Gas & Electricity

[Garrick]

Ok, so we got our first bill.

17 April to 8 July. So nearly 3 months.

Electricity:

Peak - 2510kWh @ $465.61

Off Peak - 580kWh @ $59.74

Total - $574.75 (ex GST)

Gas:

Peak - 2303MJ @ $29.06

Off Peak - 1562MJ @ $18.73

Total - 73.72 (ex GST)

Bizarre that we use almost 2/3 amount of gas during off peak as during peak. And 5 times as much electricity.

Is this an average bill (including winter months)?

Thanks,

-G

[NotLookingBack]

My goodness gracious me, my last elec bill in March for 3 months was $200. And the kids and I are home all the time, as I homeschool. We do have gas heating for our hot water though, and a gas stove.

Gas was $130 on the last bill, but am expecting a MUUUUUCH bigger bill next time, as the central heating is on standby almost 12 hours per day.

Live in rural Vic. Not sure why on earth your elec was so high?? Hope I am not also in for a huge surprise...

[Mara]

Garrick,

Not sure what in your home is electric, but all I can guess at is that you perhaps use electric heaters or a tumble dryer daily? If not, then your electricity usage seems way over the top. I will explain, we pay around $150 per month BUT, our home is ALL electric, the only thing that is gas in our home is the central heating. We use our dishwasher almost every night, but we are able to set it for a later time so that it runs during the off-peak time. We do not hang any washing on the line, it all goes through the tumble dryer, but we only use it over a weekend when it is off-peak usage.

Gas, in winter we pay around $100 per month, during the week it is only switched on from around 5pm to 10pm. Friday, Saturday and Sunday it is on from 7am to 10pm, we only have it on 20 degrees, so once the house warms up during the day, it automatically switches off. The size of the property it is heating will also come into play, ours is around 260sqm.

[elleneo]

That does seem high...we 3 people and our bill arrived yesterday ; $311.30

The bill we received on 17 April was $304.79 but electricity costs have gone up slightly. We have gas heating and a gas stove.

Gas for Jan to April was $65.48 and for April to June was$103.44.

Havnt gotten the new gas bill yet which i expect to be high as we not scared to use our heating from 5 in the arvo till bedtime when we switch it off..also set on 19 or 20 depending on how cold it is.We also have gas hot water heating.

[elleneo]

Can anyone tell me when is off-peak time for electricity?..we are with Tru-energy and they dont say on their website!

[Mara]

Elleneo, probably be best to call them as it may differ from supplier to supplier. Also, it is not available to every household automatically, you need to have a dual tariff meter to participate. That is my information though, I may be wrong.

Garrick, Just got my electricity bill in the mail, so will set it out for you, I am with Red Energy!

07 April to 07 July (92 days)

Off Peak 1620kWh @ $161.19

Peak 710kWh @ $170.40

Sub Total $331.59 (ex GST)

Service to Property $ 58.88

Total Amount $390.47

I get an extra 5% discount off that if I pay the bill by due date.

[Nats123]

We are 5 people in the house and pay around $400 (give or take) for electricity every 2.5 to 3 months.

Our heating during winter is about $400 (we sleep with the heating on a lower temp). In summer its about $50.

We are in the process of moving away from Tru as they are a tad on the expensive side.

Sorry Nat dont know what times are peak times

[Heymanse]

We're with AGL and our first quarter's bill just arrived for the new property we moved into:

Gas account from 1 April to 11 June (72 days) - $152,72 (we have a gas stove and geyser)

Electricity account from 1 April to 1 July (92 days) -

Peak 1764kWh@$0.1775 - $313.11

Next 496kWh@0.1935 - $115.33

Supply charge - $44.16

GST - $47.26

TOTAL: $519.86 (we are 4 in the house and have been using the ducted aircon on a daily basis)

[Garrick]

Ok, so it seems that our peak usage is quite a lot higher than everyone else's. Which is hard to believe as we are only 3 - granted, my MIL was here for 2/3 weeks. I think it's down to dishwasher, Amy's heater and possibly geyser.

-G

[EricaC]

Ok, so it seems that our peak usage is quite a lot higher than everyone else's. Which is hard to believe as we are only 3 - granted, my MIL was here for 2/3 weeks. I think it's down to dishwasher, Amy's heater and possibly geyser.

-G

Yep, Garrick - yours does seem a little higher, surly a dishwasher does not take that much?????..... I am dreading our lekky bill which is due to arrive any day now - heaters are a killer....

Erica

[candivw]

Our electricity for May and June was $141

Gas for us was $40....

Why is there such a difference between the states?

[CTFamily]

Why are we always the highest?? Got our electricity bill today for the last 3 months (all electric, no gas)......

$874

Sigh

[Garrick]

Ok, worked out quite quickly what's sucking at the juice...

I had changed the geyser to daytime (electric) while my MIL was here and afterwards, as nighttime mode was sometimes not leaving us with any hot water to bathe Amy. Well, I tested the meter (visually) by turning it from daytime back to nighttime, and I could easily see the dial slow down. Then I did the same with the heater we'd been leaving on from +- 17H00 to 06H00 every night...at max... also, easily visible reduction...

So tonight Amy sleeps in a cold room (till 10pm at least...) and the geyser goes back to night mode...

-G

[Garrick]

Next bit of info.

I searched everywhere... on comparison sites, all over AustraliaPowerAndGas's site... but to no avail. I could not find anything saying what the peak/off-peak times were.

So I went to the meter...

We have one of those dual meters - one for peak, one for off peak. And sitting nicely between them (a bit down) is a 3rd box. Inside this is a dial with 2 fixed points showing what must be the start and end of peak/off-peak.

