How much do you pay for electricity?

Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

wokka

Guest
My electricity charges are significant. At one end of my shed I heat snakes whilst at the other end of the shed I freeze rats. I have just spent an hour or so comparing electricity rates and , well, its as bad as getting a mobile phone plan.
So far all I have come up with the offer to contract to a discount off a variable price, which to me committing to buy electricity, exclusively from a supplier irrespective of price they chose to charge.Is this what everyone else agrees to? Do any companies offer fixed price contracts?
 
Try solar works for me ...... but i only have 3 snakes and some skinks.....

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk
 
We have solar panels which off-set the electricity bills.

Systems are being developed that use the heat from refrigeration and vice versa i.e using sub-zero temps produced from the heating process: http://solar.org.au/papers/00papers/Bruno.PDF
Such systems could be adapted to simultaneously heat and freeze for people such as yourself that need to freeze and heat in the same shed at the same time.
 
I got solar, and it took a large dent out of my electricity bill. Before that, I used to use thermostats on everything to save power, insulated all of my enclosures, and chose the most reliable power company in the area rather then worried about the price. When it's variable they can all change it so I went after service instead.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
G'day Warwick,
A good friend of mine has recently switched to pre pay electricity and claims they are saving a few hundred each month. It maybe worth lookiing into it. apparently it is directly linked to an App on his phone and can check out all kind of things from the phone which was one of the benefits of the introduction of the smart meter. They also release specials every month for example "This week its 10c a KW.
Also he said that according to the company, they can never cut the power even if you run out of pre pay.

Hope this could help someone.

Cheers, Dan
 
I have solar which is a good investment as I receive 60 cents per kilowatt, however there seems to be a variety of rates out there for supplying electricity, which is what I started sorting through to see if I could minimise what my bought in electricity costs. I was surprised that the electricity retailers will only contract to discount their price and not to fix their price. Since their price is variable they are really garanteeing nothing except that they lock me into buying from them at what ever price they chose to charge. Does anyone have a contract which garantees the price they will pay for electricity for say the next 5 years? Maybe I am just cynical but when a retailer says to me sign here to lock yourself into buying electricity from us, for the next two years, but at a varible price it seems a bit suss.
 
I have found the same when shopping around. All the rates seem to be the same but only the discounts on lock in contracts seem to change. I'm the same as you and don't want to be locked in to something that can change at any time.
 
I found this site very helpful when comparing prices not too long ago. A lot of the plans don't have a fixed contract time if you are worried about signing up for an extended period.

http://www.switchwise.com.au/

As I understand it all the electrical companies that you pay your bill to are subject to the prices the electrical distributors charge which does change from time to time so I doubt you will find anyone with a lock in price as the people billing you are not setting the wholesale price.
 
That looked a very simple site. The best priced providor saved me about 20% however I was locked it to current prices even when carbon tax is removed which i understand will be next month. I am told the Carbon tax should reduce prices about 7.5% if it is passed on. I notice my latest bill has reduce charges by about 0.2 cents per kilowatt, in rates from 12 cents -47 cents a KW, supposed to be in anticipation of the carbon tax. Could that be an attempt by my current supplier to get committment while there is uncertainty in the market, or am I a cynic?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The way I see it Wokka, they are like health funds and banks, they have promo prices/products to attract new customers, once they are satisfied with there numbers they jack the prices up to maximise profits. Until the next promo drive to attract new customers so it is a continuous cycle with the competitors in different parts of the cycle, so it pays to shop around and review your deal every so often.

My current deal gives a 16% pay on time discount which saves quite a bit as long as there hourly kw rate is competitive.

The other thing to look at if you meter allows it is whether you are better off with a flat rate or on/off peak rates.

Also the way I understand it any carbon tax price reductions will be passed on across the board including to existing rates, not just to new customers or deals as the rates charged are flexible.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
We are in a rental one bedroom unit which is actually a converted carport - the colour bond roof literally doubles as the ceiling with insulation being completely non existent.

Constant heating and cooling running for the snakes (and us when we're home) but electricity bill is still only around $200 per quarter.
 
I just heard on the radio that thermal coal prices are now below $70 a tonne ex Newcastle, compared to a peak of $200 in 2008, and $140 in 2011. Since most of the power in NSW is generated from coal fired power stations, it is unfortunate that the price changes for coal are not reflected in the electricity prices!

