Mining?

We had solar panels (between 2015 and 2020) that reduced out yearly bills from Contact Energy. See chart.

We moved to a new home and swapped to Electric Kiwi for the Hour of Power. But as you can see, we've still had the three $200 bills (see August 2021).

Recently changed tariffs with Electric Kiwi and installed Wall unit for new electric car. (not showing yet!) 

neb: Just a few small changes can make a huge difference: Replacing six 75W DOT110s and eight 50W halogen downlights with LEDs (that's nearly half a kilowatt each just to illuminate the kitchen/dining and lounge), wrapping the HWC (which was in any case already pretty efficiently insulated), putting proper insulation in the ceiling and walls (replacing insulfluf and closing up the chimneys created by the DOT110s), ditching a dryer we never used anyway (that's what fresh air is for), we're not actually aware of any explicit/intrusive power-saving measures and the power bill is $80-100 a month. Which is why I was so surprised at $400-600 a month bills.

That's pretty low, I think my Mum living alone pays about that and she's out most of the time. Just the daily charge comes to about $66, so that's $34 on power or 170kwh. If you're a low user that plan is going away, or maybe gone already. In Jan we used 920kwh, but we were using a bit of air conditioning. It'll be interesting to see how power use changes when there's only me in the house for a week.

Do you use any heating or cooling? What part of the country are you in?

We find in Wellington we want heating 9 months a year, cooling two months a year, and one month is pretty good!

neb: Just a few small changes can make a huge difference: Replacing six 75W DOT110s and eight 50W halogen downlights with LEDs (that's nearly half a kilowatt each just to illuminate the kitchen/dining and lounge), wrapping the HWC (which was in any case already pretty efficiently insulated), putting proper insulation in the ceiling and walls (replacing insulfluf and closing up the chimneys created by the DOT110s), ditching a dryer we never used anyway (that's what fresh air is for), we're not actually aware of any explicit/intrusive power-saving measures and the power bill is $80-100 a month. Which is why I was so surprised at $400-600 a month bills.

For renters, it's pretty hard to do most of those things. Labour have made a good start with it's legislative efforts to require landlords to insulate houses, but it's just riddled with exemptions that need closing. Our current house is very old, with some insulation retrofitted, but most of it escaped under the "not easily doable" exemptions. Previous one's have been the same. If it's going to require expense or effort beyond the legally required minimums, the reality is most landlords don't want to know. 

My highest ever power bill was ~$450 (excluding hot water as we had gas - which meant our total energy consumption for that month was around 550!). This was when we rented an old,  120m2, single glazed, drafty 1930s bungalow in Dunedin, peak winter. I think it had partial insulation in the roof and some underfloor. We had an exchange student at the time who had an oil column heater on the whole time - even when she wasn't there, which we obviously didn't find out about until we got that bill.. That place was very difficult to heat, we had a 2 year old at the time and I was mainly WFH so a large part of the bill was just down to trying to heat the place. Living in that place during Winter was seriously one of the worst experiences renting. Complete opposite to the nice modern home we rented the previous year in Dunedin.

Our current place is slightly better (100m2, 1920s bungalow in Chch with insulation on the roof and 80% of the walls, no underfloor due to access and partial double glazing) and our peak winter power bill (excl gas hot water) is $300ish. In summer this drops back to $80. This is with two adults and two kids. We practically run two dehumidifers 24/7 in winter due the lack of underfloor insulation/moisture barrier.  But this house definitely feels much warmer and considerably easier to heat than that shocker we had in Dunedin.

We peak at about $300 in winter. Modern build in North Canterbury (200sqm). Running 3 x oil heaters on thermostats 24/7 (bedrooms), a heat pump in living area, gas hot water, 95% led lights. Do run two fridges, one of which is ancient. My wife works from home a few days a week and doesn't tolerate the cold (will run a space heater when in her office). Just installed a woodburner and a heatpump in one of the bedrooms, don't think that will have reduced our heating bill at all though once you factor in wood.

