There are three main savings calculations used in the Bill Hero service:
Bill Savings
We use the detailed data from your bill to calculate what you would have paid for that same usage with the same tariff type over the equivalent time period under all the relevant publicly available plans on the market.
We include tariff type, solar feed-in, guaranteed & conditional discounts, and incentives.
The difference between what you were actually charged in your bill vs the best available price you would have been charged under an alternative plan is the Bill Savings.
Bill Savings calculation uses the historical consumption and bill period data as documented in your bill to calculate what you would have been charged under each of the currently available plans. It's possible that the current pricing may not have been available during the billing period under consideration. That's why we refer to this as 'equivalent' time period.
Annualised Savings
In your results for each bill analysed, Bill Hero expresses savings as an annualised amount by applying the Bill Savings pro-rata over a full year. Annualising the savings result aligns the savings with the annual subscription period, which makes it possible for us to provide the Savings Guarantee.
For example, if Bill Hero finds $10 savings in a single monthly bill, this would be expressed as $120 annualised savings. We actually calculate Annualised Savings on the number of days in the bill cycle rather than months, but you get the idea.
Electricity Annualised Savings formula
Electricity Annualised Savings = Bill Savings x 365.25 / Bill Days
For gas savings, the annualisation calculation takes into account seasonal variation in gas consumption, based on an index of average seasonal gas consumption by climate zone. The indexed values are based on seasonal gas usage data published by the AER
Average Gas consumption index values
| Autumn | Summer | Winter | Spring |
|
| Queensland | 0.94 | 0.69 | 1.36 | 1.01 |
| New South Wales | 0.88 | 0.55 | 1.57 | 1.00 |
| ACT | 0.85 | 0.27 | 1.86 | 1.02 |
| Victoria | 0.79 | 0.36 | 1.83 | 1.02 |
| Tasmania | 0.79 | 0.29 | 1.88 | 1.04 |
| South Australia | 0.79 | 0.50 | 1.62 | 1.08 |
| Official Aust Season periods | March, April and May | December, January and February | June, July and August | September, October and November |
Gas Annualised Savings formula
Gas Annualised Savings = Gas Bill Season Savings x 365.25 / Gas Bill Season Days / Gas Seasonal Index value
Where the gas bill period spans across two or more seasons, Bill Hero will split the total bill duration days into season days to find the proportion of the billing period in each season, then use the same proportion to split the total Gas Bill Savings into Gas Bill Season Savings, and apply the relevant Seasonal Index value for each Gas Bill Season Savings value.
Lifetime Savings
Bill Hero also keeps a running tally of your cumulative lifetime savings over the lifetime of your subscription.
For each bill processed by Bill Hero, where Annualised Savings are greater than your Savings Guarantee (on your first bill) or greater than your Bothered Threshold (on your second and subsequent bills), we add the Annualised Savings amount to your Lifetime saving tally - this is because we assume you will complete the switch to access those savings.
Where annualised savings are lower than your Bothered Threshold, we will add the individual Bill Savings amount to your Lifetime Savings tally.
You can see your Lifetime Savings tally in a panel in the email results you receive for each bill processed by Bill Hero.