topic Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm in Energy - General

Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Robw1 — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 20:59:39 GMT

Hi,

Noticed that my draw from the grid started going up at 12:30pm every day and that the usage at 12:30am went down to nothing, it used to be that the hot water system on Tariff 31 controlled load would start at 12:30am but now it seems to start at 12:30pm.

Also noticed that the rates for Tariff 31 controlled load have increased to $0.2558, higher than the general usage charges. Seems that it is straight from the grid as well and I can't use my excess solar generation in the middle of the day to power the hot water system.

Has anyone else noticed this or have advice on how to get my hot water system off the Tariff 31 controlled load circuit?

Thanks

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Natalie-AGL — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 22:43:34 GMT

Hi Robw1, Thank you for getting in touch.

To further assist you with your enquiry please contact us. Our contact centre is available 24/7, you can find how to contact us via agl.com.au/contact-us.

Kind Regards,

Natalie

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Spiked — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 22:27:24 GMT

Well hello same here. Please read below. Just put this somewhere else in the discussion forum but good to know I am not the only one.

This is my first time here. I have a big concern and wondering if others are aware of same problem as I have found is happening at our house.

We have had Controlled Load being run at our meter after 7am and up to 4.30pm Demand tarrif time. We have solar and during day we are charged for electricity coming into our meter and this is when in normal days our solar takes care of our needs.

Since 20th April 2023 mainly and there have been previous times we suddenly have Controlledload running our Hot Water heater. It had been happening around 12pm to 2pm on a daily basis. I went to the meter box and turned off all circuit breakers to find out it was power being used by Hot Water heater.

I have contacted AGL numerous times to no avail, they blame the Solar Installer. I went to Solar Installer and they will come out and at cost to me remove connection to the Controlled Load meter. Problem should be solved no more spikes during daylight hours and our solar will be used as it should to heat our water.

My problem now is to get refunded by AGL who initiated the problem to start with and have been sneakily charging us for electricity when we are not looking.

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Spiked — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 22:36:47 GMT

Hello again,

I downloaded the usage stats of all our usage since joining AGL last year and as an example of what is happening on the 4th July 2023 we were charged 12.09Kw for Controlled Load for one continuous 24hr period of which 7.133Kw was charged during the day. Other days are just normal at times.

Is this a new way to make gold? Or is the programmer at fault?

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Robw1 — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 21:11:53 GMT

Hi, thanks for the info, so it seems the controlled load (tarrif 31?) circuit and timings is controlled by AGL (or the provider). Seems I need to get an electrician to get my hot water off that circuit and maybe put in some sort of timer so I can control when it draws power. Might save me $400 a year by just doing that?

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Spiked — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 23:21:49 GMT

Hi Robw1

Just had my Tarrif meter removed yesterday. Timer set to switch hot water on between 9.30 and 3pm. All running on solar from here on out.

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Robw1 — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 23:30:49 GMT

Nice, if you dont mind me asking, was it a big job and any indicator of costs would be helpful. Ta

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Spiked — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 03:20:06 GMT

Hi Robw1

Cost 1hr electrician plus call out fee so it depends on your electrician. They removed the meter from our box altogether.

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Becca07 — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 11:54:03 GMT

@Spiked wrote:
Well hello same here. Please read below. Just put this somewhere else in the discussion forum but good to know I am not the only one.

This is my first time here. I have a big concern and wondering if others are aware of same problem as I have found is happening at our house.
We have had Controlled Load being run at our meter after 7am and up to 4.30pm Demand tarrif time. We have solar and during day we are charged for electricity coming into our meter and this is when in normal days our solar takes care of our needs.
Since 20th April 2023 mainly and there have been previous times we suddenly have Controlledload running our Hot Water heater. It had been happening around 12pm to 2pm on a daily basis. I went to the meter box and turned off all circuit breakers to find out it was power being used by Hot Water heater.
I have contacted AGL numerous times to no avail, they blame the Solar Installer. I went to Solar Installer and they will come out and at cost to me remove connection to the Controlled Load meter. Problem should be solved no more spikes during daylight hours and our solar will be used as it should to heat our water.
My problem now is to get refunded by AGL who initiated the problem to start with and have been sneakily charging us for electricity when we are not looking.

I have been searching everywhere for an answer to this, but I appear to have the Controlled load occurring twice per day for our HWS - once at 1am and then again at 11am. Is this normal, how can i investigate what the usage relates to? We have solar panels and a battery so this apparently random grid usage combined with the poor feed in tariff we now get is driving our bill through the roof 😞

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Paulsod — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:08:33 GMT

Had an Energex Contractor install a Digital Meter 2 days ago. He said Energex (SEQ) controls the Tariff 31 time. Mine came on around 12.05pm till after 4pm since 01 july 2023 when our Electric prices shot up.

