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THE AVERAGE ELECTRICITY bill was 14% higher in 2021 than 2020, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.
That’s equivalent to €157 extra on a residential bill, before energy prices spiralled further due to the war in Ukraine.
The median residential gas bill in 2021 was €740 lower than the previous year, or 2.6% lower.
New figures from the CSO on trends in metered gas and electricity bills show that the median residential electricity bill in 2021 was €1,268.
Just under half (49%) of residential electricity customers that paid between €750 and €1,000 in 2020 paid between €1,000 and €1,500 in 2021.
Around 46% of residential electricity customers that were in the €500–€750 bill cost band in 2020 moved into the €750–€1,000 bill cost band in 2021.
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Residential gas customers saw less change in their bills: 76% of those who paid less than €500 in 2020 remained in that bill cost band in 2021.
59% of residential gas customers stayed in the €500–€750 band in both years.
Other figures show that households’ disposable income has declined in three of the last four quarters.
Disposable income was at a 24-year high in the third quarter of 2021.
It also showed that household income was down by 0.8% between July and September of this year, when inflation was accounted for. Household earnings were up as more people were in work, but inflation outpaced this growth, leaving real income lower.
Commenting on the results, Peter Culhane, a statistician in the CSO National Accounts Analysis & Globalisation Division, said: “Real income has declined in three of the last four quarters as price increases have out-paced incomes.
“Spending rose between July and September, not only due to higher prices, but also because a greater volume of goods and services were bought or consumed.
“Savings at 19% in Q3 2022 were down from 20% in the second quarter of 2022. This is part of a slow trend toward lower saving seen over several quarters.”
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It’s all so backwards. Energy providers are claiming the price increase is due to increased fuel costs, yet they are all reporting massive profit increases during the same period. Price gouging and war profiteering at it’s finest and the Government/Regulators are doing nothing about it.
Go with the storage heater like David suggested. 1.5KW per hour would cost you your ESB rate per hour. Say your rate is 40 cents per KW (unit) then it would cost you 60 cents per hour to run it. If you had it on for 4 hours it would cost you €2.40.
@Julie: I think an oil storage plug in heater is better, fan heaters need to be always on and when switched off you notice the temp. drop within 5 min. Oil radiators will switch off when a set temp. is reached and switch back on if the temp. falls below a certain amount also keep dont go cold quickly after they switch off.
@Julie: @Julie: looks like the heater will use 25% less electricity over an hour and be on less because it stores a certain amt of heat. Keeping the heater on level 1 over an extended period is the way to use them.
@Julie: I have one of the Oil Filled Radiators 1.5kw, it has 3 setting 700w, 800w and 1.5kw. It has a min – max temperature dial. I mostly just use the 800w setting with the temp turned about 60-70% full. (Large Double Bedroom) At this setting it will switch on for 15 min, and turn itself off for about 10 min. So using a full hour of electric power it is actually on for 1hr 40 mins. I believe the price for this was about 16c – 20c per hour. ( 1hr 40mins of actually being on consuming power)
I only use the 1.5kw setting on the really colder days.
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