Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


alisam

878 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 83


#323717 5-Jan-2026 19:20
Send private message quote this post

On 30/20/2025 Mercury Energy projected my bill at $114 ($100 actual). See below.

 

After 30/12/2025, Mercury stop displaying further information until the bill was finalised. They do this for several days until the bill is actually finalised (seems to be today 05/01/2026 as I have checked every day).

 

My actual bill from 03/12/2025 - 31/12/205 is $144.52.

 

So in one day, I have used $44.52, which is ludicrous.

 

Naturally, an estimate is not equivalent to an actual bill.

 

But, Mercury Energy seem to do this every month i.e under-estimate the projected bill.

 

I have not captured estimates, and Mercury Energy do disable any information before they issue the actual bill. I do capture actuals and have so far 32 months of Mercury Energy actual bills.

 

I am not complaining about the $144.52 bill, but I wondered if anyone else using Mercury Energy look at their projected bill and are surprised about the actual bill, especially when there is only 1 day to go (as per my example).

 

 

 

 

 





PC: Dell Inspiron 16 5640 (Windows 11 Home), Dell Inspiron 7591 2n1 (Windows 11 Pro), HP ProBook 470G1 (Windows 10 Pro), Intel NUC7I5BNH (Zorin)
Net: Grandstream 1 x GWN7062 Router, 1 x GWN7665 Access Point
Storage: Synology DS216play NAS, 2 x 6TB
Media: 3 x Amazon FireTV. Echo, Dot, Spot
TV: 2 x Samsung H6400 55" LED TV, Panasonic TH-P50G10Z 50" Plasma TV
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Wearable: Gear S3 Frontier


Filter this topic showing only the reply marked as answer View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic
 1 | 2

gzt

gzt
18688 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7827

Lifetime subscriber

  #3450136 5-Jan-2026 19:25
Send private message quote this post

Check the units used shown on your power meter to get some idea where things are going wrong.

My first thought is they are calculating from the wrong unit price or adding the fixed charges only at the end. Doesn't fully explain it but anyway. Recording the meter daily for a month should give some clues.



RunningMan
9189 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4842


  #3450139 5-Jan-2026 19:33
Send private message quote this post

What does the ** reference to at the bottom of the page?


Jase2985
13735 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6216

ID Verified
Lifetime subscriber

  #3450140 5-Jan-2026 19:39
Send private message quote this post

sure, its not something like GST or your daily charge?




EviLClouD
306 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 68


alisam

878 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 83


  #3450184 6-Jan-2026 06:18
Send private message quote this post

EviLClouD:

 

Sounds like its daily charge and gas? If applicable 

 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/latest/118899888/why-is-mercurys-projected-power-bill-always-grossly-inaccurate

 

 

Thank you for that link. I don't have Gas but if I take my daily charge including GST, multiply by 29 (Period for current bill) then it comes to $39.02.

 

So, $100.00 + $39.02 = $139.02

 

Plus one day of additional usage (say $5.00) = $144.02

 

which is close to my actual bill of $144.52.

 

BUT Mercury also state:

 

 

Daily Fixed Charge should be included but isn't.

 

The final inconsistency relates to my initial screenshot i.e.

 

 

There would be no way I could use $14 of electricity, plus fixed charge in one day.





PC: Dell Inspiron 16 5640 (Windows 11 Home), Dell Inspiron 7591 2n1 (Windows 11 Pro), HP ProBook 470G1 (Windows 10 Pro), Intel NUC7I5BNH (Zorin)
Net: Grandstream 1 x GWN7062 Router, 1 x GWN7665 Access Point
Storage: Synology DS216play NAS, 2 x 6TB
Media: 3 x Amazon FireTV. Echo, Dot, Spot
TV: 2 x Samsung H6400 55" LED TV, Panasonic TH-P50G10Z 50" Plasma TV
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Wearable: Gear S3 Frontier


Bung
6734 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2927

Subscriber

  #3450185 6-Jan-2026 06:29
Send private message quote this post

Did the projected amount change during the month or was the $114 amount derived from previous month's total?


 
 
 

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).
alisam

878 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 83


  #3450247 6-Jan-2026 08:36
Send private message quote this post

Bung:

 

Did the projected amount change during the month or was the $114 amount derived from previous month's total?

 

 

I don't remember. I tend to look (perhaps) once a week just to ensure the electricity amount is not a stupid amount, because I know roughly where the electricity is being used.

 

I have another 2 days to go before Mercury show the projected bill.

 

What is interesting (to me) is I took a screenshot of the electricity used in this billing period and it said $10 at 6am today. Now at 08:30am is shows $13.

 

My conclusion is, the information is absolutely useless. I don't understand why Mercury's IT Department cannot collate factual data and convert the data to an actual monetary value which can be understand by their customers at a glance.





