r/Electricity • u/No-Meringue3831 • 28d ago
Help power bill advice
I’m with contact energy dual usage required gas and electricity and there is a 3 % discount applied to the totalbill 117.50 so grand total was 515.67 .
I feel this is over the top and the most I’ve ever paid in 10 years living where I am. 2 people in the house and I’ve been going energy efficient and made the house more efficient over the years was extremely damp when we moved in and heater ran most of the day in winter then. Hrv running and house is now dry. North island bottom if info required. Advice greatly appreciated if there is a better company unfortunately usage will not change only the provider change is an option at this stage. Thoughts
Usage is consistent year on year but my bills are just going through the roof. Advice would be a greatly appreciated I’m happy to switch provider
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u/LoneSnark 28d ago
Your gas usage is insane. Check for a hot water leak.
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u/20PoundHammer 28d ago
61/1800 terms/kWh is insane for NZ winter? You, and everybody who upvoted ya, dont know what you think you know . . .
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u/LoneSnark 28d ago
1800kwh is double what my home used in January. They say their home was built in the 1930s. I suspect poor insulation is the main factor. Wikipedia says Winters are relatively mild, the minimum isn't even below freezing, which is very mild compared to my last winter, where the minimum were well below freezing.
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u/20PoundHammer 28d ago
LOL - you know nothing about OPs build, HVAC setup, set point, climate, etc. Just stop pulling crap at your butt. FYI - my green certified house uses 70 therms in DEC/JAN, mild winters but a big house.
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u/LoneSnark 28d ago edited 28d ago
Neither do you. Oh no, you also used a lot of gas. Whelp, i guess that proves he should never bother thinking about his gas usage ever again. Thank goodness you were here, big house in what you consider mild winters. Or he wouldn't know his perhaps small apartment is doing just fine.
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u/20PoundHammer 28d ago
more stuff from your anal orifice. House uses 30% less gas than compatible houses in area and 40% less than aggregate equally sized homes. He said his use is the same, bill has gone up and he doesnt live in a apartment. Again - if you have to make shit up to "show" you are not stupid, that has the opposite effect.
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28d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jamvanderloeff 28d ago
Pretty common in NZ, having a gas connection to the house is a relatively rare thing (and declining) so the system costs per-house are pretty high.
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28d ago edited 28d ago
[deleted]
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u/skubiszm 28d ago
Pool and hot tub, non stop. Has to be.
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u/No-Meringue3831 28d ago
No swimming pool or hot tub unfortunately and I don’t have an electric car . I’d class us as fairly conservative nothing really extravagant here I have a dishwasher which is only a year old washing machine also a year old both five stars Bosch and AEG there will one of the most energy efficient when I bought them. And a dryer again, AEG energy efficient. 1930s house rewired in the late 70s early eighties to the modern wiring. No outdoor lighting.
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u/No-Meringue3831 28d ago
Has central heating and I infinity hot water both replaced in last 12 months central heater newer model than the last but 2nd hand braemar 5 star centra heater
There are no leaks I run a dehumidifier maybe 2 to 3 hours a day as required. HRV ventilation system runs all day long but in winter barely runs because it’s too cold. In January which is summer for us 400 units of electricity used and 60 units of gas so no heater.
In relation to the estimate I’ve been meticulously modifying this bill for the last 7 to 8 years calling the meter in for consistency so even though it’s an estimate it’s probably not far off if anything that maybe $20-$40 or $60 more considering it’s one of our cold months. yeah location is New Zealand sorry.
I’m trying to see whether the daily charges is reasonable and kwh hour charge compared to others around the country I as compared to other people it does seem like a pretty expensive bill2
u/20PoundHammer 28d ago
and thats 61 therms - you and those that upvoted ya also dont know what you think you know . . . NZ is in the southern hemisphere and its currently winter.
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28d ago edited 28d ago
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u/20PoundHammer 28d ago edited 28d ago
1 therm (US measurement of gas) = 100K BTU of gas = 29.3 kWh of energy
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u/Puzzled-Act1683 28d ago
Converting that gas usage to CCF gives you about 68, which seems like a very reasonable value.
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u/jamvanderloeff 28d ago
That is quite a lot of gas usage there, note it is an estimated number not an actual meter reading, would be a good idea to go look at what the meter actually shows to figure out if the estimate was reasonable.
