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[VIC, NSW, QLD, SA] Free Electricity Usage 11am-2pm Daily with The Free 3 Plan & The Basic Free 3 Plan @ OVO Energy

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[VIC, NSW, QLD, SA] Free Electricity Usage 11am-2pm Daily with The Free 3 Plan & The Basic Free 3 Plan @ OVO Energy
Go to Deal
spiderbite88 on 24/11/2023 - 16:12 ovoenergy.com.au (5856 clicks)
Last edited 30/11/2023 - 13:43 by 2 other users

Check your off peak, on peak and supply charge rate at the link. Fixed rate until 1st December 2024. No lock in contracts.

VIC, NSW, QLD and SA only.
For my location, it was the best price according to https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/

If your appliances have a delay function and you have your AC/Heater on Home Assistant, get ready to schedule everything for the free hours.
Don't forget to sign up with the refferal link for $10/month off.

T&Cs:

The Free 3 Plan & The Basic Free 3 Plan

Free energy between 11am and 2pm everyday

  1. Offer Terms
    These terms (Special Terms) set out the terms and conditions applicable to OVO Energy's The Free 3 Plan and The Basic Free 3 Plan.
    Terms that are not defined in these Special Terms are defined in OVO Energy's Market Retail Contract Terms and Conditions for small customers - available here.

  2. Eligibility Requirements The Free 3 Plan and The Basic Free 3 Plan are available to residential customers who have a communicating smart meter only. If your Market Retail Contract is terminated because you are not eligible for The Free 3 Plan or The Basic Free 3 Plan you will be moved to our Standard Retail Contract.

  3. The Free 3 Plan Billing Requirements
    The Free 3 Plan requires that you pay for the electricity you use monthly in advance on a Bill Smoothing arrangement. Your Bill Smoothing arrangement will be set in accordance with your contract with us.

  4. The Basic Free 3 Plan Billing Requirements
    The Basic Free 3 Plan is billed in arrears. You will be issued a bill monthly for the energy that you have used, payment must be made by the due date on your bill.

Referral Links

Referral: random (749)

Referrer & Referee Each Receive $10 Bill Credit Per Month over 12 Months

This is part of Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals for 2023
Electrical & Electronics Black Friday Electricity

Related Stores

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Comments

    • Guybrush57 on 24/11/2023 - 18:02
      +1

      What happens if you had a bad credit rating and couldn't sign up to any provider?

      • 0FoxGiven on 25/11/2023 - 09:09

        You can sign up with the previous provider who serviced the property. They are required to continue servicing the property even if the current tenant has a bad credit rating.

      • YesPleaseThankYou on 20/01/2024 - 14:59

        The credit scores calculated by the credit rating agencies are rubbish. Rubbish as in they don't mean much at all.

        It is ridiculous that switching energy providers (which then results in credit enquiries) results in the calculated score going down. You can only have one provider for a particular energy type at each address. Obviously, you are not concurrently connected to all of the energy providers listed on your credit report.

        So long as you don't have any defaults listed, I wouldn't be concerned at all. Churn away!

    • modsec802 on 24/11/2023 - 18:24
      +1

      Which is odd considering it’s mostly prepaid

    • 811b11e8 on 25/11/2023 - 06:42

      I had to sign up my partner as my credit file is locked due to all the recent hacks and unlocking it was a pain.

  • amsaini15 on 24/11/2023 - 17:31

    What is the FIT with them?

    • rickdwp on 24/11/2023 - 17:45
      +3

      4.9c for this plan, 7c for the regular plan

      • Opaquer on 24/11/2023 - 18:46
        +2

        It depends where you are. For me it's 3c for this plan and 7c for the regular. Best to check yourself to be 100% sure

  • Cluster on 24/11/2023 - 17:32

    Interesting offer. I'm in SA and only get paid 5c/kWh for most of my solar export. The exported power is almost worthless as on a sunny day for about 6 months of the year SA for ~6 hours runs entirely on solar and wind power.