PC: Dell Inspiron 16 5640 (Windows 11 Home), Dell Inspiron 7591 2n1 (Windows 11 Pro), HP ProBook 470G1 (Windows 10 Pro), Intel NUC7I5BNH (Zorin)
Net: Grandstream 1 x GWN7062 Router, 1 x GWN7665 Access Point
Storage: Synology DS216play NAS, 2 x 6TB
Media: 3 x Amazon FireTV. Echo, Dot, Spot
TV: 2 x Samsung H6400 55" LED TV, Panasonic TH-P50G10Z 50" Plasma TV
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Wearable: Gear S3 Frontier


cshwone
1093 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 850


  #3450257 6-Jan-2026 09:09
Send private message quote this post

No help to the OP but I have found the equivalent Genesis feature to be pretty good.


gzt

gzt
18688 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7827

Lifetime subscriber

  #3450258 6-Jan-2026 09:09
Send private message quote this post

It's just one of those things. If you explain the issue to Mercury they'll probably fix it.

Yelling at cloud doesn't change much unless Mercury is monitoring this forum.

Many NZ companies have excellent engagement with Geekzone, some a bit less, and some zero. It's probably worth noting that even companies with excellent Geekzone engagement will not engage in forum discussions that are excessively and persistently cranky - I'm not saying you've reached that level ; ).

Bung
6734 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2927

Subscriber

  #3450262 6-Jan-2026 09:21
Send private message quote this post

alisam:

 

What is interesting (to me) is I took a screenshot of the electricity used in this billing period and it said $10 at 6am today. Now at 08:30am is shows $13.

 

 

Mercury say that if you have a smart meter it records usage every 30 mins and usually uploads to Mercury daily. You see a jump of $3 but that could be a day's increase. What does the hourly usage in the app look like? They may get data more often but it's unlikely to be real time.


taneb1
544 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 213

ID Verified
Trusted
Mercury

  #3450275 6-Jan-2026 09:56
Send private message quote this post

While I haven't been on the power side of the business for a few years, and I can't promise a timely response - I have raised it internally to the team (Noting that a lot of the team are still off this week post Christmas/New Years).

 

If I hear anything back that I'm allowed to share will post, but would suggest also raising it via https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/ask and requesting a ticket to be raised for the differences in the Projected Bill vs Actual Bill. 





Any comments made are my personal views and does not represent those of my employer


 
 
 

Want to support Geekzone and browse the site without the ads? Subscribe to Geekzone now (monthly, annual and lifetime options).
John19612
86 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 96


  #3450397 6-Jan-2026 16:13
Send private message quote this post

I'm with Mercury too and have the same issue with predicted vs. actual. I try to ignore it but it does annoy me somewhat.

 

Probably my biggest peeve right now, other than the extortionate cost, is the inconsistent billing period. Almost every billing period has a different number of days, both electricity and gas. The last time that two consecutive billings periods had the same number of days was March/April 2025 for electricity (then all the way back to October/November 2022) and December 2022 for gas. The length of billing periods range from 24 to 37 days. Electricity and gas have been billed for the same number of days within a billing period only four times since May 2022 - they're almost always different.

 

Unless you're a nerd and track all consumption details on a spreadsheet, it makes it unnecessarily difficult to see what your daily energy costs are.

 

Another annoyance is when the customer portal says your bill is ready but the download link refuses to work for a few days and just errors out.


timmmay
20859 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5350

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #3450407 6-Jan-2026 16:37
Send private message quote this post

I don't much care what their forecast is, but on the odd occasion I see it I wish it took into account solar export.


jen1001
277 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 102

ID Verified
Trusted

  #3450415 6-Jan-2026 16:57
Send private message quote this post

John19612:

 

Probably my biggest peeve right now, other than the extortionate cost, is the inconsistent billing period. Almost every billing period has a different number of days, both electricity and gas. The last time that two consecutive billings periods had the same number of days was March/April 2025 for electricity (then all the way back to October/November 2022) and December 2022 for gas. The length of billing periods range from 24 to 37 days. Electricity and gas have been billed for the same number of days within a billing period only four times since May 2022 - they're almost always different.

 

 

That annoys me too! One month billing can 31 days and another 29, I've even had one month with 33 days so not sure what that's about. Estimated billing for me has been more or less accurate with a $10/$20 margin apart from a couple of months ago where the difference was quite stark and it was a month where the period was about 31-32 days.


alisam

878 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 83


  #3450441 6-Jan-2026 19:23
Send private message quote this post

taneb1:

 

...

 

If I hear anything back that I'm allowed to share will post, but would suggest also raising it via https://ask.mercury.co.nz/app/ask and requesting a ticket to be raised for the differences in the Projected Bill vs Actual Bill. 

 

 

I have logged an "Incident" with Mercury using the link provided.





PC: Dell Inspiron 16 5640 (Windows 11 Home), Dell Inspiron 7591 2n1 (Windows 11 Pro), HP ProBook 470G1 (Windows 10 Pro), Intel NUC7I5BNH (Zorin)
Net: Grandstream 1 x GWN7062 Router, 1 x GWN7665 Access Point
Storage: Synology DS216play NAS, 2 x 6TB
Media: 3 x Amazon FireTV. Echo, Dot, Spot
TV: 2 x Samsung H6400 55" LED TV, Panasonic TH-P50G10Z 50" Plasma TV
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Wearable: Gear S3 Frontier


 1 | 2
Filter this topic showing only the reply marked as answer View this topic in a long page with up to 500 replies per page Create new topic








Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.