Huge electricity bill

[taxman]

Just got my bill for the quarter - $1300 :scared:.

Just after I wiped myself out getting a brand-new EM11, too :sadeyes:

Apparently I use an average of just under 3kWH per hour. Even averageing back over the previous quarter (assuming they took an estimate last time), it still comes to ~1.7kWH per hour.

Not quite sure how this is happening unless my tiny (150L) hot water system is attempting cold fusion. I also have 10 power points and an electric stove, but even at the lower estimate of hourly usage, it still seems high.

Any sparkies that may have an opinion on the normalcy or otherwise of this (apparent) level of electricity usage?

[AdrianF]

I thought mine was high at 800. Still cant figure out how we use that much there is only 2 of us at home we have a 150lt h/w system we use the gas BBQ when possible 2-3 times a week. I am at work 5 days a week we dont use aircons much any more or heaters.
I think I will have to keep an eye on the dog to see if she uses much.

Adrian

[DavidTrap]

Yikes - massive jump.

Had your power company done an estimate for your previous accounts - if so they may have underestimated your usage for a couple of bill and this is a catchup??

I heard something about some of the power retailers doing something like this a while ago.

Deregulation of the power industry has done SFA for the average punter!

DT

[JimmyH155]

Air conditioning is the killer with us.:mad2: My wife does not do a paid job so is at home most of the time. With this last Brissie summer,- PHEW - it was hot, so split system in kitchen on all day and bedroom on all night. My quarterly was over $800, and the prospect next year of another 10%. The government funded insulation made not a scrap of difference (as I knew it wouldn't):mad2:
AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH

[Tandum]

I had the same problem, big electricity bils for ages and now the price has jumped to 18c the bill is huge. We got climate smart in for a $50 checkup (Refundable from the BCC). They replaced most of the old light bulbs with the new ones, checked the hot water and put a wireless meter on the electricity supply. That meter has shown me that the energex meters are out by a mile. So far this week (4days) the energex meters say we have used 187Kwh and the Climate Smart meter says 110Kwh. I've had an electrictian in to check what I'm seeing and now energex is coming to check their meters. This has been going on for 10years. I figure they will owe us around $10K.

Now how do you check their water meter ....

[taxman]

Just doing some numbers (because that's the kind of boring person I am) - it has to be an estimate the last quarter. We moved in before then so it could not be two quarters of estimation.

If not, I would be running 240V drawing 12A constantly. Which would of course, trip the safety switch.

But even allowing an estimate for last quarter, it is still 240V drawing 7.2A continuously. Which seems high.

The worst is knowing that I will not get anywhere if I suggest this is unreasonably high and will have to pay regardless.

Serenity now, serenity now...

[supernova1965]

Wow our regular bill is only between $200 and $ 300 something seems funny there we are only 2 in this household as well:confused2::eyepop:

[AdrianF]

Robin let us know how you go. I wonder if I can get mymeters checked?

Adrian

[Rokketboy]

A friend of mine got a huge bill about 6 months back and rang to question it and ended up checking the meter reading herself and then compared that to what they had on their system. They had the wrong reading and had over charged. It happens so if in doubt do a check.
Thats a huge bill, our biggest is about $700(winter) our normal bill is $200-$300. We are a family of 4. We are switching to gas heating in a week or so. Im going to be interested to see what our next bill is like.
Good luck with yours.

[hotspur]

$1300 a quarter!,sounds like a mistake somewhere in the reading,Who do you get your electricity from,this deregulation thing here in Queensland has been one of many very bad decisions from the current government.

Let us know how you get on with the error,there is no way an average person could use that much,(Unless of course,a crop is grown in a house,when that happens the power company lets the police know,as power bill is much larger than normal)

We have 2 teenages and two adults,run a business from home,our bill about $300,and thats bad enough,just got a 1.5 Kwh solar system up and running,hopefully that will reduce bill,already exported 55 Kwh.Our bills are less in Winter than Summer,we have wood fire,I cut the wood-great exercise,cook in camp ovens instead of ovens too.

Look forward to hear what the power company has to say,re your bill

regards Chris

[multiweb]

We've had some colder weather lately so I'd check the thermostat on your electric water heating system. Is it outdoors?

