turtleattacks:

 

Just made the switch myself. Looks like we can save about $50 a month by switching to Contact. 

 

 

 

 

 

$50 a month based on high Winter bills?? Not nitpicking.

tdgeek:

turtleattacks:

Just made the switch myself. Looks like we can save about $50 a month by switching to Contact. 

 

 

$50 a month based on high Winter bills?? Not nitpicking.

turtleattacks:

Yeah, about $260 vs $210. Or thereabouts.

Winter bill? Or a 12 month average? My feeling is that any % saving could be tiny, given that we are in a very early Spring then Summer. Hence why I started this thread, but on reflection I will see how it pans out as the $ savings will decline now, and revisit mid Autumn, when it will really matter. 

The seasons matter, as will what happens with the power situation politically.

Three hours free seems better than one hour free. We'd get probably 60 - 70% of our water heating done in that time, dishwasher, clothes drier. The thing we'd miss with the EK hour of power is the hour in the morning where every heater in the house comes on at the same time and pre-warms the place. By 9pm any heating or air conditioning required is already done. We find air conditioning uses relatively little power, though haven't had the ducted system in for a summer yet. We probably run heating in the morning here in Wellington 8 or 9 months of the year, and we have timers on everything that uses a lot of power, so I think we'd do better staying with EK.

Typical day for us below. During winter lockdown we were getting about 15 - 20% free in the hour of power. In summer that's more like 25% free on average.

timmmay:

 

Three hours free seems better than one hour free

 

Had a quick look at the Contact good nights plan, but looks like the rates on it are a cent more per kWH than their base plan(?) so you need to take into account you're paying a bit more the rest of the day to get those 3 hours free.  Probably still worth it but does have a small affect. 

This thread has prompted me to do some quick calculations and yeah looks like Contact does work out a bit cheaper compared to EK even though our EK rates haven't changed since May, so a switch might be on the cards for us. 

These are my calculations. 

On my EK I get 10% discount by way of a 10% credit to my CC $200 automatic topup = 204.91 on your calc for EK

Oh man, I wish I got a reduction.

I signed up to EK in Jan and have had two increases so far. Now I'm wondering if it had of been cheaper staying with Trustpower. It was only marginally cheaper switching, but i had heard good things about EK so decided to make the move. Im in Hamilton. 

This one is current. 

This in May. 

thenine:

 

...

 

I signed up to EK in Jan and have had two increases so far. Now I'm wondering if it had of been cheaper staying with Trustpower. It was only marginally cheaper switching, but i had heard good things about EK so decided to make the move. Im in Hamilton. 

 

...

 

Just switch again. EK don't really do contracts and if they're unwilling (or unable is probably more accurate) to play the game then why should they get your business? Power is a commodity, you get the same volts no matter which logo is on your bill.

I'd be genuinely surprised if Trustpower are cheaper for anything though - I've heard nothing but bad things about their pricing. If they can afford to give you a free TV and fridge, that money is not coming out of their pockets.

I didn't actually realize they had increased it... just that it was costing more, i had blindly put that down to lockdown and the cold...

tdgeek:

 

On my EK I get 10% discount by way of a 10% credit to my CC $200 automatic topup = 204.91 on your calc for EK

 

 

 

20/220 = ~9%  (sorry nitpick police reporting in) 

sidefx:

 

tdgeek:

 

On my EK I get 10% discount by way of a 10% credit to my CC $200 automatic topup = 204.91 on your calc for EK

 

 

20/220 = ~9%  (sorry nitpick police reporting in) 

 

Yep! :-)

This is in Dunedin by the way. Was quite surprised to see the fixed costs coming down, especially with the disaster that is Aurora's network, but those usage costs are much higher than Contact (who are saying about $0.16 kW/h). Will just have to run the numbers to see if its worthwhile (since we're on the Stay Ahead plan), but I'd say it almost certainly is. Have had an excellent experience being with EK, but it's hard to beat those numbers really.

Just switched to Contact from EK, on their Good Nights plan too and I also was a little sad leaving EK as they were pretty good other than the new pricing.

With Contact's Good Nights plan you still have to pay 0.13kWh electricity authority levy during those 3 hours of free power, but it's very miniscule lol.

These were/are my rates:

EK: $0.34 per day, $0.3028 per kwh + 1 hour of free power

Contact: $0.345 per day, $0.2763 per kwh + 3 hours of free power

Had a PM from a GZer asking for a referral code - oddly enough, I don't seem to be able to reply them. 

Not particularly looking to self promote this, but should someone wish to use my code and avail themselves of $100 credit (I get $100 too) then my code is FR9N3YG.