Shrinking the bills

Pic courtesy of www.crunchgear.com

I had an absolute heart attack this week when I received our electricity bill:

• Electricity usage - 12.55kwh per day 

Mr B has been working from home a lot more in the last 6 weeks. But basically 3 small things created this bill: leaving the modem on all day, leaving a laptop computer charging all day and a small light he started using in the shed in the afternoons. To give you perspective on the difference these things made – they added $100 to our quarterly bill. This is normally our second smallest electricity bill of the year – not this year!

• Water usage - 55 Litres per person per day

Water is still on track. We aren’t using any more water (which you would expect during winter).

• Gas usage - $6 per day (gasp, scream, faint)

Well if I thought I had a heart attack about the electricity bill, it in no way prepared me for the gas bill. Lets just say we have got off our collective bums and started to organize for the hot water service to be replaced!! Solar hot water here we come :-)

We’ve also decided to use our wood heater to offset the cost of gas. I know prices went up but we keep our ducted heating low (no more than 20 degrees during the evening and 18 degrees during the day). This bill is just plain ridiculous compared to the last house ($200 difference between this bill and the same bill for last year). Goes to show what a massive difference that insulation can make.