Changing power supplier in CHCH

• 

  FiveFeetUnder on 25/10/2023 - 07:59

  We are with Contact on the Good Nights plan that gets 3hrs free each night. We are managing to get around 25% of our power use during that period. Located Selwyn. Pretty sure there is no fixed contract.

  1.009 dollars per day
  19.800 cents per kWh
  These are ex GST

  • 

    cruelsummer2 on 25/10/2023 - 15:38

    Man, those are good rates. We are on Contact's Everyday Bonus Fixed Plan, here are our rates currently (ex GST):

    1.059 dollars per day
    20.500 cents per kWh

    There is a 3% discount on every item though; so after the discount:

    1.027 dollars per day
    19.885 cents per kWh

    Our current contract will end next month so will be looking into the Good Night plan.

    • 

      FiveFeetUnder on 26/10/2023 - 08:56

      There were a lot of spreadsheets comparing power plans before I settled on that one. I was surprised about how much we could shift to those 3 free hours though.

  • 

    Bargain-Hunter on 01/11/2023 - 11:04

    That's a good rate. Contact are increasing my rate to:

    1.208 dollars per day
    26.1 cents per kWh
    These are ex GST

    Need to find a new plan.

• 

  LupinS on 25/10/2023 - 13:34

  Hmm. Not bad. Don't think I'd get much free use bar charging the car though, I can charge faster and prob do it in three hours.

  Other stuff can be time shifted to a degree, but the servers (the 600-1kw draw). Sadly most of my appliances will only let me set it to start in X hours. Not a specific time

  Mine are all Inc GST.

  Actually really frustrating to work out with daily charges/free hours/peak. If it was all just X per KWH it would be so much easier to compare.

  Back to math on the Goodnight plan (actually I don't think it came up when doing the cpare sites - maybe not taking customers ATM.

  • 

    FiveFeetUnder on 26/10/2023 - 09:17

    Most of our appliances are only delay start, rather than on a specific time. But with 3 hours you don't need to be hugely accurate, just delay start to anytime after 9pm

• 

  xwing on 25/10/2023 - 17:44

  In CHCH myself, I have signed up to this deal but the non low user version. Seems to be the best on Orion for smart meter houses. Personally don't have the will to move my power usage (and flatmates) for free power hours so I found this to be the best deal.

  I was previously with Frank for
  Daily: 0.69
  Per kWh: 0.23
  The previous best deal I could see.

• 

  ace310 on 26/10/2023 - 09:09

  Here is one excel spreadsheet from moneyhub which you can use to compare prices. It might not be updated, or you might have to put in your rates, but a great template to compare prices. Might not cover all plans, but still something to go with.

  • 

    LupinS on 26/10/2023 - 12:42

    I personally found that a lot less useful than the other comparison sites. All this hype from their page and then it's like, this is just a spreadsheet… An out of date one that doesn't list a bunch of plans at that.

    • 

      ace310 on 26/10/2023 - 13:12

      Just for starters, None of the comparison sites takes into account free hour(s) or discounts properly so you will never get the actual discounts. They all estimate your usage, as most of them ask for your monthly usage.

      You can download your existing hourly usage from your current provider and calculate via the spreadsheet which will be way closer to the actual discounts.

      Outdated? maybe. It was last updated in October '23, so couple of weeks back. How do you know the comparison sites are using realtime information?

• 

  Sadie on 26/10/2023 - 13:21

  We are on Genesis, low user, nights and weekends are at the night rate.
  Works well for us as we are mostly home in the evenings and weekends.
  I have also accumulated 80 power shout hours you can choose to use anytime (usually in winter on cleaning day)
  We also get 11% discount overall

• 

  Rubenite on 26/10/2023 - 14:04

  +1

  If you need more time to figure out a more permanent energy provider, you should temporarily switch to both Z Power for a month or two just to pick up the 50L of Sharetank fuel bonus, and then over to Frank Energy for the $50 off via referral, neither of them have a contract so you can collect the reward and switch.

  • 

    tacobaron on 01/11/2023 - 10:36

    Good tip I'd never even heard of that. So just confirming there's no minimum time limit? I can just pop onto that for a month or two and switch and keep the fuel?

    • 

      Rubenite on 01/11/2023 - 11:45

      +1

      Always used to be the case (I did two months with them and then switched I think) but it may have changed since they updated their website so check the T&Cs. See previous discussion here. Looks like they may have paused the referral program but it seems that you still get a bonus 50L for joining (see here) plus you earn bonus sharetank litres based on your electricity spend. Pricey electricity though so it's still not a good deal beyond the joining bonus IMO.

• 

  holypeaches on 26/10/2023 - 15:36

  Hi OP - I've actually had a call today about Meridian and they confirmed it's not fixed term, it's fixed rate. It's fixed rate until Apr 2025 but you can leave anytime.
  Even the Powerswitch offer says it on the condition at the last part:
  Conditions: This offer is only available to new residential customers who are on the Orion Network and join Meridian through Powerswitch after from 1 October 2023. You must join and be accepted as a customer on Meridian's fixed rate plan with an end date of 30 April 2025. Not available in conjunction with other offers (including no credit or discount). There is no early termination fee with this offer.

  And yeah I went with them since they're the second cheapest in the market rn.

  • 

    LupinS on 30/10/2023 - 20:01

    Ah cool. Clearly I didn't read it.

    Yeah I switched. I considered the goodnight plan and using it to charge the car, but worked out I'd have to be fully charging every night (which may not even be possible in 3 hrs), plus using a bunch more power every night (and I'm not that organised).

    Good to know I can change if I need to though.

• 

  Everettpsycho on 30/10/2023 - 19:36

  I'm coming up to the end of my 2 years with meridians ev plan that's been 9.5c/kWh which has been great for us doing everything after 9pm including charging the cars. Have you contacted them about that plan as a fair few ev owners I know are all on it as it makes driving them ridiculously cheap and that's where most of my power usage ends up going.