This article from Stuff.co.nz illustrates that our elderly are staying in bed to keep warm and avoid turning on heaters, citing some bills of $500!  The article here does explore possible reasons for escalating power bills and offers assistance and advice for those who are struggling. As a matter of interest however, smart meters are known to escalate power bills so if any of your loved ones are suffering in this way, you could be a little proactive on their behalf and check out if this is the reason. I know of a pensioner in a tiny one b/r flat who barely has her oil heater on, who is getting $300 power bills! (Mine is $200, same scenario, with heater on most days in winter … no smart meter, I got it removed when some power companies were removing them). Another person I know, their bill, AFTER the SM installation (nothing else changed re consumption, appliances or anything) …  escalated from $400 to $1000, I kid you not. The Take Back Your Power website documents all this kind of info, and locally to NZ, the stopsmartmeters nz. website. Just saying as this is often the cause of higher bills although power companies deny it. If you get the chip removed from them (you may need to find a power company that will do it, shop around) the bills could go down or at least you’ll have eliminated that ticky box. I know that sometimes it is just high usage, but in some cases it is the meter.

I do feel for the elderly, this is not right they are cold in winter because of predatory power companies. Contact Energy in the year to June 30, produced a 17.6 per cent increase in net profit of $234 million. They appear to be doing fine, however we should be looking after our old people not ripping them off. These are the ones who did the hard yards in their younger years … so we should be looking after them in their older years. They built the society we have today that is quickly disappearing thanks to corporate sell outs. Vis a vis the current disappearance of our State Housing stock.

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
~ Mahatma Ghandi

To check if Smart Meters are the cause of high electricity costs, for further info on Smart Meters in NZ and for other links go to: https://envirowatchrangitikei.wordpress.com/smart-meters/ It’s recommended you watch Take Back Your Power, the award winning documentary by Josh del Sol. You can watch it at their website, or I have a copy available for loan to folks in the Rangitikei. Believe me, all you need to know about Smart Meters is in this documentary.

You can read Stuff’s article here at the link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/70459781/elderly-staying-in-bed-to-avoid-turning-the-heater-on