6 Reasons Why Your Electricity Bill Is Higher than Usual
Do anxiety and stress kick in at the thought of receiving your monthly electric bills? An unexpected high electrical bill can cause a huge shock at rattle most household budgets. Perhaps your savvy lifestyle choice is contributing to these high bills. For example, relying on heating and cooling systems to regulate the temperature of your house may significantly be increasing your bills. Typically, heating and cooling systems account for 50% of the energy consumed in an average Aussie home.
This article will analyse six significant reasons you are experiencing high electrical bills in your home. We will also look at three essential tips that you can apply to cut your monthly billing costs right down including the use of solar energy. However, let’s first outline the steps for analysing your electricity bill.
How To Analyse Your Electricity Bill
You need to apply a little modern technology to account for your home’s energy consumption accurately. Besides, you will also have to do some calculations to get a decent estimate using simple old-school arithmetic. You require three figures to effectively estimate a particular gadget’s electric energy usage.
These figures include the average hours the device is used in a day, its wattage, and the price charged for electricity per kilowatt-hour. The kilowatt-hour rate is always printed on your electric bill, and the number of hours in which you use a particular gadget for a day is pretty easy to figure out. The only technical thing to figure out is the wattage of the device. The wattage is usually printed with a W at the end at the back or bottom of most appliances. If you cannot find the figure here, you can search online for its specs or consult its original documentation if you still have it.
After gathering this information, it’s time to calculate and analyse your electricity bill. First, multiply the wattage of the gadget by the number of hours it is used in a day. Divide the answer by 1,000 and multiply by the kilo-watt rate.
Let’s say that your 200-watt oven is used for four hours daily. That means it consumes 800 watt-hours in a day. Dividing 800 with 1,000, we get 0.8. If your kilowatt-hour rate is $2 per kWh, the oven consumes a total of $1.6 per day and $48 per month. You can use this formula to calculate the electricity billing of every appliance in your house and analyse the whole electricity bill.
Top Six Reasons Why Your Electricity Bill Is High
1). Most of the modern appliances we have in our homes today tend to draw energy even when switched off. The chances are that your electricity bill is higher than the previous billing because you leave the devices plugged in even when not using them.
Let’s say you press the power button of your TV, DVR, or computer; this will transition the appliance into its standby mode. The problem is that this device will continue sucking energy out of your home until it is properly turned off. You should also always disconnect appliances that have clocks, such as coffee-makers or microwave ovens.
2). Secondly, you might compare your bill to your previous billing despite seasonal changes that impact your power bills. If the bill is higher than the previous one, you might rush to conclude that you are paying more for your bills. Instead of a monthly comparison, consider comparing the bills yearly.
When doing the comparison, ensure that the number of days of the billing period in each year is equal. Also, check if a discount or concession has been applied to your bill.
3). Another reason why you may receive costly bills on your electricity usage is because of big appliances such as air conditioners, clothes driers, and dishwashers.
An average Australian family will do over 200 loads of washing annually. This will undoubtedly result in a bill that is much higher than expected. Another thing to look out for is misusing the lights in your house. Maybe you are using them to light up entire rooms instead of lighting the specific places where the light is needed, like workspaces, couches, and kitchen tables.
4). Also, leaving the ceiling fan on will only snowball your estimated bill. Since fans are meant to affect the temperature in the rooms where they are installed, it is wise to leave them switched off when no one is in the room.
Old appliances can also increase your meter readings more than the previous billing. These appliances tend to draw more energy than their new counterparts, which are more energy-efficient. For instance, fridges made after 2000 are 40% to 60% more energy-efficient than their predecessors. Your retro kitchen might look trendy with that old-school oven, but you will have to pay extra bucks at the end of the billing period.
5). Lastly, suppose your home houses different technologies that use chargers, such as portable game systems, electric toothbrushes, iPads, smartphones, tablets, electric razors, PCs, and MP3 players. In that case, you might be required to dig deeper into your pockets to pay your bill. The worst scenario happens when you are too oriented on these gadgets and technology that you have them constantly plugged in, draining your electricity. To avoid this, you can incorporate a smart meter into your energy plan or even spend more time away from these gadgets.
How To Lower Your Bills Cost
1). Purchasing energy star appliances is among the most effective energy-saving tips. You can significantly cut your higher bills by using devices that save power since these gadgets account for almost 50% of the energy usage of an average Aussie home. Energy star-rated fridges, dishwashers and washing machines will save you a ton of money on electricity bills and water bills, which provides more significant savings benefits in the long run.
2). The second significant way of lowering the cost of your bill is turning off gadgets when they are not in use. Your PC, stereo, or TV are usually massive energy vampires when not being used but left switched on. You can use a shared power strip to quickly turn off your DVR, PC, TV, or other equipment and save even more on your household energy consumption.
If you have gadgets such as Roku and intelligent TVs which require you to stay on for regular software updates, consider enabling the power saving mode when leaving them switched on.
3). The last tip for ensuring that you reduce your energy bills is switching to LED bulbs to conserve electricity. Any average 60-watt LED uses only nine watts, while a CFL of the same rating uses around 13 watts. This difference might seem negligible, but remember, this could still lead to a 10% reduction on your electrical bills. Considering the number of light bulbs used on your premises, this little amount is not negligible.
Final Thoughts
Different appliances contribute to the overall energy consumption in your household. Sometimes, monthly electricity bills can go extra higher due to excessive consumption. Perhaps you left your lights on a little longer than usual, especially during winter. Or maybe you are using appliances that are not energy efficient. It’s hard to pinpoint any one thing for causing high electrical bills, so sometimes it’s just a matter of process of elimination until your usage comes down.
Luckily, you can cut these costs by using newer more energy-efficient appliances. In addition, you should consider purchasing devices that are rated Energy Star. You can also uninstall all CFLs in your house and opt for LED instead, as they are energy-saving and long-lasting.
Save Energy With Solar Power
However, if you want to get rid of your electricity bills altogether, there is an answer. Installing solar power in your home is an intelligent way of doing this. Luckily, GCR Electrical Systems has got you covered. We are fully accredited Solar Design and solar PV installers. We ensure that your solar PV systems operate well while keeping your family safe. In addition to high-quality solar installations, we also assist in maintaining pre-installed panels. Give us a call today to have a taste of our services.
Please contact us today on (07) 4120 7004 or leave an enquiry if you would like more information about our solar installation services.
