What does it actually cost to run a house?
Every other page on this site answers one question — what should heat your water, what should heat the house, what the pool costs. This one puts them together and answers the question people actually arrive with: where is the money going?
Nothing here is a new estimate. Every line comes from the calculator that owns it, so if a figure looks wrong you can open the module and see the working.
Your bill, line by line
Priced at your rates — change either of them
These are New South Wales’s published reference rates. They are a starting point, not what you necessarily pay — put the numbers from your own bill in and every figure on this site changes with them.
The usage rate on your bill, sometimes called the peak or anytime rate.
Gas is billed by the megajoule, not the kilowatt hour.
Saved in this browser and nowhere else. No account, no email, nothing sent to a server.
| Where it goes | A year | Share | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electricity supply charge | $607 | 20% | — |
| Gas supply charge | $321 | 11% | — |
| Hot water | $258 | 9% | 8,738 MJ |
| Heating and cooling | $715 | 24% | 250 kWh + 23,227 MJ |
| Cooling | $143 | 5% | 433 kWh |
| Everything else | $960 | 32% | 2,900 kWh |
| Everything | $3,003 | 100% | 3,583 kWh + 31,965 MJ |
A 3 person household in New South Wales with a gas connection, in a 160 m² house built before 2005, at New South Wales's rates. The highlighted rows are what you pay before using anything: $928, or 31% of the total. Change your household in My home and every line recalculates.
Set your state, household size and gas connection in My home and every line above recalculates — along with every other figure on this site.
The part no comparison site shows you
Look at the highlighted rows. Before you boil a kettle, turn on a light or run a shower, you are paying for the privilege of being connected. The daily supply charge is on the bill whether the house is occupied or empty.
| State or territory | Electricity, per day | Electricity, per year | Gas, per year | Both, per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $1.66/day | $607 | $321 | $928 |
| Victoria | $1.27/day | $464 | $307 | $771 |
| Queensland | $1.92/day | $701 | $292 | $993 |
| South Australia | $1.80/day | $657 | $350 | $1,008 |
| Western Australia | $1.19/day | $435 | $101 | $536 |
| Tasmania | $1.68/day | $612 | $350 | $963 |
| Australian Capital Territory | $1.34/day | $490 | $321 | $811 |
| Northern Territory | $0.63/day | $228 | no mains gas | $228 |
This is what arrives on the bill before you switch anything on. It is not a small number — between $228 and $1,008 a year — and on a household that does not use much it can be a third of everything. It is also why dropping a gas connection is worth so much more than dropping gas usage: the fuel stops costing you, and so does the connection.
Between $228 and just over $1,000 a year, depending on where you live and whether you hold a gas connection as well. On a household that does not use much, that is a third of everything — and no amount of turning things off touches it.
It is also the single most useful fact on this site, because it explains something that otherwise looks strange: why dropping a gas connection saves so much more than dropping gas usage. When the last gas appliance goes, the fuel stops costing you and so does the connection. Comparison sites quote usage rates, so this never appears in the comparison.
Which is why the gas question is mostly not about gas
| Gas and electricity | All electric | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supply charges | $928 | $607 | $321 |
| Everything you use | $2,075 | $2,021 | $54 |
| Total a year | $3,003 | $2,628 | $376 |
Going all electric saves this household $376 a year in New South Wales, and $321 of that is the gas supply charge disappearing rather than anything to do with the fuel. Gas hot water and ducted gas heating against a heat pump and reverse cycle, same house, same household.
Worth being careful with that number rather than treating it as a slogan. It is the whole-bill difference for one household, in one state, on this site's default assumptions about the house and the systems. Change the state and it moves a long way — gas instantaneous still beats a heat pump on running cost in South Australia and the ACT once the connection is staying for other reasons.
And how much of the saving is the connection rather than the fuel varies more than you would expect. In New South Wales it is most of it — the gas is barely the point. In Victoria it is under a third, because Victorian houses need so much more heating that the fuel dominates. Both are in the table above, calculated for whichever state you have set.
The point is not that all-electric always wins, nor that the supply charge is always the reason. It is that the supply charge is a real and often large part of the answer, and almost nobody includes it.
Why you can believe the total
A whole-bill figure is easy to get wrong and hard to check, so here is the check.
