Power prices and Mercury's three year fixed plan

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#483635 21-Jun-2011 13:34

richms: Perhaps that's just down there, but in Auckland there is no problem having an install without one, never seen one installed in a business or apartment install either.

Surprising. From Vector's FAQ
"Is it possible to be excluded from having the hot water heating turned off?

Customers can choose a price plan where Vector does not control their hot water however these Customers pay a higher price for line charges than those who allow control of hot water.
There may be additional costs to have any existing load management devices disabled or removed when moving from a controlled pricing plan to an uncontrolled pricing plan. This is arranged through the electricity retailer."
http://www.vector.co.nz/sites/vector.co.nz/files/hot%20water%20and%20load%20management.pdf

Also interesting (to me anyway) is that pilot wires rather than ripple control is used on the North Shore, in Waitakere, and parts of Rodney.

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#483645 21-Jun-2011 13:45

timmmay:Here's a graph of price trends. I can't see it from work (flash issues) but from memory of looking at it last night power rose in the region of 20%.

Trying not to sound like a broken record, but down there at the bottom with the best prices is PowerShop - although I concede there is only $34 between them and Meridian (who are actually the same company AFAIK) but a whole $170 to Mercury who are offering the fixed rate deal.

IMO - If you don't want the hassle of being active about your power costs, I would pick Meridian.

Nice link btw - very clear.
Power Cost Trends

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#483649 21-Jun-2011 13:52

Thanks for posting the graph, and yeah PS are good value. Like I said i'll probably switch to Meridian some time soon, then reconsider PS in summer.

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#483661 21-Jun-2011 14:11

Except the graph is for a fake household that uses in a year what I would do in 2-3 months over winter, I get really sick of seeing crap like that what's my number etc that try to tell you that you have savings without doing anything to assess your usage, or in the case of powershop what time of year you use that usage.

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#483665 21-Jun-2011 14:19

richms: Except the graph is for a fake household that uses in a year what I would do in 2-3 months over winter, I get really sick of seeing crap like that what's my number etc that try to tell you that you have savings without doing anything to assess your usage, or in the case of powershop what time of year you use that usage.

That's stated in the text that's usually above the graph, they say it's based on 8000kwh of power. I used 950kwh last month, a reasonably cold month, so 8000kwh seems reasonable to me.

How do you use so much power? What kind of bills do you get? My bills dropped from around $450 to around $250 in winter when I insulated my house and got a heat pump.

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#483671 21-Jun-2011 14:32

Not really sure where it all goes to, not much on heating tho, in my bedroom its only abotu $2 a night, I guess the flatmates is about the same. Hotwater is a possibility since its a large tank and it runs out often. Poolpump perhaps. All the computers, it all adds up, each thing is minimal like $1-2 a day, quite easy to get to $10 on not many things.

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#483677 21-Jun-2011 14:36

richms: Not really sure where it all goes to, not much on heating tho, in my bedroom its only abotu $2 a night, I guess the flatmates is about the same. Hotwater is a possibility since its a large tank and it runs out often. Poolpump perhaps. All the computers, it all adds up, each thing is minimal like $1-2 a day, quite easy to get to $10 on not many things.

So, based on you saying you use 8000kwh of power in 3 months, you're paying over $550/month in power? And that's not raising a red flag?

According to what i've read, hot water is the biggest user of power, averaging 1/3 of power user. If you have flatmates who shower often or have long showers that's one likely culprit.

I know before I had insulation it cost me about $500/month for power, and that didn't even make the house very warm. I spend half that now, but it cost me $20K for insulation and a heat pump (under floor was expensive due to the digging required to get under the floor).

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#483683 21-Jun-2011 14:47

That much would only be over the worst of the worst of winter when home all day, heating the workspace up, lots of lights on etc. $320 was the last bill which is more typical of usage, also because one less flatmate, so one less room occupied etc.

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#483713 21-Jun-2011 15:44

Just switchecd companies for my business and locked the pricing in for 2 years - estimated savings works out roughly to $6000 per year!