    So I've found myself trying to think of ways to burn through the excess power. Crypto mining is one. What is bone headed to do at 45c/kWh can make sense at 5. I've already shifted cooking/washing/dishwashing into the middle of the day, and it's hard to come up with ways to use the excess power. The market clearly thinks it's almost worthless. OvO pays just 3c. Pathetic.

    • profane01 on 25/11/2023 - 08:30

      Check out Origin if you have a heap of excess solar

    • AustriaBargain on 22/12/2023 - 21:37

      It must be worthless to them too if they are giving it away when the sun is high.

      • stumo on 23/12/2023 - 10:45

        Someone said earlier that these retailers actually get paid to take excess power at those times.

  • rickdwp on 24/11/2023 - 17:42

    Already with OVO but the did the compare anyway, my main takeaway is WTF happened to ReAmped - $1,000 more a year for me then OVO

    Also, pretty darn good deal if you have an EV and WFH at least a couple days a week. Take kids to school, get home plug in, school run after.

  • jaimex2 on 24/11/2023 - 17:53

    The pre payment is a deal breaker.

    There's no excuse for it with smart metres

    • Guybrush57 on 24/11/2023 - 18:04

      You spelt 'meter' wrong.

      • jaimex2 on 24/11/2023 - 18:27
        +1

        Technically the shitty Google pixel swipe keyboard on my phone did.

        Metre Meyer Meyer Meyer Meyer

        Lol, it seems incapable of writing it.

  • Indomietable on 24/11/2023 - 17:55

    I can charge my eneloops for free!

  • hasher22 on 24/11/2023 - 17:59

    Sorry for the noob question

    I live in a unit where my building manager has to manually unlock the door to get an accurate read so my bills are mostly estimates until the law states they need an actual read for an accurate bill.

    How does ovo know not to bill me between the $0 period if I have the AC on blast?

    • hmmz on 24/11/2023 - 18:05
      +2

      You'll need a smart meter for this to work. They need to know how much you're using in each hour. Sounds like you don't have one.

      • hasher22 on 24/11/2023 - 19:58

        Oh damn, I don't have a smart meter, I looked at the model number :(

  • FiDad on 24/11/2023 - 18:17

    hmm tempting to switch from my cheap globird plan to this conisdering Globird are most likely to increase their rates in new year

    • Guybrush57 on 24/11/2023 - 18:27

      I was so close to subbing to Globird but went with OVO for the one in a million chance at winning a Tesla Model 3. I failed and ultimately paid more for my electricity. I did a new quote with Globird and their rates were astronomically higher.

  • Tnismo on 24/11/2023 - 18:20
    +2

    I’d stay away from these guys.changed to them in Aug to a 12 month fixed term contract with 14c feed in tariff and just got an email last week advising that they are halving it.not even sure if it’s legal!!it’s not just me and few of the others who signed up to the same deal had the notice issued!!

    • Guybrush57 on 24/11/2023 - 18:30

      I didn't think electricity providers had contracts anymore?

    • t0087669 on 24/11/2023 - 19:04

      Mine went down to 10c. End of email says you can leave anytime, not sure it applies to contracted customers.
      But after comparing they are still the cheapest 😑

  • Guybrush57 on 24/11/2023 - 18:31

    Aside from enabling plans like this, is there any advantage to switching meters from dumb to smart if you don't have solar?

