Smart meter reducing power bills - could this be why my power bills are so high?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Smart meter reducing power bills - could this be why my power bills are so high?

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104 posts

Master Geek

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#1217617 19-Jan-2015 14:34

nigelj: (sorry needed to bite).

For starters, Wellington vs Christchurch, so... you are closer to a fair chunk of NZ's generation points, and hence less pressure on the Cook Strait connection, in addition Enable(?) have had (still going?) for a long time a special Weekend residential tariff/rate which Powershop would put into (and hence lower) your composite rate.

Also people with 'controlled' vs 'uncontrolled' configurations will have different mileage in their tariffs, lastly a quick look at MF's usage (not doing the math) he may not qualify as a 'low user/primary residence' which can throw comparisons out.

Fair points. Yes Orion do give 5% back for weekend use which Powershop pass on. And I see the rebates in my screenshot are used in the per unit cost calculation. I never thought retail regional prices differed so much. Effective use of future packs and not missing specials will also make a big difference.

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Amosnz

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#1217628 19-Jan-2015 14:42

This is from my efergy energy monitor as I dont have a smart meter (I don't think it was working properly in April).
1980's brick house with wood fire in winter, gas hot water and cooktop.

I did a comparison between the efergy and meter when I first plugged it in and they came back with very similar numbers so should be accurate.

Speedtest

Jase2985

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#1217798 19-Jan-2015 18:56

2 adults and 1x 2 year old1950's weather board house, floor and celling insulation and nothing in the walls, Single glazing which leaks a little. Everything is electric, PC is on about 12-14 hours a day, tv about 5 hours. Very old heat pump for heating/cooling and is used normally 2 months in winter and 2 months in summer when we are home. 1 shower a day a bath 2-3 times a week. All light fittings are energy efficient. We tend to cook bulk meals so one meal will last 2-3 days, which is probably a bit more efficient.

$220-$260 per month.

TBH im surprised at some people power bills considering the housing arrangements are very similar. We have a lot of electronics.

even if i had my heat pump on 24/7 i think i would still struggle to get to some of your power bills.

Amosnz: how do you find the Efergy? im thinking of getting one as i would like to know base loads for working out if solar will suit our usage

JonnyCam

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#1217833 19-Jan-2015 19:59

timmmay: From this story - the general idea being their bills dropped by 1/3 to 1/2 when a smart meter was installed.

All year we have two showers a day each - occasionally three if we're very active.

Hot water heating makes up an average of 30% of your bill.
I've seen figures quoted of 75 c for a 7 - 10 minute shower, so that could be $3 or $4 a day.

you can cut that down with an energy efficient shower head, check water temp etc.

lchiu7

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#1217834 19-Jan-2015 20:00

FYI If you have a smart meter and live in Wellington (Mauricio, I think you qualify here) you should look to moving your provider to Flick Electric.

This is their proposition

https://www.flickelectric.co.nz/hello/#see-the-difference

I am averaging 6-8% savings each bill over my previous provider using Flick. To achieve the best savings you need to alter your power usage a bit. For example spot prices are lower in the evening of course when demand is low so have moved our dish washing and laundry to after 6pm :-) Not much can be done about servers etc. that need to run all the time.

A regular retailer charges you a fixed amount on the life of your contract based on what they pay for electricity purchased on long-term contracts, the electricity hedge market or the spot market whereas Flick only charges you based on what they pay on the spot market.

For example on my last bill this was the breakdown of the components.

This is the spot price of electricity over a 24 hour period at my GXP on 16 January (Friday)

As you can see there is a significant price difference between the hours of midnight up to even 5pm. For most users they would be paying the same all day whereas a Flick user is paying from about 4-5c/kWH up to 5pm. (this does not include the charges mentioned above all users have to pay).

As an aside, really the most efficient way to use electricity these days is to purchase a battery vehicle. Then you charge it at night when the electricity is low and drive it in the daytime (of course). This is way better than getting PV's on the roof when you generate electricity when you are not using it and have to try to sell it to a retailer at their set price.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

JonnyCam

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#1217841 19-Jan-2015 20:13

lchiu7: FYI If you have a smart meter and live in Wellington (Mauricio, I think you qualify here) you should look to moving your provider to Flick Electric.

