Hi All,
Just need some of your advice on what to do with excessive power bills. Basically I have rang up the electricity provider and confirmed the reading for the power meter is correct and also checked on the meter itself as well.
Now does anyone know if there is a service where I can get an electrician to come in and test for power leaks to find out what it is that is using so much power?
I am thinking could it be the hotwater system?
Thanks inadvance.
I found that one of my fridges was clogged up with ice in the back which was causing it to work harder to keep it cool. Defrosted it and the bills came down.
Get a watts clever monitor and watch your consumption real time as you turn on and off stuff at home. Logs energy consumption over a 30 day period. Very useful to know whats consuming houw much and if you've left something on in the house/garage overnight!
Thermostats can stick on hot water systems causing them to heat continuously while ever they have power to them.
Saw one house that had a used commercial hws installed… turned out it had six elements and a stuck thermostat as well… They had some amazing elec bills.
Did you use an electric heater? Those things use soooooo much power.
look at the meter readings 24 hours hours apart. chances are your hotwater system is on a separate meter. then you can start narrowing it down.
Thanks for all your replies and comments.
Bill basically doubled from previous bill. Nothing has change in terms of usage and no additional appliances. Rang the power company and they confirmed its actual reading not estimate as well.
I am lost for this… how could it doubled? Hence need to get a specialist in to do an home energy audit. Has anyone have experience or use one and would recommend? I need one in Sydney.
Thanks.
Three years ago we were living in a ten year old house that had a 'smart' meter that was not activated…our bills were consistently $210-220 per quarter (3mths) @ 13c/kw/h…they activated the 'Smart' meter without telling us and our next bill was over $400! The rates changed from constant 13c/kw/h all day to 42c/kw/h peak (2.00pm-8.00pm) 22c/kwh shoulder and 11c/kwh off peak (midnight to 6.00am)…we did not find out about the 'Smart' meter activation until we questioned the new rates on the bill.
We now live in a smaller older house and our bills are down to $140-160 per quarter.
So make sure your kw/h charge has not increased….
You can pay for someone to carry out a "home energy audit", or DIY: https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/water-energy-and-environment/en…
If your bills are excessive, paying for a one-off audit would probably be a good investment.
How do your recent bills differ from older ones in terms of energy consumption in kWh, and what is your pattern of usage (lighting, appliances, heating/cooling, etc)?
In our case, which may not be relevant to yours, we suffered through a couple of years of electricity bill reversals and reissues from Origin, before finally getting sick of trying to decipher each bill and listening to their explanations about why the latest bill was justified, only to have it reversed a few months down the track and told to pay more. Switched to powershop instead.