moving to electric kiwi

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#1814345 7-Jul-2017 12:28

I think on EK we're paying maybe a touch more than with Flick, but I don't have to keep looking at power prices and the risk of a blowout is much reduced. Hour of power savings 18 - 22%, limited by the 60A fuse that I don't want to blog on the pole - I could productively use a little more power without wastage. I'm slowly ramping up the hour of power usage. It's costing us $9.70 per day, that's heat pumps keeping the whole house warm (21 - 22 degrees) all day with wife + baby home, using the dishwasher and clothes drier regularly, etc.

Last year we had the heat pumps on only when we were home, mornings and evenings. Keeping the heating on during the day the house feels much warmer - heated to the core rather than just heating the air. I think even if no-one was there during the day we'd probably keep the heat on low in future. Costs a bit more, not a lot, in our old well insulated house.

Pumpedd

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#1814475 7-Jul-2017 14:53

timmmay:

I think on EK we're paying maybe a touch more than with Flick, but I don't have to keep looking at power prices and the risk of a blowout is much reduced. Hour of power savings 18 - 22%, limited by the 60A fuse that I don't want to blog on the pole - I could productively use a little more power without wastage. I'm slowly ramping up the hour of power usage. It's costing us $9.70 per day, that's heat pumps keeping the whole house warm (21 - 22 degrees) all day with wife + baby home, using the dishwasher and clothes drier regularly, etc.

Last year we had the heat pumps on only when we were home, mornings and evenings. Keeping the heating on during the day the house feels much warmer - heated to the core rather than just heating the air. I think even if no-one was there during the day we'd probably keep the heat on low in future. Costs a bit more, not a lot, in our old well insulated house.

I hope they are rewarding you for this massive amount of free marketing.

timmmay

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#1814495 7-Jul-2017 15:49

Pumpedd:

I hope they are rewarding you for this massive amount of free marketing.

What, posting on Geekzone? I didn't even start the thread.

Wiggum

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#1814527 7-Jul-2017 16:01

Well still on Flick, we averaging now at nearly $20 per day ($140 per week). This is up from an average of less than $40 per week over Summer.

But we are relatively high users, with 2 heat-pumps going nearly 24/7. So house is always healthy and warm. I guess if I was with electric kiwi, it would not be very different.

simon14

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#1814529 7-Jul-2017 16:03

EK are great, no issues here.

My average hour of power savings are sitting on 22.8%.

clive100

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#1814547 7-Jul-2017 16:40

Same here. Very happy with EK.

Aredwood

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#1815745 8-Jul-2017 00:46

timmmay:

I think on EK we're paying maybe a touch more than with Flick, but I don't have to keep looking at power prices and the risk of a blowout is much reduced. Hour of power savings 18 - 22%, limited by the 60A fuse that I don't want to blog on the pole - I could productively use a little more power without wastage. I'm slowly ramping up the hour of power usage. It's costing us $9.70 per day, that's heat pumps keeping the whole house warm (21 - 22 degrees) all day with wife + baby home, using the dishwasher and clothes drier regularly, etc.

Last year we had the heat pumps on only when we were home, mornings and evenings. Keeping the heating on during the day the house feels much warmer - heated to the core rather than just heating the air. I think even if no-one was there during the day we'd probably keep the heat on low in future. Costs a bit more, not a lot, in our old well insulated house.

@timmmay what model smart meter do you have if you don't mind me asking? As if it is the Elster Grex meter - They don't have an internal real time clock. They get their time via the Mesh radio network that is used for uploading metering data. So presumably the data collector unit is set to the wrong time. In saying that, I have one of those meters on my house. And it seems to be keeping the correct time. But im on a Peak / Offpeak plan myself. So I will do an audit, as there is a 10c per unit + any spot price movements price difference between peak and offpeak for me. Also alot of older pole fuses used an exposed fuse wire in a porcelain tube. Meaning over time they would corrode, and will be liable to blow at a lower rating than originally intended. Modern ones are an HRC type cartridge fuse. Meaning the fuse wire is sealed from the elements. Since you said that the lines company replaced it, you probally now have a nice new HRC fuse now. Also those pole fuses are only required to protect against short circuit, not overload. So it's fusing factor could easily be 1.5 or so. Meaning if you put 100A through it, it could take approx 1 hour to blow. So you might now be fine to really go nuts with the free hour of power.

