Frequently Asked Questions

About the comparison service

WATTever’s comprehensive energy comparison is a free service that provides a ranking of every publicly listed electricity and gas plan, making it easy to compare energy prices and switch retailers to save you money.
First, tell us about your energy use. Enter your postcode and usage details. The more you tell us about your energy use, the more tailored the results provided to you. Ideally, have a bill to hand. If not, we can help you estimate.

Then compare the plans. Review the easy to understand price ranking to see how much you can save. Our comprehensive comparison includes all retailers publicly available residential plans. It’s easy to compare savings against your current plan.

When you’re ready, switch and save. Select the plan that’s right for you. If that’s one from our partner retailers, we’ll help you to sign-up direct with the retailer. You’re on the way to a better deal.

WATTever’s comparison includes all electricity and gas retailers in every state and territory of Australia. Here’s the list of Retailers compared by WATTever. Depending where you live, you may have over 30 retailers competing to provide your electricity, so it pays to compare thoroughly. Each plan must be current and have a publicly available energy price fact sheet/BPID listed on a retailers website to be included on our comparison.

There are big savings from switching electricity according to the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC). How much you can save depends on your current plan and your specific energy use.
The AEMC reported in June 2020 the savings available for the ‘average’ consumer who switched from the Default Market Offer (DMO also called the VDO in Victoria) to the cheapest market offer.
In NSW switching electricity could save $301-$470.
In Victoria switching electricity could save $236-$330.
In South East Queensland switching electricity could save $289.
In South Australia switching electricity could save $442.
In the ACT switching electricity from the median standing offer could save $522.
WATTever’s comprehensive comparison makes it easy to find the cheapest publicly-listed electricity offers.

Using WATTever won’t cost you a cent, and could save you hundreds of dollars. There is no mark up on any plans displayed on the website. WATTever uses the retailers plan pricing in all comparisons.

Industry regulation requires retailers to publish their current plans on their websites. The WATTever team collect the latest publicly listed plans and constantly check for price updates. Our comparison engine includes over 4,000 current plans.

Yes. You can now receive a personalised Gas Comparison on WATTever. We’ve been monitoring retail gas prices on our Pricing Analytics service since 2019 and you’ll see detailed comparison of gas prices here

We believe that electricity is the energy source you can make significant savings on. There has been little improvement in gas efficiency over time. Electricity can be generated at home, stored, and usage shifted.

If you want to get the most personalised result and find the best deal for you, we strongly recommend you have a recent energy bill to hand. Inputting your energy usage will tailor the results and allow the comparison engine to match the cheapest plans to your profile. If you don’t have a bill to hand, you can select from a range of usage profiles.

We need your postcode so we can provide a list of retailers and plans that are available to your suburb. By providing your email address your experience of our service is enhanced, allowing your preferences to be saved so you can use these later. It also assists your sign up to our partner retailers, if you choose to do that. We respect your information and do not share your email. For more details you can read our privacy policy.

Your personal information is important. We will never share this with other parties without your permission. We hate spam and respect your right to privacy. For more details you can read our privacy policy.

Yes, our comparison service supports Government concessions. We also support the different treatment of usage and supply discounts either before or after concessions are applied to provide a more accurate total cost estimate.

Yes, our comparison service supports both retailer and premium feed-in tariffs. We also support the different treatment of usage and supply discounts either before or after feed-in tariff credits are applied to provide a more accurate total cost estimate.

The Add Solar feature uses the average estimated daily solar generation for the capital city in your state based on the PVWatts calculator. This number varies between 3.4-4.5kWh per day for each 1kW of solar panels (across Australian capital cities). This estimated output assumes no shading, north facing roof, 20′ roof pitch and 14% system losses (these are the default PVWatts assumptions).

We then multiply that daily solar generation estimate by the size of the additional solar selected and multiply that by the solar self-consumption to determine the reduction in your electricity usage (grid import). That reduced usage total (in kWh) is then multiplied by each plan’s electricity usage rates to determine the reduced usage charges. If GreenPower is added, the GreenPower cost will also reduce as it is based on the new, lower electricity usage. On the solar export side, the amount of solar that you don’t consume is multiplied by the solar feed-in tariff to determine the total solar feed-in. Supply charges are unchanged by adding solar. Where the combination of additional solar and self-consumption exceeds current electricity usage, no further savings on usage charges can be made and usage charges will be reduced to zero. In this case, to better reflect reality, the solar self-consumption input “slider” should be set to effect a low usage charge of ~$2 per day to reflect that without energy storage (eg. batteries) it is not feasible to eliminate all usage charges with solar (night time and cloudy days).

Note: where Time Of Use rates apply we split the reduction in usage from solar self-consumption as follows:
– Two Rate (5 day) Time Of Use – 60% peak and 40% off-peak usage
– Three Rate Time Of Use (aka Flexible) – 40% peak and 60% shoulder

The Add EV feature simulates the addition of an electric vehicle by including the additional energy required to charge an EV for the selected amount of kilometres driven per year.

