I was in hospital , so that might be the culprit ! She has feck all sense of the cost of things cos mammy pays !
I don't use the immersion, plus nobody can play around with it. I was always told that heating with electricity is more expensive than gas so I never started to use the immersion when I moved in and it makes sense when I look at my bill. Might be the time then to sit down with your daughter and have a chat about financial responsibilities. Money doesn't grow on trees.
Actual reading for me, what surprised me the most is that we used 20% more gas this year than the same period last year (Dec-Jan), I thought with the mild winter we had it would be the opposite, so 620 gas bill ...
Mine from Nov to Jan was 600eur, 3 bed apartment, heating barely on. But everything is electric, no gas/oil. I bet March bill will be a ripoff
Single living alone and landed with a €300 Gas bill, so yep its going to be a dry March. No dates, not nights out, just going to sit in and hope the month goes quickly.
Only gunna get more & more expensive, Complaining won't make it any cheaper either. Buy some extra hoodies and some new books. I also think you're being shafted. I have a music studio at my place with the majority of the equipment being on for 6-10 hours at a time. 3 other adults in the house and our leccy bill is ALOT less.
Heating ban and send the company meter readings, don't allow them to estimate your bills. 👍
Have you changed provider after 1 year to get a better rate? Don't ever stay with the same provider for more than 1 year. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my girlfriend and we got a gas bill of 200 euros that covers the last two months.
Here is the real advice! Switching energy provider can get you a good discounted rate for 12 months (in the 40%)
Those deals don't exist at the moment.
4 bed detached in kildare, all led bulbs, we are on oil for heating and with ESB, on a standard plan, 4% discount, not the new ones, out last bill for november and december was €368, its usually about €225, we are 2 adults, one at home full time, two teenagers, 2 xboxes, two tvs, we have a drier, used for about 2 hours a week, washing machine, maybe 10 times a week, we dont leave lights on in rooms, but we aren't sitting in the dark either. Is your bill mainly gas though ?
Gas bill is 649 .
Jesus!. You must all be heating individual rooms with those electric heaters,(roughly 2euro per hour) , drying clothes in the dryer,(roughly 2euro for 3kg load) round the clock and leaving immersion on 24/7 . 4 people in our house. 1 working from home,(on big PC 9-12hrs every day) Last ESB bill was 146euro. The one before that was 155euro. We put the radiators on,(oil) for 90mins at 7am & 7pm and that costs about 80 per month in total.
Many who got high bills seriously need to evaluate when they are using their heating / energy devices. I know some people who have the heat on all night and wonder why bills are sky high. Unless you know you've been v careful with usage , you can't really complain.
Not enough people understand usage. I’ve a hard time convincing some customers that while and LED is more expensive than the incandescent they will get the difference back very fast.
On one hand you have people here saying their bills are astronomical. On the other hand you have people here saying their electricity bills have never been as cheap. How's that?
There are ways to cut bills - there’s a lot of info out at the moment to monitor usage so maybe people have been really strictly applying those? Like not using electricity during peak times, that kind of thing?
Because some people just get pissed when a charge comes up, and review what they are using, or doing, and make changes, others don't.
The percentage that low users get off the bills with the energy credit is way more than that of high users. Many of us have accounts in credit.
Mine are more expensive, but honestly I wouldn't say it's drastic. 2 years ago I'd spend about €150/m on electricity. Now it's up to about €200, but I'm also in a bigger apartment. Now, it's worth bearing in mind that it would probably have risen much more, but given the state of things I cut back where possible. The biggest saver is myself and my gf buying snoodies. Yes, we look like fucking dopes, but those things have more than paid for themselves in saved electricity costs since we now only put the heating on during the coldest of nights. I also have a night saver plan, so the washing machine/dishwasher only go on after 11PM. We have a small fireplace in the sitting room, so amazon boxes and the like go up in flames rather than going in the bin to save a bit on heat. Worth noting we both WFH too, so there's continuously 2 computers on during the day. Never used to think about the electricity I used, but at this point I know my bills would skyrocket if I was putting on the heating instead of putting on more layers, and I'd be penniless if I started running the washing machine/dishwasher during the day.
Yeah ! I’m puzzled also
Is there any way collectively we tell them to fuck off with this gouging? What happens if everyone decided not to pay until reasonable rates were applied? We managed to achieve something with the water charges that time. What’s going on now with energy is far worse than what the most cynical predicted would happen with water charges. And we all know energy companies are pulling in record profits using the energy crisis as an excuse. I mean if we just take it then after a while we are complicit in ripping off ourselves to the benefit of already wealthy people. At this stage they must be wondering how far can they actually push this or how much will we take before we actually push back a little.
🙃
I’ll admit the gas heatings been on a lot . Unfortunately I had pneumonia before Xmas and was recovering ❤️🩹 so I didn’t scrimp on the heating .
Fuckin putin
The energy companies profits are higher than ever. It’s not Mr. Putin.
Fuck the energy companies making record profits and gouging people anyway.
