June 7, 2025 • 40 mins
Winter is upon us, the heaters are turning on and likely won't be turned off until the spring.
With winter comes hundreds of house fires caused by electrical issues - issues that most wouldn't think twice about.
Tim Beveridge is joined by Master Electricians CEO Alexandra Vranyac-Wheeler.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
High Higher. Welcome so Hard that the Soldier deep in
my heart, I Amoria can God don't Yes? And welcome
(00:49):
back to the Weekend Collective on Tim Beverage. This is
the one Rufreddi Show. By the way, if you missed
our panel, great fun with Jenny Vernon, who is the
chair of New Zealand of the National Field Days which
is happening at Mystery Creek on kicks off on Wednesday,
and of course she was joined by Paul Spoonley. So
if you want to check out any of that hour
do go to the News Talk CIV website or to
(01:11):
your iHeartRadio and look for the Weekend Collective and it'll
all be there. We load our hours pretty quickly after
each hour concludes, so they'll be ready pretty quickly for
your well listening pleasure, Isn't it right? This is the
one with radio show and we're going to have a
chat about the electrical side of things. And because winters
(01:31):
upon us, heavy rains begun. I think there's a but
still a bit of a cold front rushing up for
the South Island and a bit of snowfalling on the
fields and so the heaters are going to be coming
on and obviously probably not turning off until the spring.
But I'm not sure how many people actually do an
electrical check around the house before on increasing your energy demand,
but we should all we should all do that. But
(01:52):
it doesn't take it long to overload a power board. Anyway,
We're going to have a chat about all things electrical
and also how you can save power when it comes
to heating your home as well, and their checks that
should be done. Do we take your electrical supply for
granted until there's a power cut and you realize, oh,
you're going to need to upgrade your board? Any questions
you've got for our guest?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Who is?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
She is the CEO of Master Electricians and her name
is Alexandra of Brannak Wheeler. I hope I got that right. Alexandra? Hello,
how are you?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Good?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Thanks?
Speaker 6 (02:23):
How are you good?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Thanks? So tell us about your role at Master Electricians.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yes, so, Master Electricians basically represents electrical contractors across New
Zealand and we sort of advocate on behalf of the
electrical industry for quality and ensuring that actually we're keeping
the public safe with all things electrical, So it's great
to be here talking to you today, particularly in the
start of winter.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
What's your background yourself when it comes to electrical things,
Not a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I've worked in the electrical apprenticeship space for quite a
long time, so vocational education, and prior to that it
would be pharmacology team.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Really that's an interesting ground to end up at Master Electricians.
What are the biggest what are the sort of bigger
issues that you guys have to deal with at Master Electricians?
What's your major gig?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Look, I mean, I think we represent about thirteen hundred
electrical businesses across New Zealand. It's about eighty percent of
the total turnover in the electrical industry, and our members
vary in size from sort of your one man bands
right through to your you know, large contracting firms that
employ you know, over sixteen hundred electrical contractors. And I
(03:39):
think the other thing to note is we span the residential, commercial,
and industrial sectors, so right across the sort of electrical
contracting continuum.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
How does this time of year affect what you're doing
at Master Electricians? And you know, sort of the challenges
that we faced just around power supply I guess and
all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, it's always you know a little bit of a
nerve wrecking time for us, to be honest. Electrical faults
in New Zealand cause circa eight hundred house fires a
year and we have about twenty to thirty fatalities annually.
And why this time of year is really important is
that obviously right now we're plugging everything in. So at
any one time, a New Zealand household would have about
(04:22):
fifteen to twenty five electrical devices plugged in. And if
it's anything like my house, I've got you know, two
Nintendo switches, to iPads, two sets of headphones, the heat pump,
the kettle.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Fridge start. Oh, you might be on gas, all of that,
hair dryers, the.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Full whammy dehumidifiers. So it is at a critical time
really when we start to really surge a whole lot
of our power stuff and we probably don't remember to
turn things off. So you know, you think about your
electric blankets, your bathroom heaters, those things we just sort
of keep going all through the day, particularly in the weekends.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, I mean things like towel heaters, I mean the
towel rails and things like that of course, winter is
the time and you probably want your tower rail as
opposed to in summer. I mean, that's the problem with winter,
is that the demand is there because well, we wanted
to do what we wanted.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
To do, isn't it totally? Totally? And I think the
other thing to note is that you know, New Zealand
is quite unique and that our homes are quite aged.
You know, we've got a lot of weather board homes
and we've got a lot of villas. So our risks,
I think are somewhat increased, particularly with the older homes
that we've got in New Zealand. And if you think
(05:39):
about what happens at winter, you get a lot of
pests that decide to come out of the cold and
into your cavities.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Are you talking about you, what are you referring to
When you think of pests.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I'm thinking of your little mice and your little rats,
and your rodents and maybe your ants, and all those
things can really increase the risk of electrical things going wrong.
Just the other day, actually I had a light flickering
in my ceiling. Enough there's a little rodent gnawing on
the really yeah, the halogen wiring halogen light wiring, and
(06:13):
on top of the halogen wearing was pink bats. So
you think about, you know, pretty hot hot light bulbs,
pink bats, and then some exposed wirring where the rats
having a little now, so definitely increased risky.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So what are the major causes of fatalities? When you
mentioned did you say eight hundred fatalities annually caused.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
By eight hundred house fires? Yet twenty to thirty fatalities annually,
so not a small number.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
What are those? What are the fatalities caused by these
electricians on the job or these people trying to do
their own wiring.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No, these are just people in residential sort of structure fires.
So you know you've got heating appliances for example, they
might be faulty. You might have electrical faults, so you're
overloaded circuits, damaged wiring. You talked about your switchboards. They
just increase the fires. And we have twenty to thirty
fatalities a year, which is a huge number. We wouldn't
(07:10):
I wouldn't think it was that high, but it is.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
How often should people actually get there? I mean, look,
we've had our switchboard replaced and everything because we've done
some renovations, so I probably, I'll be honest, I wouldn't
be thinking about checking anything too much because it's all
brand new. But I mean there are how many how
many properties would have sort of outdated circuit boards we
(07:34):
still use and you know you're replacing the fuse wires
yourself and plugging it back and versus you know, the
modern state of the art circuit boards. How much upgrade
do we need in New Zealand?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We need a huge amount. And I talk about, you
know the age of our homes, so we have got
age homes, and I think a lot of people wouldn't
know how old these switchboards really are, whether they've got
a couple of r CDs in there or just one. So,
I mean technology is changing the electrical industry at pace,
(08:07):
and I think you know what we would have done
even fifteen years ago, saying my home relatively new fifteen
years ago isn't what we'd be doing today. So I
guess that's why we're advocating for this warrant of fitness
style electrical check, and we're suggesting that it should be
done every sort of three to five years. That's what
they do overseas, tim so in the UK and Australia,
(08:29):
for example, they're leading the way with mandatory electrical safety
checks in the rental properties, absolutely, but they're also extending
it out into own occupied homes because yeah, no, I
was just going to say, because you know, there are
certain things that you can check as a homeowner. You know,
you can check for your electrical appliance, is not having
(08:51):
freight cards and that sort of thing. But when it
comes to switchboards and you know, things that are prescribed
electrical work, you really need a registered electrician to come
in and do that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So what would it look so you what safeguards? Are
you saying that the absence of a warrant of fitness
sort of thing is problematic because we've got people who
will not have had their electrical setup checked for a
very long time, and who knows what's you know, I mean,
how much danger is there and not having a check
up every five or ten years on your home setup.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Well, I think there's a huge amount of danger because
I talked about the fact that, you know, the technology
world is changing so rapidly, so the appliances that we're
plugging in, you know, are increasingly complex. You know, you've
got your evs. Now you've got your heat pumps, you've
got your induction cook tops. They do draw a lot
more electricity than what we would have done traditionally fifteen
(09:51):
twenty twenty five years ago. So you know, I think
three to five years is a good time. And I
think you know, now you've got smartboards. I don't know
if you've heard about smart boards, but they are the
new way of sort of enabling consumers to manage their
own electricity usage. So smartboards basically can connect to your
(10:14):
to your iPhone if you like, and you the consumer
can go in and say, you know, turn this particular
switch off or tone it down, and you know, just
as a way to actually start saving electricity and reapportioning it.