This is their proposition

https://www.flickelectric.co.nz/hello/#see-the-difference

I am averaging 6-8% savings each bill over my previous provider using Flick. To achieve the best savings you need to alter your power usage a bit. For example spot prices are lower in the evening of course when demand is low so have moved our dish washing and laundry to after 6pm :-) Not much can be done about servers etc. that need to run all the time.

A regular retailer charges you a fixed amount on the life of your contract based on what they pay for electricity purchased on long-term contracts, the electricity hedge market or the spot market whereas Flick only charges you based on what they pay on the spot market.

For example on my last bill this was the breakdown of the components.

This is the spot price of electricity over a 24 hour period at my GXP on 16 January (Friday)

As you can see there is a significant price difference between the hours of midnight up to even 5pm. For most users they would be paying the same all day whereas a Flick user is paying from about 4-5c/kWH up to 5pm. (this does not include the charges mentioned above all users have to pay).

As an aside, really the most efficient way to use electricity these days is to purchase a battery vehicle. Then you charge it at night when the electricity is low and drive it in the daytime (of course). This is way better than getting PV's on the roof when you generate electricity when you are not using it and have to try to sell it to a retailer at their set price.

I might be being dense, but to m, the graph shows the unit price pretty flat across the whole day (the blue line) and the difference between midnight to 5pm is just recording your in decreased usage while you are sleeping / at work.

I do find it interesting that the blue line dips at 6pm, even thought I would have thought that was peak demand. Maybe some peaking plants came online and dropped the half hour price.

Do flick give you a more detailed breakdown of the prices you pay at particular times?

Dairyxox

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#1217842 19-Jan-2015 20:16

Two or three showers a day each is probably why your bill is so high.
Say each shower costs $1.50 in electricity. You're spending up to about $9 a day in showers. This estimate is probably on the high side, but still...

alasta

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#1217869 19-Jan-2015 20:45

As a single income household I am really glad not to be receiving the sort of power bills that most others are posting here!

timmmay

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#1217879 19-Jan-2015 21:10

JonnyCam: you can cut that down with an energy efficient shower head, check water temp etc.

Thanks for the thoughts. As I've said all typical energy saving measures have been taken. We have a shower head that uses 7-8L of water per minute. The cylinder is a year old, new cylinders don't have temperature adjustment, they're set and can't be changed. There's nothing coming out the overflow pipe as far as I can see.

Dairyxox: Two or three showers a day each is probably why your bill is so high.
Say each shower costs $1.50 in electricity. You're spending up to about $9 a day in showers. This estimate is probably on the high side, but still...

We typically shower twice a day, around 5 minutes each. If that cost $6 a day then that's $180 per month, which is obviously incorrect as our bill can get down to that in summer and that's running washing machine, dish washer, TV, computer, etc. So while you could be correct I think the numbers you've used are incorrect.

Amosnz

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#1217940 19-Jan-2015 22:50

Jase2985:

Amosnz: how do you find the Efergy? im thinking of getting one as i would like to know base loads for working out if solar will suit our usage

I find it really good, great for looking at power usage. I've got the hub kit din rail so the transmitter fits nicely in the fuse board.
When I first got it I put the monitoring clip on each circuit so I could monitor more accurately what loads various devices required. (Eg put it on the Lounge power point circuit and turn on the tv). The biggest surprise I got ws the CFL tube lights in the garage, flicking that switch drew 700w from 6 lights. We used to leave these lights on when we went out for an evening, but theres now an extra light circuit with a 10w LED purely for this purpose.

Here's my graph for today, the spikes before 6 pm was using the oven, the one about 22:40 was boiling the jug for a coffee.
I left my computer on last night but usually you can see when that gets turned off.

Speedtest

Aredwood

3885 posts

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#1217956 19-Jan-2015 23:38

You need to check if your Efergy unit performs power factor correction. As if not then it will over read on any non resistive load.

