Calculating power bills for different suppliers

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Calculating power bills for different suppliers

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

76 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#2190254 3-Mar-2019 13:16

Aredwood:
k1w1k1d:

I got caught by the non GST power pricing a few years ago.

There is actually a law which states that prices (for anything) must include GST unless stated otherwise. I would have pushed that company to honor their prices on a GST inclusive basis.

Had a similar experience with a Pulse Energy door-to-door salesperson - he directly compared our Electric Kiwi price of 21c/kWh (inc. GST) to their offer of 16c/kWh (ex. GST) and did not mention their prices didn't include the GST. Didn't realise until he left and read the contract properly, but decided to continue to swap regardless because it still worked out cheaper. But certainly not ideal sales tactics.

k1w1k1d

1519 posts

Uber Geek

#2190255 3-Mar-2019 13:24

GST exclusive was hidden in the small print on the contract.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202031 19-Mar-2019 21:05

Well, I'm still working on this. And took this little task to test a new browser utility

Try this: http://hostilefork.com/media/shared/replpad-js/

and in the console, type do <nzpower>

If you're with one of the companies and plans I've done, perhaps you check against your bill.

I was surprised to see that Mercury low user was cheaper for me than Electric Kiwi.

Note: it doesn't take into account any discounts you might have, or dual gas/electricity stuff.

BTW, where do places like switchme do their meter lookup (translate meter to address) ?

nickb800

2715 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202182 20-Mar-2019 06:51

Electricity authority. Below is the link for one off searches , but presumably you can find an API too
https://www.ea.govt.nz/consumers/your-power-data-in-your-hands/my-meter/

premiumtouring

355 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2202195 20-Mar-2019 07:54

Don't forget about the Electricity companies that refuse to pay to participate in Powerswitch/SwitchMe such as Ecotricity. Ecotricity have very low rates (a terrible online UI), and were the first company I've ever had email me to let me know that rates are going DOWN.

As an EV owner, this is one of the most frustrating things to keep tabs on as there is a lot of sneaky sales tactics going on in the market via these websites. The includes/excludes GST is just one element.

I tried using the do <nzpower> but it errored after entering 29 days, 0 to solar and 664.

A truly unbiased spreadsheet of "raw rates scraped from the websites" tool is definitely needed!

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202208 20-Mar-2019 08:36

Thanks. I've put up a warning message that you'll get a divide by zero message if you do not have webassembly threads enabled in your browser. This is set in chrome by chrome://flags.

You also need Experimental enabled SharedArrayBuffer support in JavaScript enabled.

It doesn't work in Brave, or Edge yet. Firefox needs shared memory enabled.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202213 20-Mar-2019 08:51

premiumtouring:

Don't forget about the Electricity companies that refuse to pay to participate in Powerswitch/SwitchMe such as Ecotricity.

What? Companies pay to participate??

Ecotricity have very poor systems. They kept billing me after I had left them.

premiumtouring:

A truly unbiased spreadsheet of "raw rates scraped from the websites" tool is definitely needed!

If you can provide me with whatever rates you're on, and supplier, I can add a config file to my growing database.

This is the object I use for one vendor

[code]

make object! [
name: "Electric Kiwi Low User - Loyal Kiwi"
location: "Wellington"
notes: "one year commitment"
kw-charge: make object! [
kwH: $0.2744
solar-rebate: $0
]
daily-charge: make object! [
fixed: $0.3400
]
]

[/code]

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202223 20-Mar-2019 09:13

nickb800: Electricity authority. Below is the link for one off searches , but presumably you can find an API too
https://www.ea.govt.nz/consumers/your-power-data-in-your-hands/my-meter/

Thanks. But since I'm doing this all in Javascript (well, ends up like that), then I can't read that in my single page app because of their CORS policy.

Lias

5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2202234 20-Mar-2019 09:28

My frustration with the comparison sites I tried was not being able to manually enter a price, only the preloaded plans, preventing me from price matching against a non advertised offer.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202266 20-Mar-2019 10:13

Lias:

My frustration with the comparison sites I tried was not being able to manually enter a price, only the preloaded plans, preventing me from price matching against a non advertised offer.

So, you want to be able to enter $/kWh, and what else?

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202372 20-Mar-2019 12:44

I've added the ability to add GST inclusive kWh, solar rebate, and daily charging. that way you can see if a custom offer is any better than what you already have, or, if you're better off switching to someone else in the database.

Scotdownunder

217 posts

Master Geek

Subscriber

#2202449 20-Mar-2019 15:13

Like jedsdad I have created a spreadsheet which calculates both electric and gas prices per month for each supplier including GST. I then subtract any discounts for ebilling, dual fuel etc. Note this has to be done for each different offer, i.e. including the mandated low user tarrifs. I then pick and calculate the best mix and compare with my current supplier.

I populate the test monthly consumption figures with data from my last few years bills. I also have an alternative set of winter figues for when I go overseas for a few months in winter (the benefit of being retired) which favours low user tarrifs generally.

I have also calculated a typical monthly cost for a range of power consumptions which shows where any crossovers between low / standard tarrifs occur but this does not include dual use discounts so this is more indicative of which suppliers to avoid.

I have gone to each suppliers web sites to get the rates for my location which can be a pain as their rates are never on a top level page. This also gives details of the range of discounts on offer.

Conclusion is no low user gas tarrif is worth considering and some but not all electic tarrifs break even arround the 600 kW per month. You monthly usage profile will determine your choice.

Lias

5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2202459 20-Mar-2019 15:46

gchiu:

Lias:

My frustration with the comparison sites I tried was not being able to manually enter a price, only the preloaded plans, preventing me from price matching against a non advertised offer.

So, you want to be able to enter $/kWh, and what else?

When I was with Company A, I had a Day/Night/Controlled plan, with a rate of $X between these hours and $Y between these hours, and then $Z at any time of day on the controlled meter, but with those rates being a special offer and not matching the "list" rates.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202474 20-Mar-2019 16:13

Scotdownunder: Like jedsdad I have created a spreadsheet which calculates both electric and gas prices per month for each supplier including GST. I then subtract any discounts for ebilling, dual fuel etc. Note this has to be done for each different offer, i.e. including the mandated low user tarrifs. I then pick and calculate the best mix and compare with my current supplier.

Strange that no one publishes these spreadsheets!

Scotdownunder:

I have gone to each suppliers web sites to get the rates for my location which can be a pain as their rates are never on a top level page. This also gives details of the range of discounts on offer.

Conclusion is no low user gas tarrif is worth considering and some but not all electic tarrifs break even arround the 600 kW per month. You monthly usage profile will determine your choice.

I'm wanting people to use rates off their bills rather than an advertised rate as these then are real world rates.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202475 20-Mar-2019 16:16

Lias:

When I was with Company A, I had a Day/Night/Controlled plan, with a rate of $X between these hours and $Y between these hours, and then $Z at any time of day on the controlled meter, but with those rates being a special offer and not matching the "list" rates.

That's going to be tricky to calculate to see if plan b is better than plan a because you then need power consumption between those hours if you aren't on those plans - I presume that they give you the consumption between those hours. But for people wanting to switch to such a rate, you're going to be spending a lot of time at your meter!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4