Unusually High Energy Bill from Red Energy

sagrules on 12/09/2015 - 10:19
Last edited 12/09/2015 - 10:44 by 1 other user

Hi All,
I’ve received unusually high energy bill $430 from red energy.
Usually I pay around $280 for 3 months in summer and winter
I live in a unit in NSW and the meter is analog.

Only 2 people in the house with no aircon.
We occasionally used a small Delonghi electric heater during June-July

I’ve checked the meter reading:
• 6th of June 82414 (red energy reading)
• 1st of August 83478 (red energy reading)
• 3rd of September 84124 (red energy reading)
• 12th of September 84240 (my reading)

6th of June to 31st of July 1064 kWh (56 days)
1st of August to 3rd of September 646 kWh (34 days)
Service to property charge is 71.970c per day

Is $430 for 1710 kWh over 90 days too expensive?

Any advice on reducing the energy bill?

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Comments

  • TJ4BM on 12/09/2015 - 11:04
    +1

    I read this title as 'unusually high energy from red bull' .,,

    I was going to say cut back on the energy drinks… So apart from that, I have not much advise.

    The service charge to property seems quite high. I don't have a bill in front of me, but I think I pay around 46 cents per day..
    Have you got a previous bill to see if your service charge daiky rate has gone up?

  • burningrage on 12/09/2015 - 11:50
    +1

    1,710Kwh over 90 days = 19Kwh per day.

    That's way too high for a 2 people occupant house unless you have a mansion (do you have gas heating, that can impact electricity as well as I have found it).

    My advice is to look at the meter for one week on daily basis (or early morning 6am and take another reading at 6pm same day) so you know what might trigger the high usage and around what time.

    Service charge is very good. I live in VIC SP Ausnet and paying $1.50 per day (penalized for having solar on top).

    Regards

    Zz

    • sagrules on 13/09/2015 - 13:53

      No, I've checked, unfortunately still leave in an average 2 bedroom unit, not a mansion yet :)

      Not sure where 19kW per day are coming from.

      • burningrage on 13/09/2015 - 20:00

        I would normally expect for normal/typical 2 bedroom with 2 occupants to use somewhere about 9-12Kwh per day annualized (12Kwh is stretching, I have a family house and before putting solar, my usage was around 10Kwh/day for Summer and 13Kwh/day for winter.

        That's why I think 19Kwh per day is a lot.

  • Peanut money on 12/09/2015 - 16:26

    If your unit block has a pool with a showers use that instead.
    Share your bill around :)

  • Diji1 on 12/09/2015 - 19:07

    We occasionally used a small Delonghi electric heater

    More then likely that's the source of your surprise bill.

    Any advice on reducing the energy bill?

    Review your available "options" for energy suppliers on as many comparison sites as possible every 3 months. Make a bookmark folder so you can open all the comparison sites at once so it's as easy as possible.

    If you find a cheaper option call your current supplier and explain that you are leaving then ask them to best the online quote by 5%. If they refuse ask them to beat the offer by 2% or whatever figure. If they still refuse then change energy retailers like you should.

    Then there's the obvious: turn everything off at the wall. I find digital electric timers + powerboards and your brain makes this easy because they never forget and in the case where you want to use a device at 2AM or whatever it's a couple of button presses to turn it on and put it back on automatic. Then group things, say all your home entertainment gear on 1 powerboard+timer for example and set a timer to be off while your at work, on all day Sunday .. the general idea is to have it so you on;ly occasionally have to bend to and manually set it ;).

    Consider the energy consumption of all items you buy: is it really worth paying 25% more for that 2000W vacuum when 1500W seems to work just as well etc.

    Replace lights that are on all the time with low power alternates.

    • sagrules on 13/09/2015 - 13:49

      Good idea about digital timers. I am thinking about getting few of these from ebay now.
      I will put computer, printer, TV and wireless APs on it. Not sure if they actually take a lot of power when in standby mode but I guess it's worth a try.

      I also have electric water heater.
      It's 90L with 3600W heating unit.
      Does anyone know if it's safe to turn it off and on from time to time?
      Would it make any difference?

      Here is the new meter readings:
      11th of September 84240 (7.19pm)- previous
      13th of September 84261 (1.25pm)- current

      21kW over 1.5 days

      • burningrage on 14/09/2015 - 15:35

        Electric water heater at 3.6Kwh. That would be the reason in my opinion.