As for my own house, I mostly use electricity for electric motors and electronic devices. Hotwater is solar / waste oil boiler. Heating is waste oil boiler as well. Cooking (both hob and oven) is gas. I have a spa (again heated by the boiler) So it's only power usage is for the pumps. Last winter 5 people in my house. Highest bill a little over $200. (approx 950 units) Now only 2 people in the house yet my usage is still tracking really close with the same time last year (5 people then). Current bill is $133.24 which covers 495 units usage, yet only 27 days. Scary part is that works out to equivalent of 763W being drawn 24/7. And winter, approx 1.3kW 24/7. That is alot of power to be used only be electric motors and electronics. I have tried wiring a non smart digital meter in series with the smart meter. Both read exactly the same. Have also checked them against a resistive load - OK. Still need to check against a harmonic load. As I have lots of these type loads in my house (most electronic devices are in this category)

PhantomNVD

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#1217957 19-Jan-2015 23:39

Rural so no smart meter, but power shop readings uploaded about weekly.

I average around $70 with lows at $30 and high of $130 when I was using large old oil heater for my babies room.

BUT gas water and cooking make a HUGE difference, and only add another $30/month so seem best investment yet...

House is also fully insulated, but wife is known to give the 2 midgets 20min showers when cooing dinner so....

PhantomNVD

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#1217958 19-Jan-2015 23:42

AFAIK powershop unit charges actually go UP the LESS you use as they have to factor your standing costs into this too (line and meter rental)

k1wi

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#1217968 20-Jan-2015 03:54

alasta: As a single income household I am really glad not to be receiving the sort of power bills that most others are posting here!

Children have a huge impact on domestic power consumption. From keeping the house a little warmer, to doing more loads of laundry and cooking of meals, to their own consumption (room lights/TVs/tech devices) as they get older... Plus the delta is probably even greater for a family with an 'energy miser', because it's a lot harder to influence the power usage of 4-5 people than 1 - 2.

lchiu7

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#1218000 20-Jan-2015 08:33

JonnyCam:
lchiu7: FYI If you have a smart meter and live in Wellington (Mauricio, I think you qualify here) you should look to moving your provider to Flick Electric.

This is their proposition

https://www.flickelectric.co.nz/hello/#see-the-difference

I am averaging 6-8% savings each bill over my previous provider using Flick. To achieve the best savings you need to alter your power usage a bit. For example spot prices are lower in the evening of course when demand is low so have moved our dish washing and laundry to after 6pm :-) Not much can be done about servers etc. that need to run all the time.

A regular retailer charges you a fixed amount on the life of your contract based on what they pay for electricity purchased on long-term contracts, the electricity hedge market or the spot market whereas Flick only charges you based on what they pay on the spot market.

For example on my last bill this was the breakdown of the components.

This is the spot price of electricity over a 24 hour period at my GXP on 16 January (Friday)

As you can see there is a significant price difference between the hours of midnight up to even 5pm. For most users they would be paying the same all day whereas a Flick user is paying from about 4-5c/kWH up to 5pm. (this does not include the charges mentioned above all users have to pay).

As an aside, really the most efficient way to use electricity these days is to purchase a battery vehicle. Then you charge it at night when the electricity is low and drive it in the daytime (of course). This is way better than getting PV's on the roof when you generate electricity when you are not using it and have to try to sell it to a retailer at their set price.

I might be being dense, but to m, the graph shows the unit price pretty flat across the whole day (the blue line) and the difference between midnight to 5pm is just recording your in decreased usage while you are sleeping / at work.

I do find it interesting that the blue line dips at 6pm, even thought I would have thought that was peak demand. Maybe some peaking plants came online and dropped the half hour price.

Do flick give you a more detailed breakdown of the prices you pay at particular times?

Sorry - misread my charts! Here is a better example

As you can see from there the spot price ranges from about 10c/unit at midnight ( and dropping lower) and slowly rising to about 17c at 5pm.

Flick don't provide usage by time of day but I guess you can extrapolate that by looking at the spot price on the graph.

Plus for the past couple of weeks you can look at the spot prices for each 5 minute interval from here

http://www.electricityinfo.co.nz/comitFta/five_min_prices.main

You need to find out which GXP you are being served from.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

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