Shifting usage off peak: the four loads that actually move

Almost every article about saving money on a time of use tariff tells you to "shift your usage". Almost none