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Australia has the most expensive energy bills

macrobusiness.com.au

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Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#91

Post by fineline »

roenxi wrote: post #56
askvictor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters, opting to just layer up when it's cold or try to use fans in the summer. Many (most?) households don't have clothes dryers, using clotheslines instead. Are you suggesting these are bad things? I think they're positive however, it varies wildly across different locations and demographics. > I would like to see how much energy the average Austra…

> Are you suggesting these are bad things? As a local; yes it is a bad thing. I want cheap energy. Cheap access to energy is literally one of two things separating us from animals. The other thing is higher intelligence. There is room for an ideological debate on the meaning of good, but this is an outcome of regulation that the government didn't push for and that the votes would not choose if they had to tick a box.

And opposable thumbs.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#92

Post by daemin »

rmm wrote: post #88

Some more context. South Australia went "all green" shutting down all their coal plants and betting big on wind and solar. However due to the peak issues etc. they now buy a lot of their power from the eastern states. Victoria uses brown coal (about 20% less energy when burned)

That is completely false. There is no way the state could have all of its baseline power needs met by just solar and wind. As far as I know the power plant up in the port is still running and burning coal as it always did.

The buying of peak electricity from interstate is more likely a factor of higher gas prices as mentioned in the article. This is because the coal fired plant in the port has gas turbines that get used when load spikes.

Source: I used to live there, still have family and friends there.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#93

Post by daemin »

dwhitworth1 wrote: post #2

I moved to Newcastle, Australia from the US (Los Angeles) about two years ago. I was shocked when I received my energy bill. Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters, opting to just layer up when it's cold or try to use fans in the summer. Many (most?) households don't have clothes dryers, using clotheslines instead. I would like to see how much energy the average Australian household c…

> Many (most?) households don't have clothes dryers, using clotheslines instead.

Why bother having a clothes dryer when for most of the year you can hang them up in the shade and they will be dry within the hour. There are only a couple of states/regions where it makes sense to use a clothes dryer. The blue mountains and I imagine Tasmania where it gets too cold to hang your clothes up in the winter.

> I would like to see how much energy the average Australian household consumes.

From memory for just myself in a small apartment I used around 9-12 kWh / day. That is rarely using the A/C but having at least one PC running 24/7.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#94

Post by ferongr »

askvictor wrote: post #34
rosege wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im in Sydney and I've got an AC unit from the 70s or 80s in a house I recently bought. Im very hesitant to turn it on as I know it will be super inefficient. Im hoping to replace it later in the year. But until then its layer up! unless guests are coming over.

Would it actually be that inefficient? I honestly don't know, but am curious if the tech has changed that significantly. Consider lifecycle costs (both financial and resources) before replacing it; might just need a clean and service.

In my case at least, replacing a 70s Carrier "window A/C" (that was actually embedded in a hole in the wall instead of a window) with a modern ductless mini-split with inverter-powered compressor resulted in almost 70% lower power consumption, not to mention the fact that the new unit is virtually silent.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#95

Post by daemin »

Simulacra wrote: post #58
JonRB wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters Anecdotal, but I don't think I know a single person here who is hesitant to use heating/AC - could just be down to the people I know, but I get funny looks when I tell people just to wrap up. Something that did surprise me here is the near-complete lack of double glazing. Everywhere I've lived has been thin single-glazed windows which just let…

That reminds me of being at Melbourne airport wishing to consume the last of a bottle of Absinthe and being sad that no one had ice...

I remember that, there was a heat wave through the south of Australia and the main ice producing plant had a power failure.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#96

Post by crdoconnor »

mrob wrote: post #80
nimchimpsky wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The policemen are english ? Eh, why is that a thing, never heard that before. I've heard similar but it was organising a party ... Good party : Germans organise English music French food Belgians beer Bad : Belgians organize English food french music germans beer. Wait german beer is quite nice, well you get the idea.

