Hi guys, just got my electricity bill for the period 5th June - 5th July … and it's $359.
I'm on the AGL Value Saver plan (time of use meter). 1,125 kWh usage. Use ducted heating ~4hrs per day. Hot water and cooking is gas!
I am in Sydney on Ausgrid network.
What is going on here.
EDIT: I have an electric meter and the readings are actual, not estimates.
Does anyone remember the put in digital meter and your bill will go down slogan? Am I too old?
Yes, but turns out that it's so they can switch off your solar and force you to buy their electricity whilst stealing yours (zero feed in tarrifs)
Edit you original post and add you use multiple oil heaters for half the day. So others can see as soon as they click on this. So obvious, not sure why you wouldn't provide this information initially.
Oil heaters? Is this the 1990s?
They mean oil column heaters. They're awesome space heaters once up to temp they hold heat fairly well and they're silent. They're not terribly efficient however but there are worse choices. OP just needs to adopt the aussie house uniform of oodies and uggs all winter and use blankets at night and they could drop their power usage massively.
I work from home and use an oil heater all day to heat my office (in Canberra). During the day, our ducted heating is off. It seems to be more efficient to heat one instead of many more rooms I’m not using.
~10hrs per night. but gotta hunt down in the comments like wtf
This year I'm wearing 2 x pairs of thick socks, 2-3 pairs of warm pants, and 2 layers of wool jumpers/cardigans on top of a flanellete shirt at home, and I have not needed to use the heater. On colder days I wear a wool coat on top of all that.
I know I don't live in frosty Melbourne or Hobart, but even so in previous years I had to run the heater half the day while working at home. This year I don't. Just adding 1 or 2 extra layers makes a massive difference.
I get where you are coming from. And I do the same. But man, that cold air you're constantly breathing does F you up even if the rest of you is warm. Kills the throat, makes the respiratory system get all blocked up and if you are unfortunate enough to catch a cold, it is ten times worse than if you are in a warmer air environment.
The whole 'I dont live in Melbourne or Hobart' is pretty relevant. Pretty sure people in Darwin arent using a heater either
Winter is cold in other places too. Obviously I would not need to wear all that in Darwin.
Move around regularly and do some light exercise this will raise core temperature.
@ForkSnorter
This year I'm wearing 2 x pairs of thick socks, 2-3 pairs of warm pants, and 2 layers of wool jumpers/cardigans on top of a flanellete shirt at home, and I have not needed to use the heater. On colder days I wear a wool coat on top of all that.
Not sure if you are exaggerating, or being ironic for effect here…
Seriously, folks, this isn't post-war Britain. Having heating in your home, living at a comfortable level isn't some luxury. Geez Louise, rugging up in woollen jumpers and beanies when settling down on the couch to watch the footy on a Thursday night; that's just ridiculous.
Save the pennies and dimes somewhere else in your life, and give yourselves a little bit of niceness.
Not sure if you are exaggerating
Not exaggerating. In fact I have worn 3 pairs of pants for most of the winter.
Seriously, folks, this isn't post-war Britain. Having heating in your home, living at a comfortable level isn't some luxury.
On the other hand, surely some compromise must be reached. It is not rational to wear a T-shirt at home in Winter, while complaining about how much the electricity bill costs.
Geez Louise, rugging up in woollen jumpers and beanies when settling down on the couch to watch the footy on a Thursday night; that's just ridiculous.
Why? Wearing warm clothes isn't difficult, nor uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. I can walk outside anytime I want, even at night, without feeling cold. I don't like using the heater, and don't need to. I can even leave the door open on some nights to get fresh air inside.
I feel like we Australians are not rational when it comes to winter clothing. If you're freezing your nuts off at the train station in the morning, you're not wearing enough (or you're wearing the wrong kind of clothes).
On the other hand, surely some compromise must be reached. It is not rational to wear a T-shirt at home in Winter, while complaining about how much the electricity bill costs.
easy - wear just t-shirt at home in winter, and get your partner to pay the bill. When they complain, tell them they're being an (profanity) for complaining about electricity.
A problem with that solution though is how nippy it gets when you have to take off all of those clothes to have a bath/take a shower, use the toilet or just change your clothes.
That's not even considering how non responsive my touch screen devices are when I'm wearing gloves or mittens or how damn cold my ears, nose and face gets when it's cold.
How do you wash your clothes with gloves on? Or wipe your bum?
And don't you have sex?
I'm a huge advocate of warm clothes and blankets, but there are some times when that just isn't practical.
I'd rather save the money and spend on something fun. Really sitting around at home in an oodie and uggs instead of shorts and tee with the heating cranked isn't a big deal. My current bill prediction for the quarter is just under $120 (gas hot water) meaning I can direct more funds to more enjoyable things.
It's not ridiculous considering the poor standards we hold housing to.
