Power bill

[slim6y]

does anyone have any links they can share about the peak and off-peak times?
Im curious as our bill has jumped up $100 as well and might have to do some reasearch to find out where our excess use is.
We usually turn everything off at the point at night or when we aren't using it to cut the costs a little.
We have even gone to the extent of using candles for light.....

Candles will certainly be costing you more money than a light and - they're just as non-environmentally friendly as a lightbulb.

The reason candles are not environmentally friendly is thaey're a by-product of the petroleum industry - burning wax lets of CO, CO2 and water vapour - the carbon is tied up in that candle till it is lit!!!

I trust you're using energy efficient lights.

Things like fans, although they appear cheap accumulate costs dramatically.

Like you suggest - if it's on at the point, it's as good as on (even if it's off).

eg - Most people's clock on their microwave oven uses more electricity in the year than the actual microwave!!!

Of course the largest users of electricity in the house is hot water cylinders (we've got a heat pump for ours), fridges and freezers (especially old ones - in fact they're very expensive to run if they have even the smallest of faults or poor seals - one thing you can do is attach the baby door stops to the fridge doors - the ones that hold cupboard doors shut to stop babies getting in to them - if you're seals are no good, then at least tighten the door shutting), air conditioners and heaters (usually anywhere from 2 - 5kW!!!).

Halogen bulbs, spot lights and incandescent bulbs are all equally inefficient.

Just because you're 42in LCD screen states it is efficient it still uses some 4 times the electricity that its CRT counterparts used (tho they were smaller over all).

Well - that's a start....

Some of your bills are absolutely horrendous!!!

 

[wizz]

wouldnt be T.H would it .....

Yep that's the one

 

[imalizard]

Maybe we could blame reptile keepers for global warming?:lol:

 

[garthy]

does anyone have any links they can share about the peak and off-peak times?
Im curious as our bill has jumped up $100 as well and might have to do some reasearch to find out where our excess use is.
We usually turn everything off at the point at night or when we aren't using it to cut the costs a little.
We have even gone to the extent of using candles for light.....

In NSW it is a s follows:
WEEKDAYS
7am - 2pm Shoulder (14c/kwhr)
2pm - 8pm Peak (36c/kwhr)
8pm - 10pm Shoulder (14c/kwhr)
10pm - 7am Off-peak (11c/kwhr)

WEEKENDS & PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
7am - 10pm Shoulder (14c/kwhr)
10pm - 7am Off-peak (11c/kwhr)

Hope this helps

 

[Allies_snakes]

Get this for UNHEARD OF...our last bill was paid by energex after repeated requests for it, after 9 months of asking for it, when it finally came it was in someone elses name..some computer glitch at their end, so we were honest enough to let them know no one at our house went by that name and we had to send copies of out last bills with our names on it etc.

Thinking they would send us the same bill with correct names, they sent us a letter stating that they had messed up and couldnt find proper readings for the past 9 months and they couldnt work out who the person was who's name/account it was going in. So they paid it! Early Merry Xmas to us! So now we have a bill of $165 for the last 3 months...break dancin, break dancin.

 

[=bECS=]

They only have to inspect the meter once a year

And yet they still have the gall to charge you a $40 fee per quarter to read the bloody thing!! :evil:

 

[ShaunMorelia]

Candles will certainly be costing you more money than a light and - they're just as non-environmentally friendly as a lightbulb.

At $2 for a candle that will burn for at least 20hrs seems like a cheaper option to me.

Like you suggest - if it's on at the point, it's as good as on (even if it's off).

Everything except the fridge is turned off at the point or at the meter box if not being used.
We have even been flicking the switch on the water heater and turning it on for 2-4hrs in the afternoon to heat the water up if needed.

Halogen bulbs, spot lights and incandescent bulbs are all equally inefficient.

Do you know of any energy efficient replacements for halogen downlights? As we are renting and the owner has put these in most of the rooms....thats why we use candles over halogen downlights....

Cheers
S

 

[junglepython2]

At $2 for a candle that will burn for at least 20hrs seems like a cheaper option to me.

Even a 60W incandecsant would only cost around 25cents to run for the same time period. Plus the new energy effecient globes run on much less wattage.

