Help With An Electricity Bill.

[MynameisLuca]

I think I'm being overcharged, I rang up the company and they said it's not estimated. Can anyone work out how much my bill should be?
I'll post a screen shot below.

[MynameisLuca]

http://www.upl.co/uploads/Screenshot202003132142143891584135822.jpg

[MynameisLuca]

Sorry, it's not very clear.

[ducksie]

Your bill is charged for 71 days - you were not over-charged, I am guessing you are in an apartment and this covers all your water heating and energy costs, the sinking fund is a kind of rental to upgrade equipment, the energy usage x by the rate is correct and the rate per day x 71 days is correct, they have taken into a/c the €40 you paid so no, your bill is €168.64, similar to mine, for the same period

[Old_Geezer]

If the meter readings are correct, and the standing charge rate, then the figures work out ok.

[MynameisLuca]

Thanks, it just seems very high as others bill have been only about 1.30 for more or less the same usage.... Bill was €201.03.
There is no meter I can read, they say it's all done remotely.

[ladybirder]

Wow, I'm shocked, £200 for 71 days electricity. I pay £40/month for both gas and electricity and I'm home all day.
Hopefully that is for everything and you don't also have to pay a gas bill?

[Buenchico]

If you've got electric heating, that bill looks reasonable enough to me.

You've been charged for an average of 21.75 kWh per day. That's equivalent to having just a two-bar electric fire (or its more modern equivalent) heating a single room for around 10 hours each day, plus some additional usage for lighting, using your computer, boiling kettles, using a washing machine, keeping a fridge running, etc.

The rate per hour looks to be a highly competitive one at just 9.5 cents per kWh. (Many UK tariffs are at around 15p or 16p per kWh).

The standing charge at 76 cents per day, which you'd have to pay even if you'd used no electricity at all, accounts for just over a quarter of what you've been charged for the 71 days.

Based upon that bill alone, your electricity usage is equivalent to €256.34 per quarter, or €85.45 per month, but that's for one of the dearest periods of the year (assuming that your home is heated by electricity). Your actual average figure throughout the year will be significantly lower than that. My average bill per month for electricity is around £100 (for a 1-bedroom starter home, occupied throughout the day) but I obviously expect to pay quite a bit more than that during the colder months (and quite a bit less in the summer).

[ladybirder]

Gosh Chris I'm either very lucky or very frugal. £40/month for gas and electricity. Perhaps it's the wonderful underfloor gas central heating that makes such a difference.

[MynameisLuca]

The bill is just for gas, water and one rad which is only on occasionally, about 30 minutes a day... It's an apartment and the place is warm without having the heating on. There's a lot of pipes that in the hot press where a lot of heat comes from, they're all running through the apartment complex.

[ladybirder]

Ah, your bill includes water, that makes a difference as I pay £17/month for water.
Your prices must have gone up from last year which is not unusual.

[MynameisLuca]

Even if the price has gone up is the calculations right in the bill?

[ducksie]

the calculation on the bill is correct, Ladybirder, it's €s so would be currency would be lower, this is a winter bill and the tariff is higher at this time - I notice you don't pay a VAT on your bill, my VAT is 13.5% I'm with Electric ireland and Bord Gais, between both of them I pay almost €300 for the winter billing period

[Buenchico]

>>> Even if the price has gone up is the calculations right in the bill?

Checking your bill in detail then:

Subtracting the previous meter reading (52608) from the current one (54152) shows that you've used 1544 kWh. (Correct).

Multiplying that figure (1544) by the cost for 1 kWh (€0.095) yield a result of €146.68. (Correct)

Checking that the number of days in the billing period is correct requires us to count from 9 December to 31 December (22 days), then through all of January (31 days) and on to 18 February (18 days), giving a total of 71 days. (Correct)

Multiplying the number of days (71) by the standing charge per day (€0.76) gives a total standing charge of €53.96. (Correct)

Adding together the actual cost of the electricity used (€146.68) and the standing charge (€53.96) gives a total unadjusted bill for the period of €200.64. (Correct)

Adding on the €8.00 'sinking fund' (whatever that might be) brings that figure up to €208.64. (Correct)

Then knocking off the €40.00 you were in credit gives a final amount of €168.64 that you owe. (Correct).

[ladybirder]

Ducksie I know the price on the bill is correct, I was just surmising what the reason might be that it was £70 more than Luca was expecting. Perhaps the price per unit has gone up, or we are not comparing like with like regarding time of year, or just used more than usual for whatever reason.
Anyway, I don't have any more to add so I'll tootle off elsewhere;-)

[Buenchico]

A bit of googling shows that Kaizen supplies power to homes from district heating systems. If that's what you're using, things could be rather more complicated than simply considering how many electrical appliances you've got switched on, for how long and what their power ratings are.

That's because you get charged for all of the heat supplied to your home, including the heat that's present in the warm water coming through your pipes. So you don't need to have any electrical appliances at all switched on in order to run up bills.