A high electricity bill has exactly three possible causes: the bill itself is off, you used more power, or your plan got worse. The fastest way to find the culprit is to check them in that order, because the first is the quickest to rule out and the last is the most common one people miss.
First, check the bill itself
Before blaming the air conditioner, spend two minutes on the paperwork.
- Was the meter read actual or estimated? Bills state the read type. An estimated read means the retailer guessed your usage, and a wrong guess produces a scary bill that the next actual read corrects. If the estimate looks way off, you can contact your retailer, and in many cases give them your own meter reading or photo.
- How many days does the bill cover? A 98-day bill will always dwarf an 85-day one. Compare the average daily usage figure against your previous bills, not the total.
- Did your rates change? Retailers must notify you of price changes, and most repricing lands around 1 July when the regulated benchmarks reset. Check the supply charge and usage rates against your last bill. Our bill reading guide shows where everything lives.
- Did a discount or credit quietly end? Sign-up benefits often expire after 12 months. If a "less than reference price" percentage used to appear on your bill and has shrunk, that is your answer.
Second, check your usage
If the daily average genuinely jumped, something in the house is drawing more power. The usual suspects, roughly in order of likelihood:
- The season changed. Heating and cooling are typically the biggest swing factor in Australian homes, and a cold snap or heatwave shows up directly on the next bill. Compare this bill against the same season last year, not against last quarter.
- Electric hot water. A storage system is one of the largest single users in most homes. A failing element, a leaking tank, a stuck tempering valve or teenagers discovering long showers all show up on the bill. If your hot water is on a controlled load, its own bill line tells you exactly how much it used; see our controlled load guide.
- Pool pumps and spas. A pump running long hours, or a spa left heated, adds up quickly.
- Something new or something failing. A second fridge in the garage, a new dryer habit, a space heater in the home office, or an old appliance working harder than it should.
- More people, more time at home. Working from home moves daytime usage from the office to you.
Your bill's own comparison graph, showing this period against the previous ones and often against similar households, is the quickest sanity check on whether usage really moved.
Third, check your plan
This is the one people skip, and it is often the real leak. Even with identical usage, your bill rises if:
- You are on a standing offer or default price. If you have never actively chosen a plan, you are very likely paying above the market. The regulated benchmarks exist as a safety net, not a good deal; our reference price guide explains how to use them as a yardstick.
- Your plan drifted. Retailers reprice, benefits lapse, and a plan that was competitive two years ago may be mid-pack now.
- Your plan shape no longer fits. A high supply charge suits a big household and punishes a low-usage one; a poor controlled load rate hurts if most of your usage is hot water. The right plan depends on your numbers, not the advertised discount.
There is a built-in shortcut: the better offer box on your bill. Retailers in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT must tell you at least every 100 days whether they have a cheaper plan for you, and Victorian bills must show a best offer message at least every 3 months. Read it, then check the rest of the market.
Put a number on it
Guesswork ends where arithmetic starts. Take your average daily usage and your controlled load usage from the bill, and run them through our free calculator: it prices your current plan against every retailer you add, per day, month and year. In Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT you can import real plans for your postcode from government data. No ads, no signup, no lead-selling, just the maths.
Pick your State and find out whether the problem is the house or the plan.