At our previous house in Chch our bill would linger closer to $500 over winter (120sqm) - 1960's build with minimal insulation and wooden joinery.

I know my in-laws bill used to linger around $700-800 in winter when they had their indoor heated pool.

Reading @Blurtie experience in Dunedin with a 2 year old brings back bad memories of being on Flick wholesale power pricing during winter 5 years ago when the prices went through the roof. We used to only heat the baby's room and spend all our time in there and our bill was still $20-30 a day.

https://www.odt.co.nz/business/power-bills-are-due-be-more-expensive-today

$600 becomes $750?

CYaBro: I get upset when our power bill is over about $225 a month.
Family of 4 and I work from home and have plenty of IT stuff running 24/7.
Biggest one we’ve had was $265 when we had relatives staying for a few weeks.

Ditto - we use Powershop and wife buys packs on special etc but still monitors it all.

During summer goes up a little due to pool pump running more, but thats generally the only change in ours.

Have a Kent fireplace and heat transfer kit for winter, and free source of wood so dont notice any change then either :)

A hot water cylinder leak is a possible reason for very high power usage. One of the pressure regulator valves passing some water through can see a trickle of hot water constantly going down the drain or onto the roof.

Being on an expensive plan can be another (incl being exposed to spot prices at a time when pricing is high). Power companies see to bump up the price their existing customers pay, while offering sweet deal's to entice new customers. Means that the customer who sticks with the same company for a long time can end up paying a bunch more than somebody who shops around every year or two.

Also power costs more in some areas than others (i.e. Northland), and consumers can end up on plans that are not a good fit for their needs (i.e. low user when they are actual a high user, of one of those plans with expensive rates, but a free TV as a signing bonus).

I'm in Auckland. Just pulled my bill from 03/06/2021 to 03/07/2021. 1724kWh & 31 days. Came to $391.07.

I consider that I was on pretty good rates (18.7956c/kWh + 216.2c/day).

We are two adults and a pre-schooler who likes bath's, House old, but dose OK thermally and is all electric (cooking, heating, water etc.), and one of our cars is electric. We don't hold back on power usage (heat pump on whenever we are home in winter, warm water in the waning machine, tumble dryer for every load, long showers.

Under our old rates, it would have taken cira 1,100kWh extra consumption to bring our bill up to $600. Or a 24/7 consumption of 1.5kW. Leaving a single smaller fan heater on 24/7 to take the chill off bedroom on the shady side of the house would do this, as would leaving on 15 100W incandescent security lights.

Under our new rates it would only take about 800kWh more.

Should note that especially with older and nicer home fixtures, stuff can be very energy intensive. House I grew up in had 2x 300W halogen downlights, just to light the stair well - all the indoor lighting has since been changed to LED. I think that house now has multiple three 300W heated towel rails too, and an unknown amount of underfloor heating under the bathroom tiles. It is all managed with timer's etc, so isn't too much of an issue. But one could see how one could easily consume a massive amount of power.

And that is before you consider the really high power consumption stuff. Electrical Resistance heated spa pools, heat pump heated swimming pools, outdoor radiant heaters (a pair of 3200W units would be a nice addition to a lot of homes), cripto mining etc.

Lias:

 

Our average bill is 500-600 for 4 people, don't see it as unusual at all.

 

Even when I lived alone in a 1 bedroom unit my bill was 160-180.

 

That surprises me. I live alone and my most recent bill was $86. This is with things like a NAS on all the time, regular use of dishwasher, PC, PS5... although of course that $86 is a summer bill.

Edit: Forgot that I haggled the rate down, although I suspect I'm hardly unique in that regard.

How about his? This is a combined electricity/gas bill from Contact. Most of the gas charges were from a US sourced (in the house when I bought it)  gas fired fireplace style heater which sends more heat up the flue than into the room.

After that I stopped using it, moved a column heater into the room and then had a heat pump installed!  The differences in running costs were major.