How much did your power increase?

When you had your first child?

This time last year (no heating and me being at home due to finishing my degree) we were using about $80-90 a month on power. This month's power bill was $150 which is a massive difference. There's no way that Jack has made that much difference, and our unit price hasn't gone up either as we're on a fixed price for 2 years!

I know that it was a read after an estimate so I'm thinking maybe take off $20-30 dollars, it's still high! Should I ask to get my meter checked? It seems like our power bills have just got higher and higher since switching to Contact from Meridian but I mean, hello, they're reading the same meter lol

And if I get the meter checked and its faulty do they fix it for free? Or... if its NOT faulty, do they charge me?

OR... does a kid who only causes 3 loads of washing a week and use of the microwave a few times a day actually cost that much to run?

That has happened to us too, our bill last month was $147!! I have put it down to Laurens baths each day and when she had bad eczema I was bathing her twice a day in Pinetarsol so I am sure that is why it has become so high for us.

Also our hotwater cylinder is ancient so its probably not helping matters either. We are doing our bathroom up soon and are considering going onto gas.

Why would the power go up with the new meter boxes? That's ridiculous We were supposed to have ours installed 2 weeks ago but the guy never turned up (way to go customer service )

Ok Jack has 2-3 baths a week so it can't be that. Haven't thought about the hot water cylinder but can you describe how to check it? DH isn't home much to help me out with that. HWC is only 20 years old though so it should be sweet I would have thought. I haven't noticed a difference in temperature or anything. Hmm

Mine have doubled! Ours are at least $250 (last months was $300) a month. I have been on the phone to Contact non stop as don't believe our meter is working properly as everyone elses I know is heaps lower and they use heaters/fans, dryers etc.

Emz, if they come out and check your meter and there is something wrong with it it is free. If there is nothing wrong then they charge you $120. I asked yesterday when I rang again.

We just had our new meter installed and we just got an estimate reading and its dropped by a $100 but it doesn't say on the bill that its an estimate, only found that out cos I rang up so becareful KA that thats not what they done to you.

Emz, I went on Meridians website and worked out our power bill if we were with them instead of Contact and it would be $40 more with Meridian but everyone I know with cheaper bills uses Meridian so am contemplating changing just to see.

Also on the new meters - I was booked in for the 8th Dec and then about 4 weeks ago a guy knocked on the door to install my new meter. i checked all his Id etc and he installed it. kinda random that it was over 2 months earlier!

emz wrote: Ok Jack has 2-3 baths a week so it can't be that. Haven't thought about the hot water cylinder but can you describe how to check it? DH isn't home much to help me out with that. HWC is only 20 years old though so it should be sweet I would have thought. I haven't noticed a difference in temperature or anything. Hmm

An easy way to check a hot water cylinder is just to touch the outside - apparently it shouldn't feel warm - if it is, you're wasting power. I know ours feels warm, but it's really old and probably is wasting power. I've been meaning to look into a new one (or at least get one of those hot water cylinder blankets for it)

Ours has gone up A LOT! I'm at home during the day now (tv, computer etc is on at various times) and we had an oil heater on in DD's room during the night. Our gas went up about 60% too, just cos I was using it during the day as well [( our lounge room heater is gas) :)]

Our power is around $120-160, it varys alot. Get one of those appliance meters and go around the house and measure how much each thing costs to run and how much you would use it in a day and you can work out how much your power bill should be. We worked out everything bar our hot water cylinder and worked out that costs us about $50 a month but we don't have the up front money to get a new one

my power bills where huge in the winter i had one for $669 for a lil 2bedroom townhouse and i was hardly turning on the heater they said nothing was wrong with the meter but i still dnt leaive them coz thats just silly amount!!!! ive still got to pay off all thoes bills a few after that where $400 , lucky i pay weekly so they dont ask for the money right away


and thats only for me and mila!!!! its more expencive then my mums 6 bedroom place !!!!

Edited by chonni

Our power bill is currently $140-160/mth (Genesis) with just my husband and I so I'd hate to think what it will be when bubba comes along! We use a wood fire in the winter (free firewood) and next year we are getting a heatpump installed before the baby arrives.

it seems really inconsistent doesnt it. you hear of people who run ever appliance 24/7 and have low power bills then others who hardly run anything and they are high.  I think outs are high for what we use.  All our lights are energy efficient ones (although 1 switch turns on 4 lights), we do use our dishwasher a lot and the washing machine but not the dryer.  The heatpump was on for a couple of hours in the morning to warm up...but not now (except last week when I had it on for a couple of hours in the evening to cool down).  TV is on most of day and computer is on full time....I wonder if laptops use lots of power.  Other than that we dont really use much else.  fridge is new so should be energy efficient, deep freeze.  i think power use is random.