Time to give electricity the flick?

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#1807763 27-Jun-2017 16:17

kingjj:
michaelmurfy:

@Kraven @kingjj My switch has happened. I requested the switch on the 17th.

Awesome, hopefully we'll be hot on your heels.

Mine just switched over to EK this afternoon, was requested 17th as well, yay now I can use heat pump and cook dinner without having to worry about super high peak rates.

Aredwood

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#1807956 27-Jun-2017 22:48

D.W:

Tried signing up with Flick but looks like they're not taking on new customers in my area at this stage. Anyone know anything more around this? Not sure if I'm likely to be waiting days/weeks/months.

There are still quite a few lines company areas that Flick cannot accept customers from. As they don't have agreements with those lines companies yet. But due to current high spot prices, they could well have decided to stop accepting new customers until spot prices decline again. As it won't be a good look for people to sign up and immediately get large bills.

My latest bill was my first one where I had negative savings of -$1.95 or -5% My average raw wholesale price was 10.85c per KW/Hr. Although a small part of my negative savings is due to my usage being much lower than normal for winter. Both due to saving power to avoid the high spot prices, and due to using LPG heating alot instead of electric heating. Which means that I should be on Low user instead of standard user for my current usage amount.

Looks like I will be switching to a low user plan soon. Which will also mean that my solar hot water system will instantly start saving me more money. Due to the pricing structure of low user plans effectively being a solar subsidy. Apologies in advance to everyone who is on a standard user plan who can't get solar themselves. As you will be paying extra on your power so I can get that subsidy.

[edited to add]

The total $ amounts of my Flick bills have still been inline with previous bills. So most of the extra costs to me from these price spikes are instead going on my LPG bill.

easycloud

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#1808105 28-Jun-2017 10:19

I've also just gotten my first negative savings bill with a whopping -14%

I'm considering an alternate source of heating (LPG), either air or instant hot water. The heatpump is struggling to warn the house with near-zero night temperatures (west Auckland) so it runs more than it has to.

What does an LPG heater look like in NZ? And more importantly, how does it compare to heatpumps in terms of energy consumed vs heat produced? How expensive are those tall large bottles delivered?

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Aredwood

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#1808119 28-Jun-2017 10:37

Best solution will probably be to get a better heatpump that is correctly sized for the area. And relocate your current heatpump to a smaller room.

jonathan18

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#1808126 28-Jun-2017 10:43

easycloud: The heatpump is struggling to warn the house with near-zero night temperatures (west Auckland) so it runs more than it has to.

We're facing the same problem with our ducted heatpump - we're putting it on earlier in the morning (now 5.30) to try to have the house properly warm by the time the kids are up and about (7), but even then (like this morning) after 7 it's still trying to get the house up to temperature , by which point the spot prices are climbing to over 30c. Some time we resort to boosting the heat with running the gas fire.

It's not going to be as frustrating when our move to Electric Kiwi goes ahead, because at least we'll have a decent amount of that heating done within the free hour of power, and rates once that is over will be capped at something more reasonable.

What are you meaning by LPG heaters? I assume not the dodgy portable ones? (I'm assuming there are options to run flued heaters off bottled gas, just never needed to look at this as we've always had reticulated gas.)

easycloud

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#1808198 28-Jun-2017 13:30

jonathan18:

We're facing the same problem with our ducted heatpump - we're putting it on earlier in the morning (now 5.30) to try to have the house properly warm by the time the kids are up and about (7), but even then (like this morning) after 7 it's still trying to get the house up to temperature , by which point the spot prices are climbing to over 30c. Some time we resort to boosting the heat with running the gas fire.

It's not going to be as frustrating when our move to Electric Kiwi goes ahead, because at least we'll have a decent amount of that heating done within the free hour of power, and rates once that is over will be capped at something more reasonable.

That's precisely our setup and dilemma. We have a reasonably sized 20kw ducted heatpump which works very well until the temperatures plummet. That's just a limitation of how heatpumps work so we have to accept it. We normally operate it all night until the crazy morning peak, then resume mid-day when the prices stabilize.

We did notice that running the heatpump before the evening spikes to "pre-heat" the house more was not that effective. The temperature does gradually drop as you can imagine. Hence the free hour of power can only take you so far. However, the reassurance of being capped will be worth the switch.

jonathan18:

What are you meaning by LPG heaters? I assume not the dodgy portable ones? (I'm assuming there are options to run flued heaters off bottled gas, just never needed to look at this as we've always had reticulated gas.)

I was merely looking for non-electric ways of heating up the house. In Canada everyone had gas furnaces but gas was cheap. I wanted a wood fireplace when the house was being built 3 years ago but regulations have since made that illegal in Auckland. Not sure what other common options there are.

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dantheperson

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#1808232 28-Jun-2017 14:15

easycloud:

I was merely looking for non-electric ways of heating up the house. In Canada everyone had gas furnaces but gas was cheap. I wanted a wood fireplace when the house was being built 3 years ago but regulations have since made that illegal in Auckland. Not sure what other common options there are.