The Australian Energy Regulator publishes, with every Default Market Offer determination, the annual bill a representative residential customer would pay in each distribution zone and the annual usage that assumes. That is a published whole-bill number from the body that sets the prices — and this site's rates reproduce it:
| Distribution network | Assumed annual use | AER published bill | This site's rates | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energex (South-east Queensland) | 4,600 kWh | $1,988 | $1,989 | +0.04% |
| SA Power Networks (South Australia) | 4,000 kWh | $2,334 | $2,333 | −0.03% |
The Australian Energy Regulator publishes the annual bill a representative residential customer pays in each distribution zone, alongside each Default Market Offer determination. It is a published whole-bill figure, and it is the check that matters most on this site: the usage rate and the supply charge are the two numbers every other figure is built on. The comparison is re-run on every build and the build fails if either drifts more than one per cent.
Two figures, in two states, to within a twentieth of a per cent. That is not a coincidence and it is not a fit: it is the same arithmetic, from the same rates, because the supply charge and the usage rate on this site come from the same determinations the regulator used. The comparison is re-run every time the site is built and the build fails rather than deploys if either drifts.
It also means something more useful than a validation. The two numbers the AER publishes are the two numbers every other figure on this site is built on, so a check that they are right is a check on the hot water calculator, the heating calculator, the appliance list, the pool and the solar payback at the same time.
What to do about it, in order
The breakdown above is also a priority list, and it is not the one most energy advice gives you.
1. Check what you are paying per unit
Before changing a single appliance. The gap between a keen retail offer and a standing offer is larger than most efficiency upgrades, it applies to every kilowatt hour you will ever use, and it takes an afternoon. Put your own rates in and every figure on this site tells you what your own bill looks like rather than an average one.
2. Look at the connection, not just the usage
If gas is down to one appliance, the supply charge is most of what that appliance costs you. The hot water calculator models this directly — it asks whether gas is staying for anything else, because the answer changes which system wins.
3. Then the big loads, in the order the table gives
Heating and cooling is usually the largest single line, hot water is usually second, and everything else is a long tail of small things. Heating and cooling is where the money is south of Brisbane; hot water is a quarter of the average bill; a pool changes the shape of the whole thing.
4. And if you have panels, use what they make
Exported solar is now worth a fraction of the same unit used at home — between three and seventeen times less depending on the state. Solar is no longer an export business, and shifting your hot water and pool pump into daylight is the cheapest lever on this whole page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average energy bill in Australia?
There is no single answer, which is why this page asks about your household rather than quoting one. The closest thing to an official figure is the Australian Energy Regulator's Default Market Offer, which publishes the annual electricity bill a representative customer would pay in each distribution zone: $1,988 for a south-east Queensland household using 4,600 kWh, and $2,334 in South Australia using 4,000 kWh. Add a gas connection and the total rises by the gas supply charge plus whatever you burn. Your own figure depends far more on your state, your house and your systems than on any national average.
What uses the most electricity in a house?
Heating and cooling, almost everywhere south of Brisbane, and it is not close — about 40% of household energy, with the heating half dwarfing the cooling half. Hot water is usually second at around a quarter. After that it is a long tail: the fridge, the kitchen, the laundry, lighting and screens. If there is a pool, the pump alone often beats everything except heating. And before any of it, the supply charge.
Why is my bill so high when I barely use anything?
Probably the supply charge, and this is the most common version of the question. Between $228 and $701 a year goes on the electricity connection before you use a single unit, and another $101 to $350 if you hold a gas connection. A household that uses very little can find half the bill is fixed. Turning things off cannot touch it; the only levers are your rate, and whether you need both connections.
Should I disconnect gas entirely?
Often yes on running cost, and the reason is the supply charge rather than the fuel. If gas is down to one appliance, that appliance is carrying $101 to $350 a year of connection charge on top of what it burns. Once the last gas appliance is replaced, both disappear. The caveats are real though: disconnection itself can cost a few hundred dollars, replacing a working appliance early rarely pays, and in South Australia and the ACT gas instantaneous hot water still beats a heat pump on running cost while the connection is staying anyway.
Where do these numbers come from?
Every line is calculated by the module that owns it — hot water, heating and cooling, appliances, pool and solar — using published rates from the current Default Market Offer, Victorian Default Offer and equivalent state determinations. Nothing on this page is a separate estimate. The hot water and heating models reproduce Sustainability Victoria's published running costs, the pool pump model reproduces the Commonwealth's own energy label register, and the whole-bill total reproduces the AER's published annual bill. The methodology page lists every constant with its source and the date it was checked.