Australian households face mounting pressure from rising energy bills. Everyone wants to cut costs without sacrificing comfort and lifestyle.
Amber Electric offers a solution with its innovative approach: providing direct access to wholesale electricity prices that can lead to major savings on power bills.
Your smart meter connects to Amber Electric’s system to track live electricity prices and optimise energy usage. Our complete guide shows you everything about simple setup requirements and advanced strategies to maximise savings with Amber’s wholesale electricity rates.
The Technology Behind Amber Electric
Let’s explore the technology that powers Amber Electric’s innovative approach to energy management. Their system combines smart metering with advanced software solutions effectively.
Smart Meter Requirements and Setup
Smart meters are the life-blood of Amber Electric’s system. Amber will arrange installation through their certified metering providers if your home lacks one. The installation takes about an hour, allowing you to access immediate wholesale electricity rates.
How the Amber App Tracks Prices
The Amber app works as your control centre to monitor and manage energy usage. The app enables you to:
- View live wholesale electricity prices and renewable energy levels
- Check daily power costs and usage patterns
- Receive price alerts for extreme highs or lows
- Access detailed 30-day cost and usage reports
Integration with Home Energy Systems
The SmartShift™ technology distinguishes Amber from competitors by managing your home’s energy systems intelligently. This innovative system optimises battery charging and discharging automatically based on wholesale prices. It coordinates with your existing setup to maximise solar feed-in tariffs for homes with solar panels.
SmartShift™ technology enhances electric vehicle charging through API integration. The system schedules your EV charging automatically when prices are lower or renewable energy availability is higher. This ensures maximum value from your energy usage.
Renewable Energy and Price Correlation
Knowing the relationship between solar energy and electricity prices helps maximise your savings with Amber Electric as wholesale energy prices reflect how much renewable energy flows through the grid.
How Green Energy Affects Rates
Lower wholesale costs show up when renewable energy fills the grid. You can save money by using power while renewable generation is high, with prices dropping substantially during these times. Sometimes the grid even pays you to use electricity when renewable energy floods the system!
Solar Feed-in Tariff Optimisation
Amber’s dynamic feed-in tariff (FiT) system gives us rates that match the wholesale market. Your solar exports earn more at peak times, especially when summer heat strains the grid. Here’s how you can get the most from our solar:
- Monitor wholesale prices through the Amber app
- Export during high-demand periods to maximise returns
- Use SmartShift™ technology to automate solar exports
- Store extra energy when FiT rates drop
Environmental Benefits and Cost Savings
Amber Electric’s approach gives you a dual advantage. You can cut your bills and boost clean energy demand by using solar power when renewable sources peak. This power usage shift allows you to be substantially more environmentally friendly, and more customers joining could help replace a coal-fired power station with wind and solar farms.
Solar battery owners can gain even more from this, enabling them to store energy during cheap, renewable-rich periods and use it when prices climb. This approach speeds up Australia’s move to renewable energy while the cost of electricity stays low.
Planning Your Daily Energy Usage
You can cut down your price of electricity with Amber Electric by planning your daily energy usage smartly. Understanding usage patterns and price changes helps us make better decisions about power consumption.
Creating an Energy Consumption Schedule
Matching your energy usage with the energy market’s natural rhythms helps maximise your savings. The best time window to use power is between 11am and 3pm when solar generation peaks. This period gives you the lowest wholesale electricity rates and the highest renewable energy content.
Identifying Lowest-Cost Periods
The Amber Electric app makes tracking price changes throughout the day easy. We can watch wholesale rates and plan our usage based on this. Power costs usually peak between 5:30pm and 8pm as demand rises and solar generation drops. Daily app checks help us find the best times to:
- Run energy-intensive appliances like dishwashers and washing machines
- Charge electric vehicles and home batteries
- Use air conditioning or heating systems
- Operate pool pumps and water heaters
Automating Energy-Intensive Tasks
SmartShift™ technology helps you automate your energy usage effectively. Most modern appliances come with built-in timers that let you schedule operations during off-peak hours, while smart power point timers can control devices without built-in timers. This automation helps us get the lowest rates consistently, even without active price monitoring.
You can even set price alerts in the Amber app to get notifications about very low or high rates, helping you adjust your consumption patterns quickly when needed.
