Usage

[Becca73]

I’m not sure why my usage is so high when I am not home during the day. I work 12 hour shifts and I live alone, well with 2 cats. Now unless the cats are clever enough to put the tv on, air -con, hot water or any other appliance, I don’t understand why my usage is so high?

I have 4  smart lights in use on timers, I have energy efficient appliances, I have ducted heating only and ceiling and upright fans. I am renting a two storey townhouse and it gets extremely hot upstairs, I sent several emails to my property managers in regards to getting air conditioning installed when the government had the rebate incentive on offer to no avail. I am in financial hardship and I can not afford to pay bills that are excessively high when I am hardly home. Is anyone else experiencing this too? I wonder if they are just guessing meter readings and not actually attending the property to do an actual reading? Let me know your thoughts. Thank you 

[Lester · Accepted solution]

Becca, I think MANY people are experiencing this now . . .

So many of these types of posts lately, I feel it has to do with recent high exponential increases in power pricing by pretty much all retailers . . . and it might not be purely increased usage (or usage increases at all), but people are simply noticing the $ increases in power bills more as it is so painful to the hip pocket.

Anyway, lots of recent threads on this topic and some good answers to both know what might be root causes of high usage and how to reduce / minimise power use . . . have a scroll down through some recent topics for some good advice.

https://neighbourhood.agl.com.au/t5/Energy/ct-p/Energy

Regarding meter readings.

If you have a smart meter on the site, you will be getting actual reads.

If old analogue metering, then they MIGHT be doing estimated reads, and these can often be on the high side.

If you have an analogue meter, it is stated on your bill if it's and actual or estimated read, and the reason (no access, dog present, etc).

If on digital meter, it will generally only say actual read, unless there is some problem with the meter, but that is rare and they would organise a fix promptly if getting no data.

Good luck with the efforts to find out about your bills, it can be a balance of tariffs and supply charges to best suit your power use needs, appliances, times of use etc.

[Becca73 · Accepted solution]

Thank you so much for your reply. I will keep an eye on my meter readings and compare last years usage to this years usage as I live alone now whereas I had others living with me last year. Be interesting to see how much of a difference in usage there is 😊

[Lester · Accepted solution]

No problems, and don't forget to compare tariff rates for those periods.

The pricing / KWH is just as important to the bill amount as usage.

Knowing what sort of tariff you are on (single rate, time of use, etc) is vital to getting the plan to best suit your needs.

The best plan to use when you are home, or when you can set appliances to work in shoulder or off peak times etc.

You can google search 'energy made easy', a Govco site to help people find energy deals from various suppliers.

AGL pricing is there to compare, and other retailers that might supply in your area.

[Becca73 · Accepted solution]

Will do. I know there has been an increase in supply and usage tariffs. It wil be interesting to compare. I’ve saved all of my bills 👍🏻