ESB doubled after moving to house from apartment

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annR

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We moved from a 2 bed apartment into a 3 bed house just over a year ago.

I was looking at our bills and I have noticed that our ESB bills in the house are significantly higher than in the apartment, double on average!

The only difference in appliances is that we are using a different fridge freezer (previous owners left it there) and the dishwasher which we hardly ever use anyway.

How can I figure out where the ESB usage is coming from?

Gas bills are roughly the same as they were in the apartment.

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Re: ESB concerns

are selling a power meter for €10 tomorrow which might prove useful for checking gadget usage.

There are a few previous threads in different forums about this type of problem so running the search option for these might give some advice.
 
Re: ESB concerns

Are you on the same tariff (Nightsaver?) in the new house? Also, an old fridge freezer can be a huge drain on electricity. The one I inherited when I bought my place uses 3 times the electricity of a modern one.

If you've got gas I presume it's used for space & water heating?

As suggested, get a power consumption monitor and check the fridge freezer first.

[broken link removed]
 
Re: ESB concerns

Hi
I did search for some threads but didn't come up with much.

Yes gas boiler is used for space heating and water. We never turn the immersion on anymore.

Thanks for the suggestions about the energy monitor, I think I will get one of those. Sarsfield, what's the difference between that one and [broken link removed]? I will definitely check whether the fridge freezer is the culprit.

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Re: ESB concerns

annR said:
I will definitely check whether the fridge freezer is the culprit.

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I'm not too sure how correct it is but have heard people mention in the past that you should always keep the freezer full as it uses more energy if it is not full. Large empty spaces should be filled with newspapers.
 
Are your bills estimated or is the meter read?? Is your house second hand?

We moved into a second hand house a year and a half ago. There are only 2 of us and we are working all day, coming home about 6pm. The family here before us consisted of 3 kids in their 20's, mother, father and granny who was here all day (presumably with the heat on). The ESB continued to base our usage on their estimates so we were getting a bill every 2 months for about €300.

When we got a bill (always estimated) we rang in our actual reading and they adjusted the bill and issued a new one. After a year, they started basing their estimates on our actual readings and are now much more accurate

Will stop waffling.....:)
 
Re: ESB concerns

annR said:
Thanks for the suggestions about the energy monitor, I think I will get one of those. Sarsfield, what's the difference between that one and [broken link removed]?
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About £15 sterling! :)

I think the second one will calculate costs if you set up the tariff correctly. I'd save the £15 to buy a couple of rolls of draught seal before the winter sets in! Make sure you plug all the gaps in doors & windows to ensure your heating bill is for heating your house & not the garden. You might as well reduce your gas bill too!
 
dools said:
Are your bills estimated or is the meter read?? Is your house second hand?
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I pretty much ignore the estimates as they don't help me keep track of our usage rate. It's the units from the meter reading which seem to be amazingly high.
 
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