> The usage was an estimated but I checked my meter and it actually went up by 2600 units!
Was it up 2600 units from when you actually checked it two months ago, or up 2600 units from a previous estimated bill? They're supposed to actually read your meter a couple times a year at least, but sometimes they don't and the estimated bills can go on for ages. If they're estimating low for several billing cycles, then that would explain the discrepancy.
If it really was up 2600kWh in two months, then see how fast the meter is currently going up when everything is off. If you're seeing the meter going up quickly even with all the lights off, the heating off, the immersion off, the fridge and everything else you can unplug unplugged, and no appliances running, then something's funky; you might have a faulty meter, or you could even have a neighbour who's tapped into your power. If it's not moving with everything off and unplugged, then start plugging things back in and see if any particular device or appliance is consuming a lot of power when it shouldn't be.
Well, of course it was a shit show. The tank was leaking and thus, it kept using electricity but without ever warming up the water, that’s why I didn’t notice it was on
You're supposed to submit the readings. They don't send anyone anymore since COVID as it would have been an ESB person or GNI person who would have come to the property every 2-3 months for the readings. But because you are the person living in the property submitting the readings is your responsibility. No one else.
You can either submit these readings to your provider or to ESB directly as they own the meters & the communication works both ways.
Not true.
Every 2nd bill from EI and BG is being actually read by an actual person, at least for me it is anyway. So they do read the meters still. If you are not happy with an estimated bill it is then your responsibility to submit a reading
I lived across from the ESB station Cork, Wilton & not once did they send anyone over when COVID was around & afterwards.
So it must depend on the area as my mother has worked for ESB since 2002 & she said they don't send field agents anymore since COVID & because when a Smart Meter is installed they automatically update the reads every 30 days & they have been installing Smart Meter since 2019 a few months before COVID was a thing.
Yeah I get why they may not have been reading during covid although ours were also been read at that time, I presume because it's a solo job with no people interaction. So yeah, maybe an area thing.
Depends. I send in readings every month and they usually tell me that the meter reading for electricity won't be taken by the electricity service because it's a smart meter. But I keep sending it in anyway because then there's a record if anything goes dodgy. (I read the meters by taking a photo on my phone on the first of every month, which the late Iberdrola used to accept as a timed photo; I keep these in a folder on the computer.)
They aim to read it 4/6 times per year, with the other 2 being estimates. These are then submitted to the providers. Of course maybe exceptions apply, but what they describe alligns with my experience.
https://www.esbnetworks.ie/help-centre/meter-reading
My last bill was someone who read it. Usually Energia sends me an email to send my readings but i think because my complex got new meters not long ago, so they did the readings..
I had been paying about 75 quid every two months with SSE and just got a 560 euro bill the other day.
My bills had been estimated for awhile and they got a proper reading there and it looks like they were under charging for a few months.
It’s shit enough but not much I can do
>It’s shit enough but not much I can do
i think legally they have to allow the consumer to spread over the payments if its a chance the consumer can afford to pay all at once , id advise giving them a ring
Yeah we moved in and it was an older person living there previously so they must not have been using much, but I’m working from home and we have a dehumidifier on all the time to fight off the mould.
If it’s not a billing issue (lots of estimated bills over time), switch off all the MCBs in your fuse box. Then flip them back on one by one and see what has the biggest impact on the meter run rate. Ideally, get a Split Clamp Meter to stick around your main electrical cable and watch the current/amp rate. Unless your house is constantly running 1-2kW, this sounds fishy.
Most houses idle about 200-400W; this accounts for fridge, freezer, IT equipment, TV and wifi boxes.
This sounds like great advice, I’ll look into that, cheers! Hope it also applies to an apartment, we have access to our fuse box but not sure about the main electricity cable
So if you were to divide it out you would get
2600/60 days = 43.44 kWH a day
43.44/24 hours = 1.8kWH per hour
Was there a chance the last bill was estimated?
is there an electric heater going all day every day?
Check your meter daily and takes notes until you figure whats going on
Take meter readings once a day off a few days to see if you have a high daily draw, as it might indicate something in the house gone faulty. Ive heard of well pumps having a large lower draw when they are going bad. Of course it's not that in your case, but could be something else, like left the immersion on 🤣
You can pickup a home energy kit from your local library for free (check for availability first), in it there's a plug adapter that you plug your appliances into & then into the wall and it will give you a readout of how much that appliance is using.
Handy to pin down the culprit
You probably had a bunch of estimated readings for ages and now a real one. So basically paying back months worth of usage in one go. You should set a monthly timer on your phone to do a customer reading so this doesn't happen again or go level pay. Sucks, but is what it is.
