Hot water automation
Save money and lower carbon emissions by managing your hot water heating with Kiwi Central.
This tech isn't available to everyone just yet, but we're working with networks around the country to bring it to even more customers.
What does this mean?
Eligible customers can set their hot water cylinder to heat up during off-peak times via their app or online account.
Off-peak power tends to come from cleaner generation, with the bonus of lower prices and potential power savings.
What could I save?
Customers from our initial trail saved on average around $14.54 in just one month.
That was before our power plans were moved to time-of-use pricing, and before it could be controlled via Kiwi Central. So you could save even more!
What do I do?
Head to the 'extras' tab in your app or online account and see if it’s there for you. Pick your settings and enjoy the savings.
If it's not available for you right now, we'll email to let you know when it is.
What are the modes?
- Mini: Hot water heating is off between 7am-9am and 7pm-9pm. You should still save and have a low risk of running out of hot water.
- Mid: This is your current default mode. Good savings, with a low risk of hot water issues. Heating will be turned off between 6am-10am and 5pm-9pm.
- Mega: The mode to maximise your hot water savings and environmental impact. In this mode hot water heating is turned off between 6am-12pm and 3pm-11pm.
- Out of town: Turn off your hot water heating while you're gone to save even more. Plus, schedule it to be warmed up toasty on your return.
Save as much or as little as you want
It’s up to you! If you're eligible, tap the ‘extras’ tab inside Kiwi Central to get started.
Why is Electric Kiwi doing this?
We're confident that hot water automation can have a positive impact both on the climate, and our customers wallets.
There's no financial barrier to take part, as you don't need any fancy expensive devices.
This tech is in its infancy, but we're hoping for mass rollout nationwide as soon as possible.
Will I run out of hot water?
Based on our trials, you shouldn't notice a difference. Your hot water cylinder is a champ at keeping things toasty.
Housemate hog the shower for three hours and use all the hot water? Just hit 'heat now' to start warming up instantly.
This will override your usual mode settings for that day.
Hot Water FAQs
This automation will run indefinitely on the setting you select until you change it. If you select "heat up" it will override your usual mode settings for that day, and then automatically return to your normal setting.
- As an early adopter there is a small chance that your hot water will go warm, but is very unlikely. The water in most hot water cylinders will stay hot enough for several hours so you probably won't notice any difference.
- If your hot water happens to get colder, hit "heat now" in Kiwi Central, and the hot water cylinder will start reheating.
- Factors that will impact if your hot water goes cold is multiple people having hot showers/baths consecutively, and if you're using the washing machine and the dishwasher at the same time.
Turning off the hot water heating during peak times helps reduce the demand for electricity on the grid. Hot water can be heated at non-peak times rather than during the peak when households need electricity for heating and cooking. Essentially, it is a simple, effective way of flattening out the peaks of demand for electricity.
Most household hot water cylinders will take a few hours to heat up if all the hot water has been used.
We may email you a survey, or call you to ask for some feedback at some point, but that's all. If you're eligible we will let you know, or you'll see the option appear in your Kiwi Central online account or app.
Yes, you can opt out in the via Kiwi Central at any time.
Nope! Just hot water. So your other power usage wouldn't be impacted.
Just like with your regularly electricity usage, we have no way of knowing exactly what in your house is using hot water at a specific time.
Modern washing machines and dishwashers take cold water from the mains and heat it up themselves so wouldn't be impacted. However, if you have a machine that's using hot water directly from the mains, then this would be.
Sadly some people won't be able to use this feature yet due to their meter type, or the network they're on. Often all it takes is a request for us to upgrade the meter and get things moving. We want to provide this tool to everyone, and if you are not able to use it we'll let you know why, just drop us a line.
In some areas, your lines company may already exercise hot water ripple control. This is done at the network level, rather than by controlling individual households. Depending on your network this could occur a few times a year or on a regular basis, depending on how proactive they are with load management. Network ripple control is most likely to occur during periods of high peak demand (e.g. a cold winter's morning or evening) and typically lasts less than 2 hours per event.
During ripple control events, your Electric Kiwi mode settings will be overridden by the network. The impact on your Electric Kiwi hot water scheduling is 1) during these periods selecting 'Heat now' in the app will not activate your hot water heating until the network resumes your hot water heating 2) depending on when the network resumes your hot water heating, you may see less or more hot water savings than usual on that day. But rest assured that your Electric Kiwi hot water scheduling modes will resume as normal shortly after a ripple control event.