Also sometime the electricity company works on estimates for a couple of bill cycles then when they check the meter if their estimates were short you get hammered with the balance but they should re-adjust the estimates for the next batch.

I use mostly gas all winter. Just air-con a bit in summer but we've insulated the whole house roof and walls to keep cool in summer and warm in winter. That can save you heaps in power bills too.

[hotspur]

We looked at gas Jared,but here in QLD the price is going up all the time.

My mother in law on the next property has it for her stove,when I first heard it was fifty dollars a big bottle,I thought,yep-thats the go!,but ever bottle replacement was $10 dearer,now a bottle is over $100.really no good at all for the average person.One good thing living in the country-all this firewood,I use it to maximum advantage,run a business with it.One day it will come to an end,as the government will tax people with fire places.Wish we could build a bone fire and put the current Qld premier and the previous one too,on it:lol:

[Liz]

Wow, thats some huge bills - 1 bill = 2 great EPs. :shrug:
Mistakes are made so certainly worth checking.
Am lucky as have great bills - $100 in the winter, and $160 in the summer, that is with the ambulance levy we pay up here. Got rid of my gas hot water, and have wonderful solar, and had already saved a fortune in gas. Do live by myself though. :shrug:
Families are paying huge amounts, and only going to get worse. :(

[Allan_L]

I signed up for a solar electricity system tonight.

Not a moment too soon it appears.

Maybe I will be supplying some of you guys :)

(funny thing is- I work for an electricity generator ---shhhh! )

[Ric]

We average around $300 a quarter for our electricity. The interesting part is that nearly half of that is a combination of GST and the "supply charge"

[Jeffkop]

Thats a toxic waste dump your referring to there Chris !!!!:lol::lol:

To the thread: Thats sort of money for a quarter sounds WAY WAY over the top for a normal family situation. What power hungry appliances do you have on ALL DAY?? IF the answer to that is none, then somethings definately fishy here.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Yeeks ! $1300 IS high. But 'leccy here is pretty expensive and the things that suck the most power are the hardest to economically replace:
-Water Heaters of course. Definately check the thermostat.
-Water Efficient Washing Machines and Dishwashers. I had to bite the bullet on these. We live off Tank water so conserving that was more important, but these use about twice the leccy of 'regular' ones.
-A/C of course
-Depending on CPU and Power Unit having a PC running all day can chew through the juice, but having it on 'idle' shouldn't use much.
-Electric Heaters. Go thru' electricity like mad.
-Electric stoves - ditto. We use bottle gas. While there are only two of us, we do a lot of cooking and even still we only use a 110ltr ($130 delivered)bottle about every 9 months. The downside is, it's not as "hot" as mains gas and lacks the pressure.
-Theiving Electricity companies. When we lived in Melbourne, they used to estimate our bill. We found their"estimates" are usually out by %100. Most DEFINATELY query that bill!

However, of all these, the dishwasher/washing machine use the most electricity around here.
Hope this helps.
Peter

[floyd_2]

Two quarters ago we had a power bill of $900 odd come in. This was a shock to us. I immediately went out and purchased an energy cost meter and checked everything in the house except for the ducted air, the oven and the lights. For the ducted, I read the specs from the compliance plate and worked out the power usage from there based on average usage. Checking everything took about a week since you have to let the appliances run for long enough to measure their consumption properly (eg. a washing machine has varying power requirements over a full cycle). I plonked everything into a spreadsheet that calculated my power usage in dollars for a quarter based on our estimated average "on" time for every appliance for a quarter.

I managed to work out my power consumption to within about $50 using that spreadsheet. Those energy cost meters are excellent.

I found the big hitters and stopped using them - namely the ducted air of course. Any appliances not in use were switched off at the wall and not left in standby where they use power for no particular reason. Having a house full of downlights is a killer too.

So, the next bill came in after a full quarter of being power aware...$420.

Our meter is locked behind a gate - but the power company has a key. One of the problems is that the meter readers seem too lazy to actually use the key sometimes, so estimates do come in from time to time. The power bills I referred to above weren't estimates though.

