Huge electricity bill

[taxman (Matt)]

Just got my bill for the quarter - $1300 .

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

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 (Adrian)]

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 (David)]

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. 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)
AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH

[Tandum (Robin)]

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 (Matt)]

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 (Warren)]

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

[AdrianF (Adrian)]

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

Adrian

[Rokketboy (Jared)]

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 (Chris)]

$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 (Marc)]

Originally Posted by taxman

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.

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 (Chris)]

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

[Liz]

Wow, thats some huge bills - 1 bill = 2 great EPs.
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.
Families are paying huge amounts, and only going to get worse.

[Allan_L (Allan)]

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 (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by hotspur

Wish we could build a bone fire and put the current Qld premier and the previous one too,on it

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

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 (Peter)]

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 (Dean)]

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]

yeah mine is about $800 a quarter and we arnt home all day I think my cat turns the aircon on during the day

[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