Old houses are the worst for this (looking at you Melbourne), they're purposely designed to be well vented for summer. But in winter you are expected to burn a bass strait of cheap gas to keep warm.
It's common to hear of tourists from Europe to complain about our cold houses.
This take sounds like someone who has never rented or needed to watch the bills!
'tourists from Europe … complain about our cold houses'
Yeah - I loved walking around my mid-winter German accommodation, comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt, and looking out the double-glazed window at the snow on the windowsill and ground outside.
OTOH - German homes tend to lack cooling air-conditioning, so during heat waves, old/invalid/confined people tend to DIE there …
It's not pennies and dimes when you're paying Thousands per quarter
If only we had a website for saving pennies and dimes to give us a little bit of niceness..
Same here..
Previous year, we use electric blanket + electric bed cover. So we are sandwiched in between.. Warm but bills went to the roof.
Just before winter this year missus bought (very) thick quilt, best decision ever. Cold for the first 5 mins then warm the whole night, even when it is -4 outside.
We no longer use electric blanket nor electric bed cover.
Hope this will help OP
On a cold night, try putting a single sheet on top of the quilt. Can make a significant difference.
I’m paying $120 month. No solar and have an EV
Family of 3.
Maybe after a third term they'll be able to do what they promised, please bro, just one more term
To be fair, we got a $1000 rebate last year for electricity on QLD under Labor, this year under LNP, we got $0 and nothing else to help with cost of living.
The criticism is fair, but I don't think the realistic alternative had any better plans - maybe (very maybe) if we spent a few trillion dollars on nuclear we'd get marginally cheaper bills in 30 years if we stay at this level of renewables.
I hear nuclear meltdowns are warm.
Family of 4, 2 storey house, reverse cycle ducted heating, gas hot water, Melbourne with solar (feed in $0). Electricity $150pm, gas $90 per 2 months
This question would only be relative if you gave say the last 12 monthly bills as well.
Oh, I kinda think we all 'Electric Meters' given you are talking about your Electric bill.
Do you mean something else perhaps?
Use ducted heating ~4hrs per day.
Well if you look at it this way then $359 / 30days equals $11.96 per day. That's not too bad?
I suggest you lower the ducted temps to 20-21c. Even better, moved into the smallest possible room if you WFH. Heating up a small room is much more economical than running the whole house ducted heating. Is your ducted heating reverse cycle or perhaps heat pump?
How long have you been living there for?
Hey mate,
This happened to me. I got bill of $500+ for one single month but I had everything on electricity so I paid it, but changed my retailer who did the actual reading and found that it is different from what AGL posted on the bill. Got refund of $450. This happened in second quarter of 2023.
AGL said that it is due to error from the provider's reading since they provide the reading. Never got any voucher/compensation for the stress I went through.
Mine was just came in $487 for 3 months. 40 square house with pool, ducted air, doesn't get used a lot for heating. Home office. Now only 2 of us but had 4-6 family staying for 1 month of that bill.
Have 5.4kw solar
I paid around $250/month (mind you i have battery & 11kw solar arrays so i barely use grid electricity during peak tariff) before switching Ovo EV plan, if you have a giant RC, yeah it can be costly. If you turn on your air con during peak hours 3-9pm, you will quite a lot. This is why i hate ducted aircon, because they are as not efficient as split systems in optimising power usage
Family of 10, plus a mother in law living on the property in a caravan and a granny flat with an actualy granny living in it So, 12 people total.
Billed by Synergy (WA) every 2 months. Last one was $1,735.53 - summer pushes just over $2k
I dream of the days the bill was under a $1k but since covid it's stayed high. With kids home schooled, me WFH full time, the very hot summers and my MIL being lazy and watching TV all day with the AC blasting.. there's just nothing I have found I can do to make a noticable impact - even went to the effort of climbing into the roof and replacing all the old blow in insulation with R5.0 batts.
Edit: Kicking the MIL out is an obvious answer but that'll get me in the bad books with the wife.
We now know who wears the pants in "your" family
Geez this guy couldn't pull out of a driveway.
Cool, you can split that bill multiple ways /s
oil heater is on ~10hrs per night. but only available in the comments
my water bill is high but i only bath once a week.
ps. i also have a pool in the backyard that I refill every few days
My bills are around $800 for 1 person for 3 months. But I dont use electricity for heating.
Clothes dryer? Warm cycle wash?
You need an energy use meter like this.
https://www.cabac.com.au/p/test-and-measurement/electrical/p…
Although it will set you back another $279. I've got a cheap version that only cost $20 but I don't have ducted air conditioning to check on.
1,125 kWh usage
That's the problem, not the $359
You are using about 1,125/30 = ~37 kWh per day.
Sounds like a lot of kWh per day!!
About 23 cents per kWh sounds average.