So they're quite they're quite cool, the smartboards. But that's
been quite a you know, a new thing that's.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Been I guess you'd need to know what was plugged
into that particular circuit, wouldn't you want to find out
you've accidentally switched.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Off your fridge for Yeah, well, it shows you everything online.
So there's a couple of products that are in the
market right now that actually allow you to see all
of that and as a consumer, manage your own energy demands,
which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Do you guys what I mean? What should we do
to get our homes ready for winter? Because obviously, you know,
as we talked about, it's the one time of the
year where that tail rail maybe is going to stay on,
you're going to have the conditioning running, or your heat
pump or your heaters or whatever. Are there particular things
we should be doing as a check to get our
homes ready for winter?
Speaker 7 (11:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Absolutely, I mean I think you should be checking all
your off the shelf products, check your heaters, your blankets,
anything that you're plugging in yourself. Check that there aren't
exposed wires that you know they're still functioning the way
they should. We're guilty of using multi boxers all through
our house. So if you're going to use a multi box,
make sure that you've you know, it's got the surge
(11:35):
protection and you're testing your RCDs with the test button
on that. Dryers are the other thing. Make sure that
your dryers, your heat pumps, they're all being well looked
after and maintained. And don't put sort of extension cords
anywhere near you know, under your rugs, but also anywhere
(11:56):
where you think you might have some flooding. You know
the worst thing would be if you're prone to some flooding,
saying your garage, the worst thing to do is have
your multiplug plugged.
Speaker 7 (12:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Actually, when you mentioned the sit with the multi boards,
Oh how much? How much of a problem do we
know that they can be? Because we've got some relatively
new ones, but also we've got some incredible I wouldn't
have a clue hold they are fifteen twenty years old.
I mean, is there a use by a date for
multi boards?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well, I guess they have advanced so much now with
the search protection and you know the RCDs built into them.
So if you don't have a switch where you can
actually either test it or turn it on and off
actually on the board, it's probably time to upgrade it.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, Well, we'd like your calls as well, if you've
got any any thoughts on this. Do you think we
should actually I think I think it's an interesting question.
Should we have a warrant of fitness for your electrical
I can't think of the word for it for your
electrical setup at home? What's the best ways There must
be a word for your power supply for your Alexander,
help me out there. What's Yeah, we're.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Calling it just a warrant of fitness style electrical check.
I mean, I think land landlords are required to sort
of meet your healthy Healthy home standard for heating and insulation,
but there's nothing in place for electrical safety, and so
I think that we suld we should definitely be looking
at it. Ye're interested to hear what your viewers think.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, give us a call o er one hunred and
eight ten eighty just before we go to the break.
Have we got enough electricians these days? Because the question
is if you're going to have extra compliance checks introduced,
because there's a lot of people out there listening going, oh,
I got another thing we're going to warrant for. Yeah,
it's a bit like and we want more doctors, but
we can't get them. I mean, do we have enough
(13:41):
people as electricians to be able to do that sort
of work.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's a really good question, tim. Right now, we do
have an electrical worker shortage, so we're about six thousand
electricians short. But luckily the economy is such that you know,
now is a really good time to do those checks
because your electrician may not be as busy as they
would have been even six months ago. So I think
(14:06):
it's a great time to actually do it. But yeah, no,
we do have a shortage, and we've also got an
aging workforce, so about twenty percent retire year on year,
So we need to train more, and we need to
train them, particularly in some of the newer technologies, and
at a faster pace.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well, actually, in terms of most electricians, you know, the
new technology you're talking about. I know, I said I
was going to go to a break, but I thought, well,
while my brain was working, is how much of a
challenge is the new technology in terms of electricians who
have been, you know, working as electricians for ten, twenty,
thirty forty years. How hard is it to keep up
(14:46):
with some of the advances because it's getting more and more.
The technology is quite amazing, isn't it. When you're talking
about those smart switches, it really is.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I mean, I think there's this whole convergence happening in
our industry right now, you know where it's really hard
to say the electrical contracting industry stops here and the
ICT industry or data industry starts, you know, because everything
is smart, smartphones, smart.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
The plants, is the whole.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, all smart homes, you know, and all the automation
that goes with it. So I don't think it's hard,
but I think we've got some work to do in
helping our workforce become comfortable and competent, incapable of actually
being able to embrace the new technology. You know, we're
all guilty of sort of sticking with what we know,
(15:34):
So there is quite a bit of work to do
in helping sort of embrace those new technologies at a
faster pace.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
I think.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right, we will go to the break now ORR eight
one hundred and eighty ten eighty. It's coming up to
twenty three past four. My guest is the Master Electrician CEO,
Alexandra Vraannak Wheeler, who's with us too. You can throw
your opinions, but what do you think of the idea
of a warrant of fitness for your electricity at home
and you're set up, whether all your appliants are safe,
(16:02):
whether there's a risk. Is that something you think is
we should think about or when was the last time
you actually thought about replacing that circuit board? But also
looking forward to winter as well, what's the best way
to heat your home without blowing the bill or your
circuit board. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty, it's twenty
three plus past four. This is news talk said b Yes,
welcome back to the one roof radio show. My guest
(16:24):
is CEO of Master Electricians Alexandra of Vranioch Wheeler. We're
just talking about getting ready for winter and also how
do you actually heat? Do your power bills really need
to blow out in winter? Are there ways to keep
your power bill down? Actually, Alexandra, have you guys got
advice on maybe observations and what people do wrong or
we're the best way to heat, the best way to
(16:45):
heat your home without blowing your budget.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, it's a really good question and one that we
get asked quite often. Late last year we entered into
a partnership with ECA and at the moment, they're launching
in Your Initiative to help kiwis manage their energy bills
and it's basically just sharing some practical, evidence based tips
on how they can keep their energy bills down energy.
(17:15):
So I definitely recommend people to jump on the ECA website,
consumers to jump on there. They've got some great tips
and they're also partnering with like Consumer New Zealand and
the Warehouse Group, so definitely look at that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
The other thing I think, just before you go, what's
that website again.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It's just the ECA.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
How do you spell that?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Ee C A dot G B T dot m Z.
I think the other thing too is that you know
when if if you call your electrician, definitely ask them
talk to them about what they can suggest for you
in terms of energy efficient solutions. So we know that
for example, if you've got a hot water cylinder that
(17:55):
needs replacing, you might be better off looking at a
heat pump hot water cylinder. They're definitely fishing a little
bit more cost upfront, but certainly in the long run
pays off. And then obviously you've got the whole solar.
Speaker 8 (18:10):
Set up.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
But in terms of little quick tips for homeowners, unplugged
devices that don't need to be plugged in, they don't
need to be in there. If they're plugged in there
and you're still not using them, they're still drawing on power.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
What are the worst hidden sort of things when it
comes to using electricity? So for instance, if you've got
old fashioned light bulbs sixty or eighty or whatever watts
Because my friend of mine I went out one day
and we're heading out and he says, oh, you haven't
turned off your lights in the lounge, and I was like, well,
they're only ate, it's only an eight what halogen. I'm
not too worried about that. And did I have a point? Actually,
(18:48):
I mean I probably should have turned it off. I
I just left it on because I thought, well, it
uses a few watts as opposed to if there was
one light bulb on. That's the equivalent of like eight
or ten modern lights, isn't it It is?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I mean, the Halogens do draw really heavy.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Not Halogens the other one. Sorry, lot halogens, the other ones, yes, sorry.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yes, no no, So LED's definitely draw a lot less.
But you know, for example, in our home we've got
all halogens. So we've started a slow process of actually
moving to led. It does cost a bit of money,
but in the long run it will certainly pay off.
So certainly switching to LEDs where you can is a
no brainer. Plugging things, trying to sort of do your washing,
(19:34):
and you're drawing in the evenings, you know, just before
you go to bed, put your washing machine on so
that you're not actually using all your appliances all at
the same time. Most homes, you know, you get home
from work and you've got the kids who plug in
their devices, you decide to put dinner on, you turn
the other and on, you turn the induction hob on,
you turn the dishwasher on. So you're drawing quite a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
How does that actually impact your bill if you're drawing
a lot at one time? Is it because of different
rates of being charged, different prices at the.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Timeses off peak? For example, I'm with a provider that
actually gives me weekends free, so I you know, I
tend to stop palmer washing, am I drawing and do
it in the weekends posed to sort of during the
week you know.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
So it's not about it's not about having lots on
at once, it's about when they're on. So if you
have lots on at the wrong time, then you are
literally maxing at your bill.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yes, absolutely, And what are the peak times peak times? Well,
it depends really, I mean I think peak times for
an older couple you know, would be all the time
because they're at home. But and you can be flexible,
I think when you're talking to your energy provider about
what works best for you. So it pasted your homework
(20:47):
term around the plan that you signed up to. We
signed up to that plan, particularly because we're not at
home during the week, but obviously.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
At home because I'll be honest with you, I wouldn't
have a clue. And it's not because I'm blase about it.
