Utlitily Bills Families

Hey,

Just looking for some Melbourne families to share their Utility Bill costs, I would be hoping my monthly calculations are on track but suspect they might be way off!

Family x 4, 3-4 bed house suburbs

Water $70

Electricity $90

Gas $50

I've lived in many places in Australia and this is not half bad for a family / 3 or 4 bedroom house.

Typically I had a $1300 a quarter electricity bill here in Queensland....

It will be seasonal and depend on your appliances.

Do you have gas ducted heating. If so it will be expensive in Winter.

If you have air conditioning electricity will be more in summer.

I do not pay electricity as I have panels

Will depend on whether you have a well insulated rental, or older style home, central heating, air conditioning etc. Pool.

I think I would put gas at $100 if it is a family with central heating.

Hi thanks for replies so far.

I am basing these calculations on a 3 bed house in a suburb like point cook, so a fairly new house, no pool. Usual appliances washing machine, dishwasher, tumble dryer, 1 or 2 TV's

I think you are way off to be honest.

Take in to account that all Australian houses are Jerry built and concepts like double glazing and insulation don't occur to people here. As an example, we live in a 4 bed house, there's three of us and we're pretty energy conscious, yet our bills are $180 a month electricity and up to $700 every two months for gas. Even in summer this is $100.

Also, don't assume that because you're looking at a new house in Point Cook it'll be any more energy efficient that a rickety old house. Houses here are not built for the long haul. They put up a McMansion in about 6 months, basically a wooden frame with some panels nailed on to it, badly rendered over; then ten years later the house is falling to pieces, so they rip it down and build another one to the same poor standards.

As an example of the lunacy here, Melbourne can be really cold in winter, yet our house has three inch gaps at the top of all the bathroom and toilet windows. All that covers them is an insect screen. The heat just poured out until we boxed them off. Same with ventilation bricks. We have 12 on a house built circa 1980 with no open flames. Completely unnecessary - all now boxed off.

Don't expect your central heating or water heating to be efficient either. Things like condensation boilers are unknown in Australia. We have a big water tank that sits there sucking up money whether we need the hot water or not. The same with the heating - no-one has radiators, it's all ducted heating, which quickly heats up the house, but does nothing to retain it.

The irony is this is the same country that introduced the carbon tax, yet people here are truly clueless about energy conservation. So, slap on a tax which kills your economy to be green, yet do nothing to actually reduce the energy you consume. Nicely summed up by the soon to be defunct Australian car industry. Why build an energy efficient car, when you can shoe horn a 6 litre V8 in to a Holden Commodore? And they wonder why no-one else in the world wants them!

For reference, our bills in the UK (4 bed semi) were something like 80 pounds a month combined. Then again we had double glazing, loft insulation, doors that actually fit the frames and so on...

gas bill in today $149 for 67 days for a 4x2. There are 2 of us for 4 weeks and 3 of us on the 5 week, have had heating on in the early mornings and late evenings for a bit.

It's not got cold yet though - what do you pay in June-Sept?

It's not got cold yet though - what do you pay in June-Sept?

It's not got cold yet though - what do you pay in June-Sept?

Soon to depart to Melbourne and as a comparison we are living in a 5 year old 2 bedroom apartment, fully insulated and double glazed. Its all electric with a special boiler that feeds normal radiators. We do 2 washes a week and rarely use the dishwasher. Our budget account is £156 a month, around $290 and by the end of the year our balance owing is about even, so say £1800 a year. I dont consider this to be cheap and it will be interesting to see what our first yearly spend will be in Melbourne.

Ouch! That's a lot of money.

Thanks for the replies looks like I may have actually got these figures a bit wrong, would really appreciate any families in Melbourne suburbs to share their Gas, Water and Elec outgoings, monthly or 1/4 with me so I can get a better idea

Mornington peninsula for us.

70's brick veneer.

2 Adults, 2 Children under 8.

Gas - Hot water, hob, ducted heating. $60 per two months in summer half of year. Upto $250 per two months in winter half of year. Im ruthless turning it down and off. Thats what jumpers and snuggling were invented for.

