Electricity is Scaring Me.
Bill and I have been really concerned about recent electricity price hikes. One of our last bills was $660 (that's a quarter) an increase of 21% on the same bill last year.
News reports are estimating that we can expect an increase of another 17.2% by July this year and a further 62% by 2013.
Now, if this doesn't scare you, well .....you're either living off the grid or you have more money than sense.
We have tried really hard to rein in our electricity consumption. I run around like a crazy woman turing off lights, appliances and computers, when not in use. We limit our pool pump time and use our gas where we can. And still we end up with a $660 bill!
So with the money from the sale of the camper we intend to install some solar panels on our roof. For around $2000 we can install a panel system that will cut our electricity bill by one third. As we add more panels, of course the electricity bill goes down further. Until we are generating so much energy we can run our home and put electricity back into the grid for credit.
What do you guys think? Are you worried about electricity prices? Are your bills as crazy as mine or do you have ways I don't know about to keep your electricity bill down? I'd love to hear your comments.
7 comments:
Well, we have solar panels and still have a crazy high electricity bill! We don't leave lights on but do have a lot of computers that run 24/7 (though dh tells me they don't cost hardly anything when on standby). Our think our pool, spa and air-con in the computer room (so dh can do work from home) are the main culprits. Though luckily because dh does work from home the company pays for some of bill :-). We still pay more than you though :-).
Libby
IF our electricity bill came in that high I would pretty much die!!!! Or at least pass out in shock. We put a gas hot water system in about 18 months ago and got gas heating and that saw our bill drop considerably. I think the solar panel are an excellent idea and something that I will be looking into.
Emma, I hate to say this but our water is already gas as is our stove top and we can use gas to heat as well as our reverse cycle air con. I think like Libby says, it may be the pool and the computers which go pretty much 24/7 here. Maybe if we had a life......
I am looking at solar panels too, especially with the government now offering to pay a lot to buy back solar - I think that it will be a case of you sell everything you produce to the power company, then buy back what you use. Of course, to pay so much for people's solar, they have to increase costs.
I would love to be off the grid for everything - looking into it.
oue power bill has gone up too. It used to always be around $200 but the last one was $330 and we have solar hotwater which I don't think is working on solar. Though this summer has been so humid that we used the A/C a lot more than normal. These price hikes are starting to scare me too.
Hi Vanessa,
We live in a small townhome, and our last bill was $580. In winter it was almost $800. And I line dry our clothing!
We would like to get solar panels, but the body corporate needs to agree.
So we are looking into gas hot water system in the mean time.
Lala that sounds insane. I try to line dry too but sometimes if we need a sports uniform in a hurry then putting into the dryer is unavoidable. But $800 in a townhouse - that is scary!!!!
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