Like the title says I have been hit with a 1000 euros bill. That is for the last 2 months. Normally in this period I would pay around 400, but this is insane. In December I paid 700, when the heater was on and now I pay 1000 when I use no heating and nothing extra compared to any other month.

I will definitely call them to try sort it out. But any advice on this matter would be great.

36 comments

  1. This seems off all right, but would need more info, like other commenter has said.

    They’re useless at sorting this stuff out, just so you know. They will instead push for a payment plan. Get it from them in writing if you want to go anywhere (full breakdown of costs etc) and be prepared to escalate in order to do that.

  2. The big hit is the usage. 2100 units consumed, which is a significant amount. If this is a read meter on this bill and you know your last bill was a read meter, then there is either something you do or don’t know about in your home that’s using a lot of electricity. If your last bill was estimated and this one was read, then it’s likely your last bill was too low and it’s being made up now.

  4. We had a bouncy castle for a birthday party on May, it was switched on for about three days, I’m considering fleeing the country when the next electric bill hits

  6. I got a €1110 bill on Tuesday. They estimated my usage as 2800kw!!!! I’ve never used that amount. I have a reading that was a usage Of 1100kw. They couldn’t explain why they estimates more than double in a year where I’ve not used that much at all and the billing period was for spring into start of summer.
    I was really annoyed and wondered who else gets these estimated bills but don’t react.

  8. Your usage seems to be… abnormally high. 2100kW is half of what an average household uses in *an entire year*.

  9. Are you sure you’re not comparing this bill to bills that were subsidised by Government?.

    Your usage is very high, 2128 units is almost triple my usage. 3 people in my house.

  10. OP, please don’t yell: parents had a leak in a hot water pipe meaning the hot water tank was constantly draining and therefore constantly being filled. I realise the immersion is a source of joke and fun in Ireland but if you have a hot water tank which is constantly draining, the immersion will constantly be trying to heat water and not succeeding. Net outcome: an electricity bill that almost tripled.

    If your water heater is gas, of course, this may not count for you.

  11. Buy a couple of those plug things to monitor power.thats insane amount of units.certain appliance’s can malfunction and drain alot of power.

  12. When do energy prices go back to normal levels in Ireland? If you get a new contract in Germany now, you get good deals around 22,3 cents /kWh ( electricity) and 8,2 cents (gas)

  13. My wife plugs out everything when it’s not being used, except the fridge. It’s annoying for me, but our last electric bill was the lowest we’ve ever had. So I understand where she’s coming from. Beware standby mode.

  14. Its the usage, not the cost that crazy here. Usage is triple what my semi d with a family of four use and that’s with a wife and daughter who can’t get out of the shower.
    You need to look into what you are running. If that’s a true monthly read bill then you have something wrong.

  18. Yeah OP, something is drawing a tonne of electricity in your home and you need to figure it out pretty pronto. If you can access the meter, I’d have someone watch it live while you test turning things off.

  20. We were being hit with massive bills randomly for years. I knew something was wrong but could never figure it out. It was like someone dug a hole under the house and had set up a crypto mining farm.

    I called the ESB and they said they’d send someone out and not to contact them under pain of death. Nothing happened for 12 months.

    Suddenly we got another huge bill much like yours. I basically screamed at Energia and the esb, refusing to pay as they said our usage was now up to 18K per year – until someone finally came to install a meter monitor.

    Turns out we were being charged 300 to 400 extra units every 2 weeks. While the ‘dispute’ hasnt been resolved yet I have cancelled the DD and pay a normal amount online. The ESB staff that installed the monitoring meter said we could be owed for decades of incorrect fees.

    TLDR Ask for a monitoring meter to be installed to see if unit usage matches.

    EDIT: Also while you are in ‘dispute’ you can pay a reasonable set amount. Disputes last 16 weeks as far as i know.

  21. Contact your energy provider and ask them to do an assessment because you don’t know why you’re electricity usage is almost 10 times the national average.

    Turn off everything in the house and take a video of the smart meter. Post it here or send to me via dm .

    If everything is turned off there should be almost zero movement in the amount used.

  22. Your posts say you have a smart meter, so if so, this is either your actual reading (and something is up) or its your first smart meter reading and it’s catching up. In any event, you can go to ESB networks if you have a smart meter and look at your actual usage and you can see when in the day your use goes up and down and look at spikes, the point being that its usually the first port of call to see are there are any 24 hour uses you are not aware of or unusual spikes. From what you’re describing however, it seems like a mistake has been made or you are using power you don’t know about.

    For context though, I don’t have any particularly silly use save an EV which accounts for 20% of use and we have been 1500 units per 2 month periods the last two bills which I’m equally suspicious of as its a about a 200 unit per month increase on last years usage with no particular change in our life or in our devices.

  24. My unit usage for April & May was 2,322. My house has a heat pump and I have an electric car which I charge each night so I would expect that amount of usage. However my total bill was €635 so I would question the plan that you’re on.

    You appear to be paying a flat rate of €0.44 regardless of time of day. You mentioned that you aren’t in the house during the day which is the bulk of the peak hours. You may benefit from a day/night plan which is what smart meters are designed to facilitate.

    Another thing that smart meters can facilitate is 30 minute interval reporting that show you the exact usage for any 30 minute period. Check if it’s available via your current plan and it may help you zone in on periods of high consumption. If not I would suggest moving to a plan that facilitates it.

  26. I got hit with a bill this month for €584. I was shocked but I realised my discount had expired and the government credits had been softening the blow in the previous month’s. I rang, they put us on a monthly level Payments to spread the payments (including this bills, so currently in arrears) signed up to another 12 months and they backdated the discount. Only 10% but it’s something.

  28. You can purchase a small monitor that plugs into the socket (and then the appliance plugs into). It will measure real usage as opposed to the manufacturer rating. Sometimes these differ, or an appliance could be faulty in some way as others have pointed out

  29. The rate you are being charged also seems high. I think mine works out to 34c and i see you are 10c higher. On 2100 units thats 210 euro.

  31. OP I got a €550 gas bill last week, long story short they messed up with a previous estimated reading and are now correcting it all at once. Check all your previous bills and also check what actually came out of your account, they’re not always the same.

  32. That can’t be right… we work from home on computers all day, plus use netflix/tv in the evening, and have an electric car, and the last bill was 120€.

    Somewhere there is a mistake, or you have a leech!

  33. I’m with Energia too on that 0.4444 rate, can’t get a better deal anywhere.

    But commercial rates for businesses are tumbling.
    I heard of Pinergy offering a rate of 0.24 for office buildings.

    Domestic customers like me and you being screwed by the energy companies

  34. As a lot of people have commented your usage seems very high for 2 months so there’s something going on there. That aside check if you’re out of contract with your provider because you can get cheaper rates if you switch, I make sure to switch every year to get the discounted rate. I’m currently on a rate of 0.34 per unit

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