Moved house, electricity bills skyrocketed. Why?

I think it must be the hot water also. Is your hot water very very hot? If so it will pay you to get a plumber in to try to adjust the thermostat downwards. Some people insulate the pipes and put a blanket on the hot water service itself if it is out in the frost.

I would try turning off the hot water for 24 hours over the weekend and see how your usage is before and after that.

You could also have a dripping hot tap somewhere, or a leak in a hot water pipe somewhere out of sight like under the house. If you water usage is also high this could be it.

Gnaty77 said :

Can someone tell me how we check the hot water system for leakages?

I also found out my neighbour (we are share a common wall in the garage but have separate titles) is spending $400 a quarter with just herself but she uses heating and cooling every day where as we dont.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

It may not be a leak, but there is usually a release valve on the side of the hot water heater. I think it may be the temperature is turned up. On my hot water heater you need a screwdriver to undo the plate to find the thermostat. 50C would be the best IMO to save money but still have hot water. So if its set to 50C I wouldn’t think that is the issue.

I know you are trying to avoid getting someone in, but you may find someone able check for free or fairly low cost. In Canberra ACTEW offers a lot of services like that. Maybe your energy provider in NSW can help here.

Gnaty77 said :

Thanks everyone. So far we have tested a few of the easy plug in appliances and they dont seem to be the problem (very low KW per hour)/.

In response to some of the statements, we actually only moved a few streets over… not from the ACT to NSW. Therefore our bill change is more confusing. If we had moved from the ACT to NSW then I would understand as the rates are 18c for the ACT and 31C for NSW (or something!).

Can someone tell me how we check the hot water system for leakages?

I also found out my neighbour (we are share a common wall in the garage but have separate titles) is spending $400 a quarter with just herself but she uses heating and cooling every day where as we dont.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

The hot water unit has a pressure relief valve on the side with a pipe that comes out down the bottom somewhere usually. If there is a steady stream coming out then it’s possible the valve is faulty or it is continuously boiling the water due to a bad thermostat. If you turn the inlet tap off, wait a while and then hear the water rushing in when it is turned on again it could be leaking somewhere.

In any case, to get a bill like $600-700 for a quarter, that’s quite normal for us, a 3 bed house with 5 people and solar boosted hot water, reverse cycle air con and electric cooking.
Something I just remembered, if the place has in slab floor heating it could be chewing up the power. You can tell if there is a thermostat on the wall and the floors are indeed nice and warm, plus there will be circuit breakers labelled as in-slab heating or floor heating. We had a rental once with this and our first quarterly bill was over $1000. It used so much power it melted the council fuse…scary.

Thanks everyone. So far we have tested a few of the easy plug in appliances and they dont seem to be the problem (very low KW per hour)/.

In response to some of the statements, we actually only moved a few streets over… not from the ACT to NSW. Therefore our bill change is more confusing. If we had moved from the ACT to NSW then I would understand as the rates are 18c for the ACT and 31C for NSW (or something!).

Can someone tell me how we check the hot water system for leakages?

I also found out my neighbour (we are share a common wall in the garage but have separate titles) is spending $400 a quarter with just herself but she uses heating and cooling every day where as we dont.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

Free advice from an electrician – it’s most likely the thermostat in the hot water unit. If faulty, it will be trying to heat the water continuously and would use that kind of power easily. You could prove it by seeing how many kilowatts are used in a normal day by reading the kilowatt hours, then turn off the hot water for the next 24 hours and see if the consumption has reduced dramatically. If it doesn’t prove to be the culprit, you may need to try different circuits to see what is using all that juice.

BenjaminRose1991 said :

If you have electric hot water check the thermostat setting. Make sure it’s set to anywhere between 50 and 70 degrees.

Second Postalgeek. Check for leaks in the HWS plumbing.

Completely agree with this one. I upped the temperature on mine by 5 degrees and when the electricity bill came I dropped it back again. It cost me hundreds of dollars to have that slightly hotter water!!

Lighting and even leaving the TV on won’t give you bill shock. Cooling and heating either air or water, plus difference in electricity costs in NSW are likely to be the problem.

If you have electric hot water check the thermostat setting. Make sure it’s set to anywhere between 50 and 70 degrees.

Second Postalgeek. Check for leaks in the HWS plumbing.

