How much is your electricity bill?

[Danni]

I just got my power bill and am worried it is high, although I have nothing to compare it too.

I normally pay, and throw it out, but we are on a very tight financial mission atm so I am looking at ways to reduce it and would like to compare to others.

91 days = $369.00
This is the one I received today, so that is for all the cooling etc.

So how much is yours and do you have a big house, lots of people etc?

[Lukesmum]

We are a family of 4 and have a 4 bedroom house. We didn't use the cooler much this last summer. Maybe 5 days all up. Our hot water and stove are gas. We just got our bill and it is $404. Our bill just after winter is always huge for 3 months. About $880 last year because of heating.

[Pandora]

ours was taht much in our old place, regularly between 380-430 a quarter.
with 3 of us, 3br 16sq house, a/c and ducted heating.

Havent had one from the new house yet, they forgot to turn on our metre

[Arimeh]

I just paid mine for the quarter and it was nearly $275.00

That nearly blew my socks off cos its normally around the $150 mark.

We have a very small house - 2 adults, 2 kids. Our hot water system was leaking during that period though - so thats why it was so expensive.

[nic]

When we had our fish tank, it was always close to $1000 per quarter. Then when it was gone, it came down to around $300-$400. Our last one was just over $500, but the price went up here, and we had been using a dryer for all our clothes as we lost our clothes line in a storm.

I usually keep my electricity bills for a year or two, so when the bill arrives for the same quarter next year, I can have a look and compare them. Look for how much usage there was, not how many $$ it is, that way you will know if it is you or if the company has hiked prices

Nic

[The[cookie]Doctor]

I'm not sure but I am going to call Tru and find out as I am sure I am due for a bill.

[Cupcake]

From Dec - Feb ours was $440 with 3 adults, heating equiptment for reptile tanks on 24/7 a fish tank and a couple of fans going most of the time

[Danni]

Thanks guys..so I guess we are on par?

Arimeh, how do you guys keep it so low?

We run a big fridge, and a big freezer, all cooking is on electricity, evaporative cooling and fans. We have 4 bedrooms ad the last quarter we had 4 adults and 3 kids. SO I guess thats not too bad?

[Inertia]

Not too bad at all. Ours is around $330 a quarter with 2 adults, 5 kids and 2 computers that don't get powered down overnight. The office is kept powered.

We have an aircon but its borked. A heater in winter and that bill doubles to 600ish. I am going to be a little more strict on its use this year. Especially considering everyone has been using my anemia as an excuse to turn it on. We do have 2 fridges and a chest freezer too.

[HotI]

All the electricity rates went up at the end of last year. So unless you are still on a contract, your rates (per unit of electricity) may have gone up.

[Peach*]

Our last bill was just under $180 for the quarter, with 2 adults and infant in a 2 bed townhouse. We switch everything off at the wall except the fridge and only had the air con on for about 7 days in summer (DP labelled me the 'air con nazi').

[Tinks]

I got my bill last week, it was $240, we have a 3 bed 2 bath house with electric cooking and hot water, we have 2 fridges running and I use the dryer every day.. I don't understand how our bill is so cheap. Our last house was half the size of the one we're in now and the power bills were never under $350. Weird as.

[Danni]

Tinkerbell...that sounds very weird!

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Our last one would have been about $400-450. One bedroom unit, 2 adults, 1 kid. But we dont really pay too much attention coz we do easypay at $80 a fortnight.

[Glamourcide]

I'm spewing over our power bill. We just got our bill for the last quarter and it's $425 - which is about on par with our last one, but since we got the last one we've turned off the ancient old fridge in the shed to save power, banned BIL from 'entertaining' in the shed (therefore saving having the lights burning all night and having his stereo/game console/TV/god knows what else going), and we've barely used the air-con since Christmas/New Year's when it was stinking hot...
I remembered hearing somewhere that a lot of the time the power company will just do a guesstimate based on your 'normal' usage and send you a bill without actually reading your meter, I know our meter is at the side of the house (and we have a fully fenced yard with lots of plants, it's not at all difficult to get through the front gate but I have had a postie stand on the footpath and holler at me to come out in case I had a dog in the yard), so I told DH to contact Ergon to ask that they send someone out to read the meter instead of just sending an estimate.
They emailed back saying they'd send someone out, but it was 'accurate', whatever that means (I don't know how they get an exact measure of your power use without actually reading the meter, kwim?), but they still had DH's parents details of this address (they used to live here) and turns out they haven't had an actual person come to read the meter for more than five years because their notes said that a 'large dog' was kept on the premises (DH's childhood pet Rex, who was put down at LEAST 5 years ago, Rex was long gone before I even met DH and we've known each other for years now), so they assured us they've changed that and will send someone out next quarter.

For the record, we're a 3-bed, 1-bath house (about the size of a showbox, tbh) with two adults, a teenager who takes 1.5-hour long showers twice a day, and a toddler. DH and I try very hard to cut down on our power usage to save money, but BIL kind of throws that out the window when he has two TVs, a games console, a stereo, a hair straightener (which he actually stole from ME), a laptop, a pedestal fan AND an alarm clock running all at once (he has to run extension leads from DD's room across the hallway because he's run out of power points), and, like I said, uses all the hot water in one sitting... I know DH and I use a fair bit of power (we have an Austar box, TV, computer and landline in the lounge) and we should be switching things like microwaves etc off at the wall when we're not using them... but I still blame BIL completely

[nic]

Gothmum, Electricity rates in Qld went up recently, I think it was upto 15% increase, depending on which company people were with.

If Ergon have been estimating your bill, they usually have it written in big bold letters, that it is an estimate as there was a dog on the premises. They will only let you go for around 3-4 quarters with an estimate, and then they send a letter saying that you are suppose to provide them with access to the meter, and if you don't, then you will have to have the meter moved to a location that they can access, at your cost BTDT...

Also, watch them if they are sending someone out to reread your meter, they usually charge you for it, from memory i *think* it was something like $50.

Nic

[alioops]

Our last bill (bi monthly) was a bit high for us, at $324.50. We had been using AC like it was going out of fashion and due to it being wet season I was also using the dryer daily. The bill before was about the same as our bills in SA were, and we only have electricty here, no gas, and the SA electricity rates are higher than the Qld rates.

[Pandora]

I got my bill last week, it was $240, we have a 3 bed 2 bath house with electric cooking and hot water, we have 2 fridges running and I use the dryer every day.. I don't understand how our bill is so cheap. Our last house was half the size of the one we're in now and the power bills were never under $350. Weird as.

Some of it could be the efficiency of the hot water service and any heating or cooling that you have. in general older appliances use more power than newer ones, but Im guessing most of them are the same ones you would have had at the old house? If you have a different energy supplier at the new house that can come in to play as well.