Australian Politics Forum - How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?

Coral Sea

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #15 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 5:53am

We actually do a fair amount conserve (because we want to save money), but as you hinted at its about household size (family) and property size. I rent a very large and very old (by American standards, it was built in 1920) home with three other men. The house is 4,230 square feet on two acres.

My electricity usage is also much more significant than it sounds, because electricity prices in America are two times lower on average than in Australia.

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"General, these are American regulars. In a hundred and fifty years they have never been beaten. They will hold."&&-- Col. Preston Brown, C/S, 2nd Division, the Marne, June 1, 1918

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Ex Dame Pansi

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #16 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 6:10am

<<electricity prices in America are two times lower on average than in Australia. >>
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That's good. So, in comparison to electricity, how does your telecommunications costs rate? It seems we are paying more to communicate than we are to power our homes.

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Coral Sea

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #17 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 6:42am

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Oct 30^th, 2010 at 6:10am:

<<electricity prices in America are two times lower on average than in Australia. >>
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That's good. So, in comparison to electricity, how does your telecommunications costs rate? It seems we are paying more to communicate than we are to power our homes.

I am unfamiliar with telecom in Australia beyond very basic information (Telstra dominant provider, broadband penetration is poor), but I can give you my direct costs if that helps. If you have a rundown of your costs that might be interesting.

For my home, I have a so-called "triple play" (television, internet service, and telephone service) through the cable company, Comcast. Comcast is the largest cable company in the United States.

My television service includes three cable boxes, all of which support HDTV (costs extra with most cable providers here) and one which is a DVR box. I have every channel you can get except the Playboy channel (costs $20/month by itself).

For telephone service I have two phone lines with caller ID and call waiting. Calls anywhere within the USA and Canada are included in the plan and do not incur per minute charges. International rates vary but are typically around eight cents per minute to other highly industrialized countries.

My internet service is 25mbps downstream and 5mbps upstream.

As for cellphone service, I use AT&T which is our Telstra (but has a more complicated corporate history). I pay $100 a month for unlimited voice and data (I own a smartphone).

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"General, these are American regulars. In a hundred and fifty years they have never been beaten. They will hold."&&-- Col. Preston Brown, C/S, 2nd Division, the Marne, June 1, 1918

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muso

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #18 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 6:55am

Actually you guys would have felt the pinch with rising fuel prices due to the falling $US.

It's a good idea to compare prices like this. On another forum, I started a thread comparing energy prices. I converted them all into a common unit like kWhr (I think you might use BTu) and compared the prices for petrol, diesel, electricity and natural gas.

Of course I found out that Octane ratings are totally different in the States. It would be a good idea to repeat it maybe on the Environment forum. I can do the conversions and put in table form.

You'll find a lot of variation in Electricity bills depending on whether you're dealing with a family living in a 4br home or a single person living in a flat.

For telephone service I use GoTalk on VOIP and fixed phone lines. It costs around $50 per month including unmetered Australian calls. Overseas calls typically cost about 1-2 cents per minute. For most friends overseas we tend to use Skype these days, which costs nothing.

My Internet service is 20Mbps. I use Telstra out bush (unfortunately) because they offer the best deal. Otherwise I hate Telstra. They're not too bad for broadband but like GoTalk, they kept giving me marketing calls - until I threatened to change providers if I got one more marketing call.

For my mobile phone service, I use Optus on a $49 monthly plan. I get 1Gb of data and heaps of calls (I only use about 15% of the allocation), but I hardly use it for data except for emails and checking the weather radar occasionally. I also get unlimited free calls to my wife's mobile which is on the same invoice. I use a Nokia E72, and I occasionally use the WiFi on that either at home or at coffee shops.

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« Last Edit: Oct 30^th, 2010 at 7:11am by muso »

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Coral Sea

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #19 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 7:21am

I live in Illinois, which leads the United States in nuclear power. We have ten operating nuclear power plants which supply 49% of our electricity, more than double the national average. Nearly all our remaining power comes from coal, which appreciate much less in price in the past decade than oil and gas. As such, electric prices here haven't been much affected by the bull market in commodities.

Some parts of the country are heavily dependent on natural gas for electric power, and in these parts of the country electricity prices have gone up significantly. Natural gas plants have been popular among utilities because it is possible to build small, efficient units and they produce relatively little pollution compared to coal. With the new high prices of gas however, coal is king again for new electric power plants.

Most Americans get their central heating from natural gas however, and heating costs have risen accordingly. My heating bill in the winter (very cold here compared to Australia) is absolutely atrocious.

I would prefer for BTU to be used as I hate the metric system, but our electricity is priced in kilowatt hours as well. Some official government data still report in BTUs, however.

My cost per kilowatt hour is about 11 cents. If you ignore the taxes applied the cost is 8.3 cents. There are some other costs which are not on a per unit basis.

I typically use about 3600 kilowatt hours.

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"General, these are American regulars. In a hundred and fifty years they have never been beaten. They will hold."&&-- Col. Preston Brown, C/S, 2nd Division, the Marne, June 1, 1918

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Ex Dame Pansi Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 24168	Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill? Reply #20 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 7:58am Ours will get cheaper when we allow competition too. The more essential services that we privatise, the more we pay in the end.
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Coral Sea

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #21 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 8:13am

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Oct 30^th, 2010 at 7:58am:

Ours will get cheaper when we allow competition too. The more essential services that we privatise, the more we pay in the end.

Your second comment conflicts with your first comment, unless you were referring to negative externalities associated with energy consumption.

