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Australia has the most expensive energy bills

macrobusiness.com.au

71–80 of 187 posts

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#73
post #71
post #70

And there's no inflation. Nothing to see here folks. Please move along.

They just need to start including house prices in there and the inflation would be pretty clear...

That's not inflation, that's real growth in value because houses are a great investment yep you should invest in houses, everyone should invest in houses, they're great. And if young people want to buy houses we should help them get bigger loans so they can afford 'em, housing affordability is fine, it's not a bubble, can't be, not possible.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#74
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…

How old is this building you're describing? There's been some pretty huge changes in the past 20-30 years, older houses are shocking for insulation but modern ones are often pretty good.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#75
post #25

Hmm. Price per kWh is not really a good way to compare. My last bill in Ontario had about $10 in usage in kWh but on top of that there are mandatory 'delivery' charges which, in my case, amounted to $90. The real rate I pay (before taxes) is essentially 10x the supposed kWh rate. And from the news reports locally, I'm getting off very lightly. My bills are multiples what they were in the UK (for the same usage) and b…

In QLD my rates are as follows, GST included: Supply charge: $1.10/day Usage rate: 28.6c/kWh Therefore, my standard quarterly bill will have $100 of supply charges in addition to any usage that occurs. I am super lucky that I got on to PV when there was a large (unsustainably so) government incentive, so my feed-in rate is 54.6c/kWh (not including GST) which more than offsets my normal use since I am never home durin…

Hmmm, in VIC I pay $0.96/day supply and usage rates of about 16c/kWh. Maybe prices vary a lot by location, because the prices I pay bear no resemblance to those on the chart...

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#76
post #75
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In QLD my rates are as follows, GST included: Supply charge: $1.10/day Usage rate: 28.6c/kWh Therefore, my standard quarterly bill will have $100 of supply charges in addition to any usage that occurs. I am super lucky that I got on to PV when there was a large (unsustainably so) government incentive, so my feed-in rate is 54.6c/kWh (not including GST) which more than offsets my normal use since I am never home durin…

Hmmm, in VIC I pay $0.96/day supply and usage rates of about 16c/kWh. Maybe prices vary a lot by location, because the prices I pay bear no resemblance to those on the chart...

Possibly relevant: I do look at my usage and compare providers and I am with what appears to be the cheapest possible provider for me (according to https://compare.switchon.vic.gov.au, with smart meter data providing a very accurate basis for the comparison).

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia does actually have the highest level of home solar installation in the world. Unrelated to very low government investment in it.

What about the massive massive rebates that were available a few years back to drive uptake? Not direct govt investment, but with a similar effect - people got some money back from the govt when they installed solar, then the govt mandated a high feed-in tariff for some years (has since dropped/been abolished)

That's still available for new installations, I believe. The feed-in tariffs have all but gone, but solar is still well worth getting purely for the reduction in power bills (especially if you can schedule the bulk of your energy usage to be during peak solar generating hours).

The flip side is that the power grid is now going into a death spiral where falling kWh sales are pushing up prices per kWh, making solar even more competitive, etc. etc. They're going to have to start charging a large flat rate for connection (which they can't do, politically) or the whole thing's going to fall in a heap within a decade.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#78
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In QLD my rates are as follows, GST included: Supply charge: $1.10/day Usage rate: 28.6c/kWh Therefore, my standard quarterly bill will have $100 of supply charges in addition to any usage that occurs. I am super lucky that I got on to PV when there was a large (unsustainably so) government incentive, so my feed-in rate is 54.6c/kWh (not including GST) which more than offsets my normal use since I am never home durin…

Wow, here in NZ I pay 30c/day in fixed charges and around 25c/kWh. Last week's bill was NZ$25 for 90kWh. Nowhere near as cheap as the US but I'll take it.

What sort of place are you living in? I haven't lived in NZ for 11 years now, but I recall heating costs of $100s/month in Winter (poorly insulated Christchurch housing as a poor student). Perhaps the high costs were due to high consumption rather than high unit costs... I didn't really pay attention to it at the time.

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#79
post #73
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just need to start including house prices in there and the inflation would be pretty clear...

That's not inflation, that's real growth in value because houses are a great investment yep you should invest in houses, everyone should invest in houses, they're great. And if young people want to buy houses we should help them get bigger loans so they can afford 'em, housing affordability is fine, it's not a bubble, can't be, not possible.

Unsure whether to laugh or cry :D / :(

Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills

#80
post #6

There's an old joke where in Heaven the cooks are French, the policemen are English, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and the bankers are Swiss - whereas in Hell the cooks are English, the policemen are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss and the bankers are Italian. I'm pondering an updated version where in hell the healthcare system is American, the energy market is Australian...…

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 respected today.

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