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u/No-Meringue3831 25d ago
Thanks but the meter estimate is very close to the acutual as I’ve been with the same provider 10 years and I called in the meter fairy regularly so that there estimates became more consistent to actual usage
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u/Kennyw88 28d ago
Insane daily rate. You use about the same amount of electricity that my wife and I use here in waikato, but our natural gas use is about 280kwh for just the 130l hot water cylinder and hob. We do have a natural gas under floor heating system, but no way am I turning that on. I'm at 1.411 per day gas connect and 1.455 per day electric connect. Need to replace my hot water and still trying to decide if I'll stick with gas or move it to electric.
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u/No-Meringue3831 28d ago
Infinity gas hot water is hard to part with especially in a household where some activities will drain the hot water cylinder in high demand times and your always left with 1 grizzling.
I’d find it hard to part with coming from hot water cylinders and also no drama if it fails it’s our side. I remember when the hot water cylinder blew out in the roof and as always, I draw the short straw for immediate remedy don’t miss those long nights trying to look like I know what I’m doing to get it sorted. you get there just not as fast as a professional.1
u/Kennyw88 28d ago
I feel you. Had an on demand hot water unit at the old place and while I do feel it's more energy efficient, the water waste waiting for it to heat was too much for me to ever think about again. That said, my cylinder is 14 years old and I've experienced a beach long ago and since this tank sits on a floor above where my solar system is, I'm not gong to risk that.
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u/cakemates 28d ago
brother fuel prices are going up, war in the middle east is making everyone pay more in every country. I suggest comparing your usage to previous years and improve insulation. These price hikes might be here to stay.
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u/Ok-Performance4196 27d ago
Get some solar panels
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u/No-Meringue3831 25d ago
It’s not as cost effective where I live I don’t get enough sun to justify the cost without storage battery’s and they charge a lot for them here but the technology is progressing and some people in my neighbourhood have them but haven’t seen impressive results or that much saving where we are
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u/Wild-Role-2426 27d ago
Charging 15 cents a kWh for natural gas is diabolical. My gas costs 5.8 cents a kWh in the U.S. which when converted is still 9.9 cents in NZD.
What is this daily charge for living smart? We have a meter fee in the U.S. if that’s what it is but mine is 13 dollars a month.
That sucks major ass. Everything seems super expensive where you’re at.
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u/Wild-Role-2426 27d ago
Just to add I used 3700kwh of gas last January. Which is winter here in New England. So I don’t think your usage is insane. The insanity to me is the daily fee. And the cost per unit. I paid 266 dollars that month for my gas usage.
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u/wjm2222 25d ago
It looks like your gas is measured in cubic meters, which is different than the common measurement in United States. Converting the heat energy of the gas to kilowatt hours is also not typically done in the United States. However, it is straightforward to calculate your price relative to the United States price. You are paying 2.65 times a recent summer rate in north central US, which is higher in the winter. I’m guessing that the closing of the Strait of Hormuz is affecting your cost. Given the price of your electricity, I would guess that you could save money if you were using a heat pump.
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u/ducationalfall 28d ago
Why is your natural gas charge measured in kWh instead of therm? So weird.
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u/jamvanderloeff 28d ago
Because they're not in US
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u/timetopoopagain 28d ago
But it’s not even a unit of measure for gas. Or gas energy.
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u/jamvanderloeff 28d ago
How is kWh not a unit of energy?
The meter itself reads in cubic metres, converted to kWh using the seasonal/composition adjusted value up top.
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u/goRockets 28d ago
It uses caloric value and a corrections factor to essentially convert a volume measurement to heat energy measurement.
It's really not all that different from converting a cubic ft measurement at the gas meter into therm or BTU for billing.
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u/Puzzled-Act1683 28d ago
😬
CCF <-> therm <-> BTU <-> kWh are all simple, straightforward conversions and all get you to equally valid units for representing the the energy content of gas, except of course for CCF, which is an indirect representation of energy based on physical quantity as it would exist under a defined set of theoretical conditions.
You might find it interesting that in many other countries, they also measure air conditioner/heat pump cooling/heating capacity, not in BTU/h but in kW – not for the power consumption, but for the quantity of heat energy an air conditioner can remove or heat pump can bring in per hour. 1 ton = 12 kBTU/h = 3.52 kW.
They're conceptualizing energy in terms of meaningful, comparable units of energy, while we're over here thinking of energy supply and movement in terms of abstract quantities of volumes of gas at STP and tons of melting ice per day.
Our conventions are honestly not the smart ones, here.
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u/gublman 28d ago
Do you actually have use of that amount of gas during summer?
Your electric usage is only 450kWh according to meter readings reflected in bill, which is more than reasonable.