    • Opaquer on 24/11/2023 - 18:59
      +5

      One thing to look into is whether you'll get charged a demand tariff. Basically suppliers will look at your highest 30 minute window of usage during "peak" time (for me it's between 3pm and 9pm I believe), and then use that to charge you an extra fee. The problem though is that the highest usage is checked every day, and the highest usage for the month is calculated using a daily rate, which seems silly to me

      Here's an example. Let's say you're on a plan with a demand rate of 15c/kw/day and it's a new month. On day 1 during the peak time, your highest 30 minute window is 1kw of usage during that half hour. Let's say that for the rest of the month, your highest peak is less than 1kw. They'll take the 1kw of usage from your first day of the month, multiply it by 2 (I think to get how much for an hour) - leaving us with 2kw for the peak for the month. Then they multiply that demand rate by your peak - $0.15 * 2 = $0.30/day. Assuming 30 days in a month, that $0.30 gets charged for every single day of the month, adding an extra $9 to your bill per month. This cost resets monthly. It may be nothing huge, but what if you have more than 1kw in a day?

      In scenario 2, everything is the same as the previous month, but let's say for example on the last day of the month you've got some friends and family coming over for dinner. You might have something cooking in the oven, the kettle on for cuppas, maybe some extra fans or blasting the air con more to help things, maybe the microwave etc. Let's say that with everything going on, for one brief period you spiked to a 30 minute window of 3kw. Now all of a sudden if you redo the calculations, 3kw * 2 = 6, which we multiply by our demand charge of $0.15 to get $0.90/day. Now all of a sudden that rate for the month is going to cost you $27 extra, even if you were really good about not using much energy for the rest of the month.

      Not everywhere has demand charges, and it's also based on the energy provider if they pass it on to the suppliers - i.e. where I live, energex says there should be a demand charge but not all the suppliers pass that demand charge onto me.

      There could be other cool things with your smart meter that you can do, but this is something you don't see talked about often, especially with how little info there is about calculating it and how it can add up quickly

      Hope it helps!

      • YesPleaseThankYou on 20/01/2024 - 15:01

        You can ask to be moved off demand pricing back to time of use. The energy retailer is required to submit a request to the network who then updates the meter, but it seems that retailers are confused by this (or don't want to participate in the process).

  • anti-hero on 24/11/2023 - 18:32
    +1

    if you have a swimming pool, you can set the pool filtration system to working during these hours.

  • lordrupertliverpool on 24/11/2023 - 18:34

    Not relevant to this particular deal, but if you have solar and will be net positive over summer, these guys are crooks. I've got a credit balance from almost six months now when I changed providers and they keep making excuses about why they haven't processed the refund.

    • Heybargain on 24/11/2023 - 19:18

      Why not put your monthly payments on hold?
      I’m in credit a fair bit and have paused payments for 6 months.

      • Michael15286 on 24/11/2023 - 19:25

        He said he's changed providers

      • Tnismo on 24/11/2023 - 21:40

        How do you pause payments?

        • Heybargain on 25/11/2023 - 07:08
          +1

          I was able to request it via email

  • orangecarpet-22 on 24/11/2023 - 19:12
    +1

    I already use off peak and it costs $20. The peak costs $14 and the controlled load costs $45.

    Looking at these rates, yes it’s free 11-2pm but the peak, CL and off peak rip higher, so using the CSVs that produce hourly stats I’m no better off.

    Sounds good but no good for me. Need an EV or battery but the capital costs of those also destroy any savings.

    The maximum I could save per month is $20.

  • mayo88 on 24/11/2023 - 20:15

    Not worth it if you have solar panels. You wouldn't use your power you generate so it's basically worthless

  • ozproud on 24/11/2023 - 20:53

    Caveat emptor, Ovo's customer service sucks big time.
    When I switched provider recently due to their big rate raise, they spewed a lot of mumbo jumbos about what they claimed to be industry-wide practice of "fast switching". Basically, it means that they won't do the final meter reading to calculate the final bill, instead they'll just send an estimated final bill. I've switched a few times now and that was the first time I heard about it.
    When I sent them the actual usage reading, they had the audacity to refuse my reading. What a load of crap!

    • lordra on 24/11/2023 - 21:52

      That's really bad!
      Did you have a remote smart meter?

