For an average size house.

One month = $311.72 The first two weeks we weren't in the house much as our furniture was delayed. So no washing, not much cooking, not much use of anything really. The last couple of weeks we were out most days but in most evenings.

It just seemed a bit steep to say we haven't used much electricity? What do you guys reckon?

Expensive, yes. How are you heating the place and your hot water?

It's open plan down stairs with under floor heating. Only had it on two days tops though during that month.
Not too sure about our hot water. It's instant hot water, we don't have to wait for it to heat ( in case you were thinking of an immersion heater) but can't seem to see a boiler anywhere, I'll ask the husband about that, he will know more. He's not here at the moment.

Glad you think it's expensive so do I and we haven't even used it properly yet.

Welcome to Australia

Mine are usually around the 900 per quarter, so sounds about right to me.

Sounds exorbitant to me, Molly. Check your bill, there's usually a connection fee for new tenants/owners.

Our last electricity bill came a week or so ago, it covered a 58 day period and was $17.96. Before anyone shops us for robbing the neighbour's leccy our hot water is natural gas (storage), and our heating and cooktop is also natural gas (oven is electric). Also, we installed solar panels when the scheme first came out, so are on maximum rebate for the electricity we feed back into the grid.

Breakdown of invoice, for anyone interested:

Charges:
Electricity used - $75.80
Supply charge - $23.81
GST - $6.46


Credits:
Renewable energy - $10.36
Net feed-in tariff - $74.14
Carbon charge adjustment credit - $3.61

Our 4 x 2 home is 290 square metres. But, and it's a big but, the last of the rug rats moved out a few months ago, so it's just Scouse, me and Murphy (golden retriever). As empty nesters, we've noticed a HUGE drop in our utility bills, as well as food etc!

Nocturnal teens?

Ours was mysteriously high and seemly no reason for it.

But the teens stay up half the night, as they do, computers, lights, TV's running like there is no tomorrow, plus cooking at odd hours.

There was a whole household running after I went to bed.

keeping up with friends in UK?

But I would check with elec company, or if its a town house are you paying a 'share' of joint leccy?

If its a rental the appliances could be the cheap ones, the ones with 5* energy rating are usually costly, electricity is expensive and replacing when things broke with the 5* ones did make a big difference. Lights also, are they low energy bulbs.

Our winter bill is always substantially higher than other bills and is probably about $800 a quarter, driven by using the heating. We don't have air conditioning so it is just that one quarter that is high. So it looks a touch high, but not ridiculously high to me. Perhaps a connection or new customer admin charge or something was included?

Did you take your own meter reading moving in to double check that you're not paying the last tenants bill?

It does seem high. We do have gas for cooking and hot water, and there is only 2 of us but our biggest electric bill so far has only just been more than that for a quarter ($380 last summer when there were 5 of us here for one of the months, and the air con was running most days)

And what a welcome it's been bobby! I'm bloody skint. Lol

Are you in a new build or old? I'm thinking perhaps in my case it's because I'm in an old build and that the heating system/water system isn't as energy efficient as it could be. I reckon our next bill will be a lot more as we've had the heating on this month, been in a lot more and used the washing machine, etc . We shall see.



$17.96. Now that's more like it. but like you said, the kids moving out will have had a big impact on your bills. Not to mention a bit of peace and quiet, which is priceless.

The house I'm in is very similar to the one we have back in the UK, size and shape wise. Our electricity bill there worked out at about £45 a month so roughly about $82, as apposed to $311.72 here. There's a big difference isn't there? I know I shouldn't really compare it back to the UK, but you can't help yourself at first.



I've put a few of my bill details at the bottom of the page, if anyone's interested.




Well the first month Jad there was no computer malarky going on as we didn't even have the internet for a couple of weeks, we weren't in much at all, no washing machine going, everything got washed at the laundrette as our washing machine hadn't arrived.
I probably cooked a meal a day in the house if that, we ate out a lot the first month.
Obviously we all showered everyday, 4 of us, had the heating on a couple of days during that month and used the lights, which hold mostly energy efficient bulbs.
Oh, we had one TV on for maybe a couple of hours a night, and all the phones got charged up, that's it.

Its not a townhouse either, its a detached double story, oLd Victorian style house with three large bedrooms, so by no means huge.

We've just had a new oven put in, as the one that was in was completely knackered, it took double time to cook things as the door wouldn't shut properly, so I contacted the agents who sent a handyman round to put a new one in. He's just done that today. Maybe that might make a difference.

Or maybe it is just what it is and it's us that need to adjust to our new bills.




I can't seem to see any extra charges on the bill so I've tried to ring them up just to double check but can't get through at the moment. I'll try again later, hopefully I'll find out more then.


Yeah hubby took a reading ( I think). I'll check.

Hey that's pretty good, who is your energy supplier?

Molly, I think it is steep, if only because the off-peak consumption from your bill is vastly more than your peak consumption (ratio of c. 85:15) and based on your comments about the time you've spent in the house, something seems awry- what hours does your electricity supplier consider off-peak and can you correlate that to the time you have been in the house?

Perhaps do a double-check of your starting readings for the two tariffs, as others have suggested. We did have experience of a meter reading being transposed in one of our rentals a couple of years ago (the letting agent wrote down the numbers incorrectly) and you obviously don't want to be paying the leccy for the last tenants!

I'm with Energy Australia - don't know how they compare on price though.

If that screen shot is your bill I'd def be questioning it. As well as the off peak usage, you've got a total of 1200kWh approx or nearly 2 kW every hour of every day.

If the readings are correct, turn every circuit breaker off and check the meters don't turn with nothing connected. Then turn them back on one at a time to see which one is running up the bill.

There is definitely something awry with that bill.

Looking at the bill it looks like the dates are correct but what's with the two sets of four line items? (peak and off peak usages)

Possibly a 2 phase supply and before and after the carbon tax was scrapped (or one rate for first so many kWh, and different rate after on both peak and off peak units). Saying that I would expect to see 4 meters not 2 so maybe not.