Costs and pricing
Electricity bill breakdown calculator
Your real cost per kilowatt-hour, once the standing charges are folded in.
Everything on it — energy, standing charges, fees and tax.
On the bill, usually near the meter readings. Look for kWh.
Anything you pay whether or not you use a single unit. Leave blank if you cannot separate it.
The rate on your tariff is not what you pay
Your tariff advertises a rate per kilowatt-hour. Your bill also carries standing charges, service fees and tax, none of which scale with what you use. Divide the whole bill by the units you consumed and the real number is always higher than the advertised one — sometimes by a third.
That blended figure is the honest input for any running-cost calculation. Using the tariff rate instead quietly understates what every appliance in the house is costing you.
Why the fixed share matters
Fixed charges do not move when you use less. If a large slice of your bill is fixed, cutting consumption saves proportionally less than you would expect, and efficiency upgrades take longer to pay for themselves.
It also means a low-usage household can be paying an extraordinary effective rate per unit. If fixed charges are a third or more of your bill, that is worth knowing before you spend money chasing savings on usage.
Where to find the numbers
- Total bill — the amount actually due, not the usage subtotal
- Kilowatt-hours — near the meter readings, listed as kWh
- Fixed charges — anything described as standing, service, supply or connection
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