Diana Clement: Gaming your power bill

Being proactive with a power supplier's app is one way to game your spending. Photo / 123rf

Smart consumers are saving on their electricity bills by turning power-saving into a game. With smart apps, free hours of power, or off-peak tariffs, households can knock 20 to 30 per cent of their power bills. It requires effort, however.

Nelson resident Peter Clark and his family make a point of gaming their electricity usage. Since they joined Electric Kiwi for its free hour of power, the family of four has saved more than $1000.

“We never used to be this organised,” says Clark. “But Electric Kiwi has a very cool little app,” he says.

“The magic of the app is you start to be aware of what you’re spending. I can see I’m spending between $10 and $15 a day on our electricity, so you try to get the number down. It’s all money.

“You can click on a bar graph and see the percentage of your electricity (usage) off peak. You try to keep that line up as high as you can,” says Clark. “That’s the gamification of it. You can challenge yourself to do better.”

The time of the free hour can be changed easily. The family usually takes the free hour of power late in the evening when the heat pump, dishwasher and electric car charger are running. On the weekends the free hour of power is timed to coincide with the family clothes washing.

Thanks to the app, Clark discovered that his older teenage children were using a surprising amount of power after 11pm by gaming, cooking food, making hot drinks and so on. This, and buying an electric car, encouraged the family to switch to another plan with Electric Kiwi, which still offered a free hour of power each day, but also half-price power after 11pm.

There are many more ways to game your power bill. Most power companies have apps or online portals that allow you to see exactly how much power you’re using day-by-day, hour-by-hour. Even without free hours of power, you can monitor your bill by working out what power you’re using and when.

Try out new habits and watch your usage to see what effect your changes have. That might be putting a timer in the shower. Using an air fryer if you have one in preference to the oven or washing clothes in cold water. That saves a lot. Experiment with drying your clothes outside for a week, or whatever you can do. All things being equal it’s often best to compare power usage with the same week last year as well as the previous week.

Powerswitch manager Paul Fuge says some people who gamify their power bills manage to save 20 to 30 per cent. He says the people who are most successful at gamifying their power usage are: 1: Super analytical, 2: On a budget and really need to save money, or 3: People who want to change their behaviour to lessen their environmental footprint.

Gaming your power bill doesn’t work for everyone, says Fuge. Some people just can’t be that organised. In fact, it could backfire on them if they’re on a power plan that benefits those with a gamer approach.

What’s more, most people can’t live their lives around their electricity bills. “The service should be the slave, not the master,” says Fuge. “You should be living your life according to how you want to live, not according to electricity. But it does help if you can change your consumption habits.”

More than one power company offers free hours of power and it’s worth doing a proper comparison of the rates. There is no point going for a free hour if you’re paying more overall. As well as Electric Kiwi, some of the power companies offering free power deals currently include Contact Energy, Mercury, Powershop and Genesis. Sometimes, of course, a simple cheap low rate, such as offered by Frank Energy and some of the newer players may work better.

The other big way to save money on your electricity bill is to shop around for a cheaper provider or package. The median saved by households that switch providers through Powerswitch is $325 for a year, says Fuge.