Is this electricity charge reasonable?

Hi, newbie here.

After around 10 years of family house swaps & various annual holidays, we arranged to rent a one bedroom, front line apartment in Calpe for 2 months this April & so, for the first time, had to pay for the electricity we used as an additional charge. I was advised by the letting agent last October that the typical monthly cost would be around 50-60 Euros so I got a bit of a shock when the bill for our two month stay came to 187 Euros. I have no idea about the cost of electricity in Spain but this seems rather expensive considering I only pay 10.75 pence per unit for our largish 3 bed detached house in rural Norfolk & even with all other charges, only pay around £60 per month!

I took meter readings before & after the let & our total consumption was 493 units which the agent confirmed as correct so this works out to approx 0.38 cents per unit. We have provisionally booked the apartment again in for this September & again next April, can anyone advise if this is a reasonable cost or am I being over charged?

Well, it all depends on the usuage level and tariff  of the provider. My own calculations are as follows for Iberdrola, and I live not a long way from Calpe:-

Potencia (2.2); 60days at 0.115187 per day is €6.91122

Usage 493KWh at 0.124107 per KWh is €61.18475

Electricity tax at 4.864% * 68.09597 * 1.05113 gives €3.48154.

Service is 60days at 0.01874 per day or €1.1244

The total of the above is €72.70191

VAT (IVA) at 21% is €15.2674

Total is therefore €87.96931.

You will need to take into account the  markup applied by the owner of the flat!

I do not know the rate for higher Potencias, but I would have thought that 2.2 would be enough for a 1 bed flat, but the addition of AC or underfloor or other high-use of heating will impact on the potencia contracted.

My view is that you may well have been ripped off!

Hi there

if this helps

187 units times 0.135195=25.281 €

meter cost say 8.70 €

usage charge?? 6.33€

total 40.31€

Plus IVA @ 21%=8.46

TOTAL bill 48.77€

Hope this might help[ I paid 157 €  for usuig 821 KW. all electric house plus swimming pool for the period 24/11/13-24/01/14 i.e 60 days

Loramos

You have taken the incorrect figure for usage! The OP used 493 units surely.

I struggle to understand the cabbala of an Iberdrola bill, but €187 for 2 months sounds quite cheap, particularly if you use elec to heat water. More than half the bill will be standing charges and tax. Electricity is expensive in Spain.

So sorry Marcbernard , I misread his post .Thought he used 187 units.Your cals are correct.Good job my missus pays the bills in my house

The potencia charge for a standard 5.25kw contract (which all new ones should be on) would be about €38 for the two months.

The bill works out about £75 a month which is higher than the UK bill but the VAT here is 21% and not 5% like UK so probably not much difference especially if the flat is all electric so no gas bills to pay.

Mind you, our 3 bed house for that period was only €147 for those two months so probably a bit steep. Wouldn't have though either the aircon or the heating would have been on in April of this year. 

When you get your electricity bill here, it will tell the amount that was for electricity and the amount that was for charges and taxes. Ours was 39% electric and 61% charges and taxes. Guess why they are so high?

Hi all & thanks all for your response.

For me, Spain has a very unfamiliar charge structure which, among others, includes a factor based on the maximum power supply. I don’t really understand this logic especially as some supplies we’ve experienced seem ridiculously low (frequent tripping) to what would be practical in the UK & I don’t know how this affects the unit cost.

Our apartment had an electric water heater, oven, electric hob (not something familiar with as we have gas), large (5 cu/ft) fridge freezer, TV & A/C. Being there for 2 months, we didn’t dine out every day so did use the cooker but we only used the AC/heat pump unit for about an hour or so overall. I have no idea what the max supply was but we never tripped the unit so assume it had more than the basic supply but I have no idea how the supply size would affect the overall cost. We didn’t get an official bill (or a receipt) but I’m not really querying our consumption of 493 units as both myself & the agent agreed here; assuming the digital meter hasn’t been got at!

marcbernard; I was led to believe & was expecting a unit cost of around 0.135 & would not have been unhappy with 100 Euros or so to include a proportional sum for standing charges etc. This would seem to be a reasonable comparison to your unit cost of 0.124107 per KWh + additional charge to cover a proportion of the standing charges which, I assume, is reasonable for the owner to factor in?

What I’m unsure of is if the unit cost of 0.38 I’m being charged is fair & reasonable? I’m not worried about the odd 20 Euros but am wondering if the agent is really the “honest Joe” he makes out!

This message was last edited by karisy on 30/05/2014.

With all taxes and charges (including the special tax and VAT and potencia charges and so on and on and on) using your calculations the cost per unit used was about 26 cents. (the actual cost is 16 cents and the rest charges and taxes).

Dividing the total bill by the total units used I get that 26 cents figure. Looks your 38 cents a unit was a bit much.

Put it another way, our units used was 570 at a cost of 148.48.

Thanks babaol; as I feared it seems I need to appear less the unquestioing & trusting tourist & give "Manuel" a head lock when I see him in September!