Cut costs by identifying these power 'guzzlers': Simple tips to reduce your bill
Aussies are reporting huge jumps in their summer power bills compared to this time last year, with many baffled by what’s causing the hike.
Queensland woman Carrey Segerstrom said her power bill had increased significantly, which she initially put down to higher energy costs, until she noticed her monthly “usage” had leaped from 18.57 kWh to 32.98 kWh in her most recent notice.
“My kWh usage seems to have almost doubled from this time last year (both December and January),” she wrote on social media. “A slight increase is understandable but it really shouldn’t have increased this much – any tips on what and how I could check what is potentially causing this? Could an old second-hand fridge be the culprit?”
After clarifying she used a smart meter – which is read automatically – and that the bill was based on an actual reading, not an estimate, Segerstrom said she was still in the dark as to the cause of the price hike and felt “something seems dodgy”.
“I’ve unplugged the fridge and am waiting on the next bill,” she told Yahoo Finance. “My 17-year-old son bought it second-hand for the garage to use for a party. It’s old, but not old-old.”
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After writing about her predicament on social media, Segerstrom’s post was flooded with responses, with one commenter saying his older fridge used “2.4kwh a day”, on average.
“We learned this lesson some years ago,” a woman wrote. “Daughter lived alone and was hardly home, had an old, but great-condition, huge fridge.” She said that after it stopped working and was replaced with a “new, energy-efficient fridge”, her bills were cut by more than half.
“One appliance was sucking up so much power. Similar will be seen with old hot water systems as they age and begin to fail,” she added.
A fourth person said she'd asked her provider to put her on a different, cheaper plan, but was told that, if she switched, she’d be charged peak-hour rates, which were higher.
“I've been trying for five years for them to explain mine,” the woman wrote. “One-person household, fridge and freezer running, no air con, only ceiling fans, no heaters and cook five out of seven nights and mine is up around $550-$600 each quarter.”
Why are power bills currently so high?
Author and journalist Joel Gibson, an expert in money-saving hacks to reduce power bills, told Yahoo Finance: “Summer bills are often the biggest of the year because of air-con, so that might have played a role – especially combined with much higher rates since the price rises of 2022 and 2023.