Although since you said previously that you are in an old house, I don't know about Wellington. But in Auckland, there are still some old houses that only have 6mm2 or 10mm2 mains cables. 6mm2 is only good for around 30A. So be wary if you still have an old switchboard, or you suspect that you still have an old mains cable. If EK really become popular, some of these old houses with original old wiring could end up burning down. 60A through a 6mm2 will very quickly find any joins that are the slightest bit suspect. And those old cables were also sized on the assumption that they won't be wrapped or covered in insulation.

Also it is a good thing that I don't plan to move to EK. As Vector in Auckland allow up to 69KVA capacity on standard residential connections. Which is 3 phase at 100Amps per phase. Sure im still on a single phase 60Amp connection right now. But a mains cable upgrade to my house is in the planning stages at the moment. (As well as enough money to pay for it and a switchboard upgrade). As the current one is direct buried 16mm2 and about 60m long. So it becomes non compliant for volt drop if I draw more than 30Amp or so. But main reason is that it is getting close to 50 years old, and is under my driveway. And since the driveway is also going to get replaced soon. No way am I risking an old cable under a nice new driveway.

So do I just get the new one sized for single phase or pay heaps extra for 3 phase? The complicating decision is that the underground cables on my side of the street are only single phase. If I absolutely had to have 3 phase right now - I would have to either pay Vector to extend 3 phase to the plinth outside my house. Or if they let me - thrust a cable diagonally under the road and connect directly into the transformer. Would need another 30M approx of cable to do so. Otherwise it is run 3 phase cable to the plinth, get it connected as single phase. And get 3 phase when Vector eventually replace the underground cables. Or just run a single phase cable again. Decisions, Decisions.

Another factor is that I will almost certainly get an electric car or van sometime. And I recall a thread where @linuxLuver said that electric cars with inbuilt 30KW AC chargers will become a thing. Assuming that will actually happen, then it will be worthwhile to be the first person in my street to get a really big mains cable installed. And grab whatever spare capacity is available from the local transformer. Then the neighbours will be stuck as no extra capacity for them unless they pay for a transformer upgrade. Another possible advantage is that my section is big enough to subdivide. So having 2 or 3 houses worth of capacity could also be useful in that respect.

Guess I will have to phone Vector on monday, as the more I think about it, the more Im leaning towards going for the overkill option.

timmmay

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#1815753 8-Jul-2017 06:20

Aredwood:

@timmmay what model smart meter do you have if you don't mind me asking? As if it is the Elster Grex meter - They don't have an internal real time clock. They get their time via the Mesh radio network that is used for uploading metering data. So presumably the data collector unit is set to the wrong time. In saying that, I have one of those meters on my house. And it seems to be keeping the correct time. But im on a Peak / Offpeak plan myself. So I will do an audit, as there is a 10c per unit + any spot price movements price difference between peak and offpeak for me. Also alot of older pole fuses used an exposed fuse wire in a porcelain tube. Meaning over time they would corrode, and will be liable to blow at a lower rating than originally intended. Modern ones are an HRC type cartridge fuse. Meaning the fuse wire is sealed from the elements. Since you said that the lines company replaced it, you probally now have a nice new HRC fuse now. Also those pole fuses are only required to protect against short circuit, not overload. So it's fusing factor could easily be 1.5 or so. Meaning if you put 100A through it, it could take approx 1 hour to blow. So you might now be fine to really go nuts with the free hour of power.

Although since you said previously that you are in an old house, I don't know about Wellington. But in Auckland, there are still some old houses that only have 6mm2 or 10mm2 mains cables. 6mm2 is only good for around 30A. So be wary if you still have an old switchboard, or you suspect that you still have an old mains cable. If EK really become popular, some of these old houses with original old wiring could end up burning down. 60A through a 6mm2 will very quickly find any joins that are the slightest bit suspect. And those old cables were also sized on the assumption that they won't be wrapped or covered in insulation.

