Recent large Electricity (ESB) & Gas (Bord Gais) Bills

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Big Spender

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Last mont I received 2 sizable shocks through the letterbox in the form of my ESB & Gas bills. Both normally run around €90-100 per bill (gas maybe €120 at this time of year) but both bills were over €240 each!

Now I know prices have gone up but this wouldn't explain it. Neither would estimated readings as neither this one nor the previous one were estimated readings.

Like a good citizen I paid both bills trusting that all was in order and that I just needed to start watching our energy usage but then I heard that there is apparent uproar over people's January bills and that errors are suspected.

Has anyone heard anything about billing problems in these 2 businesses?

Are there other threads on this elsewhere?
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Well, you seem to be referring to a load of people calling Joe Duffy to complain about their bills. Don't think any billing irregularities were uncovered. Probably all boils down to a cold winter?
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

That was my thinking on it but my wife has gotten on the Joe Duffy band wagon and like so many others has now become convinced its an error.

In the case of Bord Gais this wouldn't suprise me in the least but never had any problems with the ESB before.
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

I could imagine a huge jump in your BG bill considering the period of the charges were probably late November to early February and covered what has been 9 of the coldest weeks we've had in a long time plus Christmas when you were potentially home a lot more during the day if you had the Christmas break off work. But if its double what you would normally be charged for the same period last year it seems excessive. The ESB seems an excessive increase unless you have been running a dryer and have electric heaters on in conjunction with the Gas. Have you checked your meters?

Our Gas is usually about €90 early winter, €130 mid winter and the estimated bill I received last week was €150. Our ESB bill tends to be about the €50 mark. But no dryer in use or other high energy appliances.
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

I agree, I think people are just jumping onto the whole conspiracy therory being led by good old Joe Duffy. They HOPE that their bills are wrong, but chances are they are correct, and owning to the freezing cold spells we've had recently.
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

our bill was about 100 more than usual. Just saw this post now and didnt hear Joe duffy. I never had a bill in the 200s always between 120 - 160. I put it down to a wrong estimation and would be adjusted in next bill. But hearing about all these complaints its strange
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Just got our gas bill today, big shock went from 298 for previous 2 months to 521.00 from 6 Dec to 9th Feb - 66 days - almost E 8 per day. We were away for 10 days over Christmas so thought it wouldn't be too much higher than previous bill!

We have a new house and a condensing gas boiler. Have we it set wrong or did we really use double the gas??

Can't wait to see the ESB bill.....:(
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Did Bord Gais not increase their unit rate late last year?

I seem to remember them decreasing their standing charge but increasing their unit rate so based on a increased consumption in a really cold winter, I would be expecting anyone with gas fuelled heating for example, would have larger bills in recent months.

Have a look at the CER website to confirm?
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

The only billing problem I'm aware of with Bord Gais (apart from the size of the bills!) is that they changed their billing system late last year and it appears to have led to a delay in issuing bills. I got my October/November bill about 4 weeks ago (€188) and the December/January bill yesterday (€291) - haven't rooted out last year's bill to compare usage, but almost €480 for 4 months (as well as gas cylinders and an open fire) hurts!!
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Silvergirl said:
Just got our gas bill today, big shock went from 298 for previous 2 months to 521.00 from 6 Dec to 9th Feb - 66 days - almost E 8 per day. We were away for 10 days over Christmas so thought it wouldn't be too much higher than previous bill!

We have a new house and a condensing gas boiler. Have we it set wrong or did we really use double the gas??

Can't wait to see the ESB bill.....:(
Click to expand...

You could have a gas leak!
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Same problem with us Silvergirl!
Have LPG gas and worked out at E8 per day for 6weeks. Boiler is c2004, have had it services and has seen slight improvement.HAve been running boiler MAX 4hrs in cold weather and 2.5-3 past few days. Not sure if this is usual...just guessing that LPG gas is expensive. At this rate a plug in heater would be cheaper!!
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

got the same shock as a lot of people when I opened my bill this month, having said that when I looked at the billing period, it was for 10 days longer then the previous bill (69 days v 59 days),
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Any idea how you'd go about checking the ideal temperatures / settings on a boiler for max efficiency? It's a Heatline Saragon 305. Does anyone know of a website with this info?
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Maybe it's time to wear jumpers around the house instead of bermuda shorts and a tee shirt :)
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

The Liveline shows on the ESB were a disgrace. Various individuals phoned in to complain about the size of their bills and the impression given was that they were being ripped off by an unscrupulous utility. There was no challenge to some of the claims made, no probing as to why their bills had been so high.

There are various reasons whey people receive unexpectedly high bills. The most common reason is a series of under-estimated meter readings followed by an actual reading. The result can be an accumulated usage spanning several months - years in some cases - and thus a large bill.

Each bill is clearly marked "estimated" if an actual reading has not been obtained. There is an onus on all of us to examine the invoices we receive from whoever supplies us with goods and services. I suspect that most of the callers to Liveline failed to do so as far as their ESB bills are concerned. Had they done so they could easily have advised ESB of their own readings and they would have received corrected bills.

