Free power from 11am to 2pm. Here’s how to make it pay.
Every big retailer now sells a plan with three free hours in the middle of the day. The catch is that most other hours cost more. It saves you money when your house uses those free hours, and a battery and a hot water timer are how it does that.
Stored in a battery, that free power runs the house through the expensive evening hours.
What you pay, by time of day
- 11am to 2pmFree (first 24 kWh)
- 2pm to 4pm8.1c a kWh
- 4pm to 9pm48.9c a kWh
- 9pm to 11am26.4c a kWh
- Daily charge$1.78 a day
The house on our home page reads it in about 20 seconds and shows what this plan, and a battery, would do for you.
What makes it pay
Change nothing and this plan usually costs a little more than an ordinary one. Move power into the free hours and it starts to win. Three ways to do that, biggest first.
Fill a battery for free
An 8 kWh battery fills up between 11am and 2pm and runs the house through the expensive evening hours. For a typical home using 16 kWh a day, that takes the yearly bill on this plan from about $2,340 to about $1,340. Works without solar panels too.
Heat the hot water in the free hours
A timer on an electric tank heats it between 11am and 2pm. If your hot water is on a separate cheap plan now, an electrician moves it onto your main supply first. Often $300 to $500 a year.
Run the dishwasher and washing at 11am
Use the delay-start button. It costs nothing, and roughly $100 to $200 a year comes off.
Figures as at 2 November 2026 for typical homes, indicative only. Some retailers sell their own versions of the free-hours plan, and some ordinary plans are already cheap in the middle of the day, so it’s worth comparing.
Want your own numbers?
Upload your bill and the house on our home page sizes a battery to how you actually use power. If it’s worth doing, Matt follows up with a proper quote after a site check.
Upload my billRather talk? Call 1300 025 975
- Which plan suits which house →Every retailer compared, refreshed every two weeks.
- How to actually save with the free hours →The plain-English guide.
- A battery without solar →For renters and roofs that can’t take panels.
Please read before you act on this. Prices are the regulator’s maximum for the Energex area as at 2 November 2026; a few retailers charge slightly less on the daily charge. This page is general information, not financial advice or a recommendation to switch. Plans, conditions and fees change and every home uses power differently, so please check the retailer’s own fact sheet, and your own bill, before you change plans or buy anything. The final choice, and the final check, are yours.