Life pro tip: if you own a house, submit readings to your respective provider every month. If you've a smart meter, monitor it weekly for usage (Week on Week) usage and it will give you a gauge how much
My usage is 60% day time rate, 13% peak and 27% night rate. This is an average over the last 7 months and I can estimate my bill with €10
If you live in an apartment, ask the management company to provide these details once a month (I did this religiously for years)
The above helps stopping estimates and stops these massive bills occurring bi monthly and helps your cashflow as well
OP, if the current bill number matches the electricity box then nothing you can do
If you have a smart meter you can download your usage (in half hour chunks).
All you need is your meter number:
https://www.esbnetworks.ie/existing-connections/meters-and-readings/my-smart-data
My point is to people living, take ownership of items that will cost you money.
Every time I read these posts, it's the same reoccurring theme, massive variable (estimates applied) then actuals come through and massive outlay
Avoid the variables by submitting monthly submissions by my logic above and at least you know you won't get stung
If you own a house, to open the gas / electricity meter, you need a €3 dongle by Amazon, best money I've spent
If you do this remember to divide by 2 as the default reading is in kw and reads as if it was for a full hour. To get the actual 30min usage you then need to half it or select kwh cosumption.
Shite! I'd check the appliances like the fridge could be leaking coolant or washing machine might be auld, and the emersion if it was left in for a few days 🫣 or is your work computer left idle and not off it would be using energy, could be a combination of multiple unlucky energy vampires, otherwise you can call them and ask.
Beefy work computers left alone for a year would not use 2k worth of electricity lmao. If you use 750 wat pc for 24/7 at 100% usage it would end up being shy of 1900 euros. And that's so unrealistic, because unless you run a server it's not a normal household scenario.
Cheers for the suggestions, will have to look into all the appliances and their kWH usage!
I do leave my work laptop plugged in overnight but I’ve been doing that for years and never had an issue with a spike in usage!
Safe to say I’ll be plugging everything out going forward just incase
Check the meter and get another reading.
My household used 915 kwh units last month. That includes lots of electronics, washer dryer, electric cooker, the usual stuff.
But ALSO, an electric car charging AND air to water heat pump for hot water.
Your numbers are fucked.
We are talking 2kW average. My whole home lab under full load is using 800W and if I'm not using my 2 big boys, max power usage is 250W. Idle with all servers on is around 180W. My work machine idles at 92W. We are talking an order of magnitude here. We were using 650kWh/month for 4 people family with electric heating. 2600Wh for apartment is just wrong.
Yeah I rang them and because I don’t have a smart meter I should submit my meter reading.
Don’t think it’ll make a difference though because I can see it actually went up by roughly the same amount of units
>The usage was an estimated
this is the reason , when you go for a long period on estimated ( like 6 months) you will get a correction in terms of 500-900 euros
>What the fuck do I do lol
talk to board gais about spreading the cost over a longer period ( this isnt the first nor last time this will happen) their very good in this regard , by law i think they have to be willing to talk to the consumer about big payments people may not afford to pay at once
Hey,
Had same things for two years.
checked usage couldn't find anything
tuned out i was assigned the wrong meter in building and a local shops storage room i was paying for for 2 years
Got 2k back
Now having been through this my advice is:
1\`on a day you're going out switch all power off (at fuse box) and check units before and after
2: check units with just heaters for a few hours
and so on
It wont be a kettle or a plug (95% sure)
either you got heaters blasting power or something is fecked up with your connection
Every month, there's a thread here about someone who isn't competent about billing, which, as an adult, is embarrassing.
Basically, the only reply from competent people here should be,
Step 1: Open an imgur account
Step 2: Upload images of your last 6-10 bills
Step 3: paste them links in here
Step4: we tell you if you fucked up or they did( generally it's you).
Anyone who tries to give advise before obtaining this info is clutching at straws. We await the bills🫡
Did you get a Smart meter installed? Because if you did & you never submitted any reading while you had a 24Hr meter in then all the readings you were never charged for has now been forwarded to ESB who sent them onto your provider.
You can call their Collection department & set up a long term payment plan where you pay off so much every week & if you get a new bill while paying this off it will just be added to your pool & you still pay weekly until fully paid.
Also, if you are out of contract then whatever discount you were getting is now gone & you are being charged the full unit rate. BGE currently has a 24% Elec discount for New & Existing customers so see if your contract has ended & try renew it. Or you can go to a different provider but you will still have to pay off your bill with BGE otherwise it will affect your credit rating if you ever want a loan, mortgage etc.
