Endeavour Energy time of use: the peak window, and the one that actually matters
Endeavour is the network where the standard advice is wrong. Everywhere else, the way to win on a time of use tariff is to push load out of the late afternoon peak and into the night. On Endeavour that does not work, because its off peak rate sits above its flat rate. Shifting the dishwasher to midnight moves your usage from one expensive rate to a slightly different expensive rate. The window that pays here is the solar soak, 10am to 2pm, every day. This page is the Endeavour detail; for what it is worth in dollars for your household, use the calculator.
Last checked: 14 August 2026Source: Endeavour Energy Network Price List and AER-approved pricing proposalNext review: January 2027
Which network is Endeavour, and are you on it
Endeavour Energy runs the poles and wires across Sydney's greater west and south west, the Blue Mountains, the Southern Highlands and the Illawarra. The network owns the meter and sets the tariff structure; your retailer bills you and decides what you actually pay. If you are not sure, your bill names your network, and there is a postcode lookup on our NSW smart meter page that will tell you and will say so honestly when a postcode straddles two networks, which happens often along the Endeavour and Ausgrid boundary.
The windows
| Window | Times | Days it applies | Seasons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak | 4pm to 8pm | Business days only | High November to March, low April to October |
| Solar soak | 10am to 2pm | Every day | All year |
| Off peak | Everything else | All days | All year |
Four hours a day across five business days is 20 hours a week in the peak window, less than half Ausgrid's 42. Weekends and public holidays sit outside it entirely.
Why shifting to overnight does not pay here
This is the single most useful thing on this page, and no institutional page states it plainly. Checked in August 2026, Endeavour's off peak rate is higher than its flat rate. Read that again, because the consequence is counter-intuitive: if you move a kilowatt hour out of the 4pm to 8pm peak and run it at 11pm instead, you have moved it onto a rate that is worse than the flat tariff you could have been on. Perfect peak avoidance, on its own, still loses to a flat rate.
That is not an argument against time of use on Endeavour. It is an argument that on this network there is exactly one lever, and it is the solar soak. Move load into 10am to 2pm and the tariff pays. Move it anywhere else and it does not. Every generic "run your appliances at night to save money" article is wrong for Endeavour customers, and there are a lot of them.
The solar soak window
Endeavour prices 10am to 2pm cheaply because that is when rooftop solar is flooding the network and it would rather you used the energy than curtailed it. Three things make it unusually easy to exploit compared with a peak window you are trying to avoid:
- It runs every day, weekends included, so one timer setting works all week.
- It is in the middle of the day, which is exactly when a timer, a pool pump controller or a hot water diverter can act without anyone being home.
- It does not require you to give anything up. Avoiding a peak window means not cooking or not heating at the time you want to. Using a cheap window means running the dishwasher four hours earlier.
The loads worth moving into it, roughly in order: hot water if it is not already on a controlled load, pool pump, EV charging if the car is home during the day, then dishwasher and laundry. If you have rooftop solar, the same window is when you would rather self consume anyway, so the two incentives point the same way.
Business tariffs, and the longer peak most guides miss
If you run a business on Endeavour, find your tariff code on the bill before assuming the 4pm to 8pm window applies to you. It may not.
| Tariff code | Peak or demand window | Days | Seasonality |
|---|---|---|---|
| N845 | 1pm to 8pm peak | Weekdays, excluding public holidays | All year |
| N91 | 4pm to 8pm peak, plus 10am to 2pm solar soak | Peak weekdays, solar soak daily | All year |
| N92, N93 | 4pm to 8pm demand | Working weekdays | Summer rate November to March, non-summer April to October |
The gap between N845 and N91 is three hours a day. On N845 the expensive part of the afternoon starts at 1pm, not 4pm, which quietly catches out anyone whose trading peak is early afternoon: cafes, bakeries, anything with refrigeration working hardest through lunch.
