Time to give electricity the flick?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Time to give electricity the flick?

1 | ... | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | ... | 132

Hammered
8744 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2409

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1505148 2-Mar-2016 19:29

That's excellent, thanks timmmay. I note you said "given the low effort required", and I like the sound of that! Does that mean you haven't needed to change habits with the time you'd run the dishwasher/washing machine etc too much to help with that savings result?

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

Referral Links: Sharesies -

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? If so, please consider supporting us by subscribing.

No matter where you go, there you are.

timmmay

20859 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5350

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1505170 2-Mar-2016 19:51

Instead of hitting "start" on the dishwasher I hit three extra buttons to delay for a few hours. Sometimes we run the clothes drier at night. In winter we start the heating a bit earlier than we otherwise would've, before the peak. So fairly low impact. I'll put a timer for the hot water in as soon as my electrician gets around to it, that should help a bit more.

tieke

687 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 256

ID Verified

#1505171 2-Mar-2016 19:52

I know that we haven't changed our usage habits at all, and it's still worthwhile. We are quite high power users, and our monthly bill has dropped from being around $300-400 to $200-250, so the change was definitely worth it. (During winter the super-low night rate definitely helped with the overnight panel heater in my son's room).

TonyS071

57 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8
Inactive user

#1505193 2-Mar-2016 20:08

I haven't got my first bill yet, but looking at my account in the flick customer portal, it looks like an average of $3 a day, vs about $5 from my previous supplier (Powershop). That's after a hot water timer being installed and using the delay start on dishwasher. But I note flick has signalled a price increase in May due to the local lines company putting its fees up.

Stu

Hammered
8744 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2409

Moderator

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1505224 2-Mar-2016 21:07

Thanks to all for the feedback. Most appreciated.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

Referral Links: Sharesies -

Are you happy with what you get from Geekzone? If so, please consider supporting us by subscribing.

No matter where you go, there you are.

GZ7

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1533877 16-Apr-2016 10:01

My current electricity retailer (Meridian) says that my current night rate contract will be discontinued if I install a solar PV system.

Interestingly, their call center even claims this would happen even if I do NOT feed excess energy into the grid, but self-consume PV generated power (my inverter has the option to set grid export to zero).

Can that be true? Seem like an attempt of "punitive" pricing simply on the basis of a PV system exisiting, even if no grid export takes place :-(

Needless to say that I am now exploring retailers like Flick Electric who either offer night rates or has them automatically "built-in" through spot pricing, yet still accept that customer run PV systems.

Any recommendations?

Anyone who knows if Flick offers feed-in tariffs, or at least would accept customers running zero-grid-export PV systems for daytime self-consumption?

In my case excess energy export does not pay, but loss of access to night rate pricing would hurt. So zero-export would be fine.

larknz

1979 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1533982 16-Apr-2016 15:19

If you are not going to do grid export why even tell the retailer you have pv

richms

29107 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10222

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1534020 16-Apr-2016 16:09

Solar install requires an inspector who as part of it checks the meter is an import export one. No cert from inspector means not allowed to turn on.

Richard rich.ms

GZ7

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1534710 18-Apr-2016 09:56

larknz: If you are not going to do grid export why even tell the retailer you have pv

Well, is there not a legal requirement to tell the electricity retailer about a grid tied PV?

Or is it just the lines company that needs to be told?

In any case, inverters can be set to "zero export", in which case the question of an import-export meter becomes moot ... or turns from a technical into a legal question.

Any thoughts?

GZ7

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1534714 18-Apr-2016 09:59

richms: Solar install requires an inspector who as part of it checks the meter is an import export one. No cert from inspector means not allowed to turn on.

Understood. But if the inverter is set to "zero % export" (or 100% self consumption) then where does the import-export meter come in?

I would be happy to sign a contract as to "no grid export".

GZ7

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1534715 18-Apr-2016 10:04

Some f/u:

I called Flick Electric: at present Flick does not take customers with PV installed, or with a declared intent to install PV :-(

No specific reason was cited other than "cannot support PV".

This remains true even if the PV system does not export but only supports self-consumption.

However, Fick is "working on integrating PV" ... the call-centre staff said that many (potential) customers are interested in this.

miked

207 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 22

Trusted

#1534762 18-Apr-2016 10:51

I thought we'd had someone in this thread (or another Flick thread on Geekzone) who'd signed up with Flick with Solar, but they were on self consumption. Equally that might be my bad memory.

Hammerer

2480 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 802

Lifetime subscriber

#1534817 18-Apr-2016 11:50

GZ7:

My current electricity retailer (Meridian) says that my current night rate contract will be discontinued if I install a solar PV system.

Interestingly, their call center even claims this would happen even if I do NOT feed excess energy into the grid, but self-consume PV generated power (my inverter has the option to set grid export to zero).

Can that be true? Seem like an attempt of "punitive" pricing simply on the basis of a PV system exisiting, even if no grid export takes place :-(

It is reasonable that you would lose the ability to pay a cheaper night time rate when you are avoiding buying electricity at the more expensive daytime rate.

You would no longer fit their profile for that pricing schedule. More importantly, you would become a less profitable customer and probably an unprofitable customer as well.

timmmay

20859 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5350

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1534837 18-Apr-2016 12:10

Hammerer: It is reasonable that you would lose the ability to pay a cheaper night time rate when you are avoiding buying electricity at the more expensive daytime rate.

You would no longer fit their profile for that pricing schedule. More importantly, you would become a less profitable customer and probably an unprofitable customer as well.

Not sure I agree with that. Flick charge a daily rate which is regardless of power, and there are per kwh charges. There's no advertised minimum power consumption.

I doubt they're actively trying to keep people with PV away, it's probably some kind of industry regulation they need to comply with.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1749

#1535265 18-Apr-2016 23:36

My understanding was the person who had solar PV with flick. Has a battery and inverter system with a changeover switch. So it would be 100% impossible for them to export power. AFAIK the lines company also has to approve all grid connected solar PV installations anyway.

Myself - I have a 12V UPS system. I intend to add solar PV to it to both reduce power consumption and provide backup charging during an extended power outage. It would never be able to export any power. I already have solar hot water as well.

Also does anyone know how the accounting for solar buyback works? (at the wholesale level) What happens if you are the only flick customer on your Grid Exit Point and you export solar power? Or you export more solar power in a 1/2 hour trading period than what other flick customers on that GXP used? I can see it becoming a nightmare for Flick to implement. At least until they get big enough for them to have plenty of non solar customers per solar customer. And at most they could only pay the raw wholesale rate for power. Which would mean not much payback. For example my last bill came to $31.42 Wholesale power was $8.21 of that. If I managed to export enough to half that I would have saved $4.10 Hardly worth getting excited over. Using it to heat hot water is a far better use.

1 | ... | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | ... | 132