There can simply be increased usage due to new appliances and family circumstances (e.g. an addition to the family, teenagers taking showers every half hour, etc). Many people will have bought large screen TVs in the recent past without realising that they cost *significantly* more to run than the old style cathode ray sets. The average household is now using much more electricity than 10 years ago.

There can be faulty appliances. A fairly common occurrence in rural areas is a broken water pump for example. There can be wasteful use of electricity: some people use plug-in electric heaters for hours on end, for instance, when they should only be used very sparingly. Or, they leave the hot-water tank on constantly thus wasting electricity, etc, etc. A visit to the ESB website would quickly show how to use electricity to best effect.

Sometimes too ESB bills can cover more than the normal 60 day period. If the meter reading schedule is impacted by bad weather for example the bill might cover 70+ days and in winter that can have a significant impact on the size of the bill. Look at your bill: it spells out the number of days usage billed.

Remember also that this has been the coldest winter in years and most people will have used more electricity. Factor in as well that prices increased by 17% from the 1st August last.

What I found sinister about the Liveline shows (they concentrated on ESB for two days running) is that they coincided with Bord Gais' launch of their electricity offering. The ridiculing of ESB, the total lack of any attempt at balance must have been a dream come true for Bord Gais. Was this mere coincidence or a cleverly manipulated event by Bord Gais or its agents? Make up your own mind but I have no doubt whatsoever.

Finally, while we may all whinge about the cost of electricity, remember that according to the Central Statistics Office the average household spends less than 5% of its total weekly expenditure on electricity. We spend more, on average, on drink and cigarettes per week than we do on electricity usage. The average bill works out at around €3 per day over the year. Not bad value when you consider what it provides.

Regards,

Fnergg
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

Can anyone tell me if there are agreed customer service levels for the issue of bils?
Like the instance above, my Oct-Dec gas bill only arrived end Jan (due to BG changing their billing system), and followed last week with the Dec-Feb bill. So I'm in a position of paying the 2 highest bills of the year in the one calendar month (2nd and 18th Feb) almost €600 in total.
While I'm not disputing the charges, I'm really not happy that due to their feck up, I'm being hit in one calendar month for both bills.

Watching the BBC watchdog program recently they did mention that in the UK there are agreed service levels, and if these are not acchieved customers could expect a refund. Some how I doubt that our wonderful suppliers have anything in place to support their customers, but its worth asking.
 
Re: ESB & Bord Gais Bill

The Bord Gais Code of Practice "Paying your Bord Gais Energy Supply bill" starts off with a list of "our promises" (i.e. the company's).

One of the promises is...

We will issue clear and timely bills to all our Customers

It also says in relation to Bill Frequency...

All domestic Customers are billed bi-monthly
Non domestic Customers on the Standard Industrial and Commercial Bi-Monthly tariff are billed bi-monthly
All other non domestic Customers are billed monthly
Customers will not receive bills outside of the regular billing cycle unless there is a dispute and/or there has been a series of estimates and a corrected bill is required​


You can find the full code of practice [broken link removed]
 
Hope that nobody thinks that I am a bit of a scrooge. Last July I decided to monitor my ESB and Bord Gais bills, checking both metres almost on a daily basis. Absolutely no complaints re. readings however I did make decent savings by switching off lights and P.C when not needed. Same with gas, I was surprised there too with the savings.

Listened to the Joe Duffy, did not hear him ask any contributor for meter readings, did anyone else hear him?

Since November because of the cold winter the gas meter readings have been the same as last year, even had to light fires some nights. My point being that the cold winter has driven these bills.

Good to see that Bord Gais is to enter the electricity market. Average ESB worker @ 72,000 and power station operatives @ 100,000 per year - I believe.
 
Hi my last 2 esb bills have me baffled. October bill was 289, thats was a little high considering dh was home alone and in work most days and no heating or cooking!!!!!!. December went up to 550. feb bill 800e. My bills up to now were normaly between 250 and 400. 400 being xmas bill (always dearest) so it has doubled compared to last xmas. There is no aparent reason. I have compared my bill with 3 neighbours, and i seem to be using alot more units than them. Now were i can see that id use more day units the night units are double theres. we all have the same heating (storage) and are on night saver. I put my dishwasher and washing machine on at night but that it. How could i use 4000 units in the nightime? I rang them in december and the girl told me to check the reading cause it might be a diget out but it was right. We live in an apartment block but mine is a house and the metor is in the appartments. I have no gas all electic.
 
Slater said:
Hope that nobody thinks that I am a bit of a scrooge. Last July I decided to monitor my ESB and Bord Gais bills, checking both metres almost on a daily basis....
Click to expand...

Don't think anybody could be considered a scrooge for monitoring what energy they are using! You should look into one of these for monitoring electricity usage. I invested in one recently on e-bay and I am very happy with it. It allows monitoring of unit usage (in kwH), cost (in €) and approx carbon emission equivalent. There are reviews on various websites.
 
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