Electricity Bill Much Higher than Expected - What Can I Do to Check?

cktftw on 15/04/2019 - 17:00
Last edited 16/04/2019 - 09:41

Hi folks, I live alone in a 3 bedroom house, work a full time job, hardly at home. No solar. Uses central air-conditioner only on days above 33-34 degrees and otherwise usual TV, PC etc.
Got latest quarterly electricity bill (with Alinta Energy in SA) for $682! (on Fair Deal 25 so will pay $530 if on time)
Breakdown shows average 14 kWh per day (average single person household is 8kWh).

What can I do to check accuracy or anything else I should be checking/know?

Thanks in advance

Edit 1 : Last year same period was 9.8 kWh. Nothing has changed. Absolutely same living habits. Hot water is on demand gas. So not an issue there.

Edit 2: Some are suggesting for stolen electricity, what's the best way to check for this?

Home & Garden

Comments

  • avoidfullprice on 18/04/2019 - 07:30
    +2

    Before I got a smart meter installed, this is what I've done - I manually took reading in the morning before I went to work and in the evening when I came back from work. This told me how much power was used during the day when I was not home. Did it for a week. Then turned off power to all appliance except the fridge when I went to work. Repeated for another week.

    With two weeks of data, you can figure out if 14kwh/day is still happening.

    Try to avoid fixating on "but last year it was 9.8kwh". I mean, you could be on a month's holiday in Christmas 2017 for all you know.

  • smartazz104 on 18/04/2019 - 08:22
    +3

    Any public BBQs nearby? Maybe someone is running an extension to power a light…

  • berger on 18/04/2019 - 09:01
    +1

    New TV could be more power hungry

    New powerful computer?, changed the fridge? open and close fridge much more?

    Wash clothing more? use a dryer?

    Robot Vac charging more?

    Lights all energy saving?

    Were you home more this period than last period?

    Could be a number of smaller things pushing the usage up

  • stingy-oz on 18/04/2019 - 09:04
    +1

    May sound like a surprised, do you have an empty fridge and freezer? empty fridge uses more power to keep its cool than full fridge.

    • ESEMCE on 18/04/2019 - 09:24
      -2

      Evidence of this? Makes zero sense to me, unless you're filling your fridge with Ice.

      • ESEMCE on 18/04/2019 - 10:35
        +1

        Fridges lose cold (gain heat) primarily due to opening the door, but also due to biological degradation of food, putting warm (warmer than fridge temp) food into the fridge and leakage.
        If the fridge is empty;
        1) you;'re unlikely to open the door
        2) there is no biological degradation
        3) there is no warm food to cool
        4) there are still leaks

        I fail to see how an empty fridge can use more power than a full one unless you're leaving the door open.

  • freddofrog42 on 18/04/2019 - 10:53

    I'd be looking at the A/C unit.

    Ignoring the duration of use or ambient temperatures during the meter period, is the unit itself still working as efficiently e.g. clean filters, low on refrigerant etc?

  • jubs on 18/04/2019 - 13:12

    Seems extremely high as my daily usage is approx 15kWh with five people. Three who are home most of the day with TV and computer on. Ducted AC, gas hot water and cooktop.

  • Haha Hihi Hoho on 18/04/2019 - 13:24
    +1

    check your room, under the bed etc, there could be a homeless dude living in your place and only come out when you are not at home?

    • Baghern on 18/04/2019 - 14:51

      for some reason the shower in my mates place has a low ceiling, when ever i'm there I imagine its a hidey hole for someone who only comes out when everyone is out

  • pgdownload on 18/04/2019 - 15:39

    You've checked the meter reading matches now. However was the previous reading an estimate perhaps?
    Also easiest way to check for electricity theft is flick the mains switch. If your meter dial is still rotating something is going on.
    However electricity theft is very unlikely IMO.

  • usyhdchang on 18/04/2019 - 15:41

    I was hit with a $3K electricity bill for a new leased premise once, it was a nightmare so I know how you feel.

    After that was a deduction process, where I made my own experiment in checking the reading in the meter daily, and marking down the numbers daily.

    In the end we concluded that the power consumption actually took place overnight, so whenever we left the premise we turned off the mains. This dropped our power bill down to $1K the next quarter.

    Still no idea what drained the power, but I'd say out of experience, exercise your power of deduction and experimentation.

  • SomeGuyOnOzB on 18/04/2019 - 20:58

    A neighbour's hot water system developed a leak. Power bill sky rocketed.
    I don't know how to test it.
    As others said, observe, test, check.

    You think everything is the same … maybe someone else in the house changed their behaviour? Window accidentally left ajar etc

  • pumpkins on 18/04/2019 - 22:52

    Get one of these and you can track (and trend) your usage online or via phone down to every 10 sec.

    https://reductionrevolution.com.au/products/efergy-engage-hu…

    I've got two, one dedicated to my 3 phase air con, the other monitoring the rest of the house. You can see the fridges cycling overnight, toaster coming on etc. You'll be able to troubleshoot it easy. Eg I found that even when my air con is off, it uses 100W on standby (turning the isolator off and it goes to zero).

  • frostface on 19/04/2019 - 09:02

    I think it has to do with how hot it has been this summer in SA. Reverse cycle air con uses so much power, particularly in extreme heat, there’s no doubt this will be the main cause. The last couple of summers we have not had prolonged heat like we have had this summer, and it certainly was extremely hot.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 19/04/2019 - 09:23

    bitcoin miner hidden somewhere lol

  • SomeGuyOnOzB on 19/04/2019 - 10:37

    Are your PCs running unusually hot?
    If they have Windows 8 or higher, try turning off the Windows Update service. This can be a major culprit.
    Free software (eg Avid Pro Tools free version) sometimes makes systems run suspiciously hot.

    There are more problems that can make computers use massive amounts of resources, including Bitcoin miners.

  • ro0sta on 19/04/2019 - 10:41
    +1

    Really? Check the meter. If using a smart meter you can request usage logs to get daily reads from. Your retailer via your LNSP and find out what days were the most expensive and work backwards with what you left activated or turned on THOSE day/s.

  • Of Aquitaine on 28/04/2019 - 22:28
    +1

    Do you have a laptop with a dying or dead battery? If so, do you leave it on standby? I had a huge bill because of this.

    • John Kimble on 07/05/2019 - 10:25

      Hmmm, I have this…I will need to stop that then?

  • Of Aquitaine on 07/05/2019 - 20:22

    Yes. A dead or dying battery that won’t hold charge anymore is constantly drawing power 24/7 (if you keep the laptop on and connected to a live power source). Is cheaper to get a new battery or laptop, all things considered.

    • John Kimble on 07/05/2019 - 20:43

      Yeah, I have an old MacBook Pro that I leave plugged in. It says to replace the battery and it only lasts about 1 hour unplugged.

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