You are using about 1,125/30 = ~37 kWh per day.
Which is about 1.5kW per hour. Mine is Minimum 1.8Kw just at a minimum.
My average is about 50kWh per day in June with Solar. Perhaps they are a high-usage household like me?
Perhaps they are a high-usage household like me?
Sure thing.
So the issue should be high usage rather than high charge/cost.
Consumption is the area to investigate and improve, not so much cost per se.
Are you on a demand tariff?
Check usage in your account page? Why are you asking here?
“Smart Meters” are only smart for the electric companies. They take the highest half hour usage during the month’s peak periods and use THAT to calculate your peak usage for the whole month. It should be criminal, but they get away with it. I’m sure there are other “Smart” things they do with “smart meters” to screw the consumer, too.
That's calls demand pricing and is a different thing again.
We do have the world's worst Prime Minister and the universe's worst Energy Minister at the helm… prepare for more pain
This obsession with net zero will kill us
The cost of electricity is NOT due to switching to renewables. The cost is because the current fossil fuel production is worn out/needs replacement eg Loy Yang. What do we replace that production with - the more expensive option (fossil fuel) or the cheaper option (renewable)? It seems weird to me that people want to spend even more money and increase electricity costs even more, just so they can be happy they arent using 'woke electricity'
Name a better option? The main competitor to Labor just had their leader hilariously lose their own seat, let alone get destroyed on election night.
That guy rates ScoMo higher, what a laugh.
For June 1 to June 25 (only 24 days… so would be higher) I got a bill of $297 * 0.88 (12 percent discount).
Average something like 30kwh/day. This is better than last winter, where it was 60kwh/day (two electric heaters converted to two reverse cycle air conditioning). Still worse than 10 years ago, where we only used electric blankets, and were using only 10kwh/day. But you get a heater, they will use it.
Some of the power bills in the previous comments are scary. My bill averages $0 over 12 months, 3 bed house. Solar FIT is at 20c/kwh, the panels effectively make money in the summer and pays for winter usage. I have gas heating which is about $1.3k though.
How long will you keep the Solar FIT tho? Most states the FIT is so low that it is effectively worthless.
My FIT is actually changing 1 August, dammit. Down to 17c. Still, not a bad enough rate drop for me to change suppliers.
And if your in NSW, QLD or SA there are 2 way Tarrifs.
https://www.essentialenergy.com.au/our-network/network-prici…
There will be an amount you can feed in, then your charged 1c per kWh if you feed in more than that during peak times.
A few retailers have started plans with 0c feed in.
Everyone who doesn't have sa or NSW essential energy prices for their electricity should enjoy it while it lasts.
Victorian government has ruled the electric company can steal the electricity you've paid to generate for free. I've looked at electric companies with higher feed in tarrifs eg 10c but they charge more for the electric and have peak use charge so still works out worse than 0c feedin
Hmmm, what could it be…..
Maybe a fault in the providers accounting software? Maybe next door is stealing? Maybe grid level fault? Some wires crossed?
It certainly couldn't be me! it's not like i'm plugging in oil heaters and turning them on whilst I sleep.
Turn off the ducted aircon at night, get some electric blankets, thank me later.
Since you are on a TOU plan, that means you have an interval or smart meter.
You can request for meter data, then do your own analysis by day and hour, and to determine if you can/want to change your routines.
Our bills were electricity $66 for three months and Gas $137 for two months. We have solar panels and live in Melbourne.
We created a snug area so we only have to heat one room with a reverse cycle air con. We only put heaters on in the bedroom when changing and in the bathroom when showering, cleaning teeth etc.
We have gas hot water and cook tops. We also have a gas hydronic system we used a couple of time this cycle because we had friends over so we reclaimed the rest of the house.
We’ve created thermal curtains using two Queen size sheets sandwiching a king size doona and it works very well as an insulator for our snug area.
Nice diy idea. Are the thermal curtains just for the window?
We have a warehouse conversion where one section is under a concrete platform. The thermal curtains face towards the big open area of the warehouse. The windows onto this area we have standard blockout thermal curtains or glass bricks.
https://files.ozbargain.com.au/upload/157591/120058/img_1624…
This gives you an idea. We effectively create a semi bedsit that includes the kitchen area. We want to turn the laundry into a combined bathroom laundry which will complete the bedsit for winter.
Even before we put in the panels or reverse cycle air con we dropped our energy bills to 1/3 of prior. Also we are actually warm.
Since you have a smart metrer, you (most likely) can see close to live consumption numbers in your electricity provider web portal. See what generates the high load and avoid running it during peak hours.
The last time this happened for me my hot water was leaking. Check that
My electricity bill is about $400-$450 / month 💀😭
How do you know it’s actual readings and not estimated?