I was worried that the hot water service was the problem for a while there too. Looks like I nailed it though:



Only use ducted when absolutely necessary. Open plan houses are a real problem to heat / cool. We ended up purchasing a couple of those tall pedestal fans for the rooms that we frequent the most.
Turn off / unplug any appliances that don't need to be plugged in (plasmas, computers, bar fridges, game consoles etc etc). There are so many appliances that consume standby power. Some more than others.
Turn off lights that you don't need to have turned on

By being more power aware, we halved our bill.

Dean

[Jen]

:eyepop: yeah mine is about $800 a quarter :mad2: and we arnt home all day :shrug: I think my cat turns the aircon on during the day :lol::screwy:

[TrevorW]

We had a 25% price hike in electricity last year another this year and they plan a further two in coming years we are billed here every two months for electricity the average bill around $250 or about $1500 per annum yet we have gas heating, hot water etc

What happened to the Govt solar energy scheme at this rate it's becoming a viable proposition but I want a 3 kwh system so the theiving so and so's can pay me instead.

Like a lot of things we are paying for the inability of Govt to plan long term

[renormalised]

We're paying for the inability of the Gov't to plan...full stop. They haven't got a clue at what they're doing and all these price hikes are just another tax/money grab to cover their backsides for gross financial mismanagement. You'd think people would wake up to these jokers, but they keep on voting them into office. They never learn.

[multiweb]

That's all it is Carl. Not as bad as back home though. I was running two small electric heaters in winter only where I was and I remember not beign able to afford the power bills so I had them on timers and only used what I could afford. (2h each per day)

At the time electricity bills were taxed at 80% [15 yrs ago]. Then on top there was another 60% tax on the taxed consumption itself. The whole bill was horrendous. Almost unaffordable so we're still pretty good here.

And the price wasn't linked to supply and demand or any shortage of power. France has a nuclear plant every 30 square km or so and they probably export twice as much electricity as they use. Just plain good old tax :P

[renormalised]

I'd have resorted to using firewood, but they'd probably tax you for that too!!!!

I'll bet, as per usual, that none of the pollies paid the taxes, or were "exempted" from paying them, or had huge "extras" added to their already obscene pay packets to pay for the charges.

[hotspur]

Great work Dean,where did you get 'energy cost meter',they sound like a great device.

yes,turning off appliances when not in use,such a simple thing-We have done that for many years-a T.V uses almost as much in 'stand by mode' as when one is viewing (not that I view it much),also those little clocks in micro-wave ovens chew up a bit of power too.

Sounds like I have nothing to complain about at $300 a quarter.

Back to the OP, I do hope we hear from the poor chap again-re this issue,it does sound like a mistake,

Chris

[joeallen]

$1300? Adopt a nudist lifestyle at home during the summer and watch your power bill drop by half. Here in vic. we now pay $.21/kwh. 6 months ago it was $.13. So I complained to my local rep about the new smart meters we have to pay for but don't own. Here's what he told me:

Power co. will start charging more for peak hours. Peak hours will be in morning when you get up, and in evening when you are cooking your meals. He also said power will go much much higher. Here in Vic they are going to shut down coal fired plants and replace them with gas fired plants. I said, "Why are we replacing a several hundred year supply of cheap power to use a resource that will run out in 30 years?" He said, by then we will have all our power coming by renewable sources. And at rates in excess of $.60 per kwh.

BTW, my local rep is a labour man, and a greenie as there is no difference between the two.

So people, expect much more of this madness coming from our governments in the future. And watch as your power bill exceeds your mortgage payments, and food bills combined.

I however did not vote for these pollies we now have. The rest of you who did, enjoy your powerless future. You have gotten what you voted for. And deregulation has nothing to do with this as the government sets the rates the utilities charge. All this of course will hurt the low and middle income people, and the rich will not notice the much higher bills. True Labor justice for one and all.

[GrahamL]

You won't have to worry about bills going higher for a while yet as the power companies will drop the billing to every two months :)



The local co gen plant at the sugar mill (australias largest) is an eye
openner to see how it operates outside the crushing season.

A large supply of green timber is found and bought
bulldozed flat ..the skidders
http://www.tigercat.com/skidder.htm
take it to the grinder
http://www.morbark.com/Video/7600%20wood%20hog.html
the loader fills the trucks that take it to the plant to be burnt

A friends comment ,," The only thing green about it is the top of the tree before you cut it down ".. I can see 60c kwh in generateing power this way as its so costly opposed to building a power station beside a coal filed..

