Electricity plan shopping

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Electricity plan shopping

1 | ... | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | ... | 23

586 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#3034328 10-Feb-2023 09:24

tdgeek:

timmmay:

Yeah, I got the sign up credit. Our power bill ranges from about $200 in summer to about $450 in winter, but we keep the house about 24 degrees. Moving to Mercury without an hour of power I'll need to do less pre-heating, plus I installed a new heat pump in my office, so I expect the bill could go down more than expected.

Nice

Our bills are $100 Summer and $250 Winter. Two heat pumps, gas hob, and solar HW. Im home alone till April so last bill was $72, the next one will be $65 lol. So no rush to change but I will evaluate Summer, Winter and mid season bills soon. Be nice to not be tied to the 10pm free hour

Hows $150 for three months for a family of 4? This includes aircons running during the really hot days. But yea, we in Brisbane the sunshine state and it will be silly here not to have solar. When we were in Wellington our bill was nearly $500 per month in winter and that was mainly due to the need of 2 heatpumps all night, as well as a spa. I will be interested to see what your bill is like in winter, and how much solar you can produce then. What is your energy storage solution for when you have to use those heatpumps in the evenings?

timmmay

20581 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3034341 10-Feb-2023 09:41

$150 a month is pretty good, with air con. This past month that's been pretty hot in Wellington we were $200, running central air con from 2pm to 10pm most days, plus running the separate kitchen air con a couple of hours, and the office small air con.

tdgeek

29749 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3034343 10-Feb-2023 09:45

Wombat1:

Hows $150 for three months for a family of 4? This includes aircons running during the really hot days. But yea, we in Brisbane the sunshine state and it will be silly here not to have solar. When we were in Wellington our bill was nearly $500 per month in winter and that was mainly due to the need of 2 heatpumps all night, as well as a spa. I will be interested to see what your bill is like in winter, and how much solar you can produce then. What is your energy storage solution for when you have to use those heatpumps in the evenings?

I have Solar HW, not PV. Cannot get PV here as the house while large has an intricate roof profile. Quoted $9.5k for 12.7kW, no thanks

Solar HW works well, even in Winter its a saving, In Winter I only heat the cylinder at 10pm for free for one hour daily , and in Winter I set the timers for a boost late afternoon for one hour.

HarmLessSolutions

974 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3034349 10-Feb-2023 09:54

This is our consumption/export data (scale in kWh). We have 5kW of PV and 2x EVs (Leaf & Polestar2). PV installed in Aug 2021, export meter fitted Sept 2021, Paladin diverter fitted in Jan 2022, Polestar2 purchased in Jul 2022.

We will be installing a further 3.5kWh of PV in the coming months to enable our 7kW EV charger to be fully solar supplied during peak daylight periods, which will also increase export quantity.

We are with Ecotricity so our EV charging is mostly scheduled for weekends which are totally off peak. The Paladin has resulted in nil import for HWC since it was fitted. Last month's Ecotricity account was $118 so I expect this to reduce to under $100/month once we get the extra solar installed. Pretty happy with that considering we are running two EVs.

ETA: Also worth noting that we our winter space heating is by logfire and we are rural so all our water requires pumping and we run two 700L chest freezers.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

Elmoz

83 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3039141 19-Feb-2023 21:55

Hi All

We have a holiday home that we put on Genesis Energy when we bought it as that is who we are with for our main house. I have since crunched the numbers and look at a number of options for power and have worked out that Frank Energy (Genesis no frills) would be way better for us.

My question is, is anyone here on Frank Energy and want to do a referral?

michaelmurfy

meow
13254 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3039142 19-Feb-2023 21:57

If it is a holiday house why not look into Octopus Energy on their low user plan or https://www.naumaira.nz/ if it is available?

Plenty of other options out there now. Both those options on the low user plan don't even charge a daily fee.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? Please consider supporting us by subscribing.
Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Elmoz

83 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3039148 19-Feb-2023 22:03

michaelmurfy:

If it is a holiday house why not look into Octopus Energy on their low user plan or https://www.naumaira.nz/ if it is available?

Plenty of other options out there now. Both those options on the low user plan don't even charge a daily fee.

Cheers for that, can’t get Octopus Energy where it is but will look into Nau Mai Rā.

xlinknz

1127 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3039630 20-Feb-2023 19:45

We're looking at getting an EV but it appears that the off peak and EVs plans often do not save on ones power bill. I used the Flick and Ecotricity plan comparision calculators and showed negliable difference in our power bill compared to a flat rate, it appears because although one can pay least off peak the peak rate is higer. I almost feel these plans just just hype and marketing

Has anyone else found that?

timmmay

20581 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3039635 20-Feb-2023 20:02

xlinknz:

We're looking at getting an EV but it appears that the off peak and EVs plans often do not save on ones power bill. I used the Flick and Ecotricity plan comparision calculators and showed negliable difference in our power bill compared to a flat rate, it appears because although one can pay least off peak the peak rate is higer. I almost feel these plans just just hype and marketing

Has anyone else found that?

If you're willing to make a lot of effort with timers and using off hours you can save. However, with Electric Kiwi prices going up 25% for me recently and Mercury having a good deal I'm spending less and not having to muck around with that sort of thing. A flat rate is much easier to live with.

