Last week, along with a lovely Avon catalogue, I got a notice from AGL. They're putting up our electricity rates. AGAIN. I'm sure this is common amongst ALL electricity providers. They just put them up on 8th April, and now they're putting them up again from 22nd July.
I've compared it to the rate we were paying pre-April 8th. Keep in mind, our average was 24.28kWh, and we have peak, off peak and shoulder electricity here. Our total consumption for a 90 day period as 2185.15kwh (down on 2410kwh this time last year, with thanks to our energy saving tips).
Plugging it all into a spreadsheet (ex GST), it means:
- our service charge has gone up $12 a quarter
- our peak electricity will go up $32 a quarter
- our off peak electricity will go up $12.50 a quarter
- our shoulder electricity will go up $28
Add GST to all of the above (because, of course, we all know I'm capable of actually MAKING my own electricity by pedalling on my bike!!! LOL) - and it means our quarterly bill will go up about $92 a quarter to around the $400 mark, instead of the $300 mark we've managed to get it too. Pretty peeved to say the least!!!! Especially considering how much we've managed to slash our bill and our costs, and they 'punish' us by putting the rates up, which mean we're now effectively paying the same amount anyway.
Sometimes you can't get ahead...! But there are a couple of things I can still improve on:
- continue to do washing in off-peak electricity time using the delay cycle
- use the slow cooker over-night in off-peak time, instead of during the day in shoulder or peak times
- turn off more powerpoints during the day, not JUST overnight
- turn off the spare freezer when meat gets low, and pop it in our daily freezer
- turn off one of the 'spare' cordless phones, and just have the one with the answering machine
- charge my mobile phone in the car when we're out, instead of at home
- have my daily cuppa in the morning (shoulder period) instead of the afternoon (peak time), or alternatively use the microwave to zap the water warm instead of the kettle
- bake bread in off peak electricity time, rather than the "convenient" time
- have a 3 light maximum policy when everyone is home, and 2 otherwise (including lamps, nightlights etc)
- draw the drapes to keep the heat in during winter (and the cold out!), and to keep the cool in during summer (and the heat out)
- make dual use of the oven. ie if the oven is on to cook something (like a casserole), use the most of the oven being on and bake a few batches of cakes, slices and biscuits. Don't forget your frozen cookie dough! It'll take you 2 minutes to get them into the oven. You can freeze most cakes and slices (uniced). And it's great to have a stock of them in the freezer anyway for an unexpected visitor or outing
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You've given me some good ideas there. I'm sure our rates will be going up soon too, but either way we can always do with reducing our bill. We've only just got timed periods, so it's still something I have to be conscious of.
ReplyDeleteCan I just say a big I HATE AGL!!!! I don't know if they suck as much in NSW as they do in QLD, but I have just swapped over from them because I was so sick of them stuffing around. We didn't even get sent bills for 9 months and I have no idea how many times I called asking them to send them! Weren't reading our meter properly either. And of course it's ME that has to pay for their stuff ups when they finally realise they were under charging me! Ugh! Sorry for the rant, I'm just sick of electricity companies right now!
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