High Electricity Bills: rural night-saver electricity and am on Direct Debit with BG.

A

angela59

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Hi,

I am on rural night-saver electricity and am on Direct Debit with Bord Gais.

I have low wattage lights, dishwash, clothes wash, tumble dryer on at night as is immersion - the kWh we use at night not a problem but even this time of year I'm finding the use of kWh in day still high and can't understand what it is - the only item I can think of is we have an American fridge freezer which is about 14 years old - could this be the cause of my problem?

The bill for last two months from March until present is €234. The part of bill for day is €150. It is a detached house in country also running our own well.

Does anyone else thing this is high or have any light to throw on whether it could be american fridge freezer?

Just to add did have a work man here for 3 days building a shed using a circular saw -may this could account for that but bill previous to this was €254.

TIA

Angela59
 
I would say the problem is with the fridge to be honest, it would not be energy efficient, we had a similar issue about 18 months ago, high esb bills, turned off, plugged out everything and then ONLY plugged in the fridge freezer which was about 10 years old, we got a new fridge freezer and the electric bills went down
 
You would need to be analysing this in terms of kwh rather than cost so that people have a better perspective of the usage. The cost for your electricity is very expensive, but I am not sure what the size of your house is.

What is the day kwh usage ?
What is the night kwh usage ?
What is the lowest in terms of kwh that you have ever had it at ? How much has it increased since then ?

Even a door bell can use electricity!

Could you tell us what your baseline is ? ie - can you plug everything that you know out and leave it for a couple of minutes or half an hour and see how much electricity has been used. Then plug everything back in and give the new figure ?

Does the Well use a pump ?
 
Switched from Airtricity to Bord Gais end of November 2010

From 1 Dec '10 to 13 Jan '11 the day Kwh was: 1152
From 13 Jan'11 to 12 March '11 the day KwH was: 1158
From 13 Mar '11 to 13 May '11 the day KwH was: 1013


From 1 Dec '10 to 13 Jan '11 the night Kwh was: 796
From 13 Jan'11 to 12 March '11 the night KwH was: 665
From 13 Mar '11 to 13 May '11 the night KwH was: 644

I will as an exercise plug out applicances, take a reading and plug back in during the week.

The well uses a pump and the pressure in the pump has to be correct as if not it can eat electricity - I have had it checked and it is correct.

The house is 2800 square foot, contains, two adults, two children age 9 and 11 (no major demands for showers Just yet!) All lights in house are either energy saving or 11 watt recessed lights, outside lights are energy saving, we have aqua lisa electric shower use on a daily basis in morning. Oven is used most days A rated. Computer is powered on in morning and swtiched off at night. We have electronic gates used 3 to 4 times a day.

I still think it is american fridge which 14 years old and we also have a small undercounter fridge which is 18 years old. I would love to get to bottom of this. I even discourage the kids from keeping the water running while they are burshing teeth.
 
I am in the same situation same type of house company, well tumble dryer washing machine and dishwasher on evenings .. old Fridge Freezer etc etc. I have started monitoring the usage weekly.

Currently using 90 day units and 60 night units a week
my bill last year was €2200 so they tell me when i went on Monthly DD at €183
 
1. Possible usage problems are the old American fridge. Is the motor running all the time or do ytou notice that it is running a lot? Perhaps the temperature settings are not functioning.
2. Another serious user of juice is well pumps. Given the last winter we had are you sure you have no leakages? You can check usually if the pump is coming on a lot more than usual especially if you are not using water.
3. Emersion, but I'd guess you'd know if you have that on.
 
That actually is quite alot of usage. I am living in a 2 bed apartment around 850 square feet and I use around 380 kwh every 2 months...so my bill is around 80 euro every 2 months.

I dont have a
shower
Dishwasher
Dryer
Well

I would hate to have to pay that much on electricity.

I hope you find the cause. You can get a plug on meter that wraps itself around any of the cables and tell's you what the usage is. I think they cost around 80 euro. I think this might be something you should look at as a cheap alternative to understanding the root causes of your problem.
 
My total bill of €2200 is a little misleading I do also have a geothermal system (so no gas or oil) But its not on from 1 April - 1 of November and costs roughly €3 a day to run so about €450 - €550 of that bill per year.

Mainly the summer day units I feel are very high.
Need to see how much my well pump and septic tank air pump use.
 
Hi,

- Woodie, yes I can hear the motor running quite a lot during the day - I am conscious of it. The water pump is not running when it shouldn't - I keep an eye on this - I get the hubby to pump the air pressure periodically also. Emersion is only on in night between 6 am to 9 pm - we have night rate electricity.

- Alexandra123, it is quite high the usage but rural rates are higher than urban - it is annoying paying these prices particularly when we are careful. I will get to the bottom of this and let you know.

- Bluemac, my bill reduces during the summer months as would be normal for most people - I will keep you posted if it does translate to be the fridge freezer.

