Power Bill

[mrTbeer]

Just cracked the half ton. First $502 bill. One fridge, washing, drier, dishwasher get daily use. 2 computers always on. Elec hot water, oven, stove and AC.
AC doesn't get used much but drier gets a lot as does oven.
Usage down compared to last winter but price goes UP!

 

[ben_sa]

Lowest bill ever just came in... $300. Electric cooktop/oven... Only thing in the house on gas is hot water and heater (wall furnace). 2 of us, 2 plasmas, 1 lcd in bedroom. 1 food fridge, 2 beer fridges (1 ferment temps) and 1 full size upright freezer

Building a house at the moment and trying to guage whether we go solar... decisions decisions...

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Just over 4 years ago I had a 4kW Solar system put in and a solar hot water heater, it was a big decision because doing the sums at the time I was never going to get my money back,trouble is I can't resist a bargain, electricity company charges me 16 cents / KW hour and gives me 60 cents / KW hour.
I haven't paid a bill in 4 years and that is including gas, my credits through the summer help pay for the winter bills with the reduced output from the solar cells during winter.
What I have always wondered is why the geo thermal energy hasn't been tapped into, there were over 400 volcanoes in Victoria, there must be lots of heat going on beneath our feet I believe that after 2 or 3 thousand years without any activity they are classed as extinct and I think the only one classed as dormant is Mount Gambier.
What's the hold up in having a crack at the geo thermal, is it water to make the super heated steam ?
If anyone knows I would like to know more about it, a few years they sunk a test hole in Moomba and just before they got to try it some wally dropped a spanner down the hole and stuffed it up.
I think the reason they tried to achieve something in Moomba was the underground water supply as well as the thermal rocks under the ground, but surely this would be the way to go.

 

[mrTbeer]

Lots of small geothermal in London, they use it to boost heating efficiency not for power, works there at relatively shallow depths. When used for heating they don't need to boil they just need it constant. The ground temp is the average of year round air temp. About 12c there and about 23c here. It's used in conjunction with heatpumps can be applied to cooling as well but isn't?
Most Aus geothermal is deep and in search of hot temps to boil steam hence run turbines and produce base load, problem is they are very remote locations, still testing and far removed from grid. Look up GDY asx for some detail.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Lots of small geothermal in London, they use it to boost heating efficiency not for power, works there at relatively shallow depths. When used for heating they don't need to boil they just need it constant. The ground temp is the average of year round air temp. About 12c there and about 23c here. It's used in conjunction with heatpumps can be applied to cooling as well but isn't?
Most Aus geothermal is deep and in search of hot temps to boil steam hence run turbines and produce base load, problem is they are very remote locations, still testing and far removed from grid. Look up GDY asx for some detail.

Thanks for that, just read an article in the Business Spectator about the Innaminka Deeps (5km) it states that 1% of the shallower hot rock, between 3 and 5 km could supply Australia's energy for 26,000 years, down side is it would cost slightly more to produce electricity but obviously more environmentally friendly.

 

[QldKev]

I got one of them power measuring devices and looked at my usage as we have >$750 bills, with no aircon or heating (to be fair we have ceiling fans that run 2/3 of the year) in a brand new so called energy efficient house. The thread is here where I posted my measurements. Some things I was shocked by, as in my sons gaming computer at over $100 per quarter; which is roughly the same as our 4 fridges combined.

At a summary I found (per year cost, and the power rates have gone up since this was measured)
4 fridges $400 (1 is a fermenting fridge so spends 1/2 time at 18c, and 1/2 at 4c)
Sons pc $400 (top gaming spec)
My pc $200 (gaming spec)
Bio Cycle $170
HWS (solar and in QLD) $232

So you can see there alone is $350 a quarter, and that was at the old tariff rates, so it's probably closer to $400.
Then we run a pump for water to the toilets and washing machine.
Cook on electric, plus microwave gets a good workout
We have modern fluro globes, but every room has multiple lights.
Ceiling fans have already started being used for summer.
TV's, stereos, dvd players, etc.
Brewing on elec (only a couple of bucks really)
Probably a few others not listed

It adds up pretty quickly

 

[mrTbeer]

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.

 

[QldKev]

If you're not running big graphics cards often they are not as bad as above, we need 2 x 6 pin plugs for the graphics cards, and my sons power supply is 950w; whilst I run a little 600w one. Also the figures includes the screens we are running, I'm using a 27", and my son has a 22" plus a 32" (yes 32") screen.

 

[JaseH]

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.

I have a couple of servers in a rack in my study, they are on 24/7. I keep the door to the study closed most of the time to keep the fan noise from the rest of the house. You would be surprised how warm that room gets with just those 2 machines running, which means there must be a bit of power being consumed.