I wouldn't be so sure that competition will drive down costs. Infrastructure is a natural monopoly. Competition results in wasteful duplication and adds marketing costs. Electricity costs are very low in America due to regulation. All states have public service commissions which regulate what price utilities may charge consumers. In Western Europe they don't have this, and electricity rates there now.

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"General, these are American regulars. In a hundred and fifty years they have never been beaten. They will hold."&&-- Col. Preston Brown, C/S, 2nd Division, the Marne, June 1, 1918

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Equitist

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #22 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 11:48am

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Oct 29^th, 2010 at 9:05am:

Equitist wrote on Oct 28^th, 2010 at 11:39am:

Now for something really scary: in FY10 our total annual household telecommunications bills exceeded our annual electricity bills by close to 50%!

Oh, and we don't have pay TV - and have no intentions of taking it up...

I had to do the sums after I read that.

My total electricity for 2009 was $930 and total telecommunications bill was $1200, that's for a landline, broadband and one mobile phone that doesn't get used much ( I let people ring me lol) no discounts, subsidies or rebates. It will be interesting to compare this years bills.

Yer, it is a bit of a shock to realise that most household telecommunications bills exceed energy costs - I think many people don't appreciate the relative costs of utilities, because they forget that energy and council bills tend to remain quarterly and telecommunications accounts tend to come monthly these days (often from different providers)...

I was shocked to learn yesterday that my infamously-stingy Mum is forking out $95 a month for pay TV...

Either way, I am taking steps to dispute our last power bill, for the horrendous sum of $810: I think I know what happened to cause such an extraordinary increase in our household usage and costs (problem at utility end) - but to prove it I am waiting for a fully itemised list of the time-of-use billing breakdown over the relevant quarter...

With half-hourly readings, the person I spoke to estimated that the list will be about 50 pages long...

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Equitist

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #23 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 11:52am

Coral Sea wrote on Oct 30^th, 2010 at 8:13am:

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Oct 30^th, 2010 at 7:58am:

Ours will get cheaper when we allow competition too. The more essential services that we privatise, the more we pay in the end.

Your second comment conflicts with your first comment, unless you were referring to negative externalities associated with energy consumption.

I wouldn't be so sure that competition will drive down costs. Infrastructure is a natural monopoly. Competition results in wasteful duplication and adds marketing costs. Electricity costs are very low in America due to regulation. All states have public service commissions which regulate what price utilities may charge consumers.

Exactly!

People should not allow themselves to be conned into believing that private enterprise will deliver cheaper essential services and infrastructure - especially since shareholder dividends will more than eclipse any efficiency savings over public bureaucracies...

The corporate profit imperative will always prevail - at any and all costs to ordinary citizens!

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Lamenting the shift in the Australian psyche, away from the egalitarian ideal of the fair-go - and the rise of short-sighted pollies, who worship the 'Growth Fairy' and seek to divide and conquer!

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Equitist Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 9632 NSW	Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill? Reply #24 - Oct 30^th, 2010 at 6:56pm Crikey, that's one at >$1,000 per quarter - which is approaching $100 per week... I'd be interested to know why the usage is so high...
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Ex Dame Pansi

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Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
Reply #25 - Oct 31^st, 2010 at 9:12am

<<Your second comment conflicts with your first comment, unless you were referring to negative externalities associated with energy consumption.>>
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I don't think it come out right lol. I was referring to Queensland electricity in particular. The State sold it off to a private company, who now have a monopoly on the entire operation. They are holding the state and the consumers over a barrell. Pay the price, regardless of how exorbitant it is, or they cut supply. Of course there are regulations, but Ergon Energy are saying that all the infrastructure needs to be replaced....believe it or not.

The Qld govt. should have kept this essential service so that affordable power was ensured. On the other hand, now that it is in private hands, other companies should not be blocked from competing.

I would prefer essential services to be run wholly by State or Commonwealth.

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Hendrix
andrei said: Great isn't it? Seeing boatloads of what is nothing more than human garbage turn up.....

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The_Barnacle Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 6205 Melbourne Gender:	Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill? Reply #26 - Oct 31^st, 2010 at 9:21am Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Oct 31^st, 2010 at 9:12am: I would prefer essential services to be run wholly by State or Commonwealth. I couldn't agree more. Essential services are ESSENTIAL and shouldn't be left at the whim of the markets.
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skippy. Gold Member Offline Posts: 20882 Gender:	Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill? Reply #27 - Nov 1^st, 2010 at 1:30pm Mine was NILCH, I live on solar power, and have done for eight years now. But don't tell the rightards, they hate people getting things for free.
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muso Gold Member Offline Posts: 13151 Gladstone, Queensland Gender:	Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill? Reply #28 - Nov 1^st, 2010 at 1:39pm Equitist wrote on Oct 30^th, 2010 at 6:56pm: Crikey, that's one at >$1,000 per quarter - which is approaching $100 per week... I'd be interested to know why the usage is so high... I'll bet it's teenage kids. Teenagers and early 20's living with parents tend to be wasteful.
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gizmo_2655 Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 16010 South West NSW Gender:	Re: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill? Reply #29 - Nov 1^st, 2010 at 3:04pm Ahhh finally I can answer....just got a bill today. From the end of July to the end of October....just over $500.00 Electricity and Gas combined...
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Poll
Question: How much was your 'Winter' quarterly energy bill?
<$300 $300-$500 $500-$700 $700-$900 $900-$1,100 $1,100+ Click if you use gas or solar Click if your electricity use is >7,000 kWh pa « Created by: Equitist on: Oct 28^th, 2010 at 10:43am »