So you actually, maybe there's some people who have looked
into this as well. You know, they say you, you
know you can compare your supplies and things like that.
You look at the different plans and it almost looks
to me like they don't want you to be able
(21:14):
to compare the because there's just a multitude of plans
under each supplier, and how on earth do you ever
compare and work it out? But for me, I was
with well say it, I was with Mercury and we
I did one of those power comparison checks years ago
and it recommended it's different for every part of the country.
But I switched to Meridian and I saved a couple
(21:38):
hundred bucks a month, I'd say probably, I'd say eighteen
hundred dollars a year. And I've never had a bill
that's freaked me out ever since. And I but it's
only because it said, hey, you should be on this planet, Meridian,
but I couldn't tell you when my peak hours with
I would.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Never clue the plans. Looking into your plans are really important.
I mean, you may need to switch to a smart meter,
but it's so worth it.
Speaker 7 (22:02):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah, that's slightly problematic for the that we aren't actually
be keen to know from other people whether you've looked
into your plans as well. Give us a call on that.
I eight one hundred eight and eight, because you, like me,
if you looked at the different I mean, do you
know what I mean? When you're looking at the different
electricity electricity companies what they offer, it just seems so convoluted.
Am I wrong saying that, Alexandra or what not?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
At all? I mean, they do make it challenging for
you to be able to compare.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Challenging and you're you're in the role of being diplomatic
and you're calling it challenging.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It's challenging.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's challenging. Give us a call if you like one
hundred eighty and eighty, but we'll take some calls as
well on how you're saving money for this winter. Peter, Hello,
thank you.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
I just got one question. I've got a.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Friend.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
He's looking for electrical apprenticeship. He's very qualified, but it's
almost impossible apprenticeship, is it?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
What do you mean he's very well qualified.
Speaker 7 (23:03):
Well, you know, it's got this all the school qualifications
in its Oh yeah, that type of thing. But you
can't find an apprenticeship, is it any Is it better
to go to Australia and look for apprenticeship?
Speaker 8 (23:19):
No, no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
We don't want to send them overseas. It is challenging, though,
isn't it, because the economy is such that it's making
it really hard to employ them. But you know, our viewers,
now's the time to train, because when we come out
of the dip, you know, a qualified electrician or a
business that has got qualified electricians can charge so much more.
(23:42):
You know, you're not on the apprentice rate. They're actually
charging them out at the full rate. So I you know,
I understand that it's a really challenging time, but I
agree with you. Now's the time to train. Now's the
time to take on an apprentice.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Really, what is the process for someone who wants to
work as an electrician? Where what's their starting point to
get qualified?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
There's a couple of options. So some people who can't
actually go and get a job to be able to
get an apprenticeship go off and do a pre trade.
So that's a you know, a full time course for
a period of months, I think it's six six months,
and they do they sort of learn all the theory
(24:23):
and then once they qualify that, the goal is essentially
then go and find a job and enter into their
apprenticeship because you need an employer. You need to employ
the apprentice before you can actually start your apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Which and what's what's the story with it. I mean,
most electricians or many or hardly any willing to take
on apprenticeships. Where are we at with that.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
We've actually got quite a committed industry, so we do train.
It's just that at the moment the economy is just
so diret that people are reluctant to take them on.
That's when we rely on group employment schemes. So there
are a couple of entities that actually employ the pentices
and then essentially farm them out to employers who maybe
(25:08):
don't want to take the risk of taking on a
full head count, but can you the labor, So that
is an alternative. So for better, it may be worth
looking at a couple of the group employers there who
can take them on.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Okay, somebody just just said, can you sorry, can your
lady can? I was Andrew explain? Does Jill's not sure?
Does having all appliances on at once cost you more?
And I think what she means is is the problem
having them all on at once or is the problem
having them all on at once at a particular time
(25:43):
of day.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, I think it's both. So it's you know, if
it's on at a peak time and they're all on,
then you're paying premium dollar for every appliance, as distinct
from sort of you know, diversifying the rate that you're
paying depending on the peak time. So it does pay
to go back and look at your plan because they
will have different rates for different times of the day.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
God, i'd love to know. I wonder how many people
actually are aware of when their peak use of when
their peak time is. I mean, I would just to
be honest, I would just assume that it's probably some
time after five o'clock until about eight thirty at night
or nine o'clock at night. So that's that's probably the
reason you should use the delay, sitting on your on
(26:25):
your washer, and or you're dryer, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yes, yep. Those are rather good little savor tricks if
you know how to figure it out. I'm still learning
how to use my under floor eating.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Well, underfloor heating. Okay, I've got a great saving for you,
Alexandra brilliant. This is a great a great cheat on
under saving money on underfloor heating. Turn it off, yeah,
put on, put on some slippers.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I think you know.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
One of the things with the underfloor heating. When we
bought our house a few years ago. The lady we
bought it from, she was an older lady. She said,
never change the temperature of your house. So if you
have everything on it saying nineteen degrees, if you've got
your heat pump, have it at nineteen. If you've got
your underfloor heating, have it at nineteen. And it creates
like a little vacuum in the house and everything maintains
(27:17):
at that level. If you turn it on and you
turn it off, that's when you're paying big money.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And I didn't mean turn it off intermittently.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I mean turn it off and leave it off.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Pie a pair of pair of actually I mean that's
it is a well I'm not saying you're posh, but
it is underfloor heating I would consider to be a
bit of a luxury, isn't it?
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Would you?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I think?
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I mean I think people have the have it in
their bathrooms probably that would be the place that you
see it most. I don't think will have it across
all their homes.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
I agree, at.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Least maybe I can understand. Look, if you're living in
an Aratown or Queenstone or somewhere around there, well, frankly,
if you're living in Queenstone, you've probably got underfloor heating,
can afford it as well. Let's take some calls on
saving money as well this winter eight h eighty ten eighty.
But also the question I asked, just do you know
when you're times on what your what your plans is,
because I wouldn't have a clue and I'm feeling really
(28:10):
guilty for that right now. So we'll check it out.
And anyway, I've got Alexandra writing Shotgun with me on
this one. She is the CEO of the Master Electricians. Nigel.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Hello, Oh good afternoon, sir Tim Beverage. Hell, what my
question is or bitter gets staked. My question to do
with the electricity year, Yeah, I used to be with TrustPower,
and I noticed once I went to Mercury the pair
(28:38):
bills were way up. I thought, this is price gouging
because I wasn't I was using less electricity because I
was doing less cocking, which the conventional range takes a
lot of electricity, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I would have Actually, what's just worse an induction or
conventional range? Do we know? Alexandra?
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I think induction because you can boost them. And I
wouldn't say that with certainty, but yeah, production definitely draws
quite a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So what do you do about your powerball? Nigela?
Speaker 6 (29:14):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Are you happy with the supply you've got?
Speaker 5 (29:16):
Or well, just a minute, and I've got one of
those smart meters. Do you think it's something that are
those smart meters?
Speaker 8 (29:27):
They're not?
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Could you say they're not unfallible?
Speaker 6 (29:30):
You know?
Speaker 5 (29:32):
Accurate? I supposed to the meter reader coming around?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Oh, the smart well, I think we've been talking about
smart panels and smart circuit boards, but ye're the smart
meter will tell you, yeah, I've got you, I've got you.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
Yeah, you know how accurate?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
You know? They do your accurate readings. The smart meters
is distinct from I think what Nigel was saying when
the guy comes around and then they estimate based on
your previous readings. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Actually, but by the way they is that power what
I would have done years and years ago With power companies.
We go and say this is you know, this is
what I've been charged and put it in there and
it says this is the best company for you?
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Does that still is that still available? The price comparison
one power companies?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I haven't used it for some time, but there was
a website, wasn't there that you could jump on and compare.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
That was called I think it was power Switch Dot
or something.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Yeah, you're right, yeah, power switch.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Okay, hey, yeah, I think I think we'll move on
to John today.