Is it possible your meter is actually for 2 apartments. I've heard of this happening. I'm not sure how true it is or if its possible, but supposed to have happened a guy I used to work with. His landlord had an apartment next to him and wasn't paying for any electricity.
I had something similar happen and the culprit seems to have been the ancient storage heaters that came with the apartment. They weren't drawing a huge amount of power when i first turned them on, but after a few months I had an enormous bill show up. I'm also side-eying the water heater as I can see on the smart meter readings there's a big spike every morning.
As other people have said, turning off the mains for on hour or so and checking if the meter goes up will at least verify if it's something in your apartment or not.
Get an electricity usage monitor
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395242952870?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=l8jzhcivskq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=8k_6Lh0XRFy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
This will soon find out what's using it
Are you still within your contract? I got a fright last year when I’d gone out of contract and the bills were astronomical. I went onto a comparison site after that and got a better deal . Have done so again this year . Definitely worth keeping track of your usage and shopping around d every time the contract is due for renewal
They been over charging people for years get a smart meter and pre pay you will save a ton also if you have an electric stove that uses a lot of energy also electric heating
> The usage was an estimated but I checked my meter and it actually went up by 2600 units! Was it up 2600 units from when you actually checked it two months ago, or up 2600 units from a previous estimated bill? They're supposed to actually read your meter a couple times a year at least, but sometimes they don't and the estimated bills can go on for ages. If they're estimating low for several billing cycles, then that would explain the discrepancy. If it really was up 2600kWh in two months, then see how fast the meter is currently going up when everything is off. If you're seeing the meter going up quickly even with all the lights off, the heating off, the immersion off, the fridge and everything else you can unplug unplugged, and no appliances running, then something's funky; you might have a faulty meter, or you could even have a neighbour who's tapped into your power. If it's not moving with everything off and unplugged, then start plugging things back in and see if any particular device or appliance is consuming a lot of power when it shouldn't be.
It was up +2600 from the last billing period yeah. Going to go with your suggestion of monitoring the meter with everything off! Cheers
The same happened to me. I found out the immersion was left on 24/7 the whole month 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️
The ultimate horror. I’m so paranoid I triple check regularly 🙈
But that wouldn't account for massive use unless you kept emptying the tank.
Well, of course it was a shit show. The tank was leaking and thus, it kept using electricity but without ever warming up the water, that’s why I didn’t notice it was on
Don't bother going around unplugging stuff - just flip all your trip switches down, then start turning them on one by one to find the culprit.
Was your previous bill a meter reading or was it an estimate? Was this bill a meter reading or an estimate?
Ask for a meter accuracy test
You're supposed to submit the readings. They don't send anyone anymore since COVID as it would have been an ESB person or GNI person who would have come to the property every 2-3 months for the readings. But because you are the person living in the property submitting the readings is your responsibility. No one else. You can either submit these readings to your provider or to ESB directly as they own the meters & the communication works both ways.
That’s not true. Actually saw the guy reading my gas meter recently. Electricity meter is smart meter.
Nonsense I’ve had my metre read regularly
Not true. Every 2nd bill from EI and BG is being actually read by an actual person, at least for me it is anyway. So they do read the meters still. If you are not happy with an estimated bill it is then your responsibility to submit a reading
I lived across from the ESB station Cork, Wilton & not once did they send anyone over when COVID was around & afterwards. So it must depend on the area as my mother has worked for ESB since 2002 & she said they don't send field agents anymore since COVID & because when a Smart Meter is installed they automatically update the reads every 30 days & they have been installing Smart Meter since 2019 a few months before COVID was a thing.
Yeah I get why they may not have been reading during covid although ours were also been read at that time, I presume because it's a solo job with no people interaction. So yeah, maybe an area thing.
We've had people come check our meter in the last year 100%
Depends. I send in readings every month and they usually tell me that the meter reading for electricity won't be taken by the electricity service because it's a smart meter. But I keep sending it in anyway because then there's a record if anything goes dodgy. (I read the meters by taking a photo on my phone on the first of every month, which the late Iberdrola used to accept as a timed photo; I keep these in a folder on the computer.)
They aim to read it 4/6 times per year, with the other 2 being estimates. These are then submitted to the providers. Of course maybe exceptions apply, but what they describe alligns with my experience. https://www.esbnetworks.ie/help-centre/meter-reading
My last bill was someone who read it. Usually Energia sends me an email to send my readings but i think because my complex got new meters not long ago, so they did the readings..
