High bill checklist for houses

The weather can really affect your home energy use. Air conditioning will boost energy usage in summer, while short days and colder temperatures in winter mean you’ll spend more time with the lights, TV, computer, clothes dryer or heater on.

The more people you have in your house, the more energy you’re likely to use. That’s why you’ll often see a spike in your energy costs if a friend or relative stays for a few weeks, or if your kids have been home for the holidays.

Energy increases often happen when there’s lifestyle change. You might’ve added more rooms to your house or put in a pool or spa. You could also be using old appliances that may not be as energy efficient.

Knowing how much energy home appliances use can put you in control. You can choose to use them more or less or you might replace some of them. You could even use electric appliances at different times of the day or night if you’re an electricity customer on a time of use tariff.

For more information about the energy efficiency of your appliances, check the manual, the manufacturer’s website or the ‘energy efficiency’ label. You’ll find the power rating printed on the back or underneath many appliances, or by visiting the Australian Government’s Energy Rating website.

Energy bills rarely cover the same exact number of days per billing period. So, if you notice a small variation, this could explain it. View your bills in My Account or the Origin app to take a closer look. From the dashboard, select Bills icon to see past bills and payments.

If you didn’t pay your last bill in full, the remainder gets added to your latest bill – and this may also attract a late payment fee. Log in to My Account or the Origin app to see your account balance.

Electricity and natural gas prices generally change once a year. We’ll let you know about the upcoming price change before it happens. Use the price change notice as a trigger to:

LPG prices are variable. The price we charge for the LPG we supply will be the current price at the time of supply. To find out what the current price is or was for a certain billing period, call us on 13 35 74. You’ll also see the LPG price that applied for a billing period on your bill.

And if you have metered LPG, you can view your LPG price in My Account or the Origin app. Just select the View plan link on the dashboard when you log in.

If you have electricity, natural gas or metered LPG, when the meter reader can’t read your meter, we’ll generate your bill based on an estimated meter read.

To see if your bill is based on an actual or estimated read, look at the Meter details section (usually from page 2). You’ll see Actual or Estimated in the Read type column.

If you have an estimated bill but you’d prefer a bill based on an actual read:

We can send you a revised bill that’s based on your actual reading, with a new amount due and due date.

If you have another account type or need help submitting your meter read, contact us.

Electricity and natural gas plans: When you sign up for an electricity or natural gas plan that has benefits, like a lower price or a higher feed in tariff, your plan usually runs for 12 months. Before your energy plan and its benefits end, we write to you to let you know. If you didn’t use choose a new energy plan back then, your plan changed over to the new plan we told you about in your notification.

If you want to choose something else, there are no lock in contracts so you can change plans whenever you like. To do this:

LPG offers or agreements: If you had an LPG offer or agreement, it may have ended. Contact us if you need to talk about this.

Electricity and natural gas: If you have an eligible concession card, make sure we have your card details so we can apply concessions to your bill. You can add or edit your concession card details through My Account or the Origin app, or by calling 13 24 61.

For more information about what’s available in your state or territory to help with electricity and natural gas bills, visit our Concessions and rebates page.

LPG for home: See Gas rebates on our website for more info the LPG non-mains energy concession and the Non-Mains Utility Relief Grant in Victoria and the NSW Gas Rebate for eligible concession card holders.