Speaker 8 (30:38):
You're high. I'd like to talk about ways of saving power.
So we have a smart meter, and I noticed that
we were using forty percent of our powers going in
hot water. We had a twenty five year old hot
water cylinder. So I looked at all the various ways
of upgrading the cylinder with a solar or whatever gas
(31:00):
and the upshot of it was we replaced hot whilst
with modern one that was more efficient and our power
consumption went down to like twenty seven percent, So we
saved thirteen percent just by changing the hot water cylinder.
So with it being twenty five years old, it was
true it was on its last legs anyway.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
The other thing probably the three thousand bucks they spent
on the new cylinder, but eventually yeah, good on it.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
Yeah yeah. And that was for a two hundred liters cylinder,
so it was bigger than the one that was in
there already. And the other thing we do through the
winter is we run a fireplace that we can heat
water on and kettles and things like that and cook on.
So our power all sort of runs at about one
(31:49):
forty to one eighty. Through the summer it's one eighty
and through the winter it's like one forty.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
That's phenomenal. I mean, I think Yet, you know, your
hot water cylinder is a really interesting one because I
alluded to the fact that you know, you've got hot
water heat pumps now and that can save you somewhere
between seventy to eighty percent, you know, on your hot
water heating, So.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
I believe are expensive to buy.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
They yeah, yeah, so they're but like your solar system,
you'll have to pay them off over time. But yeah,
you're worth the investment if you're there for a long time.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, okay, ay, thanks, job, that's all good. Good now
actually having you, we've just had a new well. The
thing about replacing your hot water pump, sorry, your hot
water cylinder is if it does fail catastrophically and you
get a leak, then there's a hell of a lot
more to worry about than a new cylinder, which is
that voice of experience for me. But the thing I
learned Alexander is that we is to make sure that
(32:45):
it's calibrated at the right temperature, because otherwise you're just
pumping out hot water that you're not really using.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, so right, let's tell you what we need to
take a break. My producer has given me the evil eye,
which means break time. We'll be back in just sick
seventeen minutes to five. News talks. He'd be news talks,
he'd be. We're with Alexander Ranyok Wheeler, who is the
CEO of Master Electricians, talking about saving money at winter
time and also a reminder to us all actually it's
fair to say I think that you should check the
(33:16):
check your multi boards and have a look around your
setup to see you haven't got too many things plugged
in at once. What's the actually can you give us
the best quick description for what people should do at
this time of year, just to check Alexandra that their
electricity set up is safe.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, I mean check your multi plugs, like I said earlier,
you know, make sure that you're testing. Make sure that
you're checking anything that you're plugging in for freed wires,
the quality of the product. I'm going to do a
shout out for bathroom heaters so you may be aware
that there was some Serene bathroom heaters that are under recall.
(33:57):
It's still about twenty eight thousand of those remaining in
Kiwi homes. We've got to get those out. So please
check your bath room heater. If it's an S two
six eight bathroom heater named Serene, please contact a master
electrician and they can come out and assist you with
removing that heater. So definitely look at that and just yeah,
(34:22):
just really anything that you've plugged in, do a good check,
check your multiplugs, test your CDs, know where your power switches.
So that's always a good thing to tim. You know,
if he's a storm or thing happens, you need to
know where you can turn your power off and on
your switch borders. Just basic things like that that I
(34:42):
think a lot of us just take for granted.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Especially if you're a tenant. Actually probably if you're renting house,
it's not yours. Get to know, you know where the.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Super boarders is, absolutely and I think that's why we
are sort of pushing for this warrant of fitness, particularly
for landlords and renters, right, because we know they're probably
going to be poorer, poorer quality homes. And so like
we said, you know the aging infrastructure for electrical there's
probably you know, warrants a check a bit more regularly
(35:12):
good stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
By the way, it's power switch dot all dot inst
on checking your supply. It's slightly different where it says
you know what do you sort of use and it
works it out and it sort of has a guess
which who's the best. But you can also upload your
bill which will give an ideas who might be best
off with. Right, let's go to small calls ons with Glennis.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Hello, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Thanks?
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I'm living in a house in Court Police. No insulation
in the walls, nothing underneath the floor, but it's on
the concrete. The drapes only come to the window sills
when they put the moon. Yeah, the hot water. The
switchboard is in my wardrobe. What a silly place to
put it.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Wouldn't be the only time I've switchboards been in a wardrobe.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
That that's uh yeah, with the power being two hundred
dollars at the moment, and it's an open plan lounge
kitchen with four disks in the kitchen and two in
the lounge. Here, I'm wondering whether the hot water cylinder
could be a part to play in the hot water.
I don't know, because it's a pretty old cylinder and
(36:16):
it's all stuck together with tape, old tape.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
It's a house and corp.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I mean like
I'm not. I'm doing body language at the moment.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well, and it's I would probably get in clutch with
housing Corp and say you're concerned about the condition of
your hot water tank linus.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
I think.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
They won't come down.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Gosh, I don't know what we're Any advice for lenis.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
There Alexandra, No, I just really reiterating what you what
you said.
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Tim.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Alternatively, you can you know, contact Master Electrician and get
some advice, or jump onto the ECA website. They have
got some really good tips there for energy efficiency. But
it sounds like a bit of a yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
It sounds like someone's not doing their job, doesn't it. Yeah, yeah, okay, right,
let's let's say get.
Speaker 7 (37:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
I think the best thing we did. I think I'm
not the biggest fan of solar, but we did get
solar and two batches. I'm more of a fan of
solar for micro your own house and not during the
whole grid.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Poster fields and fields of solar panels.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's totally it's obviously
it's different, but it's much more efficient if you get
it done for your own place and rely on for
giving you two hours of power when it's eight o'clock
at night, then it runs out. But that's probably the
best thing we've done two and a half three years ago.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
How much.
Speaker 6 (37:48):
I was about thirty five grand, but it includes three
batteries as well. I've got so I've got about fifteen
sixteen killer one hour was full and on tonight. There's
a chance we'll still have power left in the batteries
before sunrise. That's it depends depends how much you use obviously, But.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Do you think.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Do you think about the power you use more because
you've installed solar, installed solar? Sorry, m.
Speaker 6 (38:21):
No, not really, you know much importing having lights on
a room that's not occupied.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
I still do that, Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 6 (38:28):
But it's got a bit of you get a bit
of feeding as well. But I'm not there for the money.
But I still wouldn't created to the power company.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yeah, good, good, good stuff better well, I mean it
is a bit of a luxury. I guess spending thirty
five grand on a solar setup, isn't it Alexandra.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
It depends on how you look at it, isn't it.
You know, if you're going to be there for a
while and you know, to me, it's an investment and
it's probably gonna you're going to pay it off, you know,
in five years or so, you're probably paying that off.
And particularly with some of the green loans that banks
are offering. Yeah, it is kind of a no it
is a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. The green sort of
loans aren't they.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yeah, the green loans are pretty useful. One of the
things they're doing in Australia to just want to share
this little bit with you, is that you've got people
now who are trading electricity between themselves. So you know,
the neighbor next door for me, may be a retired
couple and they use their power during the day and
I come home and I use mine at night. So
they've got the ability to start trading, you know, with
(39:31):
each other, which we don't do here yet, but I'd
say it's quickly coming. So the battery storage is a
pretty good way to start preparing for that.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Okay, good stuff. Hey, look we need to take another moment.
We were back in a sex to wrap up at
seven and a half minutes to five News talks'd.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Be the one roof property of the week on the
weekend collective.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yes, the one roof property of the week is well
they were lately they've been pretty spectacular. This is sixteen twelve.
That's one six one two P Parkery Road and Packery, Rodney.
