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ridiculous electricity bill
We just got our first bill in a new house. Old house was gas wall heater, new house is Panasonic inverter. It is $345 for 65 days!!!
Our old place I had the wall heater on all the time and our QUARTERLY bill was only $190 tops. I knew the split system would use more electricity, but that is crazy!
Anyone else had this with a split system?
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We have 4 split systems - 1 in each bedroom and 1 in the lounge room - going all the time during the colder months and our bill will be around $1500 for a 3 month period. We have no other option as we don't have gas and can't use our wood burner as my boys climb the fire surround.
Hopefully next year we will get to use the fire and cut down on the power bill - although then we will have the cost od buying wood.
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using electricity for heating will definitely bump the bill up.
i would love to have a bill of only $200 for a quarter! i don't know anyone who has a bill that cheap any more!
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We do
It's in QLD though, and we tuff it out with no air con, and have solar hot water.
You'll be amazed how effective a good fluffy lap blanket and a hot water bottle can be Tasha! I was a poor student in Melbourne once upon a time. Now I'm totally acclimatised up here and really not keen to go back, heating or otherwise!
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That is insane!
Our last 2 rentals have been this price. This is just what I am used to! But it's always been only me and DH and both working full time. Now it's going to be me at home with a baby, *gulp*
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Yep, gas is cheap enough to run, but electricity is a killer. We have has ducted thank goodness. But before that we've been good friends with multiple layers, blankets, hot water bottles and a small oil heater that we moved from room to room with us.
2013 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.
My house has only a heat pump and wall panel heater for heating. Our last monthly power bill was over $500. I wish there was a fireplace here. For all that it costs, the house isn't even particularly warm.
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no gas here either, and our bills are over $1000 each quarter.
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No gas here either... Gulp!
Haven't had a bill since June last year (they can only charge back 9 months, so we'll get 3 months free if they bill us now!).
I have money aside, but seriously freaking out.
We have a wood fire, but unless you're getting wood for free it really isn't much cheaper... Or so I have been told.
I'm off to turn my heater off and find my ugg boots!
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I can only wish that our electricity bills were so low....
Last winter (all up from April to September) we paid over $5000 in electricty bills - our heating was aircon. FWIW we used to snuggle up with blankets to watch TV and wore layers of clothing inside. I turned the heating off at night - due to the cavernous hole that was the home we were residing in it was impossible to keep heated. We are in a different home this winter and I've been running the ducted gas 24/7 since beginning of May and our bills (electrity and gas) are a fraction of what we had last year.
If your house isn't properly insulated (walls and ceiling) and you don't have proper window coverings and floor coverings then your electricity/gas consumption for heating is going to be over the top regardless of what type of heating you use.
I shut every door in our house to retain the heat. We don't use our "formal" lounge but rather sit in the snug to watch TV. I have the heat going to the bedrooms, kitchen/family, tv snug and bathrooms. My in-laws are with us this week and are completely unprepared for the cold weather. I've never heard so many complaints about being cold (go and buy a tracksuit...but that's another story). My FIL said he was going to get his heater out of the caravan and put it in his room overnight. I told him over my dead body...you are not running up my electricty bill.
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We also tough it out with only a small convection heater that heats our lounge room only when we close the doors.
We live in an area that reaches 0 overnight and days are typically anywhere from 11 to 15. We only use the heater probably one or two nights a week and never during the day, we've just adapted to layering our clothes and my boys and I have cute little animal wheat bags that we heat up each night and stick under our jumpers lol.
We will eventually get heating, however we've decided that this works for now and would rather put our money into finishing the outside of the house than heating.
It can be done people, you just gotta get a little tough!
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We have wood heating and pay $140 for a tonne of firewood, that lasts about 5-6 weeks
2014 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.
We got solar panels put in a few years ago, so we always have a positive (they owe us) bill. But prior to that we rarely went over $250. We have gas though, and in winter gas bills can be around $200-250 each I believe.
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Do you also have an electric hot water system? If so, that would add heaps to the bill as well.
We recently converted from electric hot water to gas, since then our power bill is over $200 cheaper a quarter. We also don't have natural gas and use our split system year round, along with the wood fire.
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We've been cranking our split cycle air cons too - one in DS's room and one in DD's room on all night (and day for DS at the moment as he's sick).
One in living room on all day for me and the kids as its freezing!
Not looking forward to the bill... Ours is usually $400 for 2 (or is it 3?) months so it could be more like $500 this time.
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We had ducted in our last rental and copped a $900 bill for 2 months last year in winter. I almost cried. We limited it's use after that!
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We just got our first bill from our new electricity company that switched to in February this year - damn changing to Smart Meters and billing issues in Victoria - but saying that I was quite surprised by how much it was (or how little depending on how you look at it).
Our billing cycle went for a total of 21 weeks 3 days from 26 Feb - 24 Jul (so a lot of winter with 5 split systems going and the clothes dryer everyday) and our bill totalled $2,356. I have been making monthly payments to the account since we transferred and we also get an 18% Pay On Time Discount so this works out with the discount our bill totalled $2189, less payments made in advance and I've just had to pay the balance of $990.
It works out our average weekly spend is $110 per week so I'm thinking that once summer is here and with the payments I make monthly to cover most of my bills I should actually have a credit in my account over the summer months to cover the winter times.
So all up I'm pretty shocked that my electricity was so cheap.
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