Electricity - $175 per quarter ave. Less in summer months, more in winter months. But we have 1.5 kW worth of solar on the roof. Getting paid the same feed in tariff as we pay for it. Only used aircon once this summer. Evaporative cooler on roof is great, and it runs at 700W rather than 2400W. All lights LED downlights.

Water - $200 per quarter. We average 60L per person per day. A 2000L tank does all veggie gardening watering.

So those figures are not a million miles away from my predictions.

Mornington peninsula for us.

 

70's brick veneer.

 

2 Adults, 2 Children under 8.

 

Gas - Hot water, hob, ducted heating. $60 per two months in summer half of year. Upto $250 per two months in winter half of year. Im ruthless turning it down and off. Thats what jumpers and snuggling were invented for.

 

Electricity - $175 per quarter ave. Less in summer months, more in winter months. But we have 1.5 kW worth of solar on the roof. Getting paid the same feed in tariff as we pay for it. Only used aircon once this summer. Evaporative cooler on roof is great, and it runs at 700W rather than 2400W. All lights LED downlights.

 

Water - $200 per quarter. We average 60L per person per day. A 2000L tank does all veggie gardening watering.

So those figures are not a million miles away from my predictions.

Don't forget that is with solar panels, that is still an extremely small quarterly bill with a small amount of solar panels.. You really need to look at all the figures given and come up with a rough average. Apparently the average yearly bill is in the region of $1800-1900.

Don't forget that is with solar panels, that is still an extremely small quarterly bill with a small amount of solar panels.. You really need to look at all the figures given and come up with a rough average. Apparently the average yearly bill is in the region of $1800-1900.

Yeah that is what I am hoping to do is to compare families with a similar set up to me and take an average, I would say I am under, but just need to work out how much I am under in predictions.

I pay £40 per mth,for gas and electicity.I have gas ch,but the house is well isulated.

Yeah that is what I am hoping to do is to compare families with a similar set up to me and take an average, I would say I am under, but just need to work out how much I am under in predictions.

Don't over think it though. If you find your bills are higher than you had hoped just economise or find a better deal.

I pay £40 per mth,for gas and electicity.I have gas ch,but the house is well isulated.

Not sure that will help the OP in Melbourne though

Don't over think it though. If you find your bills are higher than you had hoped just economise or find a better deal.

Yeah I don't want to over think it as there is always ways to cut back but with my figures I am predicting am I looking to say I need $100 more a month to be realistic to cover the 3 Utilities or is it more like $200-300 a month. Hopefully I'll get some more bills from families and can gage an average

Yeah I don't want to over think it as there is always ways to cut back but with my figures I am predicting am I looking to say I need $100 more a month to be realistic to cover the 3 Utilities or is it more like $200-300 a month. Hopefully I'll get some more bills from families and can gage an average

To give you a rough idea electricity and gas is more expensive than here and daily charges are much higher so if you are living in a roughly comparable house then bank on paying AT LEAST as much as you would here in the UK. There really are just too many variables though. As has been said Australian houses are mostly poorly insulated and take a lot to heat and to cool.

To give you a rough idea electricity and gas is more expensive than here and daily charges are much higher so if you are living in a roughly comparable house then bank on paying AT LEAST as much as you would here in the UK. There really are just too many variables though. As has been said Australian houses are mostly poorly insulated and take a lot to heat and to cool.

In the UK I have a 3 bed detached 1970s build, I am about £120 for Gas and Elec, in Scotland so just council tax which is £190 a month

If you are renting the landlord pays the rates so unless you are planning to buy right away you can forget that for a while. You will need to pay water usage though. got that bill today as well $70 since 10/2 till 17/4 but there is only two of us 4 weeks out of 5.

In the UK I have a 3 bed detached 1970s build, I am about £120 for Gas and Elec, in Scotland so just council tax which is £190 a month

Well you could certainly use that as a guide, if you roughly double it to convert to dollars then you could be looking at $240 or so a month. I will stress though that that is just a rough guide.

Well you could certainly use that as a guide, if you roughly double it to convert to dollars then you could be looking at $240 or so a month. I will stress though that that is just a rough guide.

So on that rough guide Gas and Elec $240 compared to what I thought of $140 a month