It's four bedrooms, three get bathroom's two car garage. Go
and check it out. One six one two P Parkety Road,
Parkety Rodney. I mean when I say it's it's not cheap,
(40:15):
but for what it looks like, it's not as expensive
as I thought. It's got an RV of two point
two million years, still a lot of money. It's eighty
two kilometers from the Auckland CBD. And I'd say, by
the look of it, Alexandre, you've had a look at
the property the week, haven't you. It looks like it
probably would have an underfloor heading, wouldn't it. I'd say so,
and a smart meter and a smartness and that, how
(40:37):
would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (40:40):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk ZB weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
High Higher. Welcome so Hard that the Soldier deep in
my heart, I Amoria can God don't Yes? And welcome
(00:49):
back to the Weekend Collective on Tim Beverage. This is
the one Rufreddi Show. By the way, if you missed
our panel, great fun with Jenny Vernon, who is the
chair of New Zealand of the National Field Days which
is happening at Mystery Creek on kicks off on Wednesday,
and of course she was joined by Paul Spoonley. So
if you want to check out any of that hour
do go to the News Talk CIV website or to
(01:11):
your iHeartRadio and look for the Weekend Collective and it'll
all be there. We load our hours pretty quickly after
each hour concludes, so they'll be ready pretty quickly for
your well listening pleasure, Isn't it right? This is the
one with radio show and we're going to have a
chat about the electrical side of things. And because winters
(01:31):
upon us, heavy rains begun. I think there's a but
still a bit of a cold front rushing up for
the South Island and a bit of snowfalling on the
fields and so the heaters are going to be coming
on and obviously probably not turning off until the spring.
But I'm not sure how many people actually do an
electrical check around the house before on increasing your energy demand,
but we should all we should all do that. But
(01:52):
it doesn't take it long to overload a power board. Anyway,
We're going to have a chat about all things electrical
and also how you can save power when it comes
to heating your home as well, and their checks that
should be done. Do we take your electrical supply for
granted until there's a power cut and you realize, oh,
you're going to need to upgrade your board? Any questions
you've got for our guest?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Who is?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
She is the CEO of Master Electricians and her name
is Alexandra of Brannak Wheeler. I hope I got that right. Alexandra? Hello,
how are you?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Good?
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Thanks?
Speaker 6 (02:23):
How are you good?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Thanks? So tell us about your role at Master Electricians.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yes, so, Master Electricians basically represents electrical contractors across New
Zealand and we sort of advocate on behalf of the
electrical industry for quality and ensuring that actually we're keeping
the public safe with all things electrical, So it's great
to be here talking to you today, particularly in the
start of winter.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
What's your background yourself when it comes to electrical things,
Not a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
I've worked in the electrical apprenticeship space for quite a
long time, so vocational education, and prior to that it
would be pharmacology team.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Really that's an interesting ground to end up at Master Electricians.
What are the biggest what are the sort of bigger
issues that you guys have to deal with at Master Electricians?
What's your major gig?
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Look, I mean, I think we represent about thirteen hundred
electrical businesses across New Zealand. It's about eighty percent of
the total turnover in the electrical industry, and our members
vary in size from sort of your one man bands
right through to your you know, large contracting firms that
employ you know, over sixteen hundred electrical contractors. And I
(03:39):
think the other thing to note is we span the residential, commercial,
and industrial sectors, so right across the sort of electrical
contracting continuum.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
How does this time of year affect what you're doing
at Master Electricians? And you know, sort of the challenges
that we faced just around power supply I guess and
all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yeah, it's always you know a little bit of a
nerve wrecking time for us, to be honest. Electrical faults
in New Zealand cause circa eight hundred house fires a
year and we have about twenty to thirty fatalities annually.
And why this time of year is really important is
that obviously right now we're plugging everything in. So at
any one time, a New Zealand household would have about
(04:22):
fifteen to twenty five electrical devices plugged in. And if
it's anything like my house, I've got you know, two
Nintendo switches, to iPads, two sets of headphones, the heat pump,
the kettle.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Fridge start. Oh, you might be on gas, all of that,
hair dryers, the.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Full whammy dehumidifiers. So it is at a critical time
really when we start to really surge a whole lot
of our power stuff and we probably don't remember to
turn things off. So you know, you think about your
electric blankets, your bathroom heaters, those things we just sort
of keep going all through the day, particularly in the weekends.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well, I mean things like towel heaters, I mean the
towel rails and things like that of course, winter is
the time and you probably want your tower rail as
opposed to in summer. I mean, that's the problem with winter,
is that the demand is there because well, we wanted
to do what we wanted.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
To do, isn't it totally? Totally? And I think the
other thing to note is that you know, New Zealand
is quite unique and that our homes are quite aged.
You know, we've got a lot of weather board homes
and we've got a lot of villas. So our risks,
I think are somewhat increased, particularly with the older homes
that we've got in New Zealand. And if you think
(05:39):
about what happens at winter, you get a lot of
pests that decide to come out of the cold and
into your cavities.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Are you talking about you, what are you referring to
When you think of pests.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
I'm thinking of your little mice and your little rats,
and your rodents and maybe your ants, and all those
things can really increase the risk of electrical things going wrong.
Just the other day, actually I had a light flickering
in my ceiling. Enough there's a little rodent gnawing on
the really yeah, the halogen wiring halogen light wiring, and
(06:13):
on top of the halogen wearing was pink bats. So
you think about, you know, pretty hot hot light bulbs,
pink bats, and then some exposed wirring where the rats
having a little now, so definitely increased risky.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So what are the major causes of fatalities? When you
mentioned did you say eight hundred fatalities annually caused.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
By eight hundred house fires? Yet twenty to thirty fatalities annually,
so not a small number.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
What are those? What are the fatalities caused by these
electricians on the job or these people trying to do
their own wiring.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
No, these are just people in residential sort of structure fires.
So you know you've got heating appliances for example, they
might be faulty. You might have electrical faults, so you're
overloaded circuits, damaged wiring. You talked about your switchboards. They
just increase the fires. And we have twenty to thirty
fatalities a year, which is a huge number. We wouldn't
(07:10):
I wouldn't think it was that high, but it is.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
How often should people actually get there? I mean, look,
we've had our switchboard replaced and everything because we've done
some renovations, so I probably, I'll be honest, I wouldn't
be thinking about checking anything too much because it's all
brand new. But I mean there are how many how
many properties would have sort of outdated circuit boards we
(07:34):
still use and you know you're replacing the fuse wires
yourself and plugging it back and versus you know, the
modern state of the art circuit boards. How much upgrade
do we need in New Zealand?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
We need a huge amount. And I talk about, you
know the age of our homes, so we have got
age homes, and I think a lot of people wouldn't
know how old these switchboards really are, whether they've got
a couple of r CDs in there or just one. So,
I mean technology is changing the electrical industry at pace,
(08:07):
and I think you know what we would have done
even fifteen years ago, saying my home relatively new fifteen
years ago isn't what we'd be doing today. So I
guess that's why we're advocating for this warrant of fitness
style electrical check, and we're suggesting that it should be
done every sort of three to five years. That's what
they do overseas, tim so in the UK and Australia,
(08:29):
for example, they're leading the way with mandatory electrical safety
checks in the rental properties, absolutely, but they're also extending
it out into own occupied homes because yeah, no, I
was just going to say, because you know, there are
certain things that you can check as a homeowner. You know,
you can check for your electrical appliance, is not having
(08:51):
freight cards and that sort of thing. But when it
comes to switchboards and you know, things that are prescribed
electrical work, you really need a registered electrician to come
in and do that.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So what would it look so you what safeguards? Are
you saying that the absence of a warrant of fitness
sort of thing is problematic because we've got people who
will not have had their electrical setup checked for a
very long time, and who knows what's you know, I mean,
how much danger is there and not having a check
up every five or ten years on your home setup.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Well, I think there's a huge amount of danger because
I talked about the fact that, you know, the technology
world is changing so rapidly, so the appliances that we're
plugging in, you know, are increasingly complex. You know, you've
got your evs. Now you've got your heat pumps, you've
got your induction cook tops. They do draw a lot
more electricity than what we would have done traditionally fifteen
(09:51):
twenty twenty five years ago. So you know, I think
three to five years is a good time. And I
think you know, now you've got smartboards. I don't know
if you've heard about smart boards, but they are the
new way of sort of enabling consumers to manage their
own electricity usage. So smartboards basically can connect to your
(10:14):
to your iPhone if you like, and you the consumer
can go in and say, you know, turn this particular
switch off or tone it down, and you know, just
as a way to actually start saving electricity and reapportioning it.
So they're quite they're quite cool, the smartboards. But that's
been quite a you know, a new thing that's.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Been I guess you'd need to know what was plugged
into that particular circuit, wouldn't you want to find out
you've accidentally switched.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Off your fridge for Yeah, well, it shows you everything online.
