Power bills

[R650R]

How many people have an electric contract that includes prompt payment discount???
Heard a ruffling in the news the other day about it not being "fair" to poor people who cant pay their bills on time, WTF!!!
So people who work for a living should have to pay more (if the pc brigade changes it) for electric because some poor person cant budget ahead for a monthly bill that is pretty much reasonable forecastable in rough terms.
There is no two tier pricing, only a price you pay if you aint got your shit together. Plenty of other things rates etc have late payment penalties etc...

[WALRUS]

We don't have that over here but I wish we did, that would be fantastic!

In Tassie we only have one energy provider so they have a monopoly over the entire state.. They can do and charge pretty much whatever they want to.

[Ocean1]

Heard a ruffling in the news the other day about it not being "fair" to poor people who cant pay their bills on time, WTF!!!

Insert observation on rampant confusion re cause/effect...

[pritch]

It never occured to me that the power companies were actually offering a discount. I've always considered it a penalty for late payment dressed up as a discount. Whatever, I do my best to make sure I don't have to pay it. At this time of year it'd pay for a bottle of wine.

Once when I was in hospital a guy who lived alone on a prepay system was discharged on a Saturday morning. Power was turned off because he was in hospital, he had very little credit and he would not be able to pay for more power until the office opened on Monday. Listening to him discussing his limited options put me off even considering a prepay scheme.

[Ocean1]

It never occured to me that the power companies were actually offering a discount. I've always considered it a penalty for late payment dressed up as a discount. Whatever, I do my best to make sure I don't have to pay it.

Yeah. Nah, if they called it a penalty people wold get all uppity, not fair to the underprivileged.

Oh....

[FJRider]

Heard a ruffling in the news the other day about it not being "fair" to poor people who cant pay their bills on time, WTF!!!
So people who work for a living should have to pay more (if the pc brigade changes it) for electric because some poor person cant budget ahead for a monthly bill that is pretty much reasonable forecastable in rough terms.
There is no two tier pricing, only a price you pay if you aint got your shit together. Plenty of other things rates etc have late payment penalties etc...

I heard a few (chain smoking) poor people on a benefit ... loudly declaring that the Benefits should be increased so they can afford to buy a house like everybody (???) else. Funnily enough ... the only ones that agreed with it ... were on a benefit.

[Grumph]

Well, speaking as a poor pensioner.....How serious are some of youse about reducing your power usage ?

I'll be upfront and say that the two of us have a usual bill of about $120/month. We have supplementary electric heating for some of our animals - we're breeders.
Main water heating is by wetback with the leccy turned off in the winter months as we have a logburner going mornings and evenings.
Supplemantary kitchen water heating via an underbench 20L cylinder. If I could be bothered I'd put a timeclock on that cylinder and probably save another $20/month. For the summer, there's a timeclock on the main cylinder.

It's not hard to cut the bills if you want to.

[BMWST?]

Well, speaking as a poor pensioner.....How serious are some of youse about reducing your power usage ?

I'll be upfront and say that the two of us have a usual bill of about $120/month. We have supplementary electric heating for some of our animals - we're breeders.
Main water heating is by wetback with the leccy turned off in the winter months as we have a logburner going mornings and evenings.
Supplemantary kitchen water heating via an underbench 20L cylinder. If I could be bothered I'd put a timeclock on that cylinder and probably save another $20/month. For the summer, there's a timeclock on the main cylinder.

It's not hard to cut the bills if you want to.

its not us you should be schooling on how to reduce leccy bills

[caspernz]

The prompt payment thing is merely a late payment fee in reverse. Don't care if those who can't budget end up paying more.

As an aside, got a call from one of the so-called discount power suppliers recently. The numbers didn't add up though, for I'm paying less with my current supplier than what caller was offering

[Grumph]

its not us you should be schooling on how to reduce leccy bills

So you'd sooner beneficiary bash than learn something ? Put up some numbers to show how good you are at saving power....

What I would point out is that because there's nothing in it for them, landlords do not fit the most economical heating. Having heating fitted is very good - but if the tenant can't afford to turn it on it's pointless.

[Ocean1]

What I would point out is that because there's nothing in it for them, landlords do not fit the most economical heating. Having heating fitted is very good - but if the tenant can't afford to turn it on it's pointless.

Landlords need to subsidise their tenant's heating costs too now?

