- Carded rate
- The price a power company publishes for anyone to see, before any sign-up discount or short-term deal. It is the rate you end up on once an introductory offer runs out.
- Daily charge
- A fixed amount charged for every day you are connected, whether you use power that day or not. It covers the cost of the wires and the meter. Every power company in New Zealand has one.
- Unit (kWh)
- The amount of power you buy, measured the way petrol is measured in litres. One unit runs a heat pump for about an hour. An average New Zealand home uses somewhere between 15 and 25 units a day.
- Written as kWh, short for kilowatt hour.
- Cents per unit (c/kWh)
- The price of one unit of power. If your rate is 30c and you use 20 units in a day, the power on your bill for that day is $6.00, before the daily charge.
- Lines company
- The business that owns the poles and wires in your street. You do not choose them; they are set by where you live. Vector runs Auckland, Orion runs Christchurch, Powerco runs Tauranga. They charge us for delivery and we pass that through in your rate.
- Also called a network, a distributor, or an EDB.
- Injection credit
- A payment some lines companies make for putting power back into their network at the times it is busiest. It is the opposite of a delivery charge. Where your area pays one, it counts toward what your battery earns.
- Wholesale market
- Where power companies buy electricity before selling it to households. The price changes every half hour and can swing hard in a cold snap or a dry year. Your rate is what keeps that swing off your bill.
- Spot price
- The wholesale price right now, this half hour. Some retailers pass it straight through to households; your tīrama rate is set in advance.
- Gentailer
- A company that both generates power and sells it to households. New Zealand has four large ones.
- Battery
- The unit we fit at your place. It holds power bought when it costs less, and gives it back to your home in the evening when it would otherwise cost the most.
- Ours is 15.36 kWh, about a full day’s use for a smaller household.
- LFP
- The chemistry inside the battery, short for lithium iron phosphate. It is the safest and longest-lasting of the common battery types, which is why it is used for home storage rather than the lighter chemistry used in phones.
- Inverter
- The part that converts the power stored in the battery into the kind your house actually runs on. It is built into the same unit, so there is no second box on the wall.
- Switchboard
- The panel of switches in your house, usually in a hallway or on an outside wall, where the power comes in and splits out to the rooms. The battery wires into it.
- Controlled circuit
- A separate circuit for your hot water cylinder or EV charger, so it runs when power costs less and does not draw on the battery. Controlled hot water is standard in most New Zealand homes and does not change the temperature of your water.
- Single-phase and three-phase
- Two ways a house can be connected to the street. Almost all New Zealand homes are single-phase. Three-phase is more common on lifestyle blocks and homes with heavy equipment. We fit single-phase homes now, three-phase later.
- ICP
- The unique number that identifies your property on the national electricity register. It is how a switch between power companies happens. You do not need to know yours; we find it from your address.
- Switching
- Moving your account from one power company to another. It happens on paper, and your power stays on.
- Commissioned
- The moment the installer finishes and switches the battery on for the first time. Your three years start from that day, not from the day you sign.
- Break fee
- What you pay if you end the agreement before the three years are up. It drops as the term runs down, and the schedule is published upfront. It does not apply if we increase your rate.
- Buyback rate
- What we pay you for power your own solar panels make. It is a published rate, paid as a credit on your bill.
- Medically dependent
- A registered status for a household where someone relies on mains power for medical equipment. It changes how we handle outages, disconnection and contact. Registering costs nothing and we will help you do it.