So there's a couple of products that are in the
market right now that actually allow you to see all
of that and as a consumer, manage your own energy demands,
which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Do you guys what I mean? What should we do
to get our homes ready for winter? Because obviously, you know,
as we talked about, it's the one time of the
year where that tail rail maybe is going to stay on,
you're going to have the conditioning running, or your heat
pump or your heaters or whatever. Are there particular things
we should be doing as a check to get our
homes ready for winter?
Speaker 7 (11:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Absolutely, I mean I think you should be checking all
your off the shelf products, check your heaters, your blankets,
anything that you're plugging in yourself. Check that there aren't
exposed wires that you know they're still functioning the way
they should. We're guilty of using multi boxers all through
our house. So if you're going to use a multi box,
make sure that you've you know, it's got the surge
(11:35):
protection and you're testing your RCDs with the test button
on that. Dryers are the other thing. Make sure that
your dryers, your heat pumps, they're all being well looked
after and maintained. And don't put sort of extension cords
anywhere near you know, under your rugs, but also anywhere
(11:56):
where you think you might have some flooding. You know
the worst thing would be if you're prone to some flooding,
saying your garage, the worst thing to do is have
your multiplug plugged.
Speaker 7 (12:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Actually, when you mentioned the sit with the multi boards,
Oh how much? How much of a problem do we
know that they can be? Because we've got some relatively
new ones, but also we've got some incredible I wouldn't
have a clue hold they are fifteen twenty years old.
I mean, is there a use by a date for
multi boards?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Well, I guess they have advanced so much now with
the search protection and you know the RCDs built into them.
So if you don't have a switch where you can
actually either test it or turn it on and off
actually on the board, it's probably time to upgrade it.
Speaker 7 (12:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, Well, we'd like your calls as well, if you've
got any any thoughts on this. Do you think we
should actually I think I think it's an interesting question.
Should we have a warrant of fitness for your electrical
I can't think of the word for it for your
electrical setup at home? What's the best ways There must
be a word for your power supply for your Alexander,
help me out there. What's Yeah, we're.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Calling it just a warrant of fitness style electrical check.
I mean, I think land landlords are required to sort
of meet your healthy Healthy home standard for heating and insulation,
but there's nothing in place for electrical safety, and so
I think that we suld we should definitely be looking
at it. Ye're interested to hear what your viewers think.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, give us a call o er one hunred and
eight ten eighty just before we go to the break.
Have we got enough electricians these days? Because the question
is if you're going to have extra compliance checks introduced,
because there's a lot of people out there listening going, oh,
I got another thing we're going to warrant for. Yeah,
it's a bit like and we want more doctors, but
we can't get them. I mean, do we have enough
(13:41):
people as electricians to be able to do that sort
of work.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
It's a really good question, tim. Right now, we do
have an electrical worker shortage, so we're about six thousand
electricians short. But luckily the economy is such that you know,
now is a really good time to do those checks
because your electrician may not be as busy as they
would have been even six months ago. So I think
(14:06):
it's a great time to actually do it. But yeah, no,
we do have a shortage, and we've also got an
aging workforce, so about twenty percent retire year on year,
So we need to train more, and we need to
train them, particularly in some of the newer technologies, and
at a faster pace.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Well, actually, in terms of most electricians, you know, the
new technology you're talking about. I know, I said I
was going to go to a break, but I thought, well,
while my brain was working, is how much of a
challenge is the new technology in terms of electricians who
have been, you know, working as electricians for ten, twenty,
thirty forty years. How hard is it to keep up
(14:46):
with some of the advances because it's getting more and more.
The technology is quite amazing, isn't it. When you're talking
about those smart switches, it really is.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I mean, I think there's this whole convergence happening in
our industry right now, you know where it's really hard
to say the electrical contracting industry stops here and the
ICT industry or data industry starts, you know, because everything
is smart, smartphones, smart.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
The plants, is the whole.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, all smart homes, you know, and all the automation
that goes with it. So I don't think it's hard,
but I think we've got some work to do in
helping our workforce become comfortable and competent, incapable of actually
being able to embrace the new technology. You know, we're
all guilty of sort of sticking with what we know,
(15:34):
So there is quite a bit of work to do
in helping sort of embrace those new technologies at a
faster pace.
Speaker 8 (15:41):
I think.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right, we will go to the break now ORR eight
one hundred and eighty ten eighty. It's coming up to
twenty three past four. My guest is the Master Electrician CEO,
Alexandra Vraannak Wheeler, who's with us too. You can throw
your opinions, but what do you think of the idea
of a warrant of fitness for your electricity at home
and you're set up, whether all your appliants are safe,
(16:02):
whether there's a risk. Is that something you think is
we should think about or when was the last time
you actually thought about replacing that circuit board? But also
looking forward to winter as well, what's the best way
to heat your home without blowing the bill or your
circuit board. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty, it's twenty
three plus past four. This is news talk said b Yes,
welcome back to the one roof radio show. My guest
(16:24):
is CEO of Master Electricians Alexandra of Vranioch Wheeler. We're
just talking about getting ready for winter and also how
do you actually heat? Do your power bills really need
to blow out in winter? Are there ways to keep
your power bill down? Actually, Alexandra, have you guys got
advice on maybe observations and what people do wrong or
we're the best way to heat, the best way to
(16:45):
heat your home without blowing your budget.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, it's a really good question and one that we
get asked quite often. Late last year we entered into
a partnership with ECA and at the moment, they're launching
in Your Initiative to help kiwis manage their energy bills
and it's basically just sharing some practical, evidence based tips
on how they can keep their energy bills down energy.
(17:15):
So I definitely recommend people to jump on the ECA website,
consumers to jump on there. They've got some great tips
and they're also partnering with like Consumer New Zealand and
the Warehouse Group, so definitely look at that.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
The other thing I think, just before you go, what's
that website again.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
It's just the ECA.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
How do you spell that?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Ee C A dot G B T dot m Z.
I think the other thing too is that you know
when if if you call your electrician, definitely ask them
talk to them about what they can suggest for you
in terms of energy efficient solutions. So we know that
for example, if you've got a hot water cylinder that
(17:55):
needs replacing, you might be better off looking at a
heat pump hot water cylinder. They're definitely fishing a little
bit more cost upfront, but certainly in the long run
pays off. And then obviously you've got the whole solar.
Speaker 8 (18:10):
Set up.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
But in terms of little quick tips for homeowners, unplugged
devices that don't need to be plugged in, they don't
need to be in there. If they're plugged in there
and you're still not using them, they're still drawing on power.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
What are the worst hidden sort of things when it
comes to using electricity? So for instance, if you've got
old fashioned light bulbs sixty or eighty or whatever watts
Because my friend of mine I went out one day
and we're heading out and he says, oh, you haven't
turned off your lights in the lounge, and I was like, well,
they're only ate, it's only an eight what halogen. I'm
not too worried about that. And did I have a point? Actually,
(18:48):
I mean I probably should have turned it off. I
I just left it on because I thought, well, it
uses a few watts as opposed to if there was
one light bulb on. That's the equivalent of like eight
or ten modern lights, isn't it It is?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I mean, the Halogens do draw really heavy.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Not Halogens the other one. Sorry, lot halogens, the other ones, yes, sorry.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Yes, no no, So LED's definitely draw a lot less.
But you know, for example, in our home we've got
all halogens. So we've started a slow process of actually
moving to led. It does cost a bit of money,
but in the long run it will certainly pay off.
So certainly switching to LEDs where you can is a
no brainer. Plugging things, trying to sort of do your washing,
(19:34):
and you're drawing in the evenings, you know, just before
you go to bed, put your washing machine on so
that you're not actually using all your appliances all at
the same time. Most homes, you know, you get home
from work and you've got the kids who plug in
their devices, you decide to put dinner on, you turn
the other and on, you turn the induction hob on,
you turn the dishwasher on. So you're drawing quite a lot.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
How does that actually impact your bill if you're drawing
a lot at one time? Is it because of different
rates of being charged, different prices at the.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Timeses off peak? For example, I'm with a provider that
actually gives me weekends free, so I you know, I
tend to stop palmer washing, am I drawing and do
it in the weekends posed to sort of during the
week you know.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
So it's not about it's not about having lots on
at once, it's about when they're on. So if you
have lots on at the wrong time, then you are
literally maxing at your bill.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Yes, absolutely, And what are the peak times peak times? Well,
it depends really, I mean I think peak times for
an older couple you know, would be all the time
because they're at home. But and you can be flexible,
I think when you're talking to your energy provider about
what works best for you. So it pasted your homework
(20:47):
term around the plan that you signed up to. We
signed up to that plan, particularly because we're not at
home during the week, but obviously.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
At home because I'll be honest with you, I wouldn't
have a clue. And it's not because I'm blase about it.
