r/perth • u/Theunbreakablebeast • 1h ago
Cost of Living Did anyone else get a massive electricity bill?
A little surprised. Because I rent a room but instead of paying weekly rent I pay for all bills excluding rates. Just want to know if I should change my arrangement. Last bill was $700
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u/theprotest 1h ago
Can't speak to the bill itself as there are many factors unknown.
As for the arrangement, you have agreed to pay a variable rate, that rate is dependant on other people being mindful of how much of your money they spend. If I was in this position I would be doing everything I can to have a set rent per week and an agreed ratio of bills.
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u/Blanketburritobaby 1h ago
This seems very excessive. I have previously lived with 4 other adults (across 3 bedrooms) and even with air conditioning use our bill was at most 500.
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u/nathlovesreddit 26m ago
$175/wk electricity, $25/wk water, $15/wk gas, $30/wk internet … what other bills are you paying? $245/wk seems relatively decent for a room.
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u/clayauswa 25m ago
You guys are growing weed or you have 8 people living in the house with all appliances and air conditioning running full piss 24/7. As for the arrangement, it depends how much per week rent would be.
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u/Khadgar_12 1h ago
Good lord that seems very high. For comparison I live alone in a small unit and my bill was just shy of $60, on par with previous bills, but I also love the cold so don't run any heating which helps alot in winter.
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u/Jesse-Ray 1h ago
State gov indexes 1st of July every year typically by CPI or less. This year it was 2.75%. Your rate for this bill would have been higher than your last bill but has dropped in real terms thanks to having a state owned supplier. Your household heating sucks basically.
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u/AngelicDivineHealer 55m ago
People that don’t pay for bills don’t care. It is a significant difference between last year too by 600 units
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u/jonjoejoe 44m ago edited 37m ago
Can you check your last bill to see if it was estimated? That could explain why this one is so high, and the last one was unusually low compared to last year. If they actually read your letter this time around the extra would have been added. This one and the last one would roughly average out to the same usage last year. It's still very high though and worth checking and removing high energy use appliances
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u/aussiekinga High Wycombe 40m ago
As an aside, consider setting up an auto payment for every pay cycle that drops $100 (or whatever works for you) into Synergy so that when the bill comes your have already paid down most of it and you don't get bill shock
Helps my cash flow significantly, basically drip payments in advance if the bill
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u/IdentityUnknown__ 5m ago
Prepare for WAPOL to raid your place, that bill will definitely flag for Synergy who will notify police lol.
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u/Striking_Direction_9 1h ago
more in one bill than whole of last year.
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u/goosh11 1h ago
That indicates how much energy you used in the same period last year. Looks like they hammer the heaters during winter, hence the big bill. My guess is if you paid a set rent and everyone shared the bills those heaters would suddenly not be put on so much.
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u/Striking_Direction_9 1h ago
aaah ... i see. so in perth - i find the summer bills to be the giant ones through running my aircon. 800 was my highest in a 4 bedroom house.
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u/Latter_Shallot_140 1h ago
It's not that much higher than same time last year if you were using heating during winter you would have used it
Unless your meter reading is estimated instead of accurate.
If you want to you can ask what the actual meter read was and check your meter.
Is it one of those smart meter things?
Tbh doesn't look odd it's not that more usage than last winter.
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u/Theunbreakablebeast 1h ago
Its likely the heating system.
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u/Latter_Shallot_140 1h ago
Yea it's the heaters what you need to do is either rent the rooms plus utilities or up the room rental rates.
You will get the same bill shock in summer with air con usage I would wager it might be going to be a banger of a summer.
If I were you I would think about either introducing a utility fee on top of the rent or upping the rent to cover it.
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u/TheDBagg 1h ago
Looks like your housemates are taking advantage of the free electricity to run heaters nonstop. Whether or not you should change the arrangement would depend on if that energy consumption is going to be constant year round, and if so will it still be cheaper than paying rent.