Hi All,
Unfortunately our Mercury 2 years fixed term has come to a end. Our daily rate has increased from $2.04 to $2.19 and our variable rate has increased from 15.15 cents to 19.14 cents. Can any recommend a power company with a better fixed rate? How about frank energy?
Agreed, they approximate time of use which can make a massive difference in discounts. Plus more plans are moving to time of use charging.
Assuming you have a smart meter your power company legally has to provide the data if you ask for it. Some providers allow you to download it from their websites.
The MoneyHub spreadsheet is what I used to compare recently.
I still double checked the rates but it is the most comprehensive comparison I found.
Your rate probably went up a heap because you bundled it with a new appliance on a 2 year term. If you opt for just a $200 rebate with a 2 year contract I suspect you'll see better rates.
As far as going for other suppliers, you're probably best to shop around entering your address at a bunch of different providers, then see how that stacks up with your actual usage and what you'd be likely to pay month to month.
Another option is that you can ring up a provider, give them your current bill and ask them to beat it, if they say no, jut move onto the next one until they do. I've had pretty good results with this.
The consumer site https://www.powerswitch.org.nz/ is pretty good for comparisons too.
interested which one u ended up with, agreeing to beat👍🏻
Everytime I get someone call and say they have a great deal on power I invite them to compare to my most recent bill and no one ever has been able to beat or even match it.
The powerswitch website will work out your very best company and plan for your usage and address. Takes 5 or ten minutes but its so worth it for endless savings $$ on a necessity.
Have an idea of how many kw you use per year and your icp number off your meter box written down.
I used it about 5 yrs ago and have saved over $5000. After switching companies and plans. It's not small change it is a huge lot of beer money or Popsicles, whatever floats your boat.
And I'm a single occupant small power user.
Last time we switched I ended up making a spreadsheet to work out what was best and there was big differences. Had to take some usage data to work out what my peak and off leak usage was then once you get the formula right you can plug in rates to see expected bills based on usage. As a two ev household getting the off peak as low as possible matters to us as that's where our major usage lies, this time though we will be considering free hours as we could feasibly charge both vehicles for free in a 3 hour window.
My 2 years is nearing its end as well so once I get a new spreadsheet drawn up happy to share it but you'll need to do tjeleg work getting rates and usage for your usage.
Hi,
I am interested in your spreadsheet. PM you
It would be interesting to use that spreadsheet and powerswitch to compare the results.
Can also figure out how many kw used by the math. How much paid - the daily charges ÷ the kw rate.
Also curious why batanda thought powerswitch was useless? All good with the opinion it's just there was no reason given so am a little curious.
Share your on reasoning when I am on Contact 3 hours free plan, where I use my 50% of the energy with EV charging during that free time. Assuming I use around 400kwh/month, but only billable 200kwh, how will powerswitch work in my case? Again I didn't mentione day/night rate here either.
Powerswitch is just estimating lots of variables for you. In case if you only have 2 rates, i.e day/night. Powerswitch asks only for your monthly usage i.e 400kwh, how will it divide how much you use in day vs night? It is using averages which can be totally wrong for me and could be spot on for you.
I am not saying powerswitch will not work, but you need your hourly usage to determine your lowest rate. Lowest rate is not going to give you the best price. All depends on how/when you use power and how much you can move to the cheapest/free time.
Core idea is to have minimum kwh/month with lowest price when you factor in free electricity/discounts.
I personally found the Money wise spreadsheet next to useless. Comparison sites worked out what I'd used during off/on/night.
Free power usage isn't that hard to work out l, perticularly because to make it effective you're going to need to know what you'll use. Personally I worked out that I'd have to use 10kwh during that time everyday to just offset the higher rates. That'd only be doable if I could fully charge the car (would need a higher rated connection), and run the dryer, dishwasher, and heatpump for the entire 3 hrs (and not under or over that time), again, everyday.
As ace310 said there are far too many variables which Powerswitch doesn't account for. Most of it is an approximation which is fine if your household fits the average and you want a quick comparison. Just don't expect it to be accurate. There's time of use, differences between summer/winter, insulation, double glazing, if you've got kids or not, Ev charging etc. These all influence how much and when you use electricity. Plus there are so many deals in the market that Powerswitch can't keep up with. I doubt Powerswitch is updated more than quarterly at best.
You've also got things like Powershop having monthly variable rates that are only set a year in advance. They majorly ramp up in winter, when most people use the most electricity. They also bundle the fixed daily charge into the per KW cost so there's a lot more smoke and mirrors going on.
Thanks for an explanation. And did share my reasoning- saved $5000
When I switched a few months back I thought that powerswitch was useless. Instead I used the comparison spreadsheets that MoneyHub have created and actively maintain. Here's a link: https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/power-company-comparison.html