[Kal]

Currently Victoria has a mix of Gas/Coal/Green (wind etc) power plants planned. You can see all planned power stations for Victoria & Australia here (http://www.ga.gov.au/bin/mapserv40?map=/public/http/www/docs/fossil_fuel/ffuel.map&map_web_template=proposed/proposed.html&mapext=475218.749300+-4689354.094380+1533290.030503+-3632527.602917&layer=proposed&layer=states&layer=coast&mode=browse)

[multiweb]

:lol: Not sure about that. But I heard of one person who installed a small turbine in a stream nearby and got caught generating his own juice. He got fined and was forced to sell all the electricity he generated to the the EDF then was re-billed with taxes and all. What a rot. :P Of course it was all on paper, he didn't connect his tranformer to the grid but they did stuck a meter on his outfit and charged him for what he used. :)

[renormalised]

If they did that to me, I'd cause such a stir they'd be looking for ways to emigrate to get away from me:) I'd take that to court, for a start. That basically means that anyone in France that used a generator to power something, not even necessarily their house, could be charged and taxed on the electricity they made!!!!.

This is just the sort of nonsense that needs to be stomped on...governments have gotten away with too much for too long.

[multiweb]

Well the argument at the time was that he was using a portion of the of the stream that was powering a bigger hydro-plant down the river so in essence the plant was getting less of it. I know it's BS but it's the law. EDF is a massive govt subsidised corporation. Would be like a Windows end user suing Microsoft. :lol: Now I can see something like this happening here in the future with everyone who got a gvt rebate (or not) for installing a water tank. I can garantee you that one day we will be taxed for water consumption coming from our own water collection arguing that it didn't make it to the storm water network to the catchment or storage area therefore we're using it and should (will) pay for it. :)

[renormalised]

You could easily beat that...what about all the other users of the stream. They'd degrade the performance of the plant as well, why not charge them too. The laws can be changed, all the people have to do is make the government change them. Complain loud and long enough, add a few "threats" in the mix and they'll come around to seeing it your way.

They do that here with water already, in QLD. They charge farmers for the water use out of their own dams on their properties. It's basically like they have a meter on every rain cloud in the state that empties into a private dam. They even charge for surface runoff into dams!!!. It'll only be a matter of time before they do it to individuals in towns and cities.

This is precisely why people need to get educated and a lot wiser to what these jokers are doing. It's also why people need to become a lot more active in the running of their communities and not sit back hoping someone else is going to do all the hard work first. It's precisely because the pollies know they can get away with doing what they do because people won't do anything about it, that things likes this happen.

[goober]

Check your meter ... if it's spinning like a top, something has gone feral. This happened to us a few years back. We started turning off appliances and watching the meter ... it was the fridge.

[Astrod00d]

I live alone in Sydney metro, and as an engineer I'm power-wise, but my power bill was $275 last quarter... down from $303 the previous quarter.
I have one of those 'smart' meters, 3 tariffs ranging from about 7c/kwH off-peak to 35c/KwH peak. I run my dishwasher and washing machine, even the vacuum cleaner (2kW) off-peak when possible.
I got a power meter from Jaycar for $20. My washing machine uses about 0.2kWh, my dishwasher about 0.8kWh, per cycle.
Now... NSW are offering up to 66c/KwH bulk feed-in payment if I install solar power. Sounds like a good way to offset my power bill. However... The tax dept may decide that the feed-in tariff is taxable income... and tax me on it! That'd be a rip-off and an insult to say the least... But why am I not surprised?
Oh yes... Compulsory water tanks... Only a matter of time until city dwellers are hit with a new 'environmental levy' based on the surface area of our roof, 'cos we're denying water to the catchment. As mentioned already, our rural landowners already get hit based on their dams and catchment area. My local council already charges a 'drainage' (or is it stormwater) levy based on hard surface area... Taxed on the runoff we put into the system now, ultimately we'll be taxed on the runoff we gather in our freshwater tanks...
Just expect more and more environmental and 'green' levies as time goes on... it's just an excuse for a tax grab by incompetent, fiscally irresponsible government.
...end rant :D

[Shaun]

I seen a program on TV where the power company wanted to install pay as you go systems in some homes so people didn't run up huge bills and not pay them.

