Quarterly water bill came for Feb to April, and wondering what others are paying. Appreciate it will vary between household numbers, so specifically after 3 adults, 1 teen household. Ours for 87 days was $517 with 28% of that being authority charges.
That's watering garden on drippers, showers, washing about every 3 days. 98kl
Dish washer 2 x a week or normal washing 7days for pots and pans
Medium garden
1 homestayer, 1 WFH 3 days
Cook 6 days
5 to 10 minute showers
dish washer or normal washing?
hot water tank or instant
large garden or small?
WFH or go into work?
cook alot?
long or short showers?
baths?
pets?
so many questions, so little time
Where’s the option for <$100?
Can't change poll content. Go $200-300
<$100?
umm.. do you shower? :p
Probably a pensioner - we pay very little!
wateeing garden on drippers
Vic, La Nina. Why?
Where's the $0 option for those on tank water?
Don't you still pay for the service going past your house?
Nope. No services near my house. That's why I collect mother nature's offerings. Tastes better too.
5 bedroom house, swimming pool, cooking everyday with family of 6 (2 elderly, 2 adults, 2 primary aged kids)
dishwasher most days, at least 1 load of washing a day, i have vegetable garden beds.
swimming pool hasn't made much of a difference lately as the last 2 years i've only filled it up with rain water.
our quarterly bill is under $300
Very impressive…
i don't think we even consciously save water either (which we should) after installing a continuous flow gas hot water i've actually taken slightly longer showers.
albeit the account has a pension discount applied to it as well
Pension discount makes a big difference but still, under $300 is very reasonable.
@JimB: yes it is… just got the gas bill $271
thats $200 more since covid and gas hot water. but electricty has gone down an equal amount.
i've only filled it up with rain water
Righto God.
The bills that I get have a "per day" usage figure on the front page, and a comparison table that shows how you're doing against average usage, based on the number of people in your house. What does that section of your bill show?
My bill shows the same information.
Geez, that's massive bill for a Melbourne household. You'd be better off removing all the lawn and put succulents in there instead. This year is wet and i haven't even watered my lawn for over a year. Even struggle to empty my water tanks at times because the garden bed has too much of it.
1 homestayer
Someone forgot to turn off the tap? 🤔
Btw, was it an actual or estimated reading?
2 adults, 2 kids, 460 sq mtr of turf & trying to establish a garden as well 2000 sqm block, $500-$550.
La nina was kind to us im must say. Hard to know what the coming summers bills will be if get average rainfall.
They may have done estimates for the previous periods and an actual reading this period, still seems excessive.
I remember my first bill moving into my new home was like $600+ for 30 days. They tried telling me they did a reading at change of ownership (the meter was still buried under bark etc), and somehow thought it was feasible that I used enough water to fill two Olympic sized swimming pools in 30days. Ended up getting half the bill waived after a few calls, but realistically I still overpaid quite a bit.
I think the more relevant questions isn't how much is the bill, because you can't control the tariffs, sewerage costs or annual parks charges, but what is the usage per person.
For us 2 adults and 2 kids… rarely water the garden. On average we use around 400L per day or 100L per person. This is below the target of 150L per person.
Our regular quarterly bills (except for the one with the annual parks charges) is around $280.
98kl is equal to around 270L per person per day which is close to double the Government target.
Teenage boy spending a bit of extra time in the shower?
Average 340L/day for two adults. We use rain water for gardening. Dish washer on almost every night.
About 75% of my bill is service fees which total ~$250 a quarter.
Actual water usage comes to ~$80.
Learning the hard way that living in an affluent area is more expensive as it's based on perceived rent.
Perth has affluent areas? Do go on.
Fair point
Single person household with visitors 2-3 x /week.
$160-$190
90% is fixed charges.
Two adults around 30 KL per quarter.
Minimal gardening, 3 or 4 showers per day, dishwasher and front load washing machine every other day.
Sydney Water charges $2.35 per KL.
Pretty consistent usage over several years.
A couple of other comments… the “average in your area” shown on utilities bills includes all the vacant properties in your area - impact may vary by suburb.
If you use one of those washer/dryer combos, the ones that use a ton of water in the dry cycle (very energy efficient, but not water efficient..) that could be something as well
Finally, depending on where you are in Victoria, your provider may provide you with hourly usage data through their online portal. Mine (south east water) showed usage all through the night which we looked into resulting in a couple of things being fixed and that leak stopping the constant consumption on the overnight hourly data
Good tip. Will look into it
We had two teenage girls and the main problem was showers. Had solar hot water connected to about 280L hot water storage tank…one day one daughter used ALL of the hot water while we were at work…."took a shower and washed my hair". Had to change HWS to gas to stop running out of hot water..
185L per day (averaged), 1 person with guest or two on weekends, I don't bother watering the grass. So actually fits close to south east waters average.
Was about $50 for the last bill.
Check for leaks and change the shower heads for Wells 4 rating or at least wells 3.
To check for leaks you read the meter and then use no water for 1 hour or more and then check again, if still the same no leak other wise some water is getting used in that time.
Im in Sydney renting so only pay water usage with 3 adults , 1 teen ,1 toddler and our bills are < $140 but usually about $80 on a good bill
I live alone and about 65% of mine is authority charges. Total bill is usually $230-250