On the demand tariffs, N92 and N93, the charge is set by your highest half hour of demand inside the 4pm to 8pm window rather than by total consumption. It is a capacity charge: one bad half hour prices the period. That makes it a very different optimisation problem from usage, and it is why staggering equipment restarts after an outage matters more than it looks.
How to tell what you are actually on
Your bill answers it in two places. The charges table names the tariff, and near your NMI there is a network tariff code, which on Endeavour begins with N. The quick visual test still applies: separate peak and off peak usage lines at different rates mean you are on time of use, while a single usage line at one rate means a flat tariff, whatever meter is on the wall.
Worth checking across a meter swap, because the network tariff and the retail tariff are two different things and it is the retail one that sets your bill. If your meter was replaced on or after 1 December 2025, the retailer that installed it cannot move you onto time of use without your explicit informed consent for two years.
Questions people ask
What are Endeavour Energy's peak times?
Peak is 4pm to 8pm, and unlike Ausgrid it runs on business days only, so weekends and public holidays are off peak all day. The high season is November to March and the low season April to October. That is 20 hours a week inside the peak window, less than half Ausgrid's exposure.
What is Endeavour Energy's solar soak window?
It runs 10am to 2pm, every day of the week, and it is the cheapest four hours on the network. Endeavour prices it low to soak up midday rooftop solar. On Endeavour this window is not a nice extra: it is the only thing that makes a time of use tariff pay at all.
Does shifting usage out of peak save money on Endeavour?
Not on its own, and this is the one that catches people. As checked in August 2026, Endeavour's off peak rate sits above its flat rate, so moving load out of the 4pm to 8pm window and into the evening leaves you paying more per unit than a flat tariff would. You have to move it into the solar soak.
Are weekends off peak on Endeavour Energy?
Yes, all weekend, because the 4pm to 8pm peak applies on business days only. Public holidays are treated the same way and fall outside the peak window too. That makes Endeavour noticeably kinder than Ausgrid for a household that is home at weekends but out on weekdays.
What is the difference between Endeavour's N91 and N845 tariffs?
Four hours against seven. N91 charges peak from 4pm to 8pm on weekdays and gives you the 10am to 2pm solar soak, while N845 runs a much longer 1pm to 8pm peak on weekdays excluding public holidays. If you are on N845, the afternoon is expensive far earlier than most guides suggest.
When do Endeavour demand charges apply?
Between 4pm and 8pm on working weekdays, on the N92 and N93 demand tariffs. Endeavour splits the year into a summer rate from November to March and a non-summer rate from April to October. Demand is a capacity charge set by your worst half hour, not by how much you use overall.
Should I run appliances overnight on Endeavour?
No, midday beats midnight here, which reverses the usual advice. Because Endeavour's off peak rate sits above its flat rate, the overnight hours are not the bargain they are on other networks. The 10am to 2pm solar soak is the cheap window, so run the dishwasher and pool pump then.
How do I tell which Endeavour tariff I am on?
Your bill names it in two places: the tariff description in the charges table, and a network tariff code near your NMI that begins with N on Endeavour. Look for N91, N845, N92 or N93. Separate peak and off peak usage lines mean time of use; one usage line means a flat rate.
Who wrote this
- Angus Lewington
- Founder of Alien IT Solutions (ABN 32 385 519 280), which runs Smart Home Fix. Day to day that means Home Assistant rescues, smart home repair and getting household data into something a person can actually read. More at anguslewington.com.au.
- Why we write about tariffs
- Because a smart meter is the first time most households get their own interval data, and turning that into something you can act on is the work we do. We are not a retailer, we do not sell you electricity, and we get nothing from you switching plans.
- How this page is maintained
- Windows checked against Endeavour Energy's published network pricing on 14 August 2026, and reviewed again each January and July, because network tariffs reset on 1 July. If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
On Endeavour the whole game is getting load into 10am to 2pm, and that is an automation problem rather than a willpower one. We set up a home energy dashboard that shows your usage against your tariff windows, tells you whether a tariff change actually cost you money, and puts hot water, pool and EV charging on the cheap window automatically. See how the dashboard setup works.