Ours is set at 07H00 and 23H00. (It's now 22H30, so I'll go check that the off-peak dial starts moving at 23H00).

So...if you want to know... go check your dials for your settings.

-G

[Garrick]

Right, so I went and stood in the cold outside and watched the dials. It only kicked over at around 23H07. Even then the peak dial did continue to spin; why is this? The off-peak started spinning and I guess that means the hot water kicked in.

Going to phone them tomorrow and ask about both dials spinning in off peak.

-G

[Eva]

We are in Queensland and our provider is Ergon, so maybe its different.

But I had those ClimateSmart (what a waste of money!) guys around and according the them, the only thing we can have running on the off-peak meter is the hot water system (will I ever get used to calling the geyser a hot water system?) and swimming pool pump. And they have to be wired up seperately and only work on that system at those off-peak times.

So I am not sure if he was talking codswallop or what, but that is what he told me.

'Cos I would also run dishwasher and washing machine etc at off-peak to save if I could!

[Garrick]

Ok, spoke to Australian Power & Gas this morning, and the lady was quite clear in her explanation.

"Dual" meters are actually only for (as Eva points out above) Hot Water Systems. Everything else runs on the Peak meter... so we've all believed wrongly. :|

In South Africa, we ran things in off-peak not to save us money, but to help the grid as we all knew we had just the one meter. Here, you see 2, you think everything runs off one and then off the other.

She said that it will cost between $400 and $500 to get one of the Smart Meters installed...then I got told by someone at work to Google the Smart Meters... and there have been a lot of concerns about people hacking them as they are remotely managed...

Still, going to investigate further and see the cost/benefit ratio.

-G

[immi+]

Hello

Eva, you are spot on. My climate smart guy told me the same. Our swimming pool and geyser works only at night. You can also have your aircon set to an energy saving tariff, but then it will only work between 5 and 8 pm. Fine if you are not home during day, but how are you going to sleep in summer! (at least in the far north). There is also no peak/off peak tariffs in Queensland. So whether you use your dishwasher at 7 pm or 2 am, it costs the same. (After for months I thought I was doing the clever thing to wait till after 9 pm

In summer, the electricity bills in the far north easily top $800. Ours are always some of the lowest at around $600. 2 of our friends never gets theirs below $1000. Our winter bills are always a bit of a relief at around $350, cause no aircon or heating and seldom dryer.

About the climate smart thing: I can't see how it will save us money, (cause if you need to use the kettle / oven / lights ect. you just do), but at least they changed all our bulbs and shower head to saving ones (of which the cost was more than the $50). It is very interesting to watch your little monitor go up and down depending on what appliance you use. And I come to realise that certain things use far less energy than I thought (ex. oven, TV and dishwasher), and other things a lot (aircon, and dryer, and for the few minutes it take to boil your kettle, so really only boil the amount you need). Interesting to see that our house "idle" at night at 8c an hour. (that is the fridge/freezer on and the odd appliance on standby - I know I have to switch everything off at the plug!!

Cheers

Bea

[Eva]

but at least they changed all our bulbs and shower head to saving ones (of which the cost was more than the $50).

LOL Bea!

We already had energy efficient bulbs in our light fittings and our shower heads were the water saving ones anyway!!

So for us it was a waste of money to be told I should change the 4 spotlight track thing in my kitchen to a one globe light!!

We have the one we have cos I like it and want it and I put it in!! I don't care what it costs... its what I want...

Anyway, we now have a themometer for $50 so I can see how cold it is in our house and how nice and warm when the wood fires are burning!!

LOL!!

[immi+]

Anyway, we now have a themometer for $50 so I can see how cold it is in our house and how nice and warm when the wood fires are burning!!

LOL!!

[Mara]

As I said before, we have a dual tariff system installed in our home, which is all electric, only heating is gas. Our meter, at present, the 'peak' is off, it is only the 'off peak' that is running. We do not have two meters, it is only one, which switches between one and the other, we then have a separate one which tells you which of the systems is running/ SO..in our case, we definitely have everything running on off peak, when it is off peak time! Our house is fairly new, only five years old, and hubby had long talks with the electricity company before the meters were installed, to ensure that we got the best rate.

[Garrick]

Just an update.

By only using the geyser during the NIGHT, and no more oil-fin heater in Amy's room (bid bed + duvet):

Previously:

Electricity:

Peak - 2510kWh

Off Peak - 580kWh

New:

Electricity:

Peak - +-1220kWh

Off Peak - 660kWh

Saved about $240 or so on electricity.

-G

[EDIT: Oops, geyser (hot water) on during the NIGHT, not day...]

[Eva]

By only using the geyser during the day, and no more oil-fin heater in Amy's room (bid bed + duvet):

The only geyser's in Australia are old men....

HOT WATER SYSTEM!

I remember how the estate agent looked at me VERY strangely when I asked him about the geyser when we were looking at houses. LOL!

[MG Family]

I finally got around to check the bills ...

Family of five, gas heating and gas hot water system, average use of tumble dryer and dishwasher, we also have energy saving bulbs.

So far this year (1 March 2010 to 5 October 2010) we've paid 3 electricity, 4 gas and 2 water accounts and I have summarised the detail as follows:

Current rates charged

Origin Electricity: 19.625 c/kWh

Origin Gas: First = 1.2482 c per MJ, Balance = 1.1136 c per MJ

Average daily consumption:

Electricity 0.61 kWh

Gas 236 MJ

Water 0.53 kL

Average daily charge:

Electricity $ 4,78

Gas $ 3,70

Water $ 1,48

Total $ 9,96

Are there better rates available in the market?

Is $10 a day a reasonable target for these services?

Groete

MG