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#484175 22-Jun-2011 09:20

Skolink:
Also interesting (to me anyway) is that pilot wires rather than ripple control is used on the North Shore, in Waitakere, and parts of Rodney.

The areas you quote are the former UnitedNetworks area - Vector bought them out about two or three years ago, so it doesn't surprise me that they use different technologies. (The bit that infuriates those of us in the former United area is that we pay exorbitant line charges so that Vector can up and give it to blasted Aucklanders in the form of dividends).

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#484433 22-Jun-2011 15:27

Kyanar:
Skolink:
Also interesting (to me anyway) is that pilot wires rather than ripple control is used on the North Shore, in Waitakere, and parts of Rodney.

The areas you quote are the former UnitedNetworks area - Vector bought them out about two or three years ago, so it doesn't surprise me that they use different technologies. (The bit that infuriates those of us in the former United area is that we pay exorbitant line charges so that Vector can up and give it to blasted Aucklanders in the form of dividends).

And that the pilot wire network keeps breaking leading to either no streetlights or no hot water, and in the case of hot water they have no telemetry on it to know its broken till people call their retailers about having no hot water.

Would have thought that they would install something more robust when replacing whatever it is that keeps failing on the pilot wire controls.

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#486680 28-Jun-2011 03:10

timmmay:

Pre buying power packs in summer to use in winter seems crazy. Power needs to be generated when it's needed, it's a strange market model. Still, if I can spent $1000 on power in summer that will give me $2000 worth of power to use in winter, I can do that.

how is that any crazier than signing up for a 3yr fixed price and paying more in the first couple of years (or possibly more in every year depending on how the prices go)? I find that if i pre-buy some of the winter power in summer, i get two benefits - slightly cheaper per-unit costs, and i get to have a power bill with the cost spread more or less evenly throughout the year instead of having spikes in costs in winter.

all of powershops base price comparisons are done using the 'default' low priced products. you can save more (or pay more) by choosing different products, or by buying specials when they appear.

overall, probably the biggest price saving i made was getting rid of my 'dual fuel' deal and splitting the gas and power to different companies. genesis were offering a 'big gas thank you' discount at the time that took 50c per day off the daily charge and it made them significantly cheaper than others.

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#486841 28-Jun-2011 12:55

I guess it just comes down to who makes the effort to keep prices level throughout the year, the power company or you. Though i'm not sure why more don't have a market model, where you pay cost plus a margin.

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#486863 28-Jun-2011 13:30

richms:
Kyanar:
Skolink:
Also interesting (to me anyway) is that pilot wires rather than ripple control is used on the North Shore, in Waitakere, and parts of Rodney.

The areas you quote are the former UnitedNetworks area - Vector bought them out about two or three years ago, so it doesn't surprise me that they use different technologies. (The bit that infuriates those of us in the former United area is that we pay exorbitant line charges so that Vector can up and give it to blasted Aucklanders in the form of dividends).

And that the pilot wire network keeps breaking leading to either no streetlights or no hot water, and in the case of hot water they have no telemetry on it to know its broken till people call their retailers about having no hot water.

Would have thought that they would install something more robust when replacing whatever it is that keeps failing on the pilot wire controls.

So THAT's why the lights in my street die so often! We are talking about 10-15 times last year, sometimes 2-3 a week. I am Waitakere. And they can be dog slow to fix it, or fix one street and not another. Slack, slack, slack.

MBCook

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#498458 27-Jul-2011 12:23

Hi - Just thought I would share my experience.

I had been on a Mercury Energy three year plan (which finished last month) which I thought was fine. Then I signed up for the new one when I got the offer letter in June. So - I got my first bill under the new plan yesterday and the total amount has doubled since the previous bill. Under the old three year plan we ended up on a really favourable rate by the end of the three years. But the new rate for gas is 138% of what we were on before (went from 5.81 cents to 13.84 cents).

Bottom line: My discounted bill was $585.85 (including 20% prompt payment discount - this will reduce to 10% from month 4) on the Mercury 3 year plan. Switch Me results for the same usage were: Mercury standard plan $468.11; Energy Direct $360.20.

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