Pretty much all the mains gas heaters can be ordered for LPG. You can run a single room flued heater such as a Rinnai[1] which has similar purchase and running costs to a heatpump (and better in cold weather). Or you can go the whole hog and get a central heating boiler [2]. Very expensive but very very effective and low running costs, and also works when it is cold.

[1]https://rinnai.co.nz/Product/112/21/other-energysaver-rinnai-energysaver-559ft-rinnai-energysaver-559ft

[2] e.g. https://www.waterheater.co.nz/shop/central-heating/bosch3/bosch-condensing-5000w-18kw/

dantheperson

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#1808242 28-Jun-2017 14:19

For occasional use in < 5 degree weather, probably best to just get an $200 unflued portable unit and live with the moisture and fume issues. The above are really alternatives to a heatpump than to suppliment.

timmmay

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#1808263 28-Jun-2017 14:40

We find pre-heating quite effective. The house does cool, but it means the heat pump is working at maybe 25% instead of 100%.

Having a well insulated house and double glazing does help retain the heat. We've spent probably $15K on double glazing and $10K on other insulation. It's worth it.

One warning for EK switchers... if you turn on all at the same time two heat pumps, clothes drier, water heater, dish washer, under floor electric heating, in addition to your standard load of a few small oil heaters and such, you can blow the fuse on the power pole. I figure I was putting 55 amps through that, it blew after 20 minutes. The lines man said it was faulty, replaced the fuse and the fuse holder.

Put the faults number for your power company in your phone, and for your lines company. The EK number is tricky to find, but after my suggestions I suspect it will be made a bit more clear.

timmmay

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#1808264 28-Jun-2017 14:41

dantheperson:

For occasional use in < 5 degree weather, probably best to just get an $200 unflued portable unit and live with the moisture and fume issues. The above are really alternatives to a heatpump than to suppliment.

I'm not sure that's a great idea. However, if you need an emergency backup heater, there aren't many other choices that are economic. A generator is pretty expensive.

Wiggum

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#1808265 28-Jun-2017 14:42

jonathan18:

easycloud: The heatpump is struggling to warn the house with near-zero night temperatures (west Auckland) so it runs more than it has to.

We're facing the same problem with our ducted heatpump - we're putting it on earlier in the morning (now 5.30) to try to have the house properly warm by the time the kids are up and about (7), but even then (like this morning) after 7 it's still trying to get the house up to temperature , by which point the spot prices are climbing to over 30c. Some time we resort to boosting the heat with running the gas fire.

It's not going to be as frustrating when our move to Electric Kiwi goes ahead, because at least we'll have a decent amount of that heating done within the free hour of power, and rates once that is over will be capped at something more reasonable.

What are you meaning by LPG heaters? I assume not the dodgy portable ones? (I'm assuming there are options to run flued heaters off bottled gas, just never needed to look at this as we've always had reticulated gas.)

We use to experience similar problems with an older Fujitsu heat pump. Can't remember the exact model. It use to struggle when outside temperatures dropped below 7degrees.

We recently upgraded to a 5.4KW Mitsubishi Ecocore, and all those problems have gone away. I highly recommend this heat pump to anybody looking, it works extremely well even at low temperatures. + It comes with Wifi control, and thats pretty handy to switch it off remotely when I get notifications from flick. Otherwise it runs all day and night on 19degrees.

Edit: Curious as to why people switch off their heat pumps at night?

jonathan18

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#1808303 28-Jun-2017 15:17

Wiggum:

Edit: Curious as to why people switch off their heat pumps at night?

At the time we installed it we'd intended to run it through the night and did so a bit over the first winter, but haven't bothered since.

Primarily it's because the sound of air being pushed through the vent in our bedroom is disruptive to a good night's sleep! (It doesn't seem to both the kids in their room, or my wife in ours, but just me...).

Sam91

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#1808356 28-Jun-2017 16:36

Cool new feature:

easycloud

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#1808358 28-Jun-2017 16:41

Sam91:

Cool new feature:

Very nice! Was just about to comment on that. That will come in handy

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easycloud

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#1808372 28-Jun-2017 16:54

dantheperson:

Pretty much all the mains gas heaters can be ordered for LPG. You can run a single room flued heater such as a Rinnai[1] which has similar purchase and running costs to a heatpump (and better in cold weather). Or you can go the whole hog and get a central heating boiler [2]. Very expensive but very very effective and low running costs, and also works when it is cold.

[1]https://rinnai.co.nz/Product/112/21/other-energysaver-rinnai-energysaver-559ft-rinnai-energysaver-559ft

[2] e.g. https://www.waterheater.co.nz/shop/central-heating/bosch3/bosch-condensing-5000w-18kw/

Thanks Dan, that's brilliant. Really appreciate the feedback! Wish I'd known all of this a few years ago!

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