Tan0410

Still settling here....mind you, would help if we stopped moving! Anyway:

Can anyone tell me if we're being ripped off. $266 bill for 29 days with Genesis. Seems very high but wouldn't be surprised. Basically run 3 portable heaters on thermostat and then lighting & hot water? Mind you, do maybe two loads of washing and drying a week

Apologies if there's already a thred relating to this!

Black Sheep

Sorry, that sounds about right... in fact seems on the 'cheap' side for 3 heaters. We run only one 2K oil column heater (switched off when we go to bed. ANd yes, we're freezing in this house), have no dryer, have nighttime rate for hot water, and are very careful about switching things off. Our bills with Meridian are never less than $220 or so after their discount... I expect it to be much higher this month, as we've had heater on more than usual...

Genesis

Yep, I can echo that, been here 3 yrs and we are with G. Have you thought of getting a night meter with them....11pm-7am and its less than half price..we save a fortune!!! Only cost $60 to have the night/meter fitted.

Fooferfish

Stop using the tumble dryer, is your washing machine on 50deg hot wash, change to cold and see if that still cleans clothes, we have been in NZ Dunedin over 3 years and today have only used the tumble dryer once, build a shelter and hand clothed under neath it, for all year drying, get a wood fire installed, best and cheapest for per KW, get it connected to hot water, on wet back saves you 70% on hot water, running those colomn heaters are shocking, does your house gte any sun in winter ?? thats a thing most forget to get with their new house, buying in an area that gets winter sun, warms the hosue up for free, underfloor insulation, works a treat.

hazeandsteve

You definitely need to lose the three heaters.
Despite spending about $150 every couple of months on a local firewood supplier, our much reduced leccy bill makes up for it.

bjddavies

Could try getting a dehumidifier. They dry the place out but will heat it a bit as well.

When I was living in Welly (brrrr) many moons ago I had 2 oil filled heaters and got some thermostats (clockwork round types) to control their use. Cut the first bill from $200 per months (and this was 9c per kWh) to $130 by the second month.

dlmckay

If the winter bills are crippling you, then ask to move to a SmoothPay or whatever Genesis call it, where you pay a set amount every month via Direct Debit. Costs nothing extra and you build up a credit amount during the summer that contributes to the winter bills.

We have it and for a 4 bed house with a woodburner (we run electric heaters in the bedrooms), we pay $133 a month.

Tip to those who haven't read it before, check out your local waste transfer station for free firewood. Waitakere Council offer this, I can't imagine they're the only ones to do so.

NZBee

Dehumidifiers can ramp up your eleccy bill as well, so be warned. Ours has been around the $200 mark last month and this month. In the summer months it is normally around $40 (and I still use my dryer in the summer, so it isnt too bad)

pixi-dust

This thread has actually made me feel so much better. I thought our bill was mad, but in actual fact it's just similar to everyone else. We do run a dehumidifier and a spa (!) I think it's about $50 per month, does anyone know for sure?
Weirdly ours stays pretty similar all year round, but I suppose the wetback heating our water over winter cancels out the dehumidifier or something.

Littletoe

That's a good rate, is that an estimate or a read bill? When we first moved to Auckland we got a month's bill over $800, I think they were having a laugh! Our bills usually stay around $300 per month, hitting over $500 when we had a Nanny that had the lights on all day and heaters on all day. I did try for one month watching the power, being economical and stuff like that, got the bill to $290 for the month, but couldn't be bothered to keep that up. There are some providers that claim to have cheaper rates, like Mecury, if you fancied doing some leg work to see if you could save money. I prefer Genesis just because their customer service is 24/7 and they seem to have the monopoly like Telecom.

Genesis

With Genesis the night rates about 10 cents a kilowatt.

A dehumidifier uses about 400 watts. So it costs 4 cents an hour to run...over the 8 hour period thats 32 cents..over a 30 day period thats $9.60.


Thats not bad is it for all that moisture to be gone aye?

I run 4/5 of them!!!!! No DVS as I have a flat roof.

Joshlin

made me feel smug for a second - our electric bill with meridian is 80-100 per month but this is balanced by wood for burner $195 x 5 loads per year and gas for instant hot water at $112 per cylinder x 6 per year + rental $100/yr - works out about $225-245 per month

bjddavies

My power bill in Australia is A$260 per quarter for everything, hot water, cooking etc but no heating thankfully. How about that for smugness!

Tan0410

Thanks to all...know we should stop using the dryer and the heaters but kids are 7 mts and 22 mts and don't sleep well anyway - let alone when they're cold. Worth paying for that...plus the amount of clothes we go through kinda makes the dryer an essential item too... I know - people survived before dryers!!!

On a good note we're about to move to a house with a wood burner

Had budgeted for these amounts before we got here, as our mates were over here already, so no real surprise....just hard to believe

Will definitely look into the night rates! and the free wood!

BEVS

I'm on the low user rate with Contact Energy. We use under 8000 kWh per year at around 5500 kWh.

We've 3 meters .
Two are Anytime meters and supply electricity to different parts of the house
The other is the Economy one for the hot water run by immersion. It doesn't matter what time of day the immersion is on, the rate will be the same. The meter is there so the Electricity Board can control flow.

My average bill is around $ 110 per month throughout the year. There are just the two of us. I am careful to turns things off and not leave them on stand-by.

Our main heating here is the woodburner. $320 per year - $27 per month - for one cord of gum and half a cord of pine to see us through the winter. We started the log burner at the beginning of June and it will probably continue until a week into September. I don't have the log burner on in the day. It's used of an evening only. It has a wet back which will heat the hot water cylinder enough for a couple of showers a day.
This year we have become a bit more canny, and like our neighbours , we have started to scavenge for cones and wood, taking advantage of anything that is free.