Power costs advice needed

Marlene from Cromwell

We are three pensioner age adults living in a 3 bedroom home in Cromwell. The house is well insulated ,schist exterior ,double glazed warm and dry. One couple in master bedroom ,single person in double room ,both rooms and hallway heated by flat panel wall heaters and lounge has 4kw heat pump. The water is electric heated and we don't shower every day for this reason ,also minimal washing of clothes. We kept the heat pump on from 10am to 8.30 pm in June when the inversion layer was over us and our power bill was over $700, we now remain in our rooms as much as possible and only turn the heat pump on at 5pm to 8pm and not much has changed we are still up in the $600 plus range. Two of us lived in Queenstown for 15 years and never paid prices like this ,can anyone PLEASE enlighten us as to why we seem to be higher than most people living in Cromwell, we have been here since May ,may not be here next May.