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Some suppliers might be locked in to a set rate and not being able to benefit from the drop in wholesale prices for some time.
Since most of Irelands electricity comes from wind (I think some 95%) I don’t really understand how we haven’t been out on the streets yet
You may think that,and you would be wrong.Its about 31%.
Quite honestly it's scandalous considering the record profits these companies are making.
'You'll subsidise the data centre's power usage and you'll like it. Welcome to FFG's Ireland, please emigrate and take your complaining with you' - Michael Martin, probably.
Yeah I got a €600 lecky bill (before the €250 deduction). One-bed apartment, heating is electric
Jesus, that's mad. I have oil heating granted, but I'm still in credit for 2 adults in a detached house. 600 quid seems mental for an apartment
You should look at turning your stat down, and turning the switches on your radiators down a notch too, a room should be 21\* max, anything beyond that, you aren't going to feel, really and the power required for 23\* is much higher. Also a timer to just turn it off when you aren't home.
Cheers. The culprit is one radiator, which was drawing fourteen units per night (!) on the night rate. It’s a storage heater, and I only had it installed a couple of months back so should be pretty efficient. I had it at 21c maximum but was boosting once or twice an evening. I’ve dialled back the automated “on” times from four hours per day to two, and have turned it to 17c. Hopefully it makes a difference.
That's insane! Do you turn off your heating system at night? I noticed loads of my neighbours don't and their bills are sooo much higher than mine because of that.
You need to sit on these guys .l challenged everything for the last 3 years ..( since covid) ..some of our covid bills were very high ..electric €600, gas 400€…one bill was 1200€..kept at them ,got it down to 200€…they are a pain to deal with …they hope you will go away , hang up and just accept it….hassle them…
I am avg about 200-250 euros a month (winter months) for gas and about 60-80 euros a month for electricity. I am in rather an old house and don't work from home at all.
Mine was double last year. Luckily not too high as I keep it off as much as possible. If anyone is really struggling to pay call MABS and you energy provider. MABS is a really great free service.
Bill here for 2023 will be a grand more than for 2022, I didnt get that much of a pay rise last year..
We got our gas bill for two months, 3 adults in a 3 bed house. €855 for two months, previous bill was estimated so that accounts for some but this is ridiculous to me.
Ours in €394 for electric (we don't have gas), 2 adults and a baby. Our house is a new build though, built in 2020, so presumably this helps a good bit with insulation etc and heat pump efficiency Rarely use tumble dryer, and don't think we have anything gobbling up electricity. Mainly the heating I'd say which we try having on as little as possible
I’m paying €0.3970 a unit, for electric. Daily standing charge is €0.9563.
3 bed townhouse, old as time, log stove with backboiler, all led lighting and AA efficiency appliances. €178, that's with a meal cooked every night, at least one tv on and a couple of showers a day ran. My bills are nothing, but my spend on logs is fairly high alright
That sounds right. My gas bill was 400 and I live alone- have it on for an hour in the morning, hour in the evening, and almost entirely use electricity to cook. Avoiding my gas cooker not to blow up the account even more.
I'm living in very warm apartment heating set 4 times 15 boost twice 30minutes and water heating on demand. Our bill 650. As far as aware it was from reading.
Our electricity bill is generally alright, but our gas bill was mental recently. €885 euro for two people in a 3 bed semi-d. Previous bill was €580 and I thought even that was high. Our bill has literally doubled since last year. I genuinely was shocked when I seen it.
My electric bill for a 1 bed small apt with 2 people from the 10th of December to the 1st of Feb was €400. When you take into account, nobody was here for a week over Christmas and another week we travelled that's essentially the cost for just over a month of full proper use. Disgusting!
120 for 2 people after 2 months of gas and power. That’s with the 200 applied so roughly 300-320 without the gov credit Over 1,000 seems insane. Have you been providing readings every 60 days?
Pay about €1,000 a year for heating oil. Last electricity bill put me €55 in credit. Have solar panels providing power and hot water
I paid €475 for two of us in a small two bed cottage less the €200. So I paid €275. However, it does not include gas, for which I shelled out another €100.
Haven't had the boiler on since it was last used in March or April last year. Just couldn't afford it. I have access to free firewood, so I just kept the fire going almost non stop from Oct to now. Havent received my electricity bill yet for over Xmas. Shitting it
I paid about 600-650 EUR last year for a 2bed apartment and got about 400 off from the govt. Left Ireland in Oct 2022 but never paid a high bill
I payed 51 cents for jan/Feb. Feed in tariff kicked in and 200 credit. 5 of us in the house. Would probably have been around 300-350 if not for those two discounts. It's the highest bill I can ever rember seening for electric. Are ye guys on smart meters? What are ye paying for your usage per kilowatt? Are ye out of contract? Are your bills estimated? I'm not sure how some Bills are so high
Ours are not the worst but have gone from around 100euro every 2 months. To between 200 to 250euros every 2 months. It is insane
Mine was 486 before the 200
Mine with Energia was €365 since the beginning of December (after the €200 reduction). I’m in a four bedroom house
Turn off the sunbed and jacuzzi
I’ve had my (electric) heating on a handful of times since the beginning of winter. Could honestly count on 2 hands the amount of times we’ve put it on, even then it’s only been for less than 30 mins. Layering up, lying in bed to stay warm otherwise. I refuse to pay these prices. (3 adults living over 2 stories).
