electric bill 200 and 300 higher after smartmeter installed. ADvice please.

[jasonp3]

I have received 2 electric bills after the smart meter was installed and the first one was 200 higher than i'd ever received before
and the second one was 300 higher than i'd ever received before

I had seen many programs of others receiving crazy high electric bills and iwas so happy that mine were never higher than 380-450,

I have less people living in my home than i've had for many years
and yet funny how immediatley after the smart meter was installed my bills were so much higher.

Has it happened to anyone else and what do you suggest i do please

I have called the ombudsman and they came out to check the meter and said they will analyze all the info and let me know.

Any other experiences, feedback advice please?

 

[handyandy]

Change your life style so that you are not home in the highest billing period. 16:00 - 20:00 or something like that. The whole thing is ridiculous.

What I found was that the off peak was a higher rate than the midnight rate.

We ended up going solar hot water but I still have it in the back of my mind to get the off peak changed to a timer on the normal supply that only allows use of the midnight rate. This could be something to look into.

Cheers

 

[The Y-man]

Has the usage gone up or just the $?

Noticed we got big utility bills this year with the same usage (gas, power)

The Y-man

 

[weg]

I haven't had a smart meter installed and mine is up too.

 

[Crabnet]

If in QLD another consideration is the state government's decision last year to freeze the cost of the most common tariff and put pressure on Origin Energy not to go ahead with a price rise with a threat of retribution if they did by withdrawing government contracts.
As a result this years price determination through the competition authority included some large catchup increases in the region of 22-23%.
Perhaps compare your bills to see if the tariff has increased or if useage has varied.

 

[chrispy]

This happened to a number of friends in Melbourne. It turned out that it was estimated bills, when the actual account was received they received credits.

Chris

 

[westminster]

I have received 2 electric bills after the smart meter was installed and the first one was 200 higher than i'd ever received before
and the second one was 300 higher than i'd ever received before

I had seen many programs of others receiving crazy high electric bills and iwas so happy that mine were never higher than 380-450,

I have less people living in my home than i've had for many years
and yet funny how immediatley after the smart meter was installed my bills were so much higher.

Has it happened to anyone else and what do you suggest i do please

I have called the ombudsman and they came out to check the meter and said they will analyze all the info and let me know.

Any other experiences, feedback advice please?

With the smart meter the daytime rate is higher than the old metre rate so you really do have to pay attention to the rates and times for usage with the smart metre.
Check things like pool pumps, solar hws boosters etc if they are on timer and move them to off peak time. If you have moved everything possible to off peak time it should be less

 

[jasonp3]

to answer all questions
we dont have anything solar

we do have

gas run hot water
gas run heating
gas run stove and cooktop
even gas run dryer.

i think from memory the usage may have also shown that we used more
but its all very strange that for decades our bills were a certain amount even with more than double people in the home
and now suddenely smart meter comes in and immediately the bills are 200 and 300 more.

but i guess i have to look into the rates per hours if different times are more expensive

but our heating is loud i'd never be able to have it going while we sleep.

it wasnt an estimate as it was with smart meter
and we never have had estimates we always had readings from our meter.

we have less people living at home than in the past decades so why suddenly are our bills higher ? the only difference is the smart meter was installed.

 

[The Fence]

smart meter for the biller, not so smart for the user

We've resisted the solar move to date due to how it all changes regarding tarrifs and quality/endurance of equip etc.

Give it a few more years and start to see the early ones who jumped begin to see upgrade costs maybe...I dunno, but do solar panels last forever?

I really want to do this, yes I am part green, but it's got to have a net effect both ways.

 

[chrispy]

Jason

They had all had regular meter readings, then the Smart Meter got installed and the bills went through the roof. They only found out by phoning up and complaining about the high cost and asking why...that's when they discovered it was estimated as due to the installation the Supplier was running behind but they assured it would all be adjusted when meter was read. This turned out to be correct.

It is worth phoning to check.

Chris

 

[CHAOS]

Before smart meter we were paying 24c kw. After smart meter rate changed to 34c kw. The extra 10c kw pays for the guy who still physically drives out to ours to read the smart meter.

 

[rugrat]

Has the usage gone up or just the $?

Noticed we got big utility bills this year with the same usage (gas, power)

The Y-man

Yep to this.
Our bills are significantly higher - some double, despite our usage being significantly lower then the same time last year. It is scarey how high a jump the costs have taken.

But it's all good, the govt have given me an extra $10 a fortnight increase in FTB to 'help out' with the rising costs of living. <<<please insert copious amounts of sarcasm>>>

 

[gottabespotless]

Sorry to get OT but I just deleted my post from yesterday as someone had somehow highlighted certain words to link to advertising . Bizarre...

 

[Crabnet]

Sorry to get OT but I just deleted my post from yesterday as someone had somehow highlighted certain words to link to advertising . Bizarre...

Unlikely that it is this site. More likely that you have downloaded some malware or adware to your pc.

 

[BMan]

i had the exact same thing, once my smart meter was installed my usage went up and so did my bills
im thinking my old meter was reading a bit slow and now the smart meter is unfortunately reading it correctly.

 

[The Fence]

i had the exact same thing, once my smart meter was installed my usage went up and so did my bills
im thinking my old meter was reading a bit slow and now the smart meter is unfortunately reading it correctly.

Im sticking with the old meter then.

 

[chilliblue]

Im sticking with the old meter then.

You may have no choice. In NSW, Ausgrid are going through the suburbs replacing old meters and resetting the software on any meter 12 years or younger to smart metering.

 

[Strannik]

i had the exact same thing, once my smart meter was installed my usage went up and so did my bills
im thinking my old meter was reading a bit slow and now the smart meter is unfortunately reading it correctly.

have found the same with water

we were around 10-13 kiloliters per quarter for the past 6-7 years.
in June they have changed water meter - june to august usage is 65 kiloliters.

i'm still trying to figure out whether it's the old meter that was faulty or the new one. asked our neighbor who had her meter changed around the same time - her usage doubled since.

 

[Tigger]

We had solar panels installed a few years ago. Carefully investigated and did the sums before doing so, checking sums with friends who also had solar and were happy with outcome.

Bad move, never do it again.

1st up all good, getting $$ back. Then Ergon switched to smartmeter (part of the solar contract but delayed 2 months due to demand) and our bills went back to how they were. Never did get to the root of it, no changes to our use, no apparent tech problems (we had it all checked out).

In the end I gave up. Something dodgy happening but I couldn't prove what, and how many hours and how much $$ do you spend pursuing it?

I suspect the smartmeter was the problem but we didn't have differential ratings so couldn't figure it out.

If you can figure it out, I'd be pleased to read of the solution, I know plenty others in other states have much unhappiness over it.

 

[handyandy]

We had solar panels installed a few years ago. Carefully investigated and did the sums before doing so, checking sums with friends who also had solar and were happy with outcome.

Bad move, never do it again.

1st up all good, getting $$ back. Then Ergon switched to smartmeter (part of the solar contract but delayed 2 months due to demand) and our bills went back to how they were. Never did get to the root of it, no changes to our use, no apparent tech problems (we had it all checked out).

In the end I gave up. Something dodgy happening but I couldn't prove what, and how many hours and how much $$ do you spend pursuing it?

I suspect the smartmeter was the problem but we didn't have differential ratings so couldn't figure it out.

If you can figure it out, I'd be pleased to read of the solution, I know plenty others in other states have much unhappiness over it.

Turn off the electricity to the water heater.

You may find that your water heater is still sucking electricity. Particularly if previously your water heater was off peak and has now been connected to standard supply.