Time to give electricity the flick?

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#1603573 3-Aug-2016 14:07

timmmay:

Just got my bill. Average savings this week: 4%. My savings this week: 30%.

I was thinking about their reported "savings" when I looked over my bill yesterday; I too noted the average savings of 4%, but my "costings" percentage figure was noticeable by its absence!

I think the more honest approach would be for Flick to be up-front about the additional cost, eg "Your bill this week was 12% higher than it would have been with your previous provider" or words to that effect. Sticking some preamble on those bills where the cost was higher to explain this (like my bill has) doesn't quantify the extent of damage. Yes, this can be calculated by the customer, but it just should be provided on the bill I reckon.

timmmay

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#1603617 3-Aug-2016 14:35

jonathan18:

I was thinking about their reported "savings" when I looked over my bill yesterday; I too noted the average savings of 4%, but my "costings" percentage figure was noticeable by its absence!

I think the more honest approach would be for Flick to be up-front about the additional cost, eg "Your bill this week was 12% higher than it would have been with your previous provider" or words to that effect. Sticking some preamble on those bills where the cost was higher to explain this (like my bill has) doesn't quantify the extent of damage. Yes, this can be calculated by the customer, but it just should be provided on the bill I reckon.

I thought that percentage was a comparison with what it would've cost with your previous supplier. So they're saying most people still saved this week, just not as much as usual.

jonathan18

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#1603622 3-Aug-2016 14:42

timmmay:

jonathan18:

I was thinking about their reported "savings" when I looked over my bill yesterday; I too noted the average savings of 4%, but my "costings" percentage figure was noticeable by its absence!

I think the more honest approach would be for Flick to be up-front about the additional cost, eg "Your bill this week was 12% higher than it would have been with your previous provider" or words to that effect. Sticking some preamble on those bills where the cost was higher to explain this (like my bill has) doesn't quantify the extent of damage. Yes, this can be calculated by the customer, but it just should be provided on the bill I reckon.

I thought that percentage was a comparison with what it would've cost with your previous supplier. So they're saying most people still saved this week, just not as much as usual.

Sorry, you're missing my point.

This week has shown they only provide this comparison percentage when this shows a saving compared to one's previous supplier.

My bill was clearly higher than it would have been with my previous supplier - and in this case there is NO figure of percentage difference compared to the previous supplier. I'm suggesting it should have stated this, eg "Your bill is 3% higher than it would have been with your previous provider". They should be just as up-front with the higher costs - when this occurs - as they crow about the savings in good weeks.

Hope this makes more sense?

miked

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#1603651 3-Aug-2016 15:22

Yeah, it'd be better if they listed that. They could still word it favourably. eg something like:

"This week was one of the rare occasions where you paid 12% more than you would with your previous supplier. Normal savings will return!"

I was lucky, our bill was only about $5 more than normal, and we still saved 9% on the week. Interestingly they listed the average saving for the week as 6% on our bill.

Mike

kingjj

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#1603661 3-Aug-2016 15:43

Jeeves:

The spikes on the 26th July cost me $31. Ouch.

You have my sympathy!

Our bill for the day was LESS than normal, the spike only went to 40.40 cents for us and we only used 1.6 units. Certainly scary to see though.

mpc

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#1603684 3-Aug-2016 16:09

Ours was an extra $20 for the week as I missed the alert and was already out the door by the time it spiked, so hot water continued to heat.

At least the Flick dashboard tells the truth, -35% for the week.

We've saved 19% overall so can't complain.

mpc

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#1603688 3-Aug-2016 16:13

kingjj:

Our bill for the day was LESS than normal, the spike only went to 40.40 cents for us and we only used 1.6 units. Certainly scary to see though.

That wasn't much at all, the spike hit 498c/unit for us (Wellington Region).

timmmay

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#1603700 3-Aug-2016 16:26

jonathan18:

Sorry, you're missing my point.

This week has shown they only provide this comparison percentage when this shows a saving compared to one's previous supplier.

