it is absolutely insane. I truely feel for some families who cant afford to pay the bill... our bill is higher over summer. last summer it was more for our place (3 bed 1 bathroom, and was a time when i wasnt even living her just DH who was working fulltime), than my folks (5 bed 2 bathroom) !! and we always turn off power points. we ended up turning off our pool pump. next bill was half the amount of that one. We now pay the same each month, and every 6months it reevaluates how much based on previous bills. makes it so much easier to budget and you're not stuck with a grand to pay at once. over winter ours isn't that bad cause we use our wood fire. we only have fans too no a/c. our gas (which is only connected to a heater) is bottle gas too (no natural gas in our town even though the pipe runs along the highway and every town that surrounds us has it...anyway), we have 2 bottles that were full when we moved in 18mths ago and we haven't even emptied one bottle yet (so havent had to pay for gas at all)