The different EV models – sedan, hatchback, SUV etc – have a pre-defined fuel consumption and electricity consumption (based on WLTP) and that consumption is used to determine the amount of fuel and electricity required to drive the nominated annual kilometres driven.

For the fuel savings the amount of fuel consumed is then multiplied by the cost of fuel per litre to come up with an estimated annual fuel saving.

For the additional electricity consumption, for anytime (aka flat) tariffs the usage is added to the existing consumption and charged at the applicable anytime usage rate. For Time Of Use tariffs, the usage is added to off-peak usage and charged at the off-peak rate ie. it is assumed that the vehicle will be 100% charged from the off-peak tariff.

Note that each EV owner’s circumstances are different and that each owner will use a mix of home, work, free and paid public charging. Those who need to use more public paid charging will likely see a higher cost whereas those who can take advantage of charging from their own solar, free public or workplace charging will likely see a lower cost.

The following assumptions are made to determine the costs in the basic electricity comparison:
  1. Usage and supply rates shown for each plan INCLUDE all available discounts and GST. Discounts may include pay on time, direct debit, e-billing, guaranteed discounts etc. WATTever displays all rates AFTER discount to enable easy comparison between plans and retailers.
  2. The usage and supply rates in the Energy Price Fact Sheets may differ to those shown on the plan details page. This is because Energy Price Fact Sheets rates are BEFORE discount
  3. One-off credits offered by retailers (e.g. $100 welcome credit applied to the first bill), are included in full where we show an annual cost. Where we show a plan cost for another time period e.g. 91 days, to allow comparison with your existing bill, these credits are excluded.
  4. The value of rewards offered by WATTever (e.g. eGift Cards) or exclusive partner credits for signing up via our website links are included in 1 year cost estimate (and also shown in the Cost Summary breakdown of each plan).
  5. Connection/disconnection fees are not included.
  6. Exit fees from current plans are not included in the plan cost (but are shown in the plan details).
  7. All dollar amounts shown include GST where applicable. Note there is no GST on feed in tariffs.
  8. Retailer feed in tariffs are used unless you indicate that you are eligible for solar bonus scheme tariffs.
  9. Future plan price may be subject to change at the retailer’s discretion. The process for plan price changes for each plan is detailed in the Energy Price Fact Sheets.
  10. Costs are estimated based on entered/past usage. Future usage which may be different.
  11. Combination plans that require you to purchase gas from the retailer as well as electricity are excluded. It may be possible that combined gas and electricity plans offer a less expensive electricity deal than the cheapest electricity only plans, however our experience is that this is rarely the case.
  12. If you tell us you have an EV, and select/input a level of home charging, we assume that households charge at the cheapest time. For EV plans, this is the super off-peak period, which is typically overnight. Where you select a pre-set home charging level, we apply charging as follows; 5,000km/year @ 840kWh, 10,000km/year @ 1,680kWh or 20,000/year @ 3,360kWh. In this case, we reallocate general usage to the lower-cost super off-peak period based on your selection. We assume a maximum 6kWh/home charging rate. Where the required level of charging exceeds the length of the super off-peak period, we allocate this to the next cheapest period/general usage.
Please read the Energy Price Fact Sheet before switching to a new plan to ensure you meet the criteria for that plan/offer.

About switching

About our website

About WATTever

Once you’ve completed the sign up your new retailer will manage the switching process with your old retailer. You’ll receive a final bill from your old retailer and a welcome pack and letter from your new energy retailer. This will outline what you’ve agreed to, and tell you what happens next. There won’t be any interruption to your energy supply.

No. If you switch retailer, you will still receive electricity through the same cables so there won’t be any interruption to your energy supply. There won’t be any men in orange vests arriving at your house, either. Only the company that provides your electricity bills will change.
The closed padlock icon demonstrates that you are on a secure site. Our robust security policies safeguard your privacy from unauthorised access and improper use.

WATTever is an independent Australian family business. WATTever is not owned by any energy industry participants or retailers. This enables us to be impartial.

WATTever currently receive referral fees from
  • Amber
  • Dodo
  • Energy Locals
  • iO Energy
  • OVO Energy
  • Simply Energy
  • Sumo
if you switch to them via the links on our web site. The switching process is undertaken on the retailer’s web site (or via phone if you request a callback from the retailer). We are working to add more partner retailers to make it easy to switch directly. WATTever list all publicly available plans from all retailers in all states and territories of Australia. Plans are ranked irrespective of whether the plan is offered by a partner retailer or not. This ensures you receive an impartial, whole of market view.

 Our free comparison service is just that. The most important point to note is that we don’t make money at your expense. Some retailers provide WATTever a referral fee but this never changes the price you pay. Plans are always ranked in price order. Please support our service by switching through our signup links. This keeps us in business, so we can keep providing you with the full information you need to find cheaper electricity next time.
We also earn income from our Pricing Analytics and Data services that provide whole-of-market electricity and gas plan data and competitive analytics to energy retailers and other businesses.