Years ago, one of my tenants more or less demanded I replace the reasonably late model fixed electric heaters with a pair of nice heat pumps his mate's business dealt with, because it was cheaper. I pointed out that the house I lived in didn't have a heat pump, because the time required for the savings to pay back the outlay was more than the lifespan of the system. Nonetheless, I got a quote, (from elsewhere) and suggested that if he wanted that option I could raise the rent by about 10% of that cost, if it was cheaper then he'd be better off immediately, whereas I'd more or less break even after 10 years.

He said I was a greedy rich prick. I offered to swap his late model Holden V8 for my 25 year old Hiace. He got confused about why I would think there'd be any chance he'd possibly do that.

That (prevailing) attitude isn't responsible for me now being a greedy ex landlord rich prick, but I'm well pleased to be out of it.

[Grumph]

Landlords need to subsidise their tenant's heating costs too now?

Years ago, one of my tenants more or less demanded I replace the reasonably late model fixed electric heaters with a pair of nice heat pumps his mate's business dealt with, because it was cheaper. I pointed out that the house I lived in didn't have a heat pump, because the time required for the savings to pay back the outlay was more than the lifespan of the system. Nonetheless, I got a quote, (from elsewhere) and suggested that if he wanted that option I could raise the rent by about 10% of that cost, if it was cheaper then he'd be better off immediately, whereas I'd more or less break even after 10 years.

He said I was a greedy rich prick. I offered to swap his late model Holden V8 for my 25 year old Hiace. He got confused about why I would think there'd be any chance he'd possibly do that.

That (prevailing) attitude isn't responsible for me now being a greedy ex landlord rich prick, but I'm well pleased to be out of it.

No, there's no question of subsidising tenants heating costs. What should be looked at though when installing heating is the running costs. As far as your changing the fixed heating for heat pumps, I'm assuming you looked at how much of that you could claim back in taxes as maintenance costs...

All indications point to NZ becoming a nation of renters in due time. I'd think that if a long term tenant wants to invest some of his rent in affordable heating, there should be a process for that agreeable to owner and tenant.

[neels]

What I would point out is that because there's nothing in it for them, *some* landlords do not fit the most economical heating. Having heating fitted is very good - but if the tenant can't afford to turn it on it's pointless.

I suspect that will be the outcome if the latest round of rental property changes make it through, you're not going to spend a lot of money on heaters in bedrooms when there's a good chance the tenants will steal them along with the light bulbs and smoke alarms when they leave.

Even when there is a heat pump installed tenants will complain that it isn't working properly and think it's the landlords job to clean the completely blocked filters....

[Ocean1]

No, there's no question of subsidising tenants heating costs. What should be looked at though when installing heating is the running costs. As far as your changing the fixed heating for heat pumps, I'm assuming you looked at how much of that you could claim back in taxes as maintenance costs...

All indications point to NZ becoming a nation of renters in due time. I'd think that if a long term tenant wants to invest some of his rent in affordable heating, there should be a process for that agreeable to owner and tenant.

Well I wasn't installing heating, yet I still costed what the tenant wanted, and the only person it was cheaper for was the tenant.

Didn't bother, there's no way it would have been seen as deductible. Funnily enough, if it were his own house the tenant would have been eligible for subsidies for exactly the same capital outlay.

The deal I offered was the best any normal tenant is likely to be offered, didn't even propose charging him for the financials. In that tenant's case the only thing he found agreeable was someone else paying so that he didn't have to. A sentiment common enough it's likely to soon result in taxpayers providing whatever the perceived difference is between the real world and an "agreeable" one.

[Ocean1]

One thing I will add, is that I've found it beneficial to have multiple energy sources available. Ideally I'd like to also have gas and at least one form of solid fuel burner in a property, so you can juggle between them somewhat depending on price and availability. Like when I had the big place, when I was too busy to cut firewood then power/gas bills weren't a problem anyway, but if I had time then dropping a big gum tree and cutting it up saved heaps and was a great workout.

All of the extra systems do cost more to build though.

PS: I like pellet burners, but I don't like the price of the pellets, maybe there's a lack of suppliers, whatever, the price is higher than I think it should be. (Sound familiar?). One of my many pet plans is to make a pellet maker. They're not hard if You've got the gear. Could even sell them to pensioners with access to treewood wanting to supply their neighbours as a cash based pension stretching business.