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• How to renegotiate and reduce your home office electricity expenses

Are you tired by being constantly ripped off by energy retailers and energy savings companies?

Here’s the deal: YOU ARE!

Let’s improve your bottom line! 80% of the businesses out there are paying more than they need to. Is this you?

Here is how you can calculate your own electricity and renegotiate your home office electricity at a much better rate.

Step one, go and check your electricity meter. If you have an old analog meter (like the one below) then your calculations are very simple.

Step two, check your electricity bill and you will need to find two parameters.

For example for AGL you can find this information on the second page of your bill:

To look closer:

In this example, the peak rate is charge at 26 cents per kWh used. The more electricity you use the more you pay, no matter what time of the day. In addition to that you are charged a Supply Charge of $1 per day regardless of how much energy is going to be used. The supply charge is charged 365 days per year even if you go on holidays and don’t use any power.

Step three. Call your energy provider and try and negotiate a lower rate. Energy companies do like to confuse people with % discounts. You need to know what is the exact peak rate per kWh you are going to pay and the exact daily supply charge after the discounts.

Two things to consider when comparing offers:

• Calculate your usage over a 12 month period, so you can see the benefit across seasons. Most people have high and low usage patterns (traditionally summer and winter).
• Traditionally retailers increase their rates annually, so a percentage discount today will give you a discount on what you are charged regardless of what the rate is. Essentially you are locking in the discount NOT the rate.

Is it worth doing? Let’s take an average two bedroom unit with 2 people at home during the day, running their small business office. Their bill is going to be on average $350 to $550, by renegotiating their rates and supply charges they can save anywhere between: $50 - $150 a quarter.

If you think about it in two years savings it will be $400 - $1200 and that a little holiday for some. So get your bills together for the last 12 months and get calculating and negotiating.

Little tip: if you change retailers, find out when the meter read is likely to be scheduled. Remember until the next meter read you will still be with your old retailer. Simply speaking if you just got your electricity bill and decided to renegotiate to change provider, you will not go across to the new retailer for next 2.5 months. Try to negotiate your early meter read as early as possible and them to waiver the meter read fee.

What could you do with $1000 extra in your pocket? Don’t wait another minute! Electricity is being used and charged 24/7. Get calculating and negotiating.

There are 300 products out there at the moment for residential and 250 for small business. It is quite a bit more complicated to calculate and negotiate savings for small business , due to following reasons:

• Not all products are advertised.
• Different types of meters used.
• Different parts of the premises on different rates and different meter types.
• There are different network rules, depending on geographical location and this rules determine what the retailers charge.

If you have small business premises our friends from Wise Up Energy Solutions can take care of it for you with a special discount. Just follow this link.

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