Do you have a smart meter and if so, have you accessed the data to save energy and money?

… or expensive. I have an interesting situation developing with my retailer that stemmed from me wanting to go to a different tariff system. Seems their pricing has some contradictory and unsubstantiated holes … things could escalate :slight_smile:

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Is it still PAWA? or have they allowed others into the fray now?

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PAWA and Jacana - which appear to be confused about who is who :slight_smile: NT eventually went the way of the states and sold off anything worth selling, and a few things that weren’t - purchasers were quick to exit market segments that didn’t make money, which in the NT is a few. Happy days.

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Our place (12 years old) has a digital meter. I am not sure if it is a smart meter or an interval meter (recording usage in 30 minute intervals). We do have time of use tariffs for our electricity and being aware that electricity (on our plan) becomes 62% cheaper during the shoulder period and 74% cheaper in the off peak period - we are deliberate about when we operate discretionary appliances such as washing machine and dishwasher. We also just had a heat pump style hot water heater installed and I have programmed a block out period on the heat pump so it won’t run during the peak period.
I have just discovered that the published times for the peak/shoulder/off-peak are AEST (i.e. don’t change for daylight saving). This means that during the DS period we should wait until 9pm (rather than 8pm) before putting on the washing machine etc.).

The only consumption info breakdown I see however is in the three monthly bills which shows my total usage for the three tariffs (peak/shoulder/off peak). I can go onto my provider’s website, log in to my account to see a month by month usages. However while the website has a “daily” usage option - when I click on that it says no information available.

I would be keen to know how I could see our usage data in more “real” time so we could better understand and target improvements.

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I thought I’d weighed in on this topic but seems not.

Our old miners cottage had a smart monitor thing installed a few years ago, via some trial thing (at no cost; called a Saturn South). It’s just a unit in the meter box that measures tell time totals and a hub plugged into the router to push the info to the internet. It’s only simple but by turning stuff on and off in the house and observing changes you can quickly figure out what each thing draws.

It doesn’t have any notion of solar vs other but I expect solar being fed into it would lower or reverse its readings (untested).

It allows you to define your tariff and does a fair job of them estimating your costs.

I’ll try attaching screenshots (from my mobile phone).

I’ve also (because I’m a techie who likes tinkering) piped the data it collects into my own home automation server.

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Huge thanks to everyone who contributed their smart knowledge in this thread. Here’s @AlisonPotter’s latest article that we hope will provide some helpful info to those looking for smart meter info and tips:

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The cynic has arrived!

As reported a smart meter offers the customer a wider range of payment and pricing options, such as flexible or time-of-use pricing

But it also offers the supplier a wider range of opportunities for plan and pricing options, such as flexible or time-of-use pricing whereby it further obfuscates any comparisons with competitors and enables it to potentially gouge prime time users while making costs for those doing their laundry, cooking, and entertainment during a low priced ‘dead mans 2200-0600’ shift look enticing. If only everyone could turn off all their appliances until midnight they could save a motza, courtesy of their smart meter and all the oversight they get to add.

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It’s probably a fair call that littering the market with options is anti-competitive.Could it be suggested the retailer needs to show the various options are ‘needed’ and do benefit a significant segment of their customers? Also with so many options and the ability for smart meters to report anything they like, retailers could easily identify inappropriate plans for customers - routinely - this would also identify those who have chosen unwisely through the plethora of options. It wouldn’t surprise me if with the more tailored/specific options that are offered, the incidence of unsuitable option selection increases - along with profit. I’ll bet there are some very interesting ‘what-if’ reports get circulated in the retailer boardrooms (and probably shared between them on the golf course/yacht club).

Luckily ours is 0600-1800 for peak tariff, 1800-0600 for off-peak and weekends all off-peak - on weekdays the house is empty except for the cat, and not once has he raised concerns about air-conditioning. I did the sums on flat tariff vs peak/off-peak and half way through the billing period I was significantly further into credit with the peak/off-peak billing so I’ve switched, and in the process discovered some interesting pricing practices that are the subject of more information gathering and probable escalation. More on that later maybe :slight_smile:

There are none here, which is one time it seems like a good thing !!

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