<p $$hash="6487-0"><span $$hash="6486-0">Households in Australia spend close to $100 per week on fuel and energy, research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed.
ABS said that throughout 2012, the average family in Australia spent $39 on gas and electricity bills and a further $60 on fuel.
<p $$hash="6496-0"><span $$hash="6495-0">Yet how much of their income this took up varied depending on home much the family earned per week. <p $$hash="6497-0">Stephanie Cornes of ABS said: "Energy costs represented around five per cent of the average gross weekly household income. <p $$hash="6499-0"><span $$hash="6498-0">"It ranged from almost ten per cent for low income households to as little as three per cent for high income households." <p $$hash="6501-0"><span $$hash="6500-0">Costs generally also went up for families that owned a house rather than for people who were renting. Yet Ms Cornes added that homeowners have a wider variety of options when it comes to saving money on energy bills. <p $$hash="6503-0"><span $$hash="6502-0">For example, they can choose to have solar panelling installed in their homes to cut energy costs. ABS figures showed that people who had solar spent $6 less on average each week. <p $$hash="6505-0"><span $$hash="6504-0">Posted by Steve Douglas