      • ozproud on 25/11/2023 - 10:14
        +1

        No, that's why they should send a meter reader but they didn't …
        To make matters worse, their estimated bill for October was already way much higher than the actual usage in mid-Nov, can you believe it? I get that they want to make money but c'mon, that's highway robbery …
        Stay away from them!

        • YesPleaseThankYou on 20/01/2024 - 15:02

          Why didn't you submit a manual meter read or lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman?

  • mauricem on 24/11/2023 - 22:17

    what's involved in getting a smart meter? I'm in Qld with energex FWIW.

  • milobob on 25/11/2023 - 07:35

    So free electricity when you there is excess electricity due to solar. Smart.

    I wonder if you could take this offer up in winter - esp if you had a battery and an EV. Charge your car, battery and switch on the heater at home for 3h. Could probably save a lot with this plan!

    Edit: in Vic so almost no solar in mid winter as it always rains.

  • profane01 on 25/11/2023 - 08:41

    In SA, the only providers I'd consider right now are Energy Locals and Origin. The more excess solar you have, the more I'd lean to Origin. Obviously your circumstances may be different to mine, but these 2 appear to be head and shoulders above the rest in terms of price only

  • daniesaurs on 25/11/2023 - 09:31

    I'm not sure if the place I'm moving to will have a smart meter, do they give you a chance to book in installation of one too?

  • igorekh on 25/11/2023 - 10:08

    I was with OVO (dumb meter, lot of solar export) and wouldn't recommend them. With recent tariff changes they are not competitive for solar exporters anyway (40% usage&charge increase, 30% solar FIT decrease).
    1. Their "bill smoothing" (aka estimate reading) are completely off e.g. even though they had known my usage for months, they still estimated as if I used 7 times more and exported zero – all in their favour.
    2. It's hard to receive a refund of solar credits from them. First, it was some back-and-forth with unrelated answers, then they refused to make a full refund on the basis that I had received "Cost of Living Rebate" (as if they money are not from the solar export but purely from the government and rebates are nonrefundable). After some more back-and-forth, they agreed to refund it partly, then there was another back-and-forth with bank details (that were already in their system). Then it took them another 2 weeks to actually issue the refund, overall taking almost a month.

  • Morphio25 on 25/11/2023 - 10:28
    +1

    $1.50 per day supply charge? No thanks, I'm currently paying half that.

  • tangobox on 25/11/2023 - 10:55
    +1

    I'm in Melbourne and have a 10kw, $10k solar installation scheduled for January. Does a plan like this give me most of the benefits without the up-front cost? Run appliances / heat pump / HVAC in the 3 hours etc.

    • bukowski73 on 25/11/2023 - 11:39

      I would be interested to find out, too. Haven’t ordered my solar system yet, but about to.

    • stumo on 25/11/2023 - 12:00
      +1

      IMO yes.

      I can't really get solar due to shading and aspect. Also in Melbourne in winter it will be virtually useless anyway. And I work from home fulltime so can be available to run some loads 11-2.

      So this OVO plan gives me the benefit of solar without the outlay or restrictions/variations due to bad weather.

      I am going to smash the HWS and HVAC for that 3 hours a day. And maybe run the daily dishwasher cycle then too. Maybe push the boat out and do a hot wash on the washing machine too!

      • lordra on 25/11/2023 - 23:09

        What's a hws and hvac?

      • allergic2work on 27/11/2023 - 10:00

        … just oversize your solar to account for the winter dip in production instead of schedulingyour life around a 3 hour window, its a gimmick…

        • stumo on 27/11/2023 - 11:04
          +2

          There isn't enough roof space, let alone unshaded roof space, to "just oversize" the solar. That would also mean upgrading the switchboard and the street feed and the whole house VIR wiring. So best part of 20k, BEFORE I even look at the "oversized" solar prices.

          This "gimmick"? is perfect for people like me.