I have a Belkin Energy Use Monitor (https://www.belkin.com/conserve/insight/) that can indicate the power used by individual appliances – provided they plug into a power outlet.

tooltime said :

We use about $5/day in spring/autumn, $10/day in summer/winter in QBN. And were frugal with it…

That’s a HUGE bill; $900 for a summer quarter. You must be using an air-conditioner in summer to get that massive bill. If I did the maths right, the average four person household uses much less than that, so you are way above average. How can you consider that frugal? That’s even allowing for cheaper electricity in Canberra. To give a better comparison, how many kWhs is that and how big is your household?
In summer I used 226kWh. $37.64 with GST for three months. (That’s without the supply charges, which is extra.)

We use about $5/day in spring/autumn, $10/day in summer/winter in QBN. And were frugal with it…

Go and have a look at the meter – if you have an analogue one, you will see how quickly the wheel is turning (faster means more electricity being used). If you turn everything off, it should stop. you can turn a few things on and see how it’s affected. If you have a digital meter, you might have to check the reading, then check it again after a while (say, an hour). If you have everything switched off, the reading should be the same an hour later, if you have something using a lot of electricity, the reading will obviously be higher.
Lighting uses very little electricity compared to heating/cooling, hot water, refrigeration, etc.
It may also pay to check that the meter readings on the account match the readings on the meter – meter readers do sometimes make mistakes (did you note the meter reading when you moved in?!).

Yep NSW rates are higher. This is the norm. Basic bill for friends of mine at murrumbateman is 6k a year for electricity and 5k a year for gas. 11k in total for a year of hot water, hot meals, cool drinks and aircon in summer.

Southmouth said :

Electricity in NSW is much more expensive than the ACT. Also, a quick look at the meter while your partner turns things on and off should show you the culprit if there is one.

Yes – NSW charges are much higher than the ACT. Double or triple per kilowatt hour, depending on your contract. ACT rates are the cheapest in Australia and rural NSW some of the highest so you’d need to factor that into the equation, unless you have already done so.

I can’t offer any advice, and sorry this is of no help to you, but that reminds me of a one bedroom flat I once rented in Hackett. It was a house that had been split into flats. I moved there from a three bedroom group house (three to five people) and my electricity bills were higher in the flat than the bill for the house with three to five people. Plus in the group house, one of the tenants would wastefully leave a heater on in her bedroom, whether she was in it or not, but still the flat got higher power bills. In winter I was sitting in the flat at night huddled over a low powered heater, rather than heat the whole flat, still cold, and with no heater on most days or when I was in bed. The possible explanation there though, was that I was sharing the bill with another flat. However, they were often away, and everyone denied being the power user. But (and given my past (and future) electricity use as evidence) I suspect they must have had something that used a lot of power in the other flat, despite their denials. However, I did go in there once when the occupant had an emergency trip to hospital, to turn off appliances, and I didn’t find many. So maybe a mystery. I did notice though, a cable going from that house to the neighbours’, which I thought rather strange, but I left soon after and didn’t investigate further. Plus I was very young and inexperienced in these things. However, the flat rent was very cheap and fortunately compensated.

Electricity in NSW is much more expensive than the ACT. Also, a quick look at the meter while your partner turns things on and off should show you the culprit if there is one.

DickSmith / Bunnings etc sell little electronic meters that can tell you how much electricity something is sucking up. I’ve got one that you can input the electricity cost and then it can tell you the cost. The only issue is that it’ll only work with things you can plug into a wall socket.

Three hundred dollars in two weeks?! That sounds way, way too much. Did you check the billing period and the meter numbers to confirm they are billing you correctly, rather than estimating your consumption? I moved into a place with 2 weeks left in the billing cycle, and the energy supplier tried to bill me for the entire 3 month period despite the fact that I notified them of moving in and the date. That was taken care of with a phone call. I also checked the meter number and found they had estimated the amount, rather than taking a proper reading. I made sure they corrected that, too.

Check your hot water system isn’t leaking.

The libraries in Canberra have a kit you can borrow to test your electricity use that might be worth borrowing. you can test your appliances to see what is energy hungry – see here
https://www.librarycatalogue.act.gov.au/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=G4332L4860S75.1384&profile=vl&source=~!horizon&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!524948~!2&ri=3&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=energy+kit&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3

also think about the type of light globes, house orientation, gas or electric water/heating, lights being left on, dryer etc.