So the electric company is paying only 5c a kwh to other people for their Solar output and charging over 25c before gst to heat your water with your solar power (ripoff). I have been turning the Hot Water Switch off in the morning and on in the arvo so I get some money for my solar output plus they have to pay more to the electric providers.

I will be doing the same and get Electrican to remove the Tariff 31 Control Box. The Electrican has to put paperwork in to remove it.

I can't put in a Hot Water Timer because I only have a 3kw Solar system (produces 2.5kws approx at most). You need enough Solar, in this case 3.6kw for the Timer to turn on to heat the Hot Water Tank.

So I will just turn it on and off manually especially really cloudy/overcast days where I will have it off untill a sunny day.

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

NeilC — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 22:55:09 GMT

@Paulsod

Seems to me that you are not going about this in the correct way.

To start with, if the solar system only supplies 2.5kWh you will always have a shortfall as most heating elements are 15a and so will require 3.6kWh to heat the water.

I presume that you mean that you when had a DIGITAL METER installed that you mean a SMART METER installed, I also presume that when going to the smart meter you changed your plan to a Time of Use Tariff.

With TOU your cheapest tariff will be the Shoulder Rate, which is typically from 10:00 till 15:00 and that is the time that your timer (or in your case, when you turn on the Hot Water unit) will allow you to get the cheapest rate.

However, you must realise that you will always pay to heat your hot water while you do not have the capacity to generate enough power to completely power the hot water unit.

Also don't forget that any other electrical devices in the house will also consume your solar generation (fans, fridges, TV's etc).

Remember the times before and after Shoulder are the most expensive rates of the day and you should avoid turning on your hot water unit during those PEAK times.

You also must realise why you can produce 3kWh but only put 2.5kWh into the grid. The reason being that on overcast days you may still be able to produce 2.5kwh.

Our system is a 6.6kw with a 5kWh inverter and so on some overcast days we can still put 5kWh into the grid.

I would also suggest that you look at HEAT PUMP hot-water units. They use considerably less power, ours consumes about 3.5kWh over the average 3 hours a day that it takes to heat the water.

Further more ours was free and you may also be able to apply for a free one in your state.

Overcast day here in Adelaide, 09:00 at the moment, and we are generating about 1.5kWh which is about half of our normal output for a typical day at this time and will still be enough to supply our complete house including the hot-water unit.

In our last 90 day billing period we only consumed 4.977kWh of power during the shoulder period and in this current period (10 days so far) we have consumed .038kWh (cost is $0.0128 so far) as most days have been overcast.

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

Paulsod — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 01:23:02 GMT

I presume you don't know Smart Meters are called Ditigal Meters as well. Even Agl has them as Ditigal Meters.

Obliviously you didn't thoroughly read my posting as I have 3.6kw as the power needed for my Water Heater plus the 2.5kw my Solar Panel would produce. So obliviously there would be a shortfall of 1.1kw that has to come from the Grid.

I presume you don't know the procedures involved of changing Tariffs in this circumstance.

After I had the Analogue Meter removed by a Energex Contractor I had to get another Electrican to remove the Tariff 31/33 Control Box. That was removed this morning so now I have to wait for paperwork to reach Energex who will then notify AGL of the change. Who will then notify me of the different plans. Easy, hey!

The other mistakes was presuming what Tariff is better for me without knowing more details. As S.A is the worst State for Electric prices (see above), unless you know what a person circumstances are, the less presuming about Tariffs you do the better. Also having a Heat Pump Water Heater comes under that category.

Plus you seem to vary what a overcast day is. It is a totally grey cloudy day. Your 2nd statement about half the power is correct.

Cheers

Paul

P.s I would urge everybody to check other Electric Companies for better deals. AGL use to be good, now they come in at 5th spot (Carnstars rating in S.A). Carnstar has AGL as 3rd in Qld. I know that is wrong as Globird also beats them.

Re: Hot water system Tariff 31 controlled load now kicking in at 12:30pm

profdraper — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 07:22:37 GMT

I tend to agree with much of this silliness & the complete lack of capacity of AGL to provide any trustworthy information, let alone servce their customers.

One comment in this thread recommenda ‘contact AGL’. Seriously? Either an idiot bot that goes nowhere fast, or a long wait time that goes to a hopless international call centre, much of the time neither providing correct information nor actioning it. I’ve had months of that before, only being resolved by our MP’s intervention.

Right now, for a retired couple on T33 CL & 160L tank, our monthly bill shows this as ‘27% of overll use’ and some 203kWh. Seriously? What a ripp off, nor is there any usefull way to followup. Change companies seems the only option, but then everyone here in Brisbane / Energex seems to be complaining about this same problem; and, seems to have started with the new qld govt rebates.

dodgy as helll. So everyone goes solar @ pays a fortune that takes years to pay off, no real ROI. Just that they hate power companies more.