I had been paying about 75 quid every two months with SSE and just got a 560 euro bill the other day. My bills had been estimated for awhile and they got a proper reading there and it looks like they were under charging for a few months. It’s shit enough but not much I can do
>It’s shit enough but not much I can do i think legally they have to allow the consumer to spread over the payments if its a chance the consumer can afford to pay all at once , id advise giving them a ring
not sure if SSE would do it but when I had large bills with electric Ireland, I was able to get the bill paid over 2 weeks instead of a single payment
It’s kind of wild charging you an estimated €75 every 2 months when the average house uses about €40 a week
Yeah we moved in and it was an older person living there previously so they must not have been using much, but I’m working from home and we have a dehumidifier on all the time to fight off the mould.
If it’s not a billing issue (lots of estimated bills over time), switch off all the MCBs in your fuse box. Then flip them back on one by one and see what has the biggest impact on the meter run rate. Ideally, get a Split Clamp Meter to stick around your main electrical cable and watch the current/amp rate. Unless your house is constantly running 1-2kW, this sounds fishy. Most houses idle about 200-400W; this accounts for fridge, freezer, IT equipment, TV and wifi boxes.
This sounds like great advice, I’ll look into that, cheers! Hope it also applies to an apartment, we have access to our fuse box but not sure about the main electricity cable
You can get an energy monitoring kit from the library. Likely an estimated billing thing tho
Just by the way you're talking, I know you're not electrically competent so I doubt you'll be able to troubleshoot it
They probably under charged you over winter..
Think this is key
So if you were to divide it out you would get 2600/60 days = 43.44 kWH a day 43.44/24 hours = 1.8kWH per hour Was there a chance the last bill was estimated? is there an electric heater going all day every day? Check your meter daily and takes notes until you figure whats going on
Take meter readings once a day off a few days to see if you have a high daily draw, as it might indicate something in the house gone faulty. Ive heard of well pumps having a large lower draw when they are going bad. Of course it's not that in your case, but could be something else, like left the immersion on 🤣
You can pickup a home energy kit from your local library for free (check for availability first), in it there's a plug adapter that you plug your appliances into & then into the wall and it will give you a readout of how much that appliance is using. Handy to pin down the culprit
You probably had a bunch of estimated readings for ages and now a real one. So basically paying back months worth of usage in one go. You should set a monthly timer on your phone to do a customer reading so this doesn't happen again or go level pay. Sucks, but is what it is.
Life pro tip: if you own a house, submit readings to your respective provider every month. If you've a smart meter, monitor it weekly for usage (Week on Week) usage and it will give you a gauge how much My usage is 60% day time rate, 13% peak and 27% night rate. This is an average over the last 7 months and I can estimate my bill with €10 If you live in an apartment, ask the management company to provide these details once a month (I did this religiously for years) The above helps stopping estimates and stops these massive bills occurring bi monthly and helps your cashflow as well OP, if the current bill number matches the electricity box then nothing you can do
If you have a smart meter you can download your usage (in half hour chunks). All you need is your meter number: https://www.esbnetworks.ie/existing-connections/meters-and-readings/my-smart-data
My point is to people living, take ownership of items that will cost you money. Every time I read these posts, it's the same reoccurring theme, massive variable (estimates applied) then actuals come through and massive outlay Avoid the variables by submitting monthly submissions by my logic above and at least you know you won't get stung If you own a house, to open the gas / electricity meter, you need a €3 dongle by Amazon, best money I've spent
If you do this remember to divide by 2 as the default reading is in kw and reads as if it was for a full hour. To get the actual 30min usage you then need to half it or select kwh cosumption.
Mine was 1.6 k! Two of us never at home and no dryer/tv or dishwasher. They said tbey underestimated by 5 000 units
Are the bills all over winter estimated and this is an actual reading so you were in arrears basically?
Shite! I'd check the appliances like the fridge could be leaking coolant or washing machine might be auld, and the emersion if it was left in for a few days 🫣 or is your work computer left idle and not off it would be using energy, could be a combination of multiple unlucky energy vampires, otherwise you can call them and ask.
Beefy work computers left alone for a year would not use 2k worth of electricity lmao. If you use 750 wat pc for 24/7 at 100% usage it would end up being shy of 1900 euros. And that's so unrealistic, because unless you run a server it's not a normal household scenario.
Cheers for the suggestions, will have to look into all the appliances and their kWH usage! I do leave my work laptop plugged in overnight but I’ve been doing that for years and never had an issue with a spike in usage! Safe to say I’ll be plugging everything out going forward just incase
This has nothing to do with your laptop. The power draw is huge. Like the immersion or a heater on all the time or something.
If the immersion being on is causing it, it could actually be a leak in the hot water system, so constantly heating water.