My stir plate lives in that room, the yeast starters love the warmth

 

[thebeemann]

Just got my latest bill , our house is uninsulated and an old fibro asbestos thing $1364.32 , i love living in the most expensive state for electricity , roof being insulated for summer , last summer aircon was on for 3 days and the room its in was 42c , we are renting and landlord doesnt care , im paying for the insulation in the roof .

 

[wbosher]

**** me we get ripped off in NZ for power. My last bill was $380, that's monthly!

Two fridges, and a fermenting fridge
Crappy old PC
Crappy old 40" LCD tv

Just pretty standard stuff really.

 

[QldKev]

**** me we get ripped off in NZ for power. My last bill was $380, that's monthly!

Two fridges, and a fermenting fridge
Crappy old PC
Crappy old 40" LCD tv

Just pretty standard stuff really.

What $ per kwh are you on? I always thought you was cheaper than here.

But I guess you probably have more heating requirements

 

[mrTbeer]

**** me we get ripped off in NZ for power. My last bill was $380, that's monthly!

Would the last one to leave NZ, please turn the light off when you go.

Had to share just paying electricity bills for work and home. I asked Origin if they could do a better rate? They gave me 13% of advertised rates for work and 9% off advertised rates for home.
Business choice code 8167 and Daily Saver Plus are the keywords, nothing to lose other than a promise to stay with them for 12months.

 

[mrTbeer]

If you're not running big graphics cards often they are not as bad as above, we need 2 x 6 pin plugs for the graphics cards, and my sons power supply is 950w; whilst I run a little 600w one. Also the figures includes the screens we are running, I'm using a 27", and my son has a 22" plus a 32" (yes 32") screen.

I've got 2 x 22" but no graphics card (i3 Brix)

 

[booargy]

Just got my latest bill , our house is uninsulated and an old fibro asbestos thing $1364.32 , i love living in the most expensive state for electricity , roof being insulated for summer , last summer aircon was on for 3 days and the room its in was 42c , we are renting and landlord doesnt care , im paying for the insulation in the roof .

grid guerrilla

 

[bradsbrew]

Just got my latest bill , our house is uninsulated and an old fibro asbestos thing $1364.32 , i love living in the most expensive state for electricity , roof being insulated for summer , last summer aircon was on for 3 days and the room its in was 42c , we are renting and landlord doesnt care , im paying for the insulation in the roof .

Just got my latest bill , our house is uninsulated and an old fibro asbestos thing $1364.32 , i love living in the most expensive state for electricity , roof being insulated for summer , last summer aircon was on for 3 days and the room its in was 42c , we are renting and landlord doesnt care , im paying for the insulation in the roof .

lucky its asbestos and not ccs, asbestos is a pretty good insulator.

 

[wbosher]

What $ per kwh are you on? I always thought you was cheaper than here.

But I guess you probably have more heating requirements

Actually, scratch that. I just check my bill and almost half of that is gas, the power is $202. Still pretty high for a monthly bill though IMO.

26.96 cents/kWh - variable use charge
33.33 cents/day - daily fixed charge
0.17 cents/kWh - Eletricity Authority levy
and GST

Heating is gas not power, so is hot water. So the power is really only fridge, stove, lighting, TV, PC, etc...

Maybe less competition here due to smaller population?

 

[edschache]

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. Part of my morning routine is turning off the phone charger that my wife charges her phone on over night. It probably saves us all of $2/qtr but that isn't really the point - it's all part of turning off anything that is not in use. The charger for our electric toothbrush is another example - it is warm if it is on with nothing on it, a clear sign that it's slowly just wasting power.

Energy efficient lights are another good move for the areas that you have lit often. When I did the lighting for my deck I had no real choice but to go with LED lights. 6 lights are bright enough to light the 6x4m deck and they draw about 1.2W @ 12v. I actually think that LED technology is getting to the point where if you were building a new house you could go entirely 12V for lighting and just charge a couple of deep cycles off a solar panel without going via 240V. That combined with an Engel or two, a laptop that will charge off a 5V DC USB power source, a 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.

 

[QldKev]

Actually, scratch that. I just check my bill and almost half of that is gas, the power is $202. Still pretty high for a monthly bill though IMO.

26.96 cents/kWh - variable use charge
33.33 cents/day - daily fixed charge
0.17 cents/kWh - Eletricity Authority levy
and GST

Heating is gas not power, so is hot water. So the power is really only fridge, stove, lighting, TV, PC, etc...

Maybe less competition here due to smaller population?

Not sure about the gas as we don't have a connection, but your power is a little bit more expensive, elec use charge is 26.73 cents/kWh + GST.

edit: clarified costing

 

[wbosher]

Not sure about the gas as we don't have a connection, but your power is a little bit more expensive, we are 26.73 + GST.

$26.73 per month???!!!