i believe so 

https://www.vector.co.nz/special-pages/hot-water-load-control

I understand that you can get it disabled if it annoys you, but you will pay more for power. I know several people who had it disabled a couple of years ago, after very aggressive "rippling" for a month or so, a couple of years back, kept leaving them with tepid water.

(Personally, I'm on gas hotwater, so I don't have that issue).

JimmyH:

 

I understand that you can get it disabled if it annoys you, but you will pay more for power. I know several people who had it disabled a couple of years ago, after very aggressive "rippling" for a month or so, a couple of years back, kept leaving them with tepid water.

 

(Personally, I'm on gas hotwater, so I don't have that issue).

 

I would quite like to use it, oddly, my current provider EK, won't tell me if their plan is accounting for it....

But Vector refer me back to my provider when approached directly.

After checking periodically at the meter, on peak/off peak, the relay is engaged to supply power.

understand this is subject to the ripple being used, and that at "peak" it may not be required for a balanced supply...

but at some point in a month long check, statistically i should see it controlled?!?

larknz: If your hot water cylinder is big enough it won't be a problem.

That's not what I am really concerned about, more that if it is enabled, at what point service is regained on average to see if consumption resumes at what my retailer considers peak/shoulder/night

There's two ways for it to be done: either the actual ripple control switches the load, through a ripple relay, or an auxiliary relay in the smart meter switches the load. You can generally tell by looking if there's a ripple relay in the meterbox - it's a big black or grey thing with on/off legends and an indicator.

If it's a ripple relay, only Vector can control it; it has nothing to do with your retailer. You're lumped into one of about a dozen groups they can switch on or off. This is done by loading, not just peak/off-peak, so on days with generally lower national/regional consumption, the ripple signal will likely stay on 24/7.

An aux relay in the smart meter can be controlled by the retailer I think, but there's few of those in the wild I believe.

Ripple relays aren't really intended to save you money by shifting your consumption - you need a time switch or some smarts for that. They're there so the lines company can shed load when their network is near capacity.

hsvhel:

 

JimmyH:

 

I understand that you can get it disabled if it annoys you, but you will pay more for power. I know several people who had it disabled a couple of years ago, after very aggressive "rippling" for a month or so, a couple of years back, kept leaving them with tepid water.

 

(Personally, I'm on gas hotwater, so I don't have that issue).

 

 

I would quite like to use it, oddly, my current provider EK, won't tell me if their plan is accounting for it....

 

But Vector refer me back to my provider when approached directly.

 

After checking periodically at the meter, on peak/off peak, the relay is engaged to supply power.

 

understand this is subject to the ripple being used, and that at "peak" it may not be required for a balanced supply...

 

but at some point in a month long check, statistically i should see it controlled?!?

 

Are you sure you have a ripple relay? In many parts of Auckland they used a pilot wire system, and I believe the pilot relays now stay switched on all the time due to the unreliability of that system.