Power Bill

[QldKev]

$26.73 per month???!!!

26.73 cents/kWh +GST

 

[ben_sa]

As someone with cheap electricity bills my advice is to just be pedantic about turning things off, and for most things that means at the wall.

Energy efficient lights are another good move for the areas that you have lit often.
BBQ/gas stove for cooking and good house design and insulation to avoid heating/cooling and you'd be laughing your off-grid ass off.

Of course I say all of that while having 6 fridges at home... home brew is like most hobbies and has a price attached to it. I only have them on when in use (3 atm, soon to be back to 2). We also just got a dishwasher for the first time in 6 years which you will not see me giving up in a hurry.... ooohhh sparkly beer glasses

Do we pay a lot for the luxuries we have - yep. Are we some of the luckiest bastards in the world if that is the sum total of our problems - hell yeah.

I started this about 3-4 months ago... All because when i was up getting ready for work, i heard the plasma in the shed make a noice, like a power up/down... so now everything gets the flick... except fridges and microwave (simply cos i cant reach it)

LEDs were expensive for us to start off with (through the builder) but majority of our new house will utilise them. and an outdoor BBQ gas connection means the bbq will cop a hiding. Got a brand new Weber Q which use bugger all gas too...

Once we move in we are ditching our 420L all fridge (15 y.o) and 320ishL upright freezer (prob 20 y.o) and going for a new french door... If freezer space becomes a masive problem, the hops will need to go to the beer fridge (serving one) and i wont be able to keep such a large amount of stock

But your right, in the context, we are pretty damm lucky, we dont need protective gear to drive to work, etc etc... like my cousins who work the the government in a foreign country

 

[leahy268]

Wow I wouldn't have guessed a PC uses that much.
My PC's are always on, laptop hibernates, the desktop is pretty 'lightweight' but there's a 10gang powerboard which I'll checkout.

Mine certainly doesn't. When going through a cheap phase I started turning mine off every night and then only turning it on when I needed it. Although I don't have a meter to check it's usage there was absolutely no difference in the power bill unfortunately. Same with the tv and every other major appliance that I could turn off. I think it saved me around $10/quarter. Decided that it wasn't worth the effort at that rate.
But then my stuff isn't anything like as powerful as qld kev's..