Power Bill

[praxis178]

$460/quarter

1 2door fridge freezer (food)
1 bar fridge (hop freezer)
1 fermentation fridge (~14C on average, although right now it's 10C)
1 beer fridge

3pcs (two laptops)
stove
washer
dishwasher
32" LCD TV

Oh yeah electric hotwater....

Very rarely used: Kiln 3.6KVA draw

Four adults so I guess it's about average for a SE QLD home.

 

[bignath]

About $250 a quarter. Cooking and hot water is gas.

I run a lot of electronic stuff too.

To be specific, this is what I have running.

1 - Large family fridge
2 - Converted chest freezer (275L)
3 - Two bar fridges running at fermenting or lagering temps 24/7
4 - A NAS (like a PC) 24/7
5 - Laptop acting as server 24/7
6 - Media Centre PC 24/7
7 - Three LCD TV's though rarely more than one on at the same time
8 - 4 fans and 4 air cons though not often used
9 - Laptops, chargers, ipod docks and stuff like that used fairly regularly
10 - Urn with 2400 watt element used every couple of weeks for a few hours
11 - Oven, microwave, toaster, dishwasher, washing machine
12 - Clothes dryer used for drying clothes. Don't have a clothes line.

I can't understand how it's even possible to have a $600 electricity bill.

Hmm forgot modems, routers, the fact I have those wasteful 12v downlights and the wife likes leaving lights on!!! Automatic garage door! The list goes on.

Jeeezzzuuuuusssss!

I would love a $250 quarterly. Last bill i paid a few weeks ago was $718!
My setup is very similar to your description.
Beer fridge, Keezer, Fermenting fridge, usual TV and assosciated suspects, a couple of computers, nothing out of the ordinary....
Kids leave their lights on all the time though, but that couldn't be it.
Might have to give energy watch a call, or move further north perhaps...

 

[Batz]

I've been thinking about getting one of those power meters for testing the fermenting fridge, those old fridges are power hogs I'm sure, especially when you're trying to CC @ 0c on a hot day.

something like this http://www.latestbuy.com.au/digital-power-meter.html

I have one the same as that you can have for $20.00

Batz

 

[MarkBastard]

Jeeezzzuuuuusssss!

I would love a $250 quarterly. Last bill i paid a few weeks ago was $718!
My setup is very similar to your description.
Beer fridge, Keezer, Fermenting fridge, usual TV and assosciated suspects, a couple of computers, nothing out of the ordinary....
Kids leave their lights on all the time though, but that couldn't be it.
Might have to give energy watch a call, or move further north perhaps...

I live in a complex and our electricity is done through some weird bulk process. I think we get cheaper rates because of that maybe. Can't remember how electricity is rated but I think ours is 15cents. Maybe 15 cents per kilowatt hour or something like that.

Amazingly it started at 5cents. They had a lot of trouble getting it going at the start so they only sent the bill out after about 10 months. I was thinking I was going to get free electricity forever hehehe. But then they sent out a bill and it was still heaps cheap anyway! I think they gave a really low rate at first because they'd taken so long to send one out. Fair enough.

Had gas for free the first 15 months or so I lived here. Basically when I first moved in I called up and the electricity company said they'd be doing gas too, but then 15 months later I get a disconnect notice from Energy Australia saying I've receiving illegal gas. Called the electricity company and they said they don't do gas. So I just signed up with AGL so that Origin wouldn't try and get back-money out of me hahaha.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

With government subsidies & a big discount from Solar Shop just under $16000.
Just hoping I live long enough to get my money back.
A good place to get info on a decent solar system is the Whirlpool Forums.

TP

Or this place:

http://forums.energymatters.com.au/

I bought a set of flooded lead acids from them a while ago (24V, 1050AH Raylite) and it is where my wind turbine originally came from.

There is the usual forum community mix of contributors - some who really know their sunlight.

 

[outbreak]

Ok I thought my $200 bill was crazy.....

 

[Bribie G]

Jeeezzzuuuuusssss!

I would love a $250 quarterly. Last bill i paid a few weeks ago was $718!
My setup is very similar to your description.
Beer fridge, Keezer, Fermenting fridge, usual TV and assosciated suspects, a couple of computers, nothing out of the ordinary....
Kids leave their lights on all the time though, but that couldn't be it.
Might have to give energy watch a call, or move further north perhaps...

SA power bills have always been huge compared to QLD, even a few years ago when our bills were around $150 I was horrified at reports of the poor Adelaidian centrelink clients especially in the Northern Suburbs - having their power cut off because they couldn't pay the $500 bills. Now with Anna Blight selling everything off (started by Beattie) the differential is getting smaller.

 

[Hatchy]

We're under $250/quarter, electric heating would be the main impact on ours. I used to work in a call centre for an energy retailer so will post some tips when I get home, iphone is ok for reading, not so good for posting.

 

[amiddler]

I have almost fell over with some of these prices. Just paid the power bill at $150 then checked how often we get them. Every 2 months here in the west so $300 a quarter. Other providers may have different billing frequencies.

I run a fairly typical 2 adult 2 kid household:
2x fridges
1x fermenting fridge between 4 and 12'C
1x 216L kegator
2x computers
washing machine 1-2 loads a day (new baby)
other typical appliances and brew once a fortnight with electric HWT.

I don't have any fancy TVs just old tube types. Gas hot water and stove top, gas bills around $200 a quarter. We are slowly changing to low power lights. We average 4x 50w down lights in each room so swapping them for 10w energy efficient is a huge power saving.