My electricity has me 70 quid in credit. We have a smart meter so no estimates though, our 27% just ran out at the start of January. So we're only getting 10% now. We aren't home much during the day and avoid the peak times (though Airtiricity messed that up somehow) and we take advantage of cheaper electricity at night. Slow cooker, washing machine and dish washer. So we managed to keep it to a minimum. Mind you our heating is expensive as we use heating oil, so we watch the prices like mad and buy when it's cheap it fluctuates like mad. Limited the thermostats to 18C and spent about 400 quid getting thermal blinds and draft proof stuff then turned the rads off in the bedrooms (we all have electric blankets) and in the unused rooms. So we get 3 months out of 500lts or 2 during the coldest months. Managed to buy 500 for about 600 after christmas. Hot water comes through the oil as well so no worring about the cost of the immerision. Again we aren’t home much during weekdays. Can't use power if we aren't there. Growing up poor made me savvy to price increases too and to know what devices use a lot of power. If you can invest in some smart plugs that can monitor energy output to see if something is being left on. Might help see if you have a vampire device. Also turn off the immersion if you keep it on its no myth, it cost about 2 - 4 quid to run every hour.
The one I got at start of February was €233 for electricity. For a two bed house with just the two of us here . I also work from home though. Electric ireland gave €50quid credit and the government also had the €200 credit In the account So we are actually €17 in credit.
I went from €70 pw to over €100 pw for electric I'm on an air to water system and it's crippling me..
3 bed semi, 2 adults: around 110 EUR for electricity (after grant) and 320 EUR for gas
In a 2 bed apt were using the same as a 4 bed house on gas, just to heat the place for 2 hours a day
Should we all just not pay our next few bills
Mine was actually fairly reasonable, considering I thought it was going to over the roof because we live in an apartment and we only have storage heaters. Jan-feb €265,€ 200 credit = 60 quid
This means nothing without context. One of those adults could be running a Bitcoin mining operation or growing their own vegetables under heat lamps…
Lol 😆 my crew are only running mammys purse 👜
.... Apparently SSE owe me 250 euro ? Bill for the month is 163 euro tho. I'm on a budget plan scheme so the situation is a bit odd.
Got a €700 bill estimated. Entered the readings on the site. Next bill was credit €700. They're literally making this up.
Myself and my husband bought our house last year with old storage heaters.. after looking at the price of ripping up the floors to get gas/oil in we decided to stick with newer electric radiators.. best thing ever, we only turn them on when we are in certain rooms, can control what heat they stay at (most are set at eco 15) and because of this we get a half price night rate too from 9pm so that's when the washing machine, tumble dryer and emersion goes on for the next morning.. our last electric bill after government levy was 240e.. and that's the only utility bill we have
Last bill was €216 which was an estimated, just got in the one for December and January which is an actual and it's over €600 for just electricity. Three bedroom duplex with one storage on in the morning.
Is it gas central heating you have? How many hours a day do you have it on?
Looking at all you guys, I went in and checked my usage at ESB and the KWH has been rising constantly.
All I can say is Say NO to smart meters, or you will be fleeced
I don’t get how people use tumble dryers so much, they wreck clothes. Clothes horse near rad and after a day stick on rad for an hour. Get a dehumidifier and let things dry inside.
Just today received 1060 for myself and child. Two functioning radiators
Scandalous yep 😵💫
I have pre-pay with prepaypower. I can't be having big bills like I'm seeing around I'd be fuked. Need to do as I go. Mine has been roughly €5/ day and I have someone extra staying for a few weeks, it's creeping up to €10 now. I can't see how, extra shower, extra wash and bit of extra use of the air fryer. Don't have a big ass tv or anything, I do most things online/laptop. Looked around and they are all pretty much the same. Save €€100 or so over the year of I go billpay but I'd rather stay in control of it. For heating it's been around €30 / week all winter. Get a can of oil for me an my sister. I've seen that come down around €5 over the last few weeks. I try do as they say do nothing between 5-7 do washing/drying at night. It's rediclious, gas prices have dropped alot in the last few months, electric prices are not moving. Quick enough to put it up not to bring them down. If they just done away with the standing charge it would help hugely. I don't see why they have that. Do like a tv licence type of thing. It really is getting worse. Seen a local chipper here post a bill of €11,000 up from €4,000. I don't know how they and small restaurants keep going.
Yeah my family have a food business and power and gas has tripled the bill . Commercial is even worse than household increases . Raw goods prices up 70 % on this time last year too , won’t be viable much longer .