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3039640 20-Feb-2023 20:12

xlinknz:

We're looking at getting an EV but it appears that the off peak and EVs plans often do not save on ones power bill. I used the Flick and Ecotricity plan comparision calculators and showed negliable difference in our power bill compared to a flat rate, it appears because although one can pay least off peak the peak rate is higer. I almost feel these plans just just hype and marketing

Has anyone else found that?

It depends entirely on how much usage you can shift off-peak, we manage 11% peak, 54% off-peak and 35% at night and variable tariff plans like Ocotpus work out to about 23% cheaper than the best fixed term plans like Mercury. Flick is just a Z energy brand these days and is similar or more expensive than the big Gentailers, maybe 4% more expensive than the best Mercury fixed term or 2% cheaper than there less good plans at least in Hamilton. Electric Kiwi is much the same now a bit more expensive than Mercury's best plan, but bit cheaper than there standard fixed plan. If you can load 20-30% of your power usage onto EK's free hour as some people do (Battery + EV with a fast charger) then they can be cheaper.

billgates

4705 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3039740 20-Feb-2023 21:16

I got Genesis to email me through our 30mins interval usage heatmap since we have had Solar installed which was 13th Dec through to today 20th Feb. Because we were away for few days in Feb and likely used free solar more than we would have otherwise being a new toy to try and maximize usage as much as we can from 13th Dec to end of Dec, I just used Jan's full 31 days to compare EV plans between Genesis and Meridian incl Meridian's solar plan which now has a 17c buy back. Meridian has also increased the solar buy back on all their other plans like EV from 8c to 12c. In the end, our current Genesis plan which is under contact until June 2023 is still the best with a $300 disconnection fee. Meridian is offering $300 signup credit on their solar plan but it is not worth saving $5/month when we still have gas with Genesis and receive a nice 18% dual fuel discount.

Do whatever you want to do man.

AklBen

102 posts

Master Geek

#3048702 10-Mar-2023 16:12

Coming off a fairly decent discount and also moving to newer pricing has meant it is time to dust off the power comparison spreadsheet. This time I've taken a good hard look at TOU plans. We don't have an EV so I am not using this as a point of comparison to put significant load into an off peak bracket, more just what can we do with what we've got.

By looking across some usage data I've been able to figure out our current average % consumption based on the TOU brackets ("Share"). We are currently on a flat rate plan so this share data is based on not actively doing any load shifting - but is a good starting point.

Flick & Ecotricity: peak weekdays 7am-11am/5pm-9pm, off peak the rest and all weekend
EK movemaster: peak 7am-9am/5pm-9pm, offpeak (shoulder) 9am-5pm/9pm-11pm, night 11pm-7am
Contact dream charge: 11pm-7am nights
Octopus flexi: peak weekdays 7-11am/5-9pm, Offpeak 11am-5pm, 11pm-7am nights
Contact goodnights: 9-1159pm free
All inclusive of GST - there are no further discounts on any of these plans or sign-up bonuses.

TLDR; Contact Dream Charge* is significantly cheaper than the other plans mostly due to the fact that their peak and off peak rates are the cheapest of the lot. Electric Kiwi is no surprise that it's the most expensive as their peak and shoulder rates are quite high.

Flick had the lowest flat rate quote so I've included it for comparison purposes on the right of the table. From what I can see, *Contact's Dream Charge (EV Plan) does not have validation that you actually own an EV (compared to Genesis) so it appears anyone can sign up? I didn't include Nova as their rates aren't online and I am also not aware of any other TOU plans (this is based on Counties district too).

Personally I like the idea that weekends are considered off-peak by Flick and Ecotricity as this is when we do washing and are home. However Contact's rates are so much cheaper during non-peak times that it doesn't really matter...

timmmay

20581 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3048773 10-Mar-2023 16:33

AklBen:

This time I've taken a good hard look at TOU plans.

I've just come off a Time Of Use based plan back to flat rate. I much, much prefer it, and so does my wife, so we don't have to consider the time when we use power. I would be hesitant to go back onto one of the TOU plans.

AklBen

102 posts

Master Geek

#3048799 10-Mar-2023 18:04

timmmay:
AklBen:

This time I've taken a good hard look at TOU plans.

I've just come off a Time Of Use based plan back to flat rate. I much, much prefer it, and so does my wife, so we don't have to consider the time when we use power. I would be hesitant to go back onto one of the TOU plans.

Yeah I get rhat. That's why the Contact plan is interesting in the sense that it's already so damn cheap that anything that's off peak is just a bonus without having to put much effort in.

HarmLessSolutions

974 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3048803 10-Mar-2023 19:05

AklBen:

Yeah I get rhat. That's why the Contact plan is interesting in the sense that it's already so damn cheap that anything that's off peak is just a bonus without having to put much effort in.

Any idea what Contact's PV export rate is on that plan? Seems cheap but a decent export rate is necessary to make up for being able to charge our EVs on the weekend on solar with any shortfall being at off peak as we currently enjoy with Ecotricity.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

1 | ... | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | ... | 23