If they have that ability why not just install a system so you can how much you are spending?

Because then they would not be able to just charge you anything they want.

[mldee]

If it's of any use for comparison, I'm also in SEQ, got climate smart.
It's 6.30, 42" LCD TV on, light (All low energy), fridge running, this desktop on and two lappies out running in the obs on NGC 1850 at the moment :), and my total consumption according to the climate smart meter is 570W @ 9c per hour. Add another 150W for when the fridge cuts in. We use little heating yet, (split AC reverse), but our quarterly bills run around $280-350 on average. We use gas to cook but off peak HW. Computers are all 24/7.

That climate smart deal is great. Totally free after the BCC $50 rebate.

Maybe I'll get an open fire if I can get pollies for fuel....Privatisation has been a disaster in most cases. Try airports.....

Commiserations and good luck.

[mldee]

Hey, how else can you afford nuclear aircraft carriers? ..:)

[blindman]

You forgot to turn off your powerful laser probably.

[andreabennet]

we've had a shocker this time around as well and our electricity usage hasn't changed much at all. We don't own an air con so we're baffled as to where its coming from.

[Tandum]

Adrian,
My latestest readings show the energex meters are +30% on my meter. I contacted Origin and requested a meter check and was told 8 times that if the meters tested ok I would be charged for the check. They told me that 8 times as I asked 8 times what if the meters where out, they never answered that question. I was told that testing was up to energex and I have no way of finding out when or if it has been done. All very cloak and dagger. I'd say they are covering their back end :)

The wife has contacted the omnibudsman and asked why we can't have a comparative electricity usage graph according to the area we live in like the water bill. A second front :)

They did say there would be an outage during the check which hasn't happened yet and we are 2 weeks on from the request. More to come on this one. I guess my biggest fear is them saying, 'Yes they were faulty but are now fixed' without compensation. We are talking 10 years worth of error here .... but how do I prove that?

[AdrianF]

I am going away for a few days to Charleville for work but when I come back I will investigate this and see if I can get a wireless meter installed.
There is only 2 of us at home + dog so I cant see how we are using this much power. We do have a dryer (used only when we get the washing off the line to make sure clothes are dry on a 20 min cycle once a day) we dont use the oven, we use the gas BBQ 3-4 times a week, lights are kept to a minimum at night time. We used to use 5 reverse cycle aircons in Mt Isa 7 days a week and the power bill didnt come to this much.

Robin
The power co is not going to admit they are wrong at any time. A little while ago in Gracemere we had problems with the power to our house fluctuating by a fair amount Ergon came out and checked and couldnt find anything wrong (Ergon Engineer lived next door) this went on for about 6 months with many complaints, eventually they agreed that something was wrong after we lost a fridge and 2 PC's and a bit of other electrical equipment and they sent out a crew. When they looked at the power line the inside of the power cable was virtually burnt out. The replaced the line and a rep came out to see the damage and agreed as a public gesture to replace the equipment that had been damaged and in their own words "not that we admit the damage was caused by any fault in the power distribution system".

Adrian

Adrian

[AdrianF]

I have just booked the Climate Smart checkup.
Lets hope this helps.

Adrian

[TrevorW]

The only way to fix the noose is to become totally independent from the power companies

ie: wind, solar, gas combination even hydrogen fuel cell generator

do it when building a new home and say no to being connected too the grid

[el_draco]

Here in Tasmania, we done a real good fing, Its called "pay as you go" metres and you can chuck away your powerbill. As for the amount of your bill, Cripes! I go through a piddly $1500 for the whole year and thats a family of 4! I am now going to have to concratulate my snotty little teenage ranga about how conservative she is... thanks mate :(!

[AdrianF]

I remember the "pay as you go" system in the UK a shilling in the meter every so often not sure I like it. Going independent sounds the way to go.

Adrian

[Tandum]

You though $1300 was bad ...
Cpt Bligh has just upped the anti by 13%.
Your next bill will be $1500 .....

They are obviously trying to discourage southerners from moving up here.

[AdrianF]

At that rate she might be encouraging people to move south...... maybe thats the plan to make land prices cheaper so they can buy up big etc..........

Still waiting for the Climate Smart people to call to arrange a time to fit the gizmo to the house.

Adrian