British police aren't perfect, but I'd trust them more than police from most other countries. When Sir Robert Peel founded the Metropolitan Police in 1829, he based it on the "Peelian principles" - the idea that the police operate with the consent of society as a whole. Policing in the rest of the country followed the same model. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles These principles are still mostly respe…

The Met is probably the worst example of a British police force. They shot de Menezes in the head for no reason, killed Ian Tomlinson for no reason, they racially profile constantly, failed to convict the Stephen Lawrence killers because they were institutionally racist, they're brutal during protests (c.f. kettling) and when the riots kicked off they basically just ran away with their tail between their legs.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#97

Post by daemin »

ariwilson wrote: post #63
Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends where you live in Australia. Queensland? Sure. Victoria? Only in Summer where temperatures occasionally exceed 100 Fahrenheit, winters are cold. Tasmania? No, never.

If you're talking about Los Angeles compared to even Brisbane, Queensland, this is wrong.

LA and Sydney are natural comparisons, both are large cities with similar climates. Although I would argue that LA is drier (despite it raining both times I have visited).

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#98

Post by empressplay »

JonRB wrote: post #10
dwhitworth1 wrote: post #2

I moved to Newcastle, Australia from the US (Los Angeles) about two years ago. I was shocked when I received my energy bill. Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters, opting to just layer up when it's cold or try to use fans in the summer. Many (most?) households don't have clothes dryers, using clotheslines instead. I would like to see how much energy the average Australian household c…

> Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters Anecdotal, but I don't think I know a single person here who is hesitant to use heating/AC - could just be down to the people I know, but I get funny looks when I tell people just to wrap up. Something that did surprise me here is the near-complete lack of double glazing. Everywhere I've lived has been thin single-glazed windows which just let…

We only turn on the AC when it's above 35C and only turn on the heat when it gets below 12C (inside!)

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#99

Post by ptaipale »

gravelld wrote: post #89
sundvor wrote: post #21

I live in Victoria, Australia. Energy bills are through the roof - almost literally as "insulation" is a thing just about no-one here has any competence with. Whatsoever. I'm talking about builders and building code designers specifically. Ironically (see the top and bottom positions of the chart), I spent the first 40% of my life in Norway where things do get proper cold as opposed to in Australia where it's accepte…

What you describe is the rule in most Western countries. The only countries I know that have their shit together on this are Germany, Sweden and Ireland. The truth is that fixing these problems is going to be expensive. Governments are just kicking the can down the road because they don't want to be the ones that raise taxes to pay for it (fixing existing houses I mean). But it will have to be done. Maybe the biggest…

Requiring better insulation for new buildings is not really that much a thing where you need to raise taxes, because the cost of proper insulation is passed on to builders - and the end users pay that, but in turn they have lower heating/cooling costs.

(FWIW, Sweden's neighbours like Norway, Finland and Denmark also have houses where it's warm inside in the winter without horrific leaks. And yes, Iceland, even if it has practically free, abundant geothermic heating energy.)

(But what horrifies me in England is not the wind through walls and puny glazing, it's the carpets in bathrooms, including around toilet seat. Experiences are not recent, though, so perhaps they've changed?)

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#100

Post by gravelld »

Nursie wrote: post #90
gravelld wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe is the rule in most Western countries. The only countries I know that have their shit together on this are Germany, Sweden and Ireland. The truth is that fixing these problems is going to be expensive. Governments are just kicking the can down the road because they don't want to be the ones that raise taxes to pay for it (fixing existing houses I mean). But it will have to be done. Maybe the biggest…

Having lived in the UK and Australia - the UK may not have its shit together compared to Germany, Sweden or Ireland, but it's streets ahead of Aus.

I'm a UK resident. Either way, the UK will have to fix its houses. There's a trope that new houses are energy efficient... it's not really true; there's going to be a big scandal when everyone realises how the targets (which are pretty poor anyway) are circumvented by developers that are able to employ their own regs assessors, or just send a design SAP and expect that to be ticked off, or go around after an air permeability test removing all the sealing they just added to scrape through the already lenient test.

Whether insulation is actually installed? Who cares about that - quarterly dividend payments all round.

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