Are my Gas/Water/Electricity cost too high?

Yeah, I realised there are too many variables involved. I guess I just wanted to find out if they were horribly out of sync from other owners who run hostels of a similar size. No worries, I'll just work from what I have. Thanks anyway.

If you haven't done so, I would suggest preparing a worksheet (with Excel, for example) were you list all your energy consuming devices. Next to each device, place each device's energy consumption rate (Kilowatts per hour, liters of fuel per hour, etc.). And next to the energy consumption rate, place the respective cost of the energy per unit (Euros per kilowatt, Euros per liter, etc.). Also, in the same worksheet row, place your estimate of hours (per day, per month, per year, etc.) you will be using the device. Finally, multiply the 3 numbers (for example, 1. Kilowatts/hour, X 2. Euros/Kilowatts/hr and 3. hours/day) and you will have the energy cost for that device. Sum up the energy cost so calculated for all the devices across your list and you will have your total energy cost for the chosen time period (1 day, in this example). Multiply by 30.5 to get your monthly bill. If energy usage pattern change during the year, you can do a different set of calculations for each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter). That will give you a more accurate result.

One good thing about using the worksheet is that you can change your estimate hour usage for your devices and see how your total cost is affected.

Try assigning your maximum and minimum estimates of hour usage for each of your different devices and you will get a range of your minimum and maximum cost. Then you can use that range of costs and plan accordingly. For sure, your actual cost should fall inside that range.

If you haven't done so, I would suggest preparing a worksheet (with Excel, for example) were you list all your energy consuming devices. Next to each device, place each device's energy consumption rate (Kilowatts per hour, liters of fuel per hour, etc.). And next to the energy consumption rate, place the respective cost of the energy per unit (Euros per kilowatt, Euros per liter, etc.). Also, in the same worksheet row, place your estimate of hours (per day, per month, per year, etc.) you will be using the device. Finally, multiply the 3 numbers (for example, 1. Kilowatts/hour, X 2. Euros/Kilowatts/hr and 3. hours/day) and you will have the energy cost for that device. Sum up the energy cost so calculated for all the devices across your list and you will have your total energy cost for the chosen time period (1 day, in this example). Multiply by 30.5 to get your monthly bill. If energy usage pattern change during the year, you can do a different set of calculations for each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter). That will give you a more accurate result.

One good thing about using the worksheet is that you can change your estimate hour usage for your devices and see how your total cost is affected.

Try assigning your maximum and minimum estimates of hour usage for each of your different devices and you will get a range of your minimum and maximum cost. Then you can use that range of costs and plan accordingly. For sure, your actual cost should fall inside that range.

Thanks, that's quite useful. I was toying with something like this, but couldn't decide how many hours to put down for some devices. I ended up doing it by taking a percentage rate compared to the level of occupancy per month. I will definitely look into this again though. Cheers.