 

[solar 17]

Power bills

Take a deep breath guys l just got mine $1449.86......pay em and move on ...solar 17 [Baden]

 

[ShaunMorelia]

Do you know of any energy efficient replacements for halogen downlights? As we are renting and the owner has put these in most of the rooms....thats why we use candles over halogen downlights....

Cheers
S

Even a 60W incandecsant would only cost around 25cents to run for the same time period. Plus the new energy effecient globes run on much less wattage.

As said im my earlier post.
Do you know of any energy effiecient halogen replacements?

 

[junglepython2]

Might be a few ideas here.

Down Lights Guide - All you need to know about halogens & down light replacements - Todae

http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/ls_ConvertDownlights.pdf

 

[slim6y]

A $2 candle burning for 20 hours costs around 10 cents an hour ($2 / 20 hours). Agreed?

A 100W lightbulb (the brightest of the incandescent bulbs that you'd want to use in your room) uses just 100W - or 100 Joules per second.... Which would probably be 5 - 15 times more than a candle.

If your electricity is charged at 15 cents per kWhr (kilowatt hour) that means if you use 1 kW for 1 hour you'll be charged 15 cents.

100W is 1/10th of a kW (a kilowatt is 1000 watts).

Therefore a 100W lightbulb costs approximately 1.5cents per hour to run.

That makes it over 6 times cheaper - however, you probably only use 75W or 60W bulbs or 12W energy efficient bulbs for the same light.

Candles in my mind are prettier, more romantic, less heat producing but also less light producing. They also produce a very natural and aesthetic light. But they're not cheaper!!!

And they're less environmentally friendly as suggested.

Alternatives to downlights (I have the same problem in my new house) - I think there's replacement bulbs wit LEDs in them (though I am not certain in Australia) but you can try them. They're incredibly efficient.

But I doubt it's lighting that is costing you a fortune.... Though turning of your hot water cylinder may mean it works longer than it needs to.

Try turning it off at night at 8pm and on again at 8am let it heat during the day and insulate the HWC with a blanket or something that'll keep the heat in.

 

[Slats]

Ha HA im up in Katherine NT, I run the air conditioning in the snake rooms through the wet so keep the temp below 35 inside haha.

I havent had a powerbill under 850 for at least a year and a half

Again to my dismay, powerbill for wet season arrived yesterday
$1470.00
The joys

 

[wiz-fiz]

At these prices it may be worthwhile in the long term to invest in a solar panel, then any extra energy you supply to the grid YOU get PAID for (my understanding of it) They're exy but not too bad compared to the bills some of you are getting O.O

thats what i was thinking just go 2 solar and after a while u have saved a fair bit of money

The solar panel rebate ($8k) is means tested so those who can afford to install the panels dont get the rebate. Pretty stupid planning by the govt and no wonder no one is taking up the offer. If they removed the means test I would certainly fork out the $15k to install panels.

with a $1000 bill imo it would b well worth getting the solar panels coz after 16 years your saving money on electricity, and its greener (from my understanding).


Will

 

[hallie]

Smart meters are the biggest scam!

The are read remotely so no meter readers required..

I take my own meter readings to make sure im not getting ripped off.
(anymore than usual anyway..):|

 

[CodeRed]

with a $1000 bill imo it would b well worth getting the solar panels coz after 16 years your saving money on electricity, and its greener (from my understanding).

geeze only 16 yrs to break even ... no thanks.

 

[Lesa]

all that's just scary... ours is approx $325 q quarter. That's with AC running A LOT during summer (but we chucked the dryer.) Good thing I like "mood lighting"

 

[Stevo2]

geeze only 16 yrs to break even ... no thanks.

Such short-sightedness

 

[Stitched]

just to clarify, you dont get paid for sending electricity back into the grid, you get credit from your supplier. However, you would need a hell of a lot of solar panels to create more energy than you actually use, so its not particularly beneficial to most people. It is good for cost reduction though. Also, LED downlights are more efficient and last longer, but sometimes require different transformers, depending on the type you have. Just another cost to look out for

 

[Chris89]

My last Power Bill that I got in November was $560 and it was only me living in the house. . . I haven't had another one yet, I am kind of dredding it and expected it to have arrived by now, but I'm not calling the company to remind them (lol)