AmberElectric 4+

Really great experience so far

I have both an Amber account and a PowerPal, and with the two together I’ve got a really great, clear picture of our household power consumption and have been able to make some smarter choices about when to start using the AC, when to cook, etc. Don’t get me wrong, being this granular isn’t a long-term strategy, but while the cost of living is astronomical and interest rates are high, every dollar counts. At a service level, I’m finding the rates particularly good for those who work from home, too. We use a steady stream of power during the day while most people are at work, so we benefit from better rates.

WISH LIST:
- Widgets! I mean, this should be a no brainer.
- Finer rate notifications, so perhaps a high and low rate alert - Additional authorised contacts on accounts - A simplified ‘live rate’ and notification app for AppleTV. Would be really handy to get a little alert while I’m watching something if the power is high or low priced, and be able to quickly check the live rate between shows.

Needs better alerts

With market volatility going up can be pretty nerve wracking to be an Amber customer if you don’t own a battery linked to an API, particularly in a state like SA. This is why I changed providers last summer and will probably do so again.

More alerts would help: Not just when it’s greener than usual (and still expensive) or above a level like $0.60. I’d like to be alerted at intervals eg, below 20c, below 10, and negative as well as above 50, and above $2.00. That’s 5 alerts which sounds crazy until you realise how volatile prices are.

I’m hoping Madimack do a tie up with Amber for their pool pumps and inverters. It’s a fairly simple thing to do and the payback would be a few weeks for many users.

Developer Response ,

Hey, thanks for your review of our app! You will be glad to hear that we now have introduced SMS, email and push notifications for price spikes. If you have any other suggestions please get in touch at hello@amberelectric.com.au

Good potential but Needs improvement

Early days but big potential. Customisable alerts, interactive usage graphs and more data analysis options would be very helpful. Currently the app functionality is a bit limited as well as the ability so see things like account details and billing dates. I hope this will all be rolled out soon.

Another thing which I feel needs to be addressed. The wholesale price listed on the app is significantly higher than the AEMO 30 minute settlement price or even the 5 minute sport price. This price should show a breakdown of costs so we can understand what the charge is made up of. The network delivery charge and other components which are fixed costs should be made clear for example like a pie chart.

This should not be that hard to do as the data required to make an overall price is there, this is just exposing those individual figures which make up the overall price.