How much did your power increase?
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Category: General Chat
Forum Name: General Chat
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URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=22532
Printed Date: 03 October 2025 at 8:40pm
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Topic: How much did your power increase?
Posted By: emz
Subject: How much did your power increase?
Date Posted: 17 November 2008 at 9:13pm
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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? 
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Replies:
Posted By: weegee
Date Posted: 17 November 2008 at 9:18pm
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lol ours nearly doubled too but that was because JJ was a winter baby and when it was just us we didn't bother heating much, but with baby around we had a heater going in his room and in the lounge It's gone back to almost normal now (still a little higher cos of the extra washing).
Maybe check your hot water cylinder? When the thermostat goes on them it can make a massive difference (check the overflow if you know where to look). ------------- 
Mum to JJ, 4 July 2008 & Addie, 28 July 2010 |
Posted By: peachy
Date Posted: 17 November 2008 at 9:34pm
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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. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: jack_&_charli
Date Posted: 17 November 2008 at 10:21pm
also on the price of power.......has anyone recently got one of those new meter boxes? our bills have gone up by $20-30 since having it in!
i can't remember how much our power bill went up after the kids, but don't think it was much ------------- http://www.alternatickers.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: emz
Date Posted: 17 November 2008 at 10:24pm
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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
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Posted By: ElfsMum
Date Posted: 17 November 2008 at 10:45pm
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wow our bills were 120 or so and have gone up to 2-300 since having E (nightstore on all night every night and an oil heater in his room) I'd love to have such low bills! though the one this month was 120 which is brilliant ! went up 11% with the price increase as well so that sucked:( ------------- Mum to two amazing boys! |
Posted By: Peanut
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 7:28am
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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! -------------  
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Posted By: ElfsMum
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 7:33am
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we got ours done about 6 moths again.. better in some ways I think to have the meter... I can't believe that you guys have such cheap power compared to me:(! ------------- Mum to two amazing boys! |
Posted By: Hopes
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 7:37am
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) -------------   
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emz wrote:Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 7:47am
| yeah, i thought that power bill was low! Ours are about $200 per month and our water and cooking is gas!!! so explain that one????? We have a heat pump which is generally only on for a couple of hours a day. Our gas does use electricity to start up though so maybe thats it. |
Posted By: aussiegirl
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 7:53am
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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) :)] -------------  Mum to Hayley **30.6.08
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: CuriousG
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 8:18am
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Power does seem to have gone up because while you may be on a fixed contract with the company itself, there are other charges from the Line Company etc that get passed onto you. I had no idea about this until I changed to Mercury and they fixed the rate but advised it still could change because of this!
Our power is through the roof - usually between 220 - 270 a month. I dont use the dryer and we do have a heat pump but dont use it that much. DD does have a bath everyday so that might be a part of it. I just shrug it off now, we need to use the power so I guess we have to pay for it. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 8:35am
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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
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Posted By: jack_&_charli
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 9:45am
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wow i'm not going to complain about my bill then......last month was $219 and this month is $140....i thought they were high!
we have a heatpump too but the power hasn't gone up too much since getting it. i didn't even know we were getting a new meter box until the guy knocked on the door to install it!! ------------- http://www.alternatickers.com">
http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: chonni
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 10:32am
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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 !!!! ------------- 
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Posted By: mrsturtle
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 10:39am
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Oh boy ours are 250ish a month now with only 2 of us! heck i hope it dose not double We have a brand new meter and hot water cylinder so i dont think anything will be wrong there......I get really frustrated when the power companys say we have to put the prices up cause the lakes are low - what a load of cr*p they hold the water back to make them look low its right outside our door i can see it!!!!
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Posted By: Mrs_B
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 10:41am
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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. -------------  
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Posted By: fire_engine
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 11:12am
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Ours was normally about 130 in winter, and with Daniel went up to 170 for one month (while my sister was here having long showers, using the dishwasher all the time). After a month it went down to 140, even with the heater on a lot. It's now back to the normal spring cost of about 90 a month.
The worst one I heard was a friend whose meter was read every couple of months, so in between reads, it was purely estimates. She was really stoked her bills were low even with heaters on all the time, then she got the proper reading, and had to pay over 600 ------------- Mum to two wee boys |
Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 12:26pm
| 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. |
Posted By: lilfatty
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 12:40pm
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Ours has doubled.. its about $300.00 a month now and pre Isabelle it was about $100-150
Although we have the heater on in her room .. and we have someone home all day instead of having two people out at work using less electricity. ------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year  http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Posted By: pikelets
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 2:14pm
Chonni - Thats exactly happened to me when I first started flatting (many moons ago)! The power company (WEL) checked the meter but reckoned nothing was wrong with it. Yeah right! To this day it still annoys me as we were like you, hardly used the heater, tiny 2 bedroom flat. There was NO WAY we would be using that amount of power. You should still try to investigate it as that is ridiculous and not right. Good luck! Today I have actually just changed from Contact to Genesis. www.powerswitch.co.nz - brilliant website. You can put your bills in there and it compares all of the companies. I just tried out about 6 different bills of ours and they all came up that we should be with Genesis so we have actually just swapped today. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
 3 Angels - Dec10 / Mar11 / Dec11
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Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 3:11pm
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I tried powerswitch and was gutted to find I am with the best company for us...contact
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Posted By: pikelets
Date Posted: 18 November 2008 at 5:10pm
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Thats stink nzpiper! Would be good to swap to a cheaper one.
I guess at least you know you have the best deal.  ------------- http://lilypie.com">
3 Angels - Dec10 / Mar11 / Dec11
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