So you actually, maybe there's some people who have looked
into this as well. You know, they say you, you
know you can compare your supplies and things like that.
You look at the different plans and it almost looks
to me like they don't want you to be able
(21:14):
to compare the because there's just a multitude of plans
under each supplier, and how on earth do you ever
compare and work it out? But for me, I was
with well say it, I was with Mercury and we
I did one of those power comparison checks years ago
and it recommended it's different for every part of the country.
But I switched to Meridian and I saved a couple
(21:38):
hundred bucks a month, I'd say probably, I'd say eighteen
hundred dollars a year. And I've never had a bill
that's freaked me out ever since. And I but it's
only because it said, hey, you should be on this planet, Meridian,
but I couldn't tell you when my peak hours with
I would.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Never clue the plans. Looking into your plans are really important.
I mean, you may need to switch to a smart meter,
but it's so worth it.
Speaker 7 (22:02):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah, that's slightly problematic for the that we aren't actually
be keen to know from other people whether you've looked
into your plans as well. Give us a call on that.
I eight one hundred eight and eight, because you, like me,
if you looked at the different I mean, do you
know what I mean? When you're looking at the different
electricity electricity companies what they offer, it just seems so convoluted.
Am I wrong saying that, Alexandra or what not?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
At all? I mean, they do make it challenging for
you to be able to compare.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Challenging and you're you're in the role of being diplomatic
and you're calling it challenging.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It's challenging.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's challenging. Give us a call if you like one
hundred eighty and eighty, but we'll take some calls as
well on how you're saving money for this winter. Peter, Hello,
thank you.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
I just got one question. I've got a.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Friend.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
He's looking for electrical apprenticeship. He's very qualified, but it's
almost impossible apprenticeship, is it?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
What do you mean he's very well qualified.
Speaker 7 (23:03):
Well, you know, it's got this all the school qualifications
in its Oh yeah, that type of thing. But you
can't find an apprenticeship, is it any Is it better
to go to Australia and look for apprenticeship?
Speaker 8 (23:19):
No, no, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
We don't want to send them overseas. It is challenging, though,
isn't it, because the economy is such that it's making
it really hard to employ them. But you know, our viewers,
now's the time to train, because when we come out
of the dip, you know, a qualified electrician or a
business that has got qualified electricians can charge so much more.
(23:42):
You know, you're not on the apprentice rate. They're actually
charging them out at the full rate. So I you know,
I understand that it's a really challenging time, but I
agree with you. Now's the time to train. Now's the
time to take on an apprentice.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Really, what is the process for someone who wants to
work as an electrician? Where what's their starting point to
get qualified?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
There's a couple of options. So some people who can't
actually go and get a job to be able to
get an apprenticeship go off and do a pre trade.
So that's a you know, a full time course for
a period of months, I think it's six six months,
and they do they sort of learn all the theory
(24:23):
and then once they qualify that, the goal is essentially
then go and find a job and enter into their
apprenticeship because you need an employer. You need to employ
the apprentice before you can actually start your apprenticeship.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Which and what's what's the story with it. I mean,
most electricians or many or hardly any willing to take
on apprenticeships. Where are we at with that.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
We've actually got quite a committed industry, so we do train.
It's just that at the moment the economy is just
so diret that people are reluctant to take them on.
That's when we rely on group employment schemes. So there
are a couple of entities that actually employ the pentices
and then essentially farm them out to employers who maybe
(25:08):
don't want to take the risk of taking on a
full head count, but can you the labor, So that
is an alternative. So for better, it may be worth
looking at a couple of the group employers there who
can take them on.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Okay, somebody just just said, can you sorry, can your
lady can? I was Andrew explain? Does Jill's not sure?
Does having all appliances on at once cost you more?
And I think what she means is is the problem
having them all on at once or is the problem
having them all on at once at a particular time
(25:43):
of day.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, I think it's both. So it's you know, if
it's on at a peak time and they're all on,
then you're paying premium dollar for every appliance, as distinct
from sort of you know, diversifying the rate that you're
paying depending on the peak time. So it does pay
to go back and look at your plan because they
will have different rates for different times of the day.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
God, i'd love to know. I wonder how many people
actually are aware of when their peak use of when
their peak time is. I mean, I would just to
be honest, I would just assume that it's probably some
time after five o'clock until about eight thirty at night
or nine o'clock at night. So that's that's probably the
reason you should use the delay, sitting on your on
(26:25):
your washer, and or you're dryer, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Yes, yep. Those are rather good little savor tricks if
you know how to figure it out. I'm still learning
how to use my under floor eating.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Well, underfloor heating. Okay, I've got a great saving for you,
Alexandra brilliant. This is a great a great cheat on
under saving money on underfloor heating. Turn it off, yeah,
put on, put on some slippers.
Speaker 5 (26:52):
I love that.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
I think you know.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
One of the things with the underfloor heating. When we
bought our house a few years ago. The lady we
bought it from, she was an older lady. She said,
never change the temperature of your house. So if you
have everything on it saying nineteen degrees, if you've got
your heat pump, have it at nineteen. If you've got
your underfloor heating, have it at nineteen. And it creates
like a little vacuum in the house and everything maintains
(27:17):
at that level. If you turn it on and you
turn it off, that's when you're paying big money.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And I didn't mean turn it off intermittently.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I mean turn it off and leave it off.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Pie a pair of pair of actually I mean that's
it is a well I'm not saying you're posh, but
it is underfloor heating I would consider to be a
bit of a luxury, isn't it?
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Would you?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I think?
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I mean I think people have the have it in
their bathrooms probably that would be the place that you
see it most. I don't think will have it across
all their homes.
Speaker 8 (27:46):
I agree, at.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Least maybe I can understand. Look, if you're living in
an Aratown or Queenstone or somewhere around there, well, frankly,
if you're living in Queenstone, you've probably got underfloor heating,
can afford it as well. Let's take some calls on
saving money as well this winter eight h eighty ten eighty.
But also the question I asked, just do you know
when you're times on what your what your plans is,
because I wouldn't have a clue and I'm feeling really
(28:10):
guilty for that right now. So we'll check it out.
And anyway, I've got Alexandra writing Shotgun with me on
this one. She is the CEO of the Master Electricians. Nigel.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Hello, Oh good afternoon, sir Tim Beverage. Hell, what my
question is or bitter gets staked. My question to do
with the electricity year, Yeah, I used to be with TrustPower,
and I noticed once I went to Mercury the pair
(28:38):
bills were way up. I thought, this is price gouging
because I wasn't I was using less electricity because I
was doing less cocking, which the conventional range takes a
lot of electricity, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I would have Actually, what's just worse an induction or
conventional range? Do we know? Alexandra?
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I think induction because you can boost them. And I
wouldn't say that with certainty, but yeah, production definitely draws
quite a lot.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So what do you do about your powerball? Nigela?
Speaker 6 (29:14):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Are you happy with the supply you've got?
Speaker 5 (29:16):
Or well, just a minute, and I've got one of
those smart meters. Do you think it's something that are
those smart meters?
Speaker 8 (29:27):
They're not?
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Could you say they're not unfallible?
Speaker 6 (29:30):
You know?
Speaker 5 (29:32):
Accurate? I supposed to the meter reader coming around?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Oh, the smart well, I think we've been talking about
smart panels and smart circuit boards, but ye're the smart
meter will tell you, yeah, I've got you, I've got you.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
Yeah, you know how accurate?
Speaker 3 (29:46):
You know? They do your accurate readings. The smart meters
is distinct from I think what Nigel was saying when
the guy comes around and then they estimate based on
your previous readings. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Actually, but by the way they is that power what
I would have done years and years ago With power companies.
We go and say this is you know, this is
what I've been charged and put it in there and
it says this is the best company for you?
Speaker 5 (30:11):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Does that still is that still available? The price comparison
one power companies?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I haven't used it for some time, but there was
a website, wasn't there that you could jump on and compare.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
That was called I think it was power Switch Dot
or something.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Yeah, you're right, yeah, power switch.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Okay, hey, yeah, I think I think we'll move on
to John today.
Speaker 8 (30:38):
You're high. I'd like to talk about ways of saving power.