Optimising Your Amber Electric Experience
You just need to fine-tune several aspects of your energy setup to get the most from Amber Electric. Let’s take a closer look at advanced optimisation strategies that can boost your savings.
Choosing the Right Tariff Structure
The appropriate tariff structure makes a big difference in savings. Time of Use (ToU) tariffs give lower rates during off-peak times. Demand tariffs can work well if we manage our peak usage with care. These demand tariffs base charges on total consumption and highest usage during specific periods, usually between 3-9 pm on weekdays.
Combining with Solar and Batteries
SmartShift™ technology transforms how we combine solar and batteries smoothly. The system automatically:
- Charges your battery when wholesale prices are low
- Keeps stored energy for high-price periods
- Manages solar exports during negative feed-in periods
- Times battery discharge for maximum returns
Seasonal Usage Strategies
Obviously, your energy needs change throughout the year. Here’s how you can adapt for the best use of your solar power:
- Spring/Early Winter: Focus on maximising feed-in tariffs at their peak
- Summer: Start cooling early in the morning and pre-cool spaces before peak periods
- Winter: Move heating to off-peak hours and employ battery storage well
- Autumn: Keep an eye on price spikes during shorter days and adjust as needed
The Amber app helps us stay responsive to market conditions and make informed decisions. These strategies lead to lower energy costs while supporting renewable energy’s rise.
Where Your Journey Begins
Amber Electric is a great way to reduce the price of power in your home and support renewable energy adoption. Their smart meter technology and app features give you better control over your energy usage and expenses.
Choosing Amber Electric delivers more value than cost savings alone. We play an active role in Australia’s renewable energy future. But this journey doesn’t begin with Amber – it starts with the installation of essential solar panels and solar batteries. There is nobody better to rely on for this than SAE Group: a team of experts ready to guide you through the process from decision-making to installation and even offering support & aftercare with maintenance, repairs & warranties.
Why not find out more with a FREE consultation?
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FAQs
Which Solar Batteries are Compatible with Amber Electric?
The following batteries are compatible with Amber Electric:
- Tesla Powerwall 2 & 3
- SolarEdge
- LG Chem
- AlphaESS
- Hive
- BYD
- Sungrow
- Redback
- Sigenergy
However, each battery comes with different compatibility set-ups, so take the times to check the details with Amber.
How Does Amber Electric’s Pricing System Work?
Amber Electric adjusts electricity prices every 30 minutes based on current wholesale rates. The price you pay includes the base wholesale price (generation costs) and other components. This system allows customers to access real-time electricity prices, potentially leading to significant savings on power bills.
Why Might Amber Electric Sometimes Seem Expensive?
Amber’s prices fluctuate based on supply and demand. If you use more energy during peak times when grid demand is high, your average rate may increase. To offset higher charges, it’s recommended to shift your energy usage to cheaper times when possible, which you can monitor through the Amber app.
What is the Cost Structure for Amber Electric?
Amber Electric charges a flat monthly subscription fee of AUD 33.64. Unlike traditional energy retailers, there are no hidden costs, lock-in contracts or exit fees. The transparent cost of a month subscription fee allows Amber to focus on helping customers lower their electricity bills by leveraging cheap renewable energy.
How does Amber Electric Generate Revenue?
Amber Electric’s business model is based on charging a flat subscription fee to cover operational costs. This approach allows them to concentrate on their primary goal: helping customers reduce electricity bills by unlocking the value of affordable renewable energy.
What is SmartShift™ Technology and How Does It Benefit Amber Customers?
SmartShift™ is Amber Electric’s innovative technology that intelligently manages home energy systems. It automatically optimises battery charging and discharging based on wholesale prices, maximises solar feed-in tariffs, and can even schedule electric vehicle charging during periods of lower prices or higher renewable energy availability.
Does Amber Electric Require a Smart Meter?
Yes, a smart meter is essential for Amber Electric’s system to function. If your home doesn’t already have one, Amber will arrange for installation through their certified metering providers. The installation process usually takes about an hour, and you’ll be ready to access real-time wholesale electricity rates within six weeks.
How Does Amber Electric Contribute to Renewable Energy Adoption?
By providing access to wholesale electricity prices, Amber Electric encourages customers to use more energy when renewable sources are abundant and prices are low. This shift in consumption patterns drives demand for clean energy and supports Australia’s transition to renewable energy sources, potentially replacing fossil fuel power generation over time.