Smart way to track daily electricity usage for households

[caseyhunt]

I think it would be really useful if customers had an easy way to view and understand their daily electricity usage instead of only monthly totals.
Seeing usage broken down by day (or even peak vs off-peak) could help people identify patterns, reduce unnecessary consumption, and better plan their energy use—especially during high-demand seasons like summer or winter.
A simple dashboard or usage history view could make energy data more practical and actionable for everyday users, rather than just informational.

[NeilC]

@caseyhunt 

Don't understand your issue.

If you have a smart meter you can view your daily usage then by clicking on the day you can see your hourly usage.

You can also view in the past by selecting previous periods (for up to the last two years).

If you don't have a smart meter you cannot get any data other than the consumption or solar generation for a complete billing period.

Below is my data for Jan 2026 so far this year

Date	Peak kW	Shoulder kW	O/peak kW	Export kW
Carried Fwd	28.294	0.021	16.136	282.950
1-Jan-26	2.394	0.000	1.009	35.587
2-Jan-26	6.039	0.000	1.885	32.348
3-Jan-26	3.289	0.000	1.869	25.801
4-Jan-26	2.948	0.000	1.760	31.373
5-Jan-26	3.214	0.001	1.733	30.34
6-Jan-26	5.184	0.000	1.713	27.378
7-Jan-26	6.747	0.000	1.754	29.334
8-Jan-26	6.608	0.000	1.843	25.67

And below the same data for January 2024

Date	Peak kW	Shoulder kW	O/peak kW	Export kW	Gen kW
Carried Fwd	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.00
1-Jan-24	1.468	1.095	1.157	24.235	30.20
2-Jan-24	1.528	1.115	1.287	30.027	40.30
3-Jan-24	2.048	0.047	1.352	11.657	17.30
4-Jan-24	2.311	0.000	1.521	18.040	23.80
5-Jan-24	5.737	0.000	1.325	29.170	35.20
6-Jan-24	2.011	0.768	1.537	9.204	12.80
7-Jan-24	5.956	0.009	1.289	25.220	30.90
8-Jan-24	3.931	0.000	4.576	32.122	37.80

Sorry I have not downloaded my Solar Generation for Jan 2026.

All this data from AGL is available from the usage file supplied by AGL.

I can clearly see that the start of Jan 2026 is completely different than the same period in 2024.

Can you see the difference and understand what the differences are.

Cheers Neil

[caseyhunt]

Thanks for sharing the details. I get that smart-meter users can already view daily and even hourly data. My point was more about making this easier and more intuitive by default for all users — especially a simple daily summary or dashboard view without digging into multiple screens or exporting data.
Also, for users without smart meters, even an estimated daily breakdown or clearer visual trends could still add value. The goal is usability and quick insights, not just raw availability of data.

[NeilC]

@caseyhunt 

Presume your name is Casey...

Casey.

In the case of persons that do not have a smart meter you must realise the only information you can deduce is the average daily usage.

To do this you simply divide your usage by the number of days in the bill (similarly for any other meters you may have).

So generally a waste of time because it gives your daily use (or generation) and you have to wait for the bill to arrive.

You can if you desire read your own meter data and plot that on a spreadsheet.

Believe it or not, I believe probably less than 5% of users actually care about their usage. 

My bill from Jan20 has a section which compares our usage with others in the area.

 462kWh               684kWh                1,026kWh  
Our House            1 Person               2 people

So two of us, use 66% of a house with a single residence or 45% of a house with the same number of persons.

Basically a useless fact and the reason they dropped it from the bill

I can also tell you that prior to adding solar our average daily use was:

Start Date	End Date	Peak Daily	Ctrl Daily	Usage Daily	Days
1-Nov-17	30-Jan-18	11.86	3.70	15.56	90
30-Jan-18	30-Apr-18	11.41	4.07	15.48	90
30-Apr-18	31-Jul-18	8.93	5.92	14.86	92
31-Jul-18	30-Oct-18	8.85	5.63	14.47	91

This data is from a meter reader, we were lucky because if you check the dates they around the 90 day mark.

We had Solar installed in Jan 2019 along with a Smart Meter.

I commenced converting the data (supplied by AGL) into usable data by writing two programs to convert the data into a more readable format, this process takes me less than 3 minutes to view the result in my House Billing Calculator.

Through these pages I tried to get other people into using my program and assisting me with documentation and feed back.

I have converted data for 5 users and in 6 years have NEVER had anyone actually use the program for any period or supplied feedback

Still maintain the program which is why I can tell you the facts that I have supplied here.

Did you know that you can request a NEM format file from AGL and from that, extract, using a spreadsheet, all the data that you require.

I believe that AGL can now supply data using API access but as I already make the necessary files I have not bothered with it.

Cheers Neil