  • Tempri on 25/11/2023 - 11:05

    Is anyone able to provide some advice for my situation? I currently output 5kw with my solar panels and my Tesla wall charge outputs 7kw, meaning during the day I have to pay the additional 2kw which kills any potential or charging using my solar.

    I know Tesla vehicles can limit the charge they receive but does anyone know if/how Mercedes EQA vehicles can do this? It let's you limit the amps from 32 to 8 for mains charger but this doesn't seem to affect rhe wall charger.

    • Bre77 on 26/11/2023 - 08:36

      You could redo the commissioning on the Tesla Wall Connector to limit it to 20A instead of 32A so It never used more than 5kW.

      Do you only have 5kW invertor? I export 5kW but have an 8.2kW inverter which is great for the Wall Connectors 7.6kW capacity.

  • SolidlyIrresponsible on 25/11/2023 - 13:12

    Disconnection fee $205.11

    • spiderbite88 on 25/11/2023 - 13:19
      +3

      The disconnection or reconnection fee is charged by your local distrubuter and would only apply if you own the property and wish to have the power completely disconnected. This does not apply if you are switching to a new energy provider.

  • Bii on 25/11/2023 - 14:53

    This is one way of making use of everyone fed in solar power during the peak hours.

    Wait, does it mean free 3 hours of air con every day? (I think only after using up your solar power)

  • Doboman on 25/11/2023 - 22:08

    The plan says there is 3% interest on the extra money held in the account on smooth payment. Has Anyone know how that works ?
    I did sign up, and it looks good for Victoria.

  • Bre77 on 26/11/2023 - 08:33
    +1

    Origin had a similar plan (which I'm on) which is free from 10am to 3pm but required you to have Solar and an EV. Fun thing is that they haven't sent me a bill once so at this stage my electricity is free 24/7.

    • Borg on 07/12/2023 - 23:38

      It's never fun when it ends up coming in with a nice backlog of power to pay OR if the bill was being sent to wrong person and remains unpaid. You only find out when you get disconnected…..now that won't be fun. :-)

      • Bre77 on 10/12/2023 - 05:37

        The origin app shows my balance is in credit due to QLD power rebates, and has no bills available for me to see. So it's definitely not going to the wrong person and being unpaid, but I am budgeting for them to figure it out at some point.

  • poczynek77 on 01/12/2023 - 08:02

    With this deal, it only comes up if I tick the box that says I do not have an Electric Vehicle. If I say I do, then I am not eligible. So what happens if I say I do not have an Electric Vehicle, get the plan, and then do have an Electric Vehicle? (FYI I do have an EV)

    • spiderbite88 on 01/12/2023 - 15:39
      +1

      Good point. If they ask questions, just say you have an 11kw ducted heating/cooling unit that you like to run overnight?

  • Captain Hindsight on 04/12/2023 - 21:08

    I’m on ev plan, now offering free charge time/ power between 11-2 for my plan, only downside is solar fit has dropped by 20% to 8c-

    “We're writing to let you know two key changes to your plan:
    We're going to give you a free period to charge your EV between 11am - 2pm everyday
    We're going to be changing your feed in tariff from 10c/kWh to 8c/kWh

    Why are we doing this?
    We're making it so that the the cost of charging your car overnight (8c/kWh), is the same as it is via your rooftop solar during the day (8c/kWh). We want to encourage you to use as much of your own renewable energy as possible. However, we know that your solar generation may not always cover your charging, and since there's an abundance of renewable energy in the grid during the middle of the day, we're also offering you a free charging window between 11am - 2pm.

    Right now, this is only available to existing customers.”

  • Brick50 on 04/12/2023 - 22:29
    +1

    They’re pretty cheeky doing a credit check on new customers but making them pay in advance and constantly be in credit

  • Bii on 06/12/2023 - 13:37

    This plan seems great especially for summer as midday is the period we use AC the most (in this case use at maximum as we like) however not really for winter

  • fitr on 12/12/2023 - 11:38

    DONT FORGOT the Demend charge. Easy $30-50 monthly

  • sandman20104159 on 20/12/2023 - 14:07

    how do they even track the usage for 3 hours? how can this even be free?

