Electricity Bill question

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Banjaxed

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I’ve been scanning through threads and while I know electrical charges are crazy mine seems to be worse.
May I ask can I compare a little with you guys !!
We have a modest 4 bed house. I only use the dryer for almost dry items. I don’t use an emmersion (it’s broken !) so use boiler to heat water as it’s zoned.
I’m with Airtricity and see they are advising me today that price will increase from €1640 pa to apx €1780
Is that in or around average when I’m not running a grow house
 
Is €1640 pa your actual usage \ what you paid last year or are they just quoting you the typical household use?

Is your heating using electricity or also using non electric boiler / fire / stove?

How many units did you use, should be able to tell this if you look at your bills for last year.

What unit rate were you \ will you be paying? Pay attention to whether the rate includes VAT or not.
It is unusual that your bill should increase at a time when wholesale rates are dropping, and other suppliers have announced price cuts.

There was a thread here where people were posting the rates they were offered.

Is the cost of electricity still that high??

Unless you are very disciplined and get max use of the night rate, the discounts in general seem to offset by a equivalent higher day rate.
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
For comparison, we have four bedroom detached house, four people, we use 5,000 to 5,500 units per annum.
 
The average electricity usage in Ireland is 4,200 kWh. At least that's the figure been mentioned for a number of years now.

If you look at new price offerings that should come in and around €1270-€1700.

SSE offerings span the full range of prices so you may be anywhere from an about average to above average consumer

It's usual financially worth your while switching providers annually regardless of how much you consume.

Figure out your annual usage in kWh and then let a price comparison website like bonkers do the comparing for you.
 
I'm with BG on their EV smart plan 3 bed semi D dormer bungalow, I'm an early bird and Mrs C is a night owl so house on the go 24/7
Use the immersion for an hour on the EV rate but all other water is heated by gas, don't have a dryer but do run a dehumidifier during cold months
The last four months since I switched to this plan our bills are €130pm
In terms of usage about 4750kWh for the year
 
skrooge said:
The average electricity usage in Ireland is 4,200 kWh. At least that's the figure been mentioned for a number of years now.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's the figure the CRU set as the national average, all energy providers and price comparison sites must use that same figure for total cost estimates unless you give them an alternative.
 
Thanks for replies
Head not working this am - our bills are €330-€380 every 2 months ! Madness
 
Banjaxed said:
Thanks for replies
Head not working this am - our bills are €330-€380 every 2 months ! Madness
Click to expand...
Have you identified the items costing the most.
Have you turned off absolutely everything and checked if the little dial still turns.
What is the annual usage in units
Is someone at home all day every day.

Those are the things you might have to address to figure out the issue.
 
A meter such as this will allow you to see total usage over time. You can also get plug in units that will give you detailed usage of plug-in appliances. Depending on the model of tumble dryer and the rate you are on, it's likely costing more than a Euro per hour to run.

You didn't mention what SSE plan you are on, if you are on their standard rate there are significant savings to be had switching to a discount rate or to an alternative supplier.
 
Banjaxed said:
Thanks for replies
Head not working this am - our bills are €330-€380 every 2 months ! Madness
Click to expand...
Can you tell us your annual usage. Not in money, in units. It's on your bills. Scan up the bills (deleting the address etc) if you want it to be figured out for you.
 
Our usage is over 6000 kwh per year. 5 people, 3 bed house with attic conversion. 3 of us have a shower every morning and this seems to be the biggest user of electricity. Never use tumble dryer. Do use a dehumidifier sometime but struggling to understand how we use a third more than most similar homed
 
21 showers per week?

There are maybe 8 showers per week in my house, and we use 5,000 - 5,500 units per annum.
 
If you want to seriously examine power usage the mindset must be kw not euros. There are two many variables to bills with day and night rate on top of a broad range of urban and rural fixed fees.

Your KW usage is on your bill. What is your average usage per day over period of last bill

You can then also review your meter, perhaps once a day or hour to pin point usage peaks
 
Leo said:
Yep, that's the figure the CRU set as the national average, all energy providers and price comparison sites must use that same figure for total cost estimates unless you give them an alternative.
Click to expand...
Measured more than set I would hope.

I was more getting at the fact this number hasn't fluctuated at all in the years I've be even quoting it (it was CER and not CRU with I started referencing it). Makes me wonder if it's regularly monitored or was the figure calculated once and hasn't been updated since.

While I wouldn't expect a dramatic swing in the national average there might be reason to think it would tick up. For example, we're slowly moving towards a world where homes run solely on electricity (and not directly at least fossil fuels). While overall these houses are more energy efficient that doesn't mean electricity usage isn't higher.

Overall the direction of travel seems to be having more things plugged in not less. A lot of us worked from home during COVID and, to some degree, continue to do so. However, I don't remember this figure budging.

It doesn't change there argument that everyone is better off shopping around but it would be nice to know the 4,200kwh remains representative of the actual average.
 
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