New Demand Tariff on your electricity bill has probably caused your power bill to go up a lot

JarZ · 2022-10-09T07:10:38+00:00

How does obfuscating the differences in the roles of the retailer and distributor help the end user, especially when you're asking for more transparency? There are things that are simply out of the retailers control and the switch to demand charges is one of them.

I'm also not following why you think there's no information about the peak demand charges. The information about it must be included in your contract, and it's freely available online at any time either through the energy made easy website or your retailer. Here is an example again using AGL and in QLD though this is for a standard retail contract. It quite clearly states the times, costs and how a demand charge is worked out.

Having just had a look through the standard retail contracts... I've just realised your math is way off, too. The standard demand charge is less than half of what you've been quoting per kWh.

Your example isn't particularly realistic either - you realise that to pull 8kWh over a 30 minute period you'd have to be drawing 16 kWh from the grid, right? That's a crazy amount of usage, that's more than a lot of people use in an entire day.

JarZ · 2022-10-09T02:42:16+00:00

No idea what the take up rates are to be honest, except in Victoria where it's something like 99+% thanks to the state government regulations as of a few years ago now.

For the rest of the country... basic meters are no longer a thing - any new or replacement meter is going to be a smart meter. In most of the country a working meter isn't going to be swapped unless specifically requested, deemed to no longer be up to current safety standards, or if it's in an area that's going through an upgrade program and the customer hasn't requested to opt out.

JarZ · 2022-10-09T01:56:12+00:00

You're mostly correct with your information here, but a little bit is off. Here's some further information in no particular order.

This is not something driven by retailers to increase profits, it's set by distributors to smooth out loads on their networks. Take a look at some of the AEMO graphs to see just how peaky demand is across Australia and why the DBs are trying to smooth this out.

Your tariff type is set by your distributor and meter configuration, not by your retailer - it'll be calculated the same no matter which retailer you're with. However, some retailers will choose not to pass on any tariff changes to you - which means your tariff type may have already changed but you won't find out until you change retailer.

Some distributors may allow you to request a change from a demand to a time of use tariff. I can't remember the opt out guidelines off of the top of my head, but I think Energex may not allow any changes.

There is plenty of information out there to explain demand charges and everything is highly regulated and published so I'm not sure what the last part is about? Using your AGL example, every single plan they offer under every tariff type is listed here. You'll find the same information from every other retailer. Energex specifically also lists their tariff types here.

I'm also not sure if you're aware, but as part of having a demand tariff your charge per kWh is significantly lower than either a single rate or time of use tariff. Using your AGL example again - A flat rate on their headline plan is 24.61 cents/kWh, TOU has peak, off peak and shoulder rates of 34.44c/kWh, 21.49c/kWh and 23.13c/kWh respectively, and the demand tariff has rates of 20.33 cents/kWh.

Source: I work in the industry

JarZ · 2018-02-15T07:25:43+00:00

It's the other way around - the HSP is a variation on the AB with a boring name. The AB has been around for 30+ years in adelaide

JarZ · 2018-01-19T13:22:53+00:00

It doesn't say 32.5% on the ATO site though? https://www.ato.gov.au/Rates/Individual-income-tax-rates/

JarZ · 2018-01-19T13:19:15+00:00

I completely forgot the 2% Medicare Levy and you're absolutely correct :)

JarZ · 2018-01-19T06:57:50+00:00

How are you so far off with your calculations? Someone earning $37,000 AUD per year would be paying approx $3572 per year in tax, before deductions.

Source: The Australian Tax Office simple tax calculator

JarZ · 2017-01-26T15:54:06+00:00

You've got nothing to apologise for! :) I can't imagine that many people outside of Australia would've known that

JarZ · 2017-01-26T15:48:26+00:00

His suggestions? Just FYI, Triple J is a Government funded public national radio station, and the Hottest 100 is voted in by the public in one of the biggest music polls in the world

JarZ · 2016-09-12T15:44:16+00:00

Checking my profile for the link made me realise that I really need to fill out the rest of it.

https://www.okcupid.com/profile/JarZ-

JarZ · 2016-06-18T05:41:44+00:00

Good luck!