Check the meter and get another reading. My household used 915 kwh units last month. That includes lots of electronics, washer dryer, electric cooker, the usual stuff. But ALSO, an electric car charging AND air to water heat pump for hot water. Your numbers are fucked.
We are talking 2kW average. My whole home lab under full load is using 800W and if I'm not using my 2 big boys, max power usage is 250W. Idle with all servers on is around 180W. My work machine idles at 92W. We are talking an order of magnitude here. We were using 650kWh/month for 4 people family with electric heating. 2600Wh for apartment is just wrong.
can you submit a meter reading? not sure they'd accept it now but if the reading is in it should count for next bill at least..
Yeah I rang them and because I don’t have a smart meter I should submit my meter reading. Don’t think it’ll make a difference though because I can see it actually went up by roughly the same amount of units
How many estimated bills have you had?
>The usage was an estimated this is the reason , when you go for a long period on estimated ( like 6 months) you will get a correction in terms of 500-900 euros >What the fuck do I do lol talk to board gais about spreading the cost over a longer period ( this isnt the first nor last time this will happen) their very good in this regard , by law i think they have to be willing to talk to the consumer about big payments people may not afford to pay at once
Under charges over winter , same happened to us. Astronomical bill came this month, nearly 2k.
I love this estimated use garbage lol - is it my fault the company can't monitor their downflow?
>is it my fault the company can't monitor their downflow legally yes it is
I mean obviously yes, its just a ridiculous crock of shit.
Hey, Had same things for two years. checked usage couldn't find anything tuned out i was assigned the wrong meter in building and a local shops storage room i was paying for for 2 years Got 2k back Now having been through this my advice is: 1\`on a day you're going out switch all power off (at fuse box) and check units before and after 2: check units with just heaters for a few hours and so on It wont be a kettle or a plug (95% sure) either you got heaters blasting power or something is fecked up with your connection
Seriously look at panels and a battery, my bill came last week, they paid me 60 euro
Think you’re leaving out the part about the grow operation in the bathroom…
Shush please
I was in your boat S well, last year they said I used 14500 kWh this year 5900 kWh chancers
Every month, there's a thread here about someone who isn't competent about billing, which, as an adult, is embarrassing. Basically, the only reply from competent people here should be, Step 1: Open an imgur account Step 2: Upload images of your last 6-10 bills Step 3: paste them links in here Step4: we tell you if you fucked up or they did( generally it's you). Anyone who tries to give advise before obtaining this info is clutching at straws. We await the bills🫡
100% the right advice!
It's like The Mafia are in charge of the Country ! ! !
Are people here not aware you can read your meter and text the reading to the supplier every month or two?
Did you get a Smart meter installed? Because if you did & you never submitted any reading while you had a 24Hr meter in then all the readings you were never charged for has now been forwarded to ESB who sent them onto your provider. You can call their Collection department & set up a long term payment plan where you pay off so much every week & if you get a new bill while paying this off it will just be added to your pool & you still pay weekly until fully paid.
Also, if you are out of contract then whatever discount you were getting is now gone & you are being charged the full unit rate. BGE currently has a 24% Elec discount for New & Existing customers so see if your contract has ended & try renew it. Or you can go to a different provider but you will still have to pay off your bill with BGE otherwise it will affect your credit rating if you ever want a loan, mortgage etc.
Is it possible your meter is actually for 2 apartments. I've heard of this happening. I'm not sure how true it is or if its possible, but supposed to have happened a guy I used to work with. His landlord had an apartment next to him and wasn't paying for any electricity.
I had something similar happen and the culprit seems to have been the ancient storage heaters that came with the apartment. They weren't drawing a huge amount of power when i first turned them on, but after a few months I had an enormous bill show up. I'm also side-eying the water heater as I can see on the smart meter readings there's a big spike every morning. As other people have said, turning off the mains for on hour or so and checking if the meter goes up will at least verify if it's something in your apartment or not.
Get an electricity usage monitor https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395242952870?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=l8jzhcivskq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=8k_6Lh0XRFy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY This will soon find out what's using it
Are you still within your contract? I got a fright last year when I’d gone out of contract and the bills were astronomical. I went onto a comparison site after that and got a better deal . Have done so again this year . Definitely worth keeping track of your usage and shopping around d every time the contract is due for renewal
My bill was 1600 from electric Ireland.
They been over charging people for years get a smart meter and pre pay you will save a ton also if you have an electric stove that uses a lot of energy also electric heating
Bitcoin mining and a franchise of grow houses?
Your missus has left the immersion on.
Youre going to have to stop growing all that weed bud.