Label says Metrix EDMI Mk7C Atlas. The meter installed a couple of years back showed me how to access information - hold the select button. I can see voltage, current, power factor, all kinds of things, but no time.

The old and new fuse are the same. They look like a standard fuse, and were in a black holder around the size of my fist. The guy thinks some water got in, which would explain the scorching and why it tripped under 60A. The fuse was only a year old, the holder probably much older. I asked why it was a 60A fuse which seemed low to me, the lines guy said that's what the wire between the pole and the house was rated for. So while I might be able to go a bit higher I'll probably be careful. Right now I try to keep my hours load around 50A (two heat pumps 20A, 13A hotwater, clothes drier 10A, dish washer 10A max) plus the oil heaters and fridge will take it up 60A sometimes. I might increase that to add another heater for a short time to heat my office, but then it would spike up to 70A occasionally. My wife would not be happy if we're without power for a while again to heat the baby's frozen food.

The house is very old, but we've had an electrician check the wiring and it was replaced in the not too distance future - maybe 10 / 15 years instead of the 100 years old the house is. Plus we've done some changes since then, heat pumps are obviously on their own circuits. We have a very old switchboard which I know is due for replacement when we have couple of grand we want to spend on it. When that happens we'll do a full safety check and replace any wiring that's not up to code.

Thanks for the information :)

sidefx

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#1815756 8-Jul-2017 07:10

Since contact say my prices are going up in August, and I've previously worked out that even after taking into account online\ontime discounts ,etc and a fairly low hour of power saving estimate even on the old prices I would have been slightly better off with EK, I'm gonna make the switch. My understanding is that switching power companies is a lot easier then ISPs, with a lot less gotchas... but I still thought I'd check:

Any recommendations on the best time to switch? I'm about a week away from the end of my billing period. Also do I need to notify the losing power company that I'm leaving them?

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

timmmay

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#1815758 8-Jul-2017 07:17

Just sign up with ek whenever you want. The timing is somewhat random when you get transferred and makes no difference. The switching system is good.

clive100

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#1815765 8-Jul-2017 09:14

sidefx:

Since contact say my prices are going up in August, and I've previously worked out that even after taking into account online\ontime discounts ,etc and a fairly low hour of power saving estimate even on the old prices I would have been slightly better off with EK, I'm gonna make the switch. My understanding is that switching power companies is a lot easier then ISPs, with a lot less gotchas... but I still thought I'd check:

Any recommendations on the best time to switch? I'm about a week away from the end of my billing period. Also do I need to notify the losing power company that I'm leaving them?

The switch is simple & painless. up to 10 days the max time for the switch to happen. For some only a day or two.

It's seemless & no loss of supply. Just a final bill from your old company & an email advising you new details with EK.

Make sure you use a friends referral to save yourself $50 & also $50 to be referer.

Any EK member can refer you so approach a friend or PM anyone here on this forum to give you a referral link.

You wil not regret switching to EK.

timmmay

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#1815769 8-Jul-2017 09:30

Remember, consumer power companies are typically just billing companies. The actual supply is done by the generators and lines companies.

Resnick

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#1815781 8-Jul-2017 10:42

We're averaging around 16% saving after approximately 3 weeks with Electric Kiwi.

We should be able to improve on this as I have just discovered that the time delay on our washing machine and dryer is for when we want the cycle to finish. Not a start time as I had always assumed!

jamesrobert

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#1817612 10-Jul-2017 09:49

365 days with Electric Kiwi.

3414 kW/h paid for

2390 kW/h Hour of Power free (41.2%)

Total cost $1114.38.

clive100

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#1817683 10-Jul-2017 10:25

jamesrobert: 365 days with Electric Kiwi.

3414 kW/h paid for

2390 kW/h Hour of Power free (41.2%)

Total cost $1114.38.

What time have you set your off peak hour or do you vary it according to daily use ?

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