- - - Updated - - -

We are in a rental one bedroom unit which is actually a converted carport - the colour bond roof literally doubles as the ceiling with insulation being completely non existent.

Constant heating and cooling running for the snakes (and us when we're home) but electricity bill is still only around $200 per quarter.
Perhaps a layer of solar panels above you roof would provide a level of shade/insulation and offset power costs.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The way I see it Wokka, they are like health funds and banks, they have promo prices/products to attract new customers, once they are satisfied with there numbers they jack the prices up to maximise profits. Until the next promo drive to attract new customers so it is a continuous cycle with the competitors in different parts of the cycle, so it pays to shop around and review your deal every so often.

My current deal gives a 16% pay on time discount which saves quite a bit as long as there hourly kw rate is competitive.

The other thing to look at if you meter allows it is whether you are better off with a flat rate or on/off peak rates.

Also the way I understand it any carbon tax price reductions will be passed on across the board including to existing rates, not just to new customers or deals as the rates charged are flexible.

I was looking at my AGL bill the other day, and noted the "pay on time" discount, and the warning that late payment attracts a penalty of $15 or more. Does that mean that the actual amount of the bill is some sort of nonsense amount, because you never pay that actual amount? You either pay less or more that the amount stated on the bill... so what's the point, except to "reward" you for being good, or punish you for being bad? Or am I just too thick to get it?

Jamie
 
Last bill was $200 dollars.

- I am running a hatchling rack with 10 meter cord,
- I own over 20 snakes at present.
- We have comfortably run heating for the house at night. (make sure you get modern power efficient air conditioning)
- All house lights are power efficient LED or CFL
- We have a 5kw North Facing Solar System.
- We run all the major appliances during the day, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer etc.

Make the swtich to solar, you can get a complete system for as much as $7,500 (make sure you get a good inverter, DW too much about solar panel quality)
 
Last edited:
Not worth getting solar in WA next to no rebate and the cost out ways the savings now.
Perth also only has a single supplier. And it's the most expensive in Australia.
 
my bill was $1100, we have no solar and in S.A. the rebate has dropped to the point of non existance so is a waste of time, seems the people without solar are offsetting the rebate given to people with.
 
In reality the cost of electricity has no relationship to the real cost of production. Like most capitalistic analysis the social and environmental cost is ignored. I live near Newcastle, one of the worlds largest coal ports, and have watched the coal industry destroy alternative industries which are unable to compete with the shorterm profitabilty applied to coal. I wonder what will happen when the coal industry fails? Will the alternative employers be able to re-establish or are they gone for ever? Once solar systems, free of the grid, become affordable poles and wires wont be necessary for residential supply. It is just a matter of coming up with better storage systems and taking into account the social and envvironmental benefit. I think they call it tripple bottom line accounting!

- - - Updated - - -

Not worth getting solar in WA next to no rebate and the cost out ways the savings now.
Perth also only has a single supplier. And it's the most expensive in Australia.
What rates do you pay for pwer in WA?
 
I don't know why people have such a hard time with electricity if they haven't got heat cords and mats. We had a woman from some electricity place come and do a check on our house and tell us roughly how much each appliance was costing per month to run. She said that each of the bulbs in the lizard tanks (I had 17 lizards at the time) would only cost 15cents per bulb, per month to run, so the electricity bill that comes with keeping lizards has never been a problem for me, it's more the cost of food that was a problem haha.
 
I don't know why people have such a hard time with electricity if they haven't got heat cords and mats. We had a woman from some electricity place come and do a check on our house and tell us roughly how much each appliance was costing per month to run. She said that each of the bulbs in the lizard tanks (I had 17 lizards at the time) would only cost 15cents per bulb, per month to run, so the electricity bill that comes with keeping lizards has never been a problem for me, it's more the cost of food that was a problem haha.
I hope you didn't pay too much for that analysis. 15 cents per month would be 0.25-1 KW per month depending upon your electricity rates. That equates to say 1-10 watts a day depending upon how long you run them. I dont keep lizards, but believe that would provide inadequate heat! I am not having a go but would hate to have newbies believing the earlier comments.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top