So we have a smart meter, and I noticed that
we were using forty percent of our powers going in
hot water. We had a twenty five year old hot
water cylinder. So I looked at all the various ways
of upgrading the cylinder with a solar or whatever gas
(31:00):
and the upshot of it was we replaced hot whilst
with modern one that was more efficient and our power
consumption went down to like twenty seven percent, So we
saved thirteen percent just by changing the hot water cylinder.
So with it being twenty five years old, it was
true it was on its last legs anyway.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
The other thing probably the three thousand bucks they spent
on the new cylinder, but eventually yeah, good on it.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
Yeah yeah. And that was for a two hundred liters cylinder,
so it was bigger than the one that was in
there already. And the other thing we do through the
winter is we run a fireplace that we can heat
water on and kettles and things like that and cook on.
So our power all sort of runs at about one
(31:49):
forty to one eighty. Through the summer it's one eighty
and through the winter it's like one forty.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
That's phenomenal. I mean, I think Yet, you know, your
hot water cylinder is a really interesting one because I
alluded to the fact that you know, you've got hot
water heat pumps now and that can save you somewhere
between seventy to eighty percent, you know, on your hot
water heating, So.
Speaker 8 (32:13):
I believe are expensive to buy.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
They yeah, yeah, so they're but like your solar system,
you'll have to pay them off over time. But yeah,
you're worth the investment if you're there for a long time.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Yeah, okay, ay, thanks, job, that's all good. Good now
actually having you, we've just had a new well. The
thing about replacing your hot water pump, sorry, your hot
water cylinder is if it does fail catastrophically and you
get a leak, then there's a hell of a lot
more to worry about than a new cylinder, which is
that voice of experience for me. But the thing I
learned Alexander is that we is to make sure that
(32:45):
it's calibrated at the right temperature, because otherwise you're just
pumping out hot water that you're not really using.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
Yeah, so right, let's tell you what we need to
take a break. My producer has given me the evil eye,
which means break time. We'll be back in just sick
seventeen minutes to five. News talks. He'd be news talks,
he'd be. We're with Alexander Ranyok Wheeler, who is the
CEO of Master Electricians, talking about saving money at winter
time and also a reminder to us all actually it's
fair to say I think that you should check the
(33:16):
check your multi boards and have a look around your
setup to see you haven't got too many things plugged
in at once. What's the actually can you give us
the best quick description for what people should do at
this time of year, just to check Alexandra that their
electricity set up is safe.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yeah, I mean check your multi plugs, like I said earlier,
you know, make sure that you're testing. Make sure that
you're checking anything that you're plugging in for freed wires,
the quality of the product. I'm going to do a
shout out for bathroom heaters so you may be aware
that there was some Serene bathroom heaters that are under recall.
(33:57):
It's still about twenty eight thousand of those remaining in
Kiwi homes. We've got to get those out. So please
check your bath room heater. If it's an S two
six eight bathroom heater named Serene, please contact a master
electrician and they can come out and assist you with
removing that heater. So definitely look at that and just yeah,
(34:22):
just really anything that you've plugged in, do a good check,
check your multiplugs, test your CDs, know where your power switches.
So that's always a good thing to tim. You know,
if he's a storm or thing happens, you need to
know where you can turn your power off and on
your switch borders. Just basic things like that that I
(34:42):
think a lot of us just take for granted.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Especially if you're a tenant. Actually probably if you're renting house,
it's not yours. Get to know, you know where the.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Super boarders is, absolutely and I think that's why we
are sort of pushing for this warrant of fitness, particularly
for landlords and renters, right, because we know they're probably
going to be poorer, poorer quality homes. And so like
we said, you know the aging infrastructure for electrical there's
probably you know, warrants a check a bit more regularly
(35:12):
good stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
By the way, it's power switch dot all dot inst
on checking your supply. It's slightly different where it says
you know what do you sort of use and it
works it out and it sort of has a guess
which who's the best. But you can also upload your
bill which will give an ideas who might be best
off with. Right, let's go to small calls ons with Glennis.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Hello, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Thanks?
Speaker 4 (35:34):
I'm living in a house in Court Police. No insulation
in the walls, nothing underneath the floor, but it's on
the concrete. The drapes only come to the window sills
when they put the moon. Yeah, the hot water. The
switchboard is in my wardrobe. What a silly place to
put it.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Wouldn't be the only time I've switchboards been in a wardrobe.
Speaker 4 (35:55):
That that's uh yeah, with the power being two hundred
dollars at the moment, and it's an open plan lounge
kitchen with four disks in the kitchen and two in
the lounge. Here, I'm wondering whether the hot water cylinder
could be a part to play in the hot water.
I don't know, because it's a pretty old cylinder and
(36:16):
it's all stuck together with tape, old tape.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
It's a house and corp.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I mean like
I'm not. I'm doing body language at the moment.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Well, and it's I would probably get in clutch with
housing Corp and say you're concerned about the condition of
your hot water tank linus.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
I think.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
They won't come down.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Gosh, I don't know what we're Any advice for lenis.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
There Alexandra, No, I just really reiterating what you what
you said.
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Tim.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Alternatively, you can you know, contact Master Electrician and get
some advice, or jump onto the ECA website. They have
got some really good tips there for energy efficiency. But
it sounds like a bit of a yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
It sounds like someone's not doing their job, doesn't it. Yeah, yeah, okay, right,
let's let's say get.
Speaker 7 (37:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
I think the best thing we did. I think I'm
not the biggest fan of solar, but we did get
solar and two batches. I'm more of a fan of
solar for micro your own house and not during the
whole grid.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Poster fields and fields of solar panels.
Speaker 6 (37:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's totally it's obviously
it's different, but it's much more efficient if you get
it done for your own place and rely on for
giving you two hours of power when it's eight o'clock
at night, then it runs out. But that's probably the
best thing we've done two and a half three years ago.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
How much.
Speaker 6 (37:48):
I was about thirty five grand, but it includes three
batteries as well. I've got so I've got about fifteen
sixteen killer one hour was full and on tonight. There's
a chance we'll still have power left in the batteries
before sunrise. That's it depends depends how much you use obviously, But.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Do you think.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Do you think about the power you use more because
you've installed solar, installed solar? Sorry, m.
Speaker 6 (38:21):
No, not really, you know much importing having lights on
a room that's not occupied.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
I still do that, Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 6 (38:28):
But it's got a bit of you get a bit
of feeding as well. But I'm not there for the money.
But I still wouldn't created to the power company.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Yeah, good, good, good stuff better well, I mean it
is a bit of a luxury. I guess spending thirty
five grand on a solar setup, isn't it Alexandra.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
It depends on how you look at it, isn't it.
You know, if you're going to be there for a
while and you know, to me, it's an investment and
it's probably gonna you're going to pay it off, you know,
in five years or so, you're probably paying that off.
And particularly with some of the green loans that banks
are offering. Yeah, it is kind of a no it
is a no brainer.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. The green sort of
loans aren't they.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yeah, the green loans are pretty useful. One of the
things they're doing in Australia to just want to share
this little bit with you, is that you've got people
now who are trading electricity between themselves. So you know,
the neighbor next door for me, may be a retired
couple and they use their power during the day and
I come home and I use mine at night. So
they've got the ability to start trading, you know, with
(39:31):
each other, which we don't do here yet, but I'd
say it's quickly coming. So the battery storage is a
pretty good way to start preparing for that.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Okay, good stuff. Hey, look we need to take another moment.
We were back in a sex to wrap up at
seven and a half minutes to five News talks'd.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Be the one roof property of the week on the
weekend collective.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Yes, the one roof property of the week is well
they were lately they've been pretty spectacular. This is sixteen twelve.
That's one six one two P Parkery Road and Packery, Rodney.
It's four bedrooms, three get bathroom's two car garage. Go
and check it out. One six one two P Parkety Road,
Parkety Rodney. I mean when I say it's it's not cheap,
(40:15):
but for what it looks like, it's not as expensive
as I thought. It's got an RV of two point
two million years, still a lot of money. It's eighty
two kilometers from the Auckland CBD. And I'd say, by
the look of it, Alexandre, you've had a look at
the property the week, haven't you. It looks like it
probably would have an underfloor heading, wouldn't it. I'd say so,
and a smart meter and a smartness and that, how
(40:37):
would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (40:40):
For more from the Weekend Collective, listen live to News
Talk ZB weekends from three pm, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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