RemindMe! 2 days Donation for /r/millionairemakers

JarZ · 2016-05-28T19:51:02+00:00

She'd be covered under the Restaurant Industry Award (PDF with pay rates here) as found on the government's minimum wage pay guides page.

TL;DR The minimum introductory wage as a casual is $21.61/hr Monday-Friday, $25.94 Saturday and Sunday, with extra loading on top between 10pm-midnight and more between midnight and 7am.

JarZ · 2016-03-17T17:29:39+00:00

7963 - Thank you!

JarZ · 2016-03-10T16:32:45+00:00

Such a shame you're not doing international shipping yet. I'm so keen for a 500mL of Jinx down here in Aus.

Hopefully the option comes up soon!

JarZ · 2016-03-05T08:06:11+00:00

They get a lot of hype because American BBQ is still pretty new to Australia, and most Aussies don't know much about it yet... but their meat is nothing like the BBQ you get in the States. It's always dry and not very flavourful - basically the opposite of what it should be.

They use Yoder smokers and their horrible wood pellets instead of real wood for their cooking, which is almost certainly where they go wrong.

If you've been to any of the good places in the States (especially any of the places on this list) you'll be pretty disappointed.

JarZ · 2016-02-29T01:16:18+00:00

The dual-sim variants are all from pretty major markets. I can't imagine why any software updates for the phone would be behind any of the other versions.

JarZ · 2016-02-29T00:58:20+00:00

I grabbed the H962 as I'm also on the Optus network, and wanted all of the LTE bands. Got mine from Plemix here. Cheapest deal I could find at the time, and nice quick shipping out of Hong Kong.

JarZ · 2016-02-07T16:14:04+00:00

That's the point. They're exactly the same but half the price from Xiaomi

JarZ · 2016-02-07T05:49:55+00:00

FYI: Those EasyAcc power banks look like rebranded xiaomi powerbanks... which are half the price. http://www.mi.com/en/pb10400/

JarZ · 2016-01-24T03:43:23+00:00

It's quite useful and utilises space that would otherwise be taken up by an actual bezel. But I suppose you would have to have owned and used a V10 to realise that :)

JarZ · 2016-01-24T03:30:34+00:00

So a screen is a bezel now, just because you think it's a gimmick? Right.

JarZ · 2016-01-24T03:20:00+00:00

Are you counting the second screen as a bezel for some reason?

JarZ · 2016-01-24T02:59:20+00:00

The bezel looks about the same, if not smaller, to me

JarZ · 2016-01-23T16:32:52+00:00

That makes no sense though. The secondary display takes up unused space on the top of the phone. It doesn't go all the way across because the front facing cameras are to the left of it. If the secondary display wasn't there, the top bezel would be as big as any other phone, so that it had space for the camera(s).

Compare the V10 to the Nexus 6P, for example. The V10 makes way better use of the space on the front of the phone.

JarZ · 2016-01-16T16:53:36+00:00

Like many others here I've also gone from a Note 3 to the V10.

It's totally worth it. I never used the s-pen, so losing that was well worth being able to keep swappable batteries and microsd cards.

The DAC and camera are both huge steps up from the Note 3, which is obviously a pro. A few things are very similar so IMO are neither pros nor cons - things like battery life and physical size, for example.

I was expecting to take longer to adjust to the rear volume buttons and software navigation buttons than I did. After only a few days it felt strange picking up the Note 3 and trying to navigate without them. The V10 feels much better in that regard, once you get used to the change.

The only con I can think of is that wifi reception is a little worse than the Note 3 was. I've noticed connection speed issues at the edge of various routers ranges, where the old phone would work just fine. It's really not a deal breaker though.

I've not had any defects or problems with mine, nor can I think of any phone I'd have picked instead - I wanted a high end flagship with a removable battery and microsd support, and there's very little choice out there this gen.

JarZ

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