If we accept Melba Morris’s figures in her recent correspondence (Gradual escalation in hot water costs) and use the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures (available online) to compare her costs with average monthly earnings in 1993 and 2010, it is plain to see that it cost 0.19 per cent of her income in 1993 and 0.35 per cent in 2010.
This means that the cost of heating water in a vintage hot water system has almost doubled in just under 20 years. This is not too bad, considering that her hot water system has had no maintenance in all that time. I would assume that it almost certainly would be much less efficient now than it was then, and that her suspicion of a global (national?) conspiracy amongst the power companies to get us to agree to a carbon tax is stretching things a bit.
I would suggest that she get her hot water system maintained (a new heating element, perhaps?). Or better yet, install a passive solar hot water system and then she can enjoy free hot water.
Ross Barrell,
Warwick