Thanks for the posts!

Angela59
Woodie1. Possible usage problems are the old American fridge. Is the motor running all the time or do ytou notice that it is running a lot? Perhaps the temperature settings are not functioning.
2. Another serious user of juice is well pumps. Given the last winter we had are you sure you have no leakages? You can check usually if the pump is coming on a lot more than usual especially if you are not using water.
3. Emersion, but I'd guess you'd know if you have that onWoodie1. Possible usage problems are the old American fridge. Is the motor running all the time or do ytou notice that it is running a lot? Perhaps the temperature settings are not functioning.
2. Another serious user of juice is well pumps. Given the last winter we had are you sure you have no leakages? You can check usually if the pump is coming on a lot more than usual especially if you are not using water.
3. Emersion, but I'd guess you'd know if you have that on1. Possible usage problems are the old American fridge. Is the motor running all the time or do ytou notice that it is running a lot? Perhaps the temperature settings are not functioning.
2. Another serious user of juice is well pumps. Given the last winter we had are you sure you have no leakages? You can check usually if the pump is coming on a lot more than usual especially if you are not using water.
3. Emersion, but I'd guess you'd know if you have that on. Today 06:20 PM
 
High Electricity Bills

Read meter today 1.03 p.m. and reading for day is 14032 before everthing out. Just plugged American Fridge freezer and under counter fridge back in and read after about hour and half the meter reading for day was 14033. The dial type meter was easier to follow as you read the speed of the dial whether something was eating electricity or not. This translates roughly then that the two fridges use approximately 0.1kwh per hour and half.

Angela59
 
Just to update for information to those with high electric bills - have just purchased an energy monitor from Argos E28.00 for plug in type - have plugged it into my American Fridge Freezer and will post the results over 24 hours.

Angela59
 
I'd guess the immersion is the culprit.

How do you heat your home? Do you have storage heaters? They eat electricity. (Speaking from past exerience)

Tumble dryers cost approx €1.08 per hour of use .... use it once a day for an hour and that's approx €30 a month for that.

Hope you figure out the cause. Do keep us all posted.
 
Just noticed you say you have an electric shower. Electric showers use the most electricity in any household. I was told this by an electrician last week. (we were having a new one fitted)

Anecdotally speaking it costs approx 50 cent for ten minutes showers. Add this up over the course of a month for your family and that approx €60. This could easily account for a large portion of your bill.
 
MaxPower said:
Just noticed you say you have an electric shower. Electric showers use the most electricity in any household. I was told this by an electrician last week. (we were having a new one fitted)

Anecdotally speaking it costs approx 50 cent for ten minutes showers. Add this up over the course of a month for your family and that approx €60. This could easily account for a large portion of your bill.
Click to expand...


I'm on the nightsaver electric so water heating, dishwashing, tumble dryer, washing machine all go on between the hours of 12 midnight to 9.a.m. in morning as do showers this rate is 0.07 as opposed to the day rate of 0.1506 - it's what I'm using at peak rate which bothers me most. I will relay after 24 hours what the fridge freezer cost to run.
 
This might me helpful to you:

The formula to calculate the cost of running each appliance:

(kW of appliance) * (Mins in use/60) * (unit cost)
 
Over 15 hours according to my energy monitor - my American Fridge Freezer use 0.19 cents or 1.30 kwh. So over a year this would cost approx E126 to run - you can buy a new A+ American Fridge Freezer which uses 441 kwh of energy and would cost E66 to run. My own has no problems with - ok it uses double amount of energy of a new fridge but payback would be 10 years so I will be holding on to this. I have a small undercounter fridge which used I audited from 8.15 am t o 1.45 a.m. and cost 0.02 over 5 hours - this in turn costs E31 per yer to run - I forgot to read what kwh it used. I am do a test on my Fish tank at the moment and so far it has cost 0.12 cent to run from 1.45 p.m. today until 12.20 midnight - this is quite high - it has used 0.80 kwh of energy - so this is a luxury. I will run checks on water pumps and other items and relay back
 
MaxPower said:
This might me helpful to you:

The formula to calculate the cost of running each appliance:

(kW of appliance) * (Mins in use/60) * (unit cost)
Click to expand...
This may overstate the cost of running certain appliances that are not always on - e.g. such as heaters and fridges that are controlled by thermostatic switches etc.
 
zztop said:
Well...whats the story?
Click to expand...

As I said previously fish tank was using quite a bit of energy over the 24 hour period with heaters, lights etc - I have since moved to gold fish as they don't require a heater. Water pump was working fine. I have saved on my bill by cutting back on leaving computer switched on all day - leaving it to hibernate instead, switching off kettle at wall also microwave, power shower instead of using the extra boost button just normal boost. I have since changed to ESB and have noticed a reduction in price compared to Bord Gais that was up until September since then the electricity prices have risen across the board.

Angela59
 
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