What is the average electricity bill – and how does yours compare?
If you’ve been exploring how to save on electricity costs, a great place to start is by understanding the average electricity bill and how you compare. The average household electricity bill depends on a range of factors including location, electricity usage habits, whether a person has rooftop solar and any energy efficient habits in place.
Here’s your guide to what impacts the average electricity bill if you're a Synergy customer, understanding how your bill compares with others – and how you can improve your home energy efficiency and try to save on electricity costs.
These factors all impact electricity costs
To understand the average electricity bill, you need to know which factors contribute to electricity costs and your electricity usage. Here are some of those factors:
Household electricity usage – Your electricity consumption is likely to be the main factor which impacts your overall bill. Different households have different electricity usage habits which vary in impact on their electricity bills which can be influenced by the time of year, the number of people in their household, the types of appliances they have and the demand for electricity in that household.
Electricity plan – Each electricity plan has a tariff, which sets out the prices a household pays for the electricity it uses.
As an example, a flat-rate tariff will impact your bill differently than a time-of-use, or TOU, tariff, such as Synergy Midday Saver, or Synergy EV Add On.
A flat, or single rate tariff charges you just one price for the electricity consumed – no matter when you use it. With a TOU electricity plan, you are charged at different rates for different times of the day and night. If you have a TOU plan, you should work out when the cheapest rate applies as it will be the best time to use electricity to potentially save on your electricity costs. This will usually be when there are off peak electricity and on peak electricity rates.
Appliances and their demand for electricity – If your household has more energy-efficient appliances, your electricity use and bills could be lower than households with higher running costs. If you’re trying to find simple ways to save on electricity used by your appliances, take a look at our tips for choosing more energy efficient appliances for your home.
Where you live – Electricity markets are different across Australia. The average price of electricity in Melbourne may be different to Sydney, Brisbane or what those in Adelaide pay.
Here in WA, for almost all households, Synergy is the only residential electricity provider in the main electricity network that covers Perth, the South West Interconnected System (the SWIS). This makes it much easier to compare your Synergy power bill to other households in the SWIS.
The average electricity bill for Synergy customers
When you’re looking at the average electricity bill in Australia, the good news is that, according to Canstar Blue research, Western Australians enjoy some of the lowest electricity costs compared to other states and territories in Australia.
Of course, electricity costs will vary from household to household depending on where you live, how many people live in a household, age groups, whether their home has a solar power system installed and each household’s electricity consumption habits.
We’ve used electricity usage data from 2022 to calculate the average electricity bill for different customer groups* to help you see how your electricity bills compare.
Based on household size averages*
We’ve calculated that the average electricity bill for Synergy customers based on a standard billing cycle is around:
- $315 for singles
- $333 for couples
- $368 for households with more than two adults and no children
- $350 for families (households with two adults and one or more children)
Based on age group averages*
We also found the average electricity bill generally varies depending on the age of our customers and, based on a standard billing cycle, was:
- $290 for account holders in their 20s, which is 8% of our customers.
- $328 for account holders in their 30s, which is 18% of our customers.
- $360 for account holders in their 40s, which is 18% of our customers.
- $350 for account holders in their 50s, which is 19% of our customers.
- $312 for account holders aged between 60 and 64, which is 8% of our customers.
- $269 for account holders aged 65 or older, which is the largest age bracket of our customers (26%).
Keep in mind that these figures are an overall average and indicative only. Electricity costs vary based on a range of factors. You could use these figures as a helpful starting point to compare your electricity costs with our customers of a similar age or with a similar household size to yours.
Compare your bill: Get the energy data you need
If you’re looking to manage your electricity account, you might like to try our secure online tool: Synergy My Account.
Once you’ve registered, you can use My Account from your phone, tablet or computer, to manage many aspects of your Synergy account. You can even track your electricity usage and compare your electricity usage at different times of the year with the average use of similar households.
In the 'usage' tab in My Account, you can also compare your electricity usage with homes of a similar size to yours in the same suburb or general area. You can get a visual of your home’s electricity consumption, which could be a great talking point with other members of your household if you’re looking for potential ways to reduce your electricity use and electricity costs or improve your energy efficiency.
Another feature available on the Synergy website is our Compare Your Bill tool. This takes into account your bill amount, the type and size of your home, how many people live in your home and your suburb to help you compare your bill to others with similar circumstances. This way, you can see if your bill is above or below the average bill for a similar household.
Explore potential ways to reduce your electricity use
If you get a higher electricity bill than you were expecting or you’ve found that your Synergy bill is higher than the average electricity bill, you might be looking for tips to help reduce your electricity use to save on your electricity costs.
Here are some simple things you could try at home to reduce your electricity usage.
Don't crank your air-con
It’s more energy efficient to heat or cool your house slowly over time, instead of cranking your air conditioner when you get home. Cooling your home slowly is just one of the ways you could reduce your electricity use on hot days and can also help to manage peak demand in the SWIS.
Care for your consoles
Your gaming devices and consoles probably don’t need to stay on charge or standby at all times. Switch them off at the wall when you can and you could save electricity.
Check your fridge seals
Keeping cold air sealed inside means your fridge doesn’t need to work so hard. If you can slip a $5 note between the fridge and the door seal, consider if the seals need replacing to help keep that cold air in. Along the same lines, don’t stand in front of your fridge with the door open while you choose your next snack. If you do, your fridge will need to use more electricity to replace the cold air which has escaped.
Use energy-saving light bulbs
If you still have any incandescent bulbs left at home, now could be the perfect time embrace the affordable and energy-efficient lighting tech available. Swap out the old bulbs for energy efficient LED ones. You could also look at dimmer switches or sensor lights to help you make your lighting more energy efficient.
Our Synergy blog has a range of tips to help you manage your electricity use – such as these energy saving tips for your home.
Other ways you could potentially save on your electricity costs
It could be worth looking at your energy usage habits with My Account, and exploring whether changing to a Time Of Use (TOU) electricity plan, such as Synergy Midday Saver, would work for you.
If you’re already on a TOU plan, make sure you know how to make the most of the plan you are on - either the Synergy Midday Saver or Synergy EV Add On.
Taking more control of your electricity use doesn’t have to be difficult. Every small change you make to reduce your electricity use can really add up, which could have an impact on your electricity costs. Learn more about what contributes to your electricity bill and check out our handy tips with our energy tool.
*Average household bills data is calculated based on:
the average daily electricity usage in kWh (the number of units) for the relevant household type or account holder age of Synergy customers times 30.0605 (electricity charge per unit in cents) times 60 (number of days in the average billing cycle) plus 107.7685 (supply charge per day in cents) times 60 Days (number of days in the average billing cycle) based on consumption history for customers on the Synergy Home Plan (A1) regulated standard tariff for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 and current prices at the time of publishing. Information is correct at time of publishing.
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