My bill was clearly higher than it would have been with my previous supplier - and in this case there is NO figure of percentage difference compared to the previous supplier. I'm suggesting it should have stated this, eg "Your bill is 3% higher than it would have been with your previous provider". They should be just as up-front with the higher costs - when this occurs - as they crow about the savings in good weeks.

Hope this makes more sense?

Ah I get you now. It is a bit, perhaps, underhanded to hide information like. Everyone knows there will be ups and downs.

timmmay

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#1603723 3-Aug-2016 16:56

Quick update about the Broadlink RM Pro that we were talking about a couple of pages back. It's a device that lets you control heat pumps from your smart phone. It's now working fine with my Android 6.01 Cyanogen based phone, and it's imported all my old timer programs. At around US$35 bought from Aliexpress it's a cheap and "good enough" solution to controlling when heat pumps (any anything else controlled by IR) on and off.

For example the lounge heat comes on at 3:30pm, turns down a little at 5:30pm, goes back onto high around 7pm, and turns off when we go to bed. It also does a bit of a heat in the mornings before we get up. The other device does similar, heating up the kitchen / dining / other living area a little on weekday mornings, and turning heat on quite early on the weekends as that's where we hang out.

kingjj

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#1603787 3-Aug-2016 19:02

mpc:

kingjj:

Our bill for the day was LESS than normal, the spike only went to 40.40 cents for us and we only used 1.6 units. Certainly scary to see though.

That wasn't much at all, the spike hit 498c/unit for us (Wellington Region).

Yikes. I'll admit hearing about the spikes and avoiding checking for a while, was rather surprised that it had so little effect on us. Chch here, are those who have been hit the worst in the NI?

dantheperson

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#1603790 3-Aug-2016 19:09

kingjj:

Yikes. I'll admit hearing about the spikes and avoiding checking for a while, was rather surprised that it had so little effect on us. Chch here, are those who have been hit the worst in the NI?

Yup, take a look at the em6 screenshot on page 27... shows NI prices at $200,000 while SI is only $90

voy1d

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#1603818 3-Aug-2016 19:48

kingjj:

Yikes. I'll admit hearing about the spikes and avoiding checking for a while, was rather surprised that it had so little effect on us. Chch here, are those who have been hit the worst in the NI?

It was only something that affected the NI consumers. A lack of cheap reserve energy and higher than forecast demand in the NI pushed HVDC flow much higher than expected.

This resulted in inter-island separation (the 200k price is an infeasible price and is usually wound back to the next lowest marginal generator in the receiving island)

kingjj

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#1603828 3-Aug-2016 19:59

voy1d:

kingjj:

Yikes. I'll admit hearing about the spikes and avoiding checking for a while, was rather surprised that it had so little effect on us. Chch here, are those who have been hit the worst in the NI?

It was only something that affected the NI consumers. A lack of cheap reserve energy and higher than forecast demand in the NI pushed HVDC flow much higher than expected.

This resulted in inter-island separation (the 200k price is an infeasible price and is usually wound back to the next lowest marginal generator in the receiving island)

Ah makes sense, will admit to only skimming through the last dozen pages.

timmmay

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#1607376 10-Aug-2016 07:47

Interestingly, my power bill hasn't gone up at all the past two weeks, even with the cold weather. A few weeks ago when we had a couple of spikes it was $45 a week, but it's back down to our winter norm of $41. We tend to be not a lot less in summer, around $28 - $32. I guess load shifting helps:

Hot water heating 2am - 7am (with a few boosts on the weekend when we do laundry)
Heating coming on early morning and mid afternoon, to avoid peaks usage. We turn heating on 5am on weekends, 3:30pm weekdays. Once the house is up to heat it uses less power in peak periods to keep it warm

Insulation certainly helps - even with it being freezing and having no heating on weekdays the house might drop from 21 degrees at 7am to 15 degrees at 3pm on a bad day.

mentalinc

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#1611206 13-Aug-2016 21:55

Anyone able to share the apk for the app?

Stupid geo restrictions on a electricity app...

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Quic: https://account.quic.nz/refer/473833 R473833EQKIBX

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