High Gas Bill

Liamos

Registered User
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127
I just received my gas bill for Nov / Dec and was shocked that it was over €400. It is usually around the €200 mark. I know its the 2 coldest months of the year, but am still surprised at this. Have prices gone up that much? Has anyone else noticed this?
 
me in the same boat... compared with my last december's bill, it was 160€ last year .... dec 08's is around 295€.... almost doubled...
 
Almost identical scenario here. Bill was €430 usually around €130!! I rang bord Gais and was told that this was correct and based on an actual reading. I was told that the cause was using the gas fireplace which I did use but only for short periods and now and again.

Be delighted if anyone could shed light on things.
Damo
 
I might give them a ring. I also thought that prices were supposed to be coming down!
 
i'm the same, exactly double my usual bill, am horrified to get this in January!
 
Best is to compare usage rather than price as there is nothing one can do about that. Obviously estimated reading screw these comparison....

S.
 
good trick is to underestimate it and then when higher price comes in do an actual reading and charge the extra units at the higher price. Ours is double the norm too
 
ditto here, did not get he bill yet but based on meter reading, usage is up about 20%, due to cold weather and add to that the 20% price increase and I am expecting a huge bill in 2 weeks time, It seems scandalous that they have not dropped the price given what wholesale oil & gas prices are at.

Another case of very poor regulation, not sure what we can do about it.:mad:
 
My bill for that period tripled. Normally around €100 but this bill was €298! Got such a shock. Am so broke have only been able to pay half of it so far. I terrified of getting the next one since my heating was on a lot over christmas. A lot of people must be finding this increase impossible to pay.
 
Got my bill yesterday, it was higher but not as bad as I'd feared, having read the posts in this thread!

What struck me though was the billing period - my bill, dated 14/1/09 and received yesterday covers the period 6/10 - 8/12, so doesn't even cover most of December....eek!
 
hi Folks,
Can I ask yez what kind of gas you have?
Like I have the calor gas with the big tank out the back that the truck comes and fills every now and then.
The reason I'm asking is that it seems to me there is a really big difference between Calor, Flo, and piped/town gas.

We're being told our gas is €2.90 a unit. Thats Calor.

I don't really know what a 'unit' is.. is it a kilowatt hour?
Natural gas seems to be done on Kilwatt hour and I am under the impression that IT is a lot cheaper than Calor gas.
I don't have exact figures but I did ring around in October about this and remember taking to someone in Flogas and being amazed at how much cheaper it appearred.. during the conversation it came out I was using Calor and it was explained to me that Calor gas calculations are done in a completely different way.. or something..

Sorry, I know I'm being pretty vague here.. but this is really down to the fact that I'm always geting contradictory answers from people that I ask about this.. my landlord told me last week that I should be expecting to pay 1500 a year for my heating.. today he told me I shoudl be expecting 1500 to 1800.. its getting pretty feckin ridiculous...

All I know is that friends who have oil are using two fills a year (n a 3 bed semi) and a bag of coal and one bale briquettes per week... and they say that doesn't even approach a cost of 1400 a year...

My gas bill is more like €50 a week lately.. and the house isn't even warm...

Vida
 
Same here. Bill is usually around €200 at this time of year but it's nearly doubled to €395.

Firstly, there's a 20% increase, and it's also been colder. In addition, my wife is pregnant and she's been at home more. Finally, my billing period covers the last 10 days in October, plus November and December.

I still think I'm being completely ripped off. I have spoken to quite a few people about this and everyone I've spoken to is in the same boat - ridiculously high bills.

I also rang Bord Gais about it and the girl on the phone said they'd be inundated with calls. I got her to send me out the key and took a meter reading myself (even though they said it was actual). There were no issues there - meter reading was as expected.
 
I got my bill yesterday, €417. Ouch!! I know it was much colder this year but it was €265 for a similar period last year. That is some jump and we still have another couple of month's at this level to go. We are not even big users. On average I have it on for an hour in the morning and 3-4 in the evenings. More at the weekends maybe and obviously over Christmas as we were in the house all day.
 
Yeah,
We're the same. 3-4 hours a night and an hour in the morning...

Our landlord agreed to replace the gas fire in the sittingroom with an ordinary fire (solid fuel or whatever yeh want to call em) when we said we were going to move out.
So at least he is trying to respond to the situation.
The gas fires are just a joke.. a very sick joke.. feck all heat off them and they go through gas like I dunno what...

I heard of an interesting deal with peat briquettes the other day so we are looking forwrd to having a proper fire that give us a choice of fuel.

The briquettes thing is that there's guys selling broken up bales (that they can't sell cos the bales are broken) at something like 200 euro a ton. I'm told normal retail bales are 400 a ton.
So apparently you go along with your car, roll over a weighbridge .. fill a few bags with broken briquettes and then roll back out over the weigh bridge and pay by weight for what you take. So, you don't have to buy a full ton like...
Supposedly the briquettes might be a bit damp so they need to be stored for a bit before you use em.. but I can cope with that...

Of course all we need now is the Greens to make it illegal for us to light a fire .. sigh..

Vida
 
Mine was 2.5 times higher tha usual. Britsih Gas are reducing their Gas by 10%. Typical Irish, We will moan to each other but not organise to protest.
 
I have just become aware from another thread that there is another choice for both residential electricity and gas supply, Airtricity for Electricity and Flogasnaturalgas for gas.

The gas rate is only very slightly lower ( I think its only 1%), but they are offering a 60% discount on Standing charge for the first year, not sure how much that is worth!

The Airtricity Electricity rates are from 3-10% lower (its only possible to get full 10% if you accept Direct Debit, e-billing, and flat payment).

The actual networks are still the responsibility of Bord Gais and ESB ( I assume thats where your standing charge goes), so you still call them out for any faults, Its only the actual gas /electricity coming into your house that is coming from a different source, so I see little downside to switching ?

http://www.flogasnaturalgas.ie

http://www.energycustomers.ie/
 
I know that there was a 20% increase in Gas prices in September 2008, was there an increase in January 2008 as well (I know there wasn't one in Jan 2009)?

If there were 2 increases, it could explain the huge jump in costs experienced this winter (as well as the fact that we've had a "proper" winter this year for the first time in a few years).

RSMike, the standing charge from Bord Gais is €59.02 per year, so 60% off with Flogas saves about €35.
 
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