        The hot water system is designed to maintain certain temperature and it would run constantly to maintain that temperature (especially during winter), thereby using electricity.

        Consider perhaps Solar Gas Hot Water System?

        • Euphemistic on 15/09/2015 - 10:35

          Is the water heate off peak? Turning it off won't make a lot of difference if it is on off peak. Our old house used to cost around $120 to heat water for the year on off peak.

  • Colombian on 12/09/2015 - 22:44

    I live in a unit with my wife in SA. We are with AGL and the last bill was for $214.58 from 28 March to 29 June. Our energy consumption for that time was 484KWh.

    For Winter last year with AGL from 27 June to 26 September we used 394KWh and paid $176.13

    For summer this year from 30 Dec to 27 March we used 430KWh and paid $197.08.

    We currently pay $63.79 cents per day supply.

    We occasionally use the aircon to cool or heat the unit in summer/winter. We don't have heater at home, we have a washing machine and use the oven occasionally for cooking.

    I think your bill is very high, you should make a complaint.

    • Diji1 on 12/09/2015 - 23:01

      What tariff are you on for AGL though? Meaning either the default rate (forget the proper name for this but they are the default provider for SA) or one of their "offers".

      The AGL "default" rate is quite good for low power users but they slam you hard for using a moderate or high amount of power + it has a ridiculous 4 tariffs making it very hard to compare. Their offers are a different rate structure entirely and may or may not be more suitable.

      You absolutely should do your own research but from the prices I get quoted for me it seems low power users are better staying on the default rate - but you better be very careful and read your meter to stay under the next highest tariff.

      For me as a moderate to high energy user (I think …) their "offer" prices - which may be determined by suburb, NFI - worked out to about the same price as staying on the default rate structure with more stipulations to boot so another provider was definitely better.

      • Colombian on 13/09/2015 - 07:39

        These are the rates of my last electricity bill. At the moment I'm in the default rate as my contract expired in February. Surprised to say that my current rates are slightly better than last year when I had 16% discount for Electricity and Gas.

        Summer - 28 Mar 15 to 31 Mar 15 (4 days)
        Peak 13kWh $0.3048
        Peak next 7kWh $0.3325
        Supply charge 4 days $0.6379

        Non-Summer - 1 Apr 15 to 29 Jun 15 (90 days)
        Peak 296kWh $0.289
        Peak next 168kWh $0.2946
        Supply charge 90 days $0.6379

        • Diji1 on 13/09/2015 - 10:53

          Surprised to say that my current rates are slightly better

          That doesn't surprise me at all - I just pointed out above that I was better off not even switching to an offer with AGL. This is a case where both of us came to the conclusion that much more value was on offer when it wasn't with our particular offers.

          I am always banging on about how electricity retailers (and others) have the measure of everyone unless people admit they they are bamboozled by design and cannot determine the proper value as presented without a lot of time consuming calculations.

          Most of us are manipulated into paying higher prices whilst being under the delusion that we are making decisions that realise better value. This can be an uncomfortable realisation/acceptance whatever you want to call it but the evidence is pretty clear IMO.

          I think (again without being certain) that you are not on the "default" rate as it has 4 tariffs as I mentioned but rather you are simply on the rate you had with your previous contract with AGL.

  • Diji1 on 12/09/2015 - 23:03

    Did you account for any rate increases with Red Energy? Many (all?) providers increase their rates mid-year.

  • DarkOz on 13/09/2015 - 17:22

    A heater could easily add $1 a day so that's around $100 a quarter. You usually pay $280 and now it's $430. It's slightly high but not unusual.

  • donbot on 15/09/2015 - 07:59

    That seems about the same as my winter bill with red energy. 2 person apartment, electric hot water (large tank) + reverse cycle heating. No gas appliances except for stovetop.

    $100 more than my autumn one - makes sense to me as we've used the heating practically every day over winter.

  • Qroozn on 21/09/2015 - 20:20

    1710kw /90 days = 19kw/day.
    19kw per day is right on average for a 2 person household in NSW. (per my most recent electricity bill).

    average for 1 person is 15.6 kw/day
    average for 3 people is 26.1 kw/day

    • Colombian on 21/09/2015 - 20:31

      Nah, too expensive. My average is 6kw/day for me and my wife.

      • Qroozn on 22/09/2015 - 00:24

        Do you have solar/gas?

        • Colombian on 22/09/2015 - 03:10

          No, I have not.

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