AGL…
Well…
We're screwed out of our own gas supply
The coal generators are all busted
All those renewable projects aren't free to build
Next month will be worse but don't worry, the gov will credit $75 of your own tax money on the bill
Welcome to the party pal!
😱 Just received our bill and are in the same boat, with such minimal, frugal usage. Unbelievable.
My ducted is gas
turn off the oil heaters and use another blanket. problem solved.
The increase in rates far exceeds inflation atm.
Welcome to time of use metering.
Basically what they've done is instead of having a flat rate for your electricity for example 26 cents
Now they have an off peak which is like 22 cents and in the middle of the night when you are unable to use too much
A shoulder- Mornings and evenings about 28 to 30 cents
And then the peak rate 50 to 60 cents
But you'll notice that because all the rates are higher even if you move most of your usage to shoulder and off peak you will still pay more than you did before
So is it better to have flat rate or peak / off peak?
flat rate Would be way better But you do not have a choice any more at least in NSW
Is your neighbour running a power cord from your point out to his BBQ area?
How about that well lit up place inside his ceiling?
Are the lights on in your neighbour's caravan?
I have solar and a battery and am on wholesale prices - I typically get paid $20 to $100 each month rather than pay for my electricity. If you aren't renting and can either afford the upfront cost of a battery or can get it with government incentives/loans, it might be worth looking into, as battery prices are coming down.
I can understand having A/C on while you sleep during summer, but why do people have heating on when sleeping? Just get an electric blancket or a good doona with hot water bottle.
Use ducted heating ~4hrs per day
GPT says ducted heating is around $1/hr to operate. So that's $120 fir there for using the ducted heating. Combine that with all your other usage…
GPT says ducted heating is around $1/hr to operate
I'll say gpt is wrong
Nah, it matches what I have been seeing on my usage bill. Did a bit of a deep dive into it looking into my bill last week.
Well peak/shoulder/off peak makes difference to your $ estimate
You should be starting at what kWh does my ducted system draw and go from ther. Ducted systems come in a large range of sizes and most wouldn't have ducted systems that would average down to such a low kWh draw.
It wasn't an offhanded comment, your simplistic response from chat gpt isn't containing the details that would back up such a simplistic $/hr value.
@SBOB: In my case, I was looking at overnight usage of the AC while running it at night with my new born, comparing what I saw on my origin app usage and what GPT further calculated. it was pretty bang on.
Of course in this case for OP, there's a lot of variables. However assuming that the ducted AC is at least 1/3 of your bill isn't too farfetched.
Guys I drain and fill up my swimming pool with new water everyday.
My water bill is over $1000 for the month. What is going on here?!
Pool isn't big enough.
3-bedroom house, running split system air con about 6 hours a day at 21 °C
The last monthly bill was $111.88 @ 325.68 kWh. No solar, fully grid.
One thing that can eat up the power is old-fashioned spotlights. I had a friend who had a massive bill, turned out he had 3 spotlights on everynight and they had the old 150W globes in it.
Big difference between split vs ducted.. some people have over 20 kW ducted units that can chew as much as 5 kWh.. your split system if it is around 3 kW, you would be using under 1 kWh and will have 5 times less usage.
man, it is climate disaster out there, just expect to pay 10x more in 5 years to save the planet .. don't be selfish .. it is you and your family causing the climate change and people are now living under the water…
This topic prompted me to review my current energy rates and switched plan. Thanks for that!
Now that I feel obliged to contribute to the thread, we spend about $4.50 per day for electricity and another $4 for gas. This is for a family of three, living in an apartment. We don't have AC or heaters. We run dishwashers daily, washing machine a few times a week, dryer once or twice a month, oven and air fryer probably a few times a week. Gas is used for hot water and stoves only.
FWIW, Sydney is sub-tropical, but different in extreme temperature between east to west is sizable. The closer you are to the coast, the less demand for cooling/heating there would be.
Same here $350 for the month , 11.4kw solar system and a 26.6kw battery …..that's with load shifting from off peak to peak 7 people household ….
This is exactly what I had hoped for my children twenty years ago. Absolutely brilliant management by the nation's government. Kudo's to all concerned - job well done and far better than any of us could have ever imagined. Pat on back Albo!
1125 kWh is a lot.. Ducted heating 4 hours per day would be between 12 to 20 kWh usage per day depending on the size of your unit. So about half your usage is coming from there.
Does your bill have Peak Offpeak breakdown? Is most of your usage Off Peak?
AGL seems to have a very high Peak tarrif.. use the guide below and see which plan you can get the best value out of.. some very simple excel claculations can help
Hey following this up - some libraries loan out home energy audit kits, does your local?
E.g. https://www.lakemac.com.au/For-residents/Environment-and-sus…
Similar, in my area the single rate is way below the shoulder and peak rates, and marginally higher than off peak.