    • spiderbite88 on 20/12/2023 - 14:10
      +1

      Smart meter. You must have one to sign up

      • sandman20104159 on 20/12/2023 - 14:39

        ahhh ok, well that explains how its possible

  • TrailerTrash on 13/01/2024 - 08:06

    @spiderbite88 and all - just wondering how this works, as my readings (via CSV download) are in 30min increments.

    I was able to reconcile my 'super off peak $0' kWh however it's calculated on the 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 12:30, 13:00 and 13:30 readings.. so what about the usage between 13:30 and 14:00?

    And what has the 11:00 reading got to do with anything - wouldn't that reflect the usage leading up to 11:00?

    Am thinking if this is the case (confirming with OzB's that my maths isn't off), should I then shift my usage window schedule to 10:30-13:30 to maximise the $ savings?

    • spiderbite88 on 13/01/2024 - 10:34

      That would be very interesting to confirm. I am not sure. I think only OVO support could answer this. If you find out, please let us know.

  • Fishballs on 17/01/2024 - 21:34
    +1

    Normal plan is 24.2c/kWh, three hours free is 25c/kWh. I don't even need to change usage habits to save with this, and much cheaper than globird in my area, hope the random person from here enjoys there referral credit :)

    • Empharand on 20/01/2024 - 15:10

      Is that 24.2c/kWh by taking advantage of the solar tariff? I have been quoted 31c through OVO, which isn't bad, but we're approx 28c with Globird (without solar)

      • Fishballs on 20/01/2024 - 16:29
        +1

        No we don't have solar, just the price they quoted in my area in Victoria.

        • Empharand on 20/01/2024 - 20:16
          +1

          Fair enough. You're lucky that you're getting that rate. I'm extremely jealous :)
          That's roughly what I was getting like 5+ years ago, and I actively shop around for the best rate multiple times a year. Best rate we can get here is Globird @ 28c p/kw

  • Empharand on 20/01/2024 - 15:06
    -2

    Too bad it's not in the evening. Would have been useful when I was working from home and could easily utilise that for washing, drying, charging up various things etc.

    I'd be curious to see if anyone has installed a third-party energy meter and compared their usage to what has been charged to see if they're actually excluding electricity usage between 11am - 2pm.

    I assume it would be very difficult to keep them honest without having said third-party meter.

    • bazingaa on 21/01/2024 - 18:54
      +1

      you don't need another meter, you can get these logs feom from your distributor. I was able to obtain hourly usage data from United Energy but making an online account.

  • financialminimalism on 31/01/2024 - 21:22
    +1

    Can voucher for Ovo. Been a customer with them for 6 months. Good rates for my area at least, referral program is awesome and customer service is good. They’ve also released an app now which is one of the better energy ones I’ve seen!

  • pedrov on 12/02/2024 - 17:20

    FYI. Plan pricing is updated in the last few days, and the Free 3 hours is now applicable to EV Plan also (for new customer sign ups).

  • Frozensage on 13/02/2024 - 10:21

    so if u leave in 3 month and you prepaid money into the account, how do you get it back?

  • Frozensage on 16/02/2024 - 15:19

    Can u sign this up for a business?

  • SonnyD on 16/03/2024 - 22:09

    I just signed up. Literally charge my Tesla for free. Sign up using my referral code we both get $120 off our bill.

    • Heybargain on 17/03/2024 - 15:02

      Hopefully you used a referral while signing up

    • YesPleaseThankYou on 17/03/2024 - 15:03

      It's higher rates at other times, at least it was the last time I looked.

  • INeverPayFullPrice on 01/04/2024 - 21:33

    Saw a mention of Solar should be less than or max 5KW to qualify for this plan. I have 10KW system.

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