i would do a years worth

Jase2985:

 

i would do a years worth

 

Cheers

Asteros: I’m in Auckland and funnily enough I just switched from Frank Energy to Genesis today. They are the cheapest because I need Electricity and Gas. Only suggestion I can give is to call each company as their websites don’t give their sharpest deals.

I'm in the same situation as you. I'm with Frank Energy for power and gas and now I have to move since Frank are stopping gas. I've done a bit of comparing and Genesis are looking like the cheapest for me so will probably switch to them in January. I understand they dish out Power Shouts to give you free power and you can spend it whenever you want. What they don't tell you is how often they dish these out. There website just says they offer them via "Regular offers via email or in app, Competition prizes, Anniversary rewards".

DamageInc:

 

@Jase2985 & @jarledb - how far back in history do you recommend i gather? I've been comparing to my latest bill (Nov 24) and my highest winter bill from 24.

 

What I do is take the meter readings from my most recent bill (electricity and gas in my case), then take the equivalent readings from a bill from exactly a year ago. By comparing those readings you can determine your annual usage, and then use a spreadsheet to compare different providers.

Of course, this assumes that your usage in the coming year is going to be the same as the past year. It might not work if your household situation changes, but you could do a sensitivity analysis if you needed to. 

I spent half a day with Excel comparing all the companies when we got an EV.

I knew I could charge the car overnight, and approx how many kWh it would take per charge.

Flick came out best for us with their off-peak pricing. We moved from Frank.

I also like their Bill-Smoother and the fact that they can invoice weekly.

I charge the car at least 3 times a week from about 20%-80% (so just under 40kWh). I set the bill smoother to $80 a week, and at the start of December this year the bill-smoother credit had hit it's limit of $500 so I've dropped my payments to $50 a week. That will take $50 from my account a week, and the rest from my built up credit. Our bills are between $65-$75 a week so that $500 credit will last me till the end of March(ish).

alasta:

 

DamageInc:

 

@Jase2985 & @jarledb - how far back in history do you recommend i gather? I've been comparing to my latest bill (Nov 24) and my highest winter bill from 24.

 

 

What I do is take the meter readings from my most recent bill (electricity and gas in my case), then take the equivalent readings from a bill from exactly a year ago. By comparing those readings you can determine your annual usage, and then use a spreadsheet to compare different providers.

 

Of course, this assumes that your usage in the coming year is going to be the same as the past year. It might not work if your household situation changes, but you could do a sensitivity analysis if you needed to. 

 

In today's market just working out your cost based the amount of kwh between time point 1 and time point 2 is not terribly useful. It is far more useful to have the hourly data as that will help you work out whether it's worth going on a time of use plan.

I wrote a script a few months ago that calculates the actual cost I would pay with each provider based on the hourly data I get every month from my power provider. It has proved useful.

In my case our power usage is all over the place (e.g. we go away every second weekend, we live next door to the MIL so take turns cooking dinner, etc -- pretty much no consistency) and predominantly our usage is in peak hours during the week so we switched to Frank some months ago and my monthly checks show they are either the cheapest or 2nd cheapest. However they are always the cheapest once you exclude plans with contracts and perks etc.

I have quietly tried to shift some usage to off peak hours to see if it would result in any changes to the calculations but no luck so far. I suspect if we ever get an EV this may change but for now a flat rate plan is generally better for us.

Thanks to another poster for the tip to phone the power companies directly -- might try that at some point.

While i wait for a reply from EK, I'm going over the data they have sent me (last 12 months). 

Rows 2 to 412 covers the last 12 months, one day per row.

Columns F to AC covers 0:00 - 23:00, and columns AD to BA covers 0:00 to 23:00. Both for the same date. Why is that? I've replied back to EK, got me confused.

MurrayM:

 

Asteros: I’m in Auckland and funnily enough I just switched from Frank Energy to Genesis today. They are the cheapest because I need Electricity and Gas. Only suggestion I can give is to call each company as their websites don’t give their sharpest deals.

 

I'm in the same situation as you. I'm with Frank Energy for power and gas and now I have to move since Frank are stopping gas. I've done a bit of comparing and Genesis are looking like the cheapest for me so will probably switch to them in January. I understand they dish out Power Shouts to give you free power and you can spend it whenever you want. What they don't tell you is how often they dish these out. There website just says they offer them via "Regular offers via email or in app, Competition prizes, Anniversary rewards".

 

Different registers on the meter? Hard tp tell when you have cropped so much out on the spreadsheet

farcus:

 

I'm in the same boat - however, have a good power rate with Frank and gas seems a bit expensive with Genesis ($160 +gst for bottle refill and $10 / month +gst for bottle rental).
Looks like splitting off the gas to a "gas supplier" will be cheaper. OnGas are $143 incl gst and approx $10 month incl gst in my neck of the woods (+ first bottle free)

 

Considering Genesis own Frank energy, it seems odd that their prices are quite a lot higher, but I guess they make larger margins. The bottles I have got under Frank are Genesis branded too so it is exactly the same product in everyway, but we have to pay more for it, so essentially a price rise..  When Frank notified me about this, they offered $150 account credit if joining with genesis which would nearly cover a year of rental, which is currently free under Frank. But it also says they will switch me to genesis anyway. So not sure if that means I have to do anything or not because as default it looks like I get automatically signed up to genesis. 

SpartanVXL: As far as I have found, the plans with peak/ off-peak pricing or free hours end up being more expensive if you don’t manage usage within those time windows. If you have any usage at all in peak times you can be paying 10c/kwh more than flat rates.

Genesis so far is the lowest for me, with the added peace of mind of not having to worry when I ‘should’ use power. Free hours of power from e.g. Contact is enticing but ultimately more expensive even with a third of power use free.

Jase2985:

 

Different registers on the meter? Hard tp tell when you have cropped so much out on the spreadsheet

 

It was an error from EK. Just received the updated data. As expected, the highest power usage times are the hour of power periods, followed by the early morning period (get up, showers, breakfast etc).

BlargHonk: We save a boatload by load shifting as much as possible to the Contact 3hrs of free power each night. We run the dishwasher, washing machine, sometimes the dryer and the Hot Water Cylinder is on a timer to run then too. We are using approx 45% of our daily power in the free hours

Just to let you know, they no longer accept people with Solar for this plan. I'm just happy I got in before that changed. With a battery, I have also moved over 95% of my power to a free period.

farcus:

 

I'm in the same boat - however, have a good power rate with Frank and gas seems a bit expensive with Genesis ($160 +gst for bottle refill and $10 / month +gst for bottle rental).
Looks like splitting off the gas to a "gas supplier" will be cheaper. OnGas are $143 incl gst and approx $10 month incl gst in my neck of the woods (+ first bottle free)

 

I'm on gas mains, so no bottles.