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A month with PowerShop
Jan. 22nd, 2010 09:35 amA bit over a month ago I changed electricity companies, moving to PowerShop from Meridian.
As I said at the time the move was not because of price, but because
So how has it stacked up? Well, my (smart) meter is now read daily just after midday and the data is visible in my online control panel the next day (except at weekends it seems). I can also download it if I wanted to perform more in-depth analysis.
How pretty? This pretty.
1. Smoothed data (I don't find this display particularly useful yet, but I have to drill past it to get to the good stuff)(please note it has a different vertical scale to the other two images)
2. Unsmoothed daily power usage (for each preceding 24-hour period)
3. Daily power use by meter register (Night use, Weekday day and Weekend Day)
This last one is the most interesting until it's possible to meaningfully compare longer time periods. See those occasional big spikes in night use? That's when I have the hot water cylinder turned on. Smaller spikes tend are either myself or![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zakzahn staying up late (early) playing computer games.
Hitting the power button on the TV (not leaving it on standby) also saves about a unit per night (and the same during the day). From a power saving perspective just being able to look at this information is a powerful motivator for remembering to turn things off when they're not in use (I'm particularly bad at leaving the TV going & wandering off).
So am I saving money? So far - the first month cost a little more than half what I would have expected to be paying Meridian. BUT of course Powershop doesn't have the annual price averaging that the other companies do, the cost fluctuates based on the spot market and there is currently a surplus of generation capacity / prices are at their summer low. In winter I may yet wind up paying more (I'm not pre-purchasing for that period - this year), in 12 months time I'll decide if the savings are real.
The 20% discount on weekend power which was another sweetener for moving only amounts to a few $ a month and comes in the form of a monthly account credit. So to make best use of that (if you can get it) wait until it's arrived before making a power purchase / paying your bill, depending on how you want to look at it.
I still have invites that will get people a $50 credit* for signing up with PowerShop - of course you can probably also get that credit just by asking for it if you are moving from another company rather than connecting a new flat :)
*I also get a $25 credit for the referral :) They also promise guaranteed savings to you of another $50 in the first month.
As I said at the time the move was not because of price, but because
whatever their usage-reporting, it's bound to be light years ahead of what Meridian provide.
So how has it stacked up? Well, my (smart) meter is now read daily just after midday and the data is visible in my online control panel the next day (except at weekends it seems). I can also download it if I wanted to perform more in-depth analysis.
How pretty? This pretty.
1. Smoothed data (I don't find this display particularly useful yet, but I have to drill past it to get to the good stuff)(please note it has a different vertical scale to the other two images)
2. Unsmoothed daily power usage (for each preceding 24-hour period)
3. Daily power use by meter register (Night use, Weekday day and Weekend Day)
This last one is the most interesting until it's possible to meaningfully compare longer time periods. See those occasional big spikes in night use? That's when I have the hot water cylinder turned on. Smaller spikes tend are either myself or
zakzahn staying up late (early) playing computer games. Hitting the power button on the TV (not leaving it on standby) also saves about a unit per night (and the same during the day). From a power saving perspective just being able to look at this information is a powerful motivator for remembering to turn things off when they're not in use (I'm particularly bad at leaving the TV going & wandering off).
So am I saving money? So far - the first month cost a little more than half what I would have expected to be paying Meridian. BUT of course Powershop doesn't have the annual price averaging that the other companies do, the cost fluctuates based on the spot market and there is currently a surplus of generation capacity / prices are at their summer low. In winter I may yet wind up paying more (I'm not pre-purchasing for that period - this year), in 12 months time I'll decide if the savings are real.
The 20% discount on weekend power which was another sweetener for moving only amounts to a few $ a month and comes in the form of a monthly account credit. So to make best use of that (if you can get it) wait until it's arrived before making a power purchase / paying your bill, depending on how you want to look at it.
I still have invites that will get people a $50 credit* for signing up with PowerShop - of course you can probably also get that credit just by asking for it if you are moving from another company rather than connecting a new flat :)
*I also get a $25 credit for the referral :) They also promise guaranteed savings to you of another $50 in the first month.