Drew

 

[bignath]

We're under $250/quarter, electric heating would be the main impact on ours. I used to work in a call centre for an energy retailer so will post some tips when I get home, iphone is ok for reading, not so good for posting.

Hatchy, as we're in the same state, i would be very interested in any tips you could post at your convenience. I feel like our house is doing most of the usual things that people suggest, but one thing i want to start trialling is to see if it does make a difference by switching off appliances at the wall, and if so, how much of a difference...
We have a dishwasher, but usually wash by hand. Turn the lights out in rooms when we aren't in them (kids keep forgetting though..)

Cheers

Nath

 

[Shed101]

I used to work with people experts on energy efficiency. Things like standby power can use huge amounts of electricity. Especially when m/facturers are cheating.

This link might help you.

A nice quote from their homepage:


"An individual product draws relatively little standby power (see here for examples) but a typical American home has forty products constantly drawing power. Together these amount to almost 10% of residential electricity use."

 

[Brewindo]

Electricity is stil cheap in Aus though. I have lived OS now for several years in a couple of different countires. Now in Indonesia and our electricity bill decreased when we moved here. Still minimum $500 per month ($1500 - $2000 a qtr). At least 1 A/C running 24/7, with the rest of the usual power sucking goodies as listed above.

Even at that price the service leaves a lot to be desired. We have a back up genset to compensate for the frequent power interuptions :blink:

 

[Phoney]

$150 - 180 pq.

Heating, hot water & cooking on gas.

2 People
1 TV
1 PC on 24/7
2 fridges (1 for kitchen 1 for fermenting)
Washing machine - 2 loads per week
Dryer - rarely used.
1 40L urn, used to brew once every 2 or 3 weeks.
Kettle, toaster, microwave & thats it.


I cant believe so many people pay so much! :blink:

 

[benno1973]

Ok I thought my $200 bill was crazy.....

Yeh, there's some pretty big numbers being posted.

We have:
1 x food fridge
1 x fermenting fridge
1 x kegerator
2 x freezers
electric boosted solar hot water
reverse cycle aircon
3 x computers

for 2 kids, 2 adults, in a 4x2 house.

Our last bill for 1 month (we get billed monthly) was $30, and $10 of that was supply charge.

The biggest savers of energy are out 1kW PV system on the roof, and the centameter that we have in our kitchen, which allows us to identify when we're using lots of power and start turning things off. The small energy meters are also ideal for monitoring a single appliance and its usage over a week. It was on that alone that I was able to convince my wife that my fermenting fridge used less energy than our kettle...

 

[DJR]

It's about $200-300 per quarter here.

Big drawers:

2x PC's in the office, probably about 80 hours of use per week all up plus a few standby things (printer/scanner, voip phone, cordless phone, speakers, routers)
1x macbook not used very often in the house
1 old fridge in the kitchen
1 newish chest freezer
Old CRT TV that hardly gets used
Electric cooktop+oven
Washing machine
Flouro globes in all the sockets bar 1 that isn't used much (porch light)
Portable aircon unit that draws about 1kw when on

Gas instant water heater and gas heater - used to have a big electric system and the gas instant is a fair amount cheaper.

Could get it down a bit by not using the PC so much and getting a more efficient chest freezer/fridge I reckon.

 

[mika]

My power bill isn't crazy, but the 1kw solar system on the roof is doing SFA. I think it's saving me ~$10 a bill if I'm lucky. Others seem to be having more success, is my system a dud ?

 

[drew9242]

I have almost fell over with some of these prices. Just paid the power bill at $150 then checked how often we get them. Every 2 months here in the west so $300 a quarter. Other providers may have different billing frequencies.

I run a fairly typical 2 adult 2 kid household:
2x fridges
1x fermenting fridge between 4 and 12'C
1x 216L kegator
2x computers
washing machine 1-2 loads a day (new baby)
other typical appliances and brew once a fortnight with electric HWT.

I don't have any fancy TVs just old tube types. Gas hot water and stove top, gas bills around $200 a quarter. We are slowly changing to low power lights. We average 4x 50w down lights in each room so swapping them for 10w energy efficient is a huge power saving.

Drew

Hey Drew

As we live in WA aswell we get the bill every 2 months aswell, our bills are normaly about 120 bucks. But you did your calculations wrong. To be a quarter of a year that would be 3 months. So your quarter bill would be $225 instead. I think i have worked that out alright.

Cheers Drew

 

[amiddler]

Your right. I did a quarter as 4 months :blink:

People need to be quoting there gas as well if not using power for heating and cooking as I think some people are quoting prices of a full electricity house. I definatly would not pay more than $1500 a year for combined power and gas. Always looking to save more thoe with prices going up.

Drew

 

[white.grant]

My power bill isn't crazy, but the 1kw solar system on the roof is doing SFA. I think it's saving me ~$10 a bill if I'm lucky. Others seem to be having more success, is my system a dud ?

From my very basic understanding, 1Kwh isn't a very big system, so you would only be ofsetting a small amount of the energy ou actually use. I was planning on a 6 kwh system for my place and that would make me almost self powering.

cheers

grant

 

[benno1973]

My power bill isn't crazy, but the 1kw solar system on the roof is doing SFA. I think it's saving me ~$10 a bill if I'm lucky. Others seem to be having more success, is my system a dud ?

As I understand it, the PV panels offset your power first, and if they are producing more than you're consuming, then they export the remainder to the grid. The amount you see on your bill is the amount you're exporting, so if it's $10 a month, then that's just the surplus and the remainder is being used to offset your existing power. It's hard to work out how much your PV panels are producing daily unless you have a display on your inverter or you get good at reading the smartmeter in your meter box.