utility bills

[ian don]

we have a 300 square metre home in scotland that cost around $350 a quarter.In Melbourne where our son lives the house is half the size and they where a $1000 bucks like i said rip off brit has nothing on aus power company,s

[Bobbsy]

We're in a house with all electricity, no gas and both my wife and I are semi-retired/work from home so we're here all day every day. Our computers are on all the time and often a big plasma TV. My wife has a small window AC on in the room she uses as an office most of the time but we rarely use the big reverse cycle (7kw) A/C, either for cooling or heating (though it's on as I type this).

 

We pay Ergon $150 per month and some quarters they owe us money back, other times we owe them a small excess.

 

There's no pool but I'd strongly suggest Moving2Melbourne checks her tariffs. They don't exactly have an Economy 7 here but there are a couple that work for things like pools and hot water that let Ergon turn off supply at peak hours (but guarantee a certain number of hours on at various times) These tariffs cut the unit cost hugely so might be worth getting for high current, non-time critical stuff.

[Guest littlesarah]

In NSW, our last electricity bill was $275 for the quarter. We don't have gas and there are just the two of us. We're not at home all day every day, which I'm sure makes a difference; but the biggest thing for us is that our heating is provided by a wood burner, which costs almost nothing to run (just the cost of maintaining the chainsaw and a bit of petrol to transport the wood, and of course the time hubby puts into chopping logs, which is a free workout!).

 

We plan on improving the insulation in our house (seems like it just wasn't even considered in the 1980s over here), which I reckon will make a noticeable difference, especially in the warmer months. I'm hoping that installing shutters will make a difference, too.