Calculating power bills for different suppliers

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

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

5589 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2202832 21-Mar-2019 12:17

gchiu:

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!

That's why somoene invented CSV files :-P

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.

sidefx

3712 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202874 21-Mar-2019 14:52

I created my own spreadsheet when I last switched. Yeah, I also couldn't find a switch site that was easy to use and understand, so I ended up doing a fair bit of reading a the time to figure out how they all do daily pricing, low vs high prices, levys, discounts, GST, etc,etc

Ultimately I ended up choosing electric kiwi - I think at the time I worked out that they would be the cheapest, provided I used 6% or more of my power during the free hour of power. I'm easily averaging more than that. I think I also ignored Flick when I did it because at the time spot pricing scared me - looks like they have more options now though to balance that? I might have to update my spreadsheet retry it with their FIXIE thing.

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

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2202991 21-Mar-2019 19:14

Yeah, I have no idea how one would calculate a price for Flick's model without a lot of detailed data.

The Fixie ... I'll have to look at that. I know of people using that.

Scotdownunder

217 posts

Master Geek

Subscriber

#2203412 22-Mar-2019 15:21

Hi, Have tidied up my comparison spreadsheet but have not totally mastered the chart functions. It is a LibreOffice spreadsheet as I am replacing my 2008 Excel spreadsheets since it will not work with the next version of the Mac OS and I am not going to pay a subscription to MS for Office 365.

Note government levies added to appropriate base figures.

Base Figures will change depending on your location and is a moving target as prices increase and lines charges go up. These calculations do not take account of the various discounts, e.g. email billing, direct debt etc. and 'special' plans available, that is a separate spreadsheet I am still working on.

Now all I need is to find how to upload a file for you all to share :(

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2203418 22-Mar-2019 15:28

That's the easy part. Just create an account on GitHub or GitLab or etc ... and upload it there.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2203744 23-Mar-2019 09:40

I just did a comparison and for the last bill the Napier Fixie bill was beaten by ElectricKiwi. I think they're going to have to change!

If you want to add your own bill details, you can here

https://gitlab.com/Zhaoshirong/nzpower/tree/Development/sites

sidefx

3712 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2203751 23-Mar-2019 09:54

Fortuitous timing for this thread actually lol. Looks like electric kiwi just put up their prices for me. I'm gonna try your tool @gchiu. Pulse also came door knocking at my place yesterday too. The rates the guy quoted were cheaper than electric kiwi at first glance, but not enough to lose my free hour of power.

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

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2203812 23-Mar-2019 13:50

I've been with Energyclub since mid last year since I had to change to another supplier who had an agreement with Wellington Lines to allow me to install 3 phase power. But although it's a club where the club fee is apparently their income, and everything is charged at cost, EK and now Mercury are consistently cheaper, and the difference is their club fee!

Eg. this week

Used: 42.32 kWh
Generation: 47.27 kWh ( I was away for a few days this week so generation is exceeding consumption )

EnergyClub Standard User: $19

Mercury Everyday user: $12.21

ElectricKiwi low user: $14.61

EK doesn't rebate solar generation but maybe EK could be cheaper than Mercury if I charge my batteries over the free hour.

Scotdownunder

217 posts

Master Geek

Subscriber

#2204366 24-Mar-2019 18:36

gchiu:
That's the easy part. Just create an account on GitHub or GitLab or etc ... and upload it there.

Have created a github project with my spreadsheet and completed the readme file with outline description. How do I provide a link to it ?

gchiu

1211 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2204369 24-Mar-2019 18:40

https://github.com/ userid / projectname / with no spaces

rayonline

1734 posts

Uber Geek

#2205863 27-Mar-2019 19:51

FWIW I tallied up the total kW we used for the year and did an annual assessment. If you consume 8,000kW PA then you are a standard user, not a low user. I call a few up and get their rates and compare with a spreadsheet. Diff regions have diff rates and can depend on what meter machine you have. I know Genesis list the prices online with the diff meters, others you may need to call them up because they might only report on the standard meter and if you have a different one then different rates would apply to you.

For me .. Electric Kiwi is a bit less than Genesis and in Wellington they are pretty good price going. However if you are able to sign a contract with some of the legacy companies their perks might outweight the EK's prices. At one time Genesis offered $200 in credit + $100 gas credit and they offered $150 in flybuys equiv and another $150 for gas as well. With Genesis we had to sign the eSaver account because the other plans are $$.

Jedsdad

120 posts

Master Geek

#2205927 27-Mar-2019 21:56

The following is a link where you can download my excel spreadsheet from my Mega Account

https://mega.nz/#!1dIhVS5J!Bhnx67yByGXUQJQ7eLnh1949oZW7UEtSF_bdwqbva2Q

Just copy this link into a browser and download. (I hope it works, I guess I will hear some moans if it fails LOL)

Only members that have excel will be able to open it though once downloaded.

Note you can only enter details in the white cells, all others are locked (but though I protected the worksheet and workbook I did not use any password so you unprotect and modify if you want to).

I deliberately left some details in just to show what can be done.

Note also you should always use the latest figures for Usage kwH and Daily fixed charge etc particularly if you are looking at switching to a new supplier.

Note also my previous comment about if you talk to a supplier they will not necessarily give you their best rate, I found that with Meridian.

Anyway I hope the download works for you, I tried to use One Drive but had problems when trying to open the excel spreadsheet in a browser so hence from my Mega Account.

I have used One Drive for sending a link for people to download pictures and videos if they are too big for sending by email (just for your info)

Scotdownunder

217 posts

Master Geek

Subscriber

#2205943 27-Mar-2019 22:29

Here is the link to my spreadsheet on github.

https://github.com/ scotdownunder / NZ-Power-comparisons

Hope that works. Feel free to download and modify as appropriate.

My next step is to ring the suppliers on my shortlist and confirm tariffs, future price changes and options arround EV use and see what my current supplier will offer.

Jedsdad

120 posts

Master Geek

#2206081 28-Mar-2019 08:53

Thanks for that Spreadsheet.

I dont use gas (though often spout a lot of hot air LOL)

As for the electricity component most companies offer a discount, e.g Mercury !2%, Contact 20-26% (depending on the plan through Switchme) Genesis 10%, Meridian 0% (though their rates are lower)

It changes the whole dynamic when discounts are taken into consideration.

Power companies are always changing their rates (usually upwards).

I find the best way is to get the current rates from sites like Switchme and the discount offered and then make a decision whether to switch

PS I am in Auckland with Mercury on the Vector Network so the rates may well be different in other parts of the country.

Jedsdad

120 posts

Master Geek

#2207427 30-Mar-2019 08:54

As an exercise I took a previously downloaded csv file from Mercury which includes the usage and cost every 30 minutes and created a workbook.

I removed 2 columns with ancillary info and renamed some others. I also created a column with the actual day of the week if I wanted to check the usage on particular days.

I have not used it in this pivot table and chart but can do if I wanted to.

So as can be seen if I went with Electric Kiwi I would select the free hour of power between 4am and 5am.

The high usage between 4am and 5am is because I get up so early and shower after doing so for many many years for work, I get too restless otherwise.

You can download the excel file I created from this link and move the parameters around in the pivot table (if you want to)

https://mega.nz/#!wAw01C7b!YUmVUKCih80keRwtd-77aPkzMl0bzPceqBHFk4s_kwM

If I was to do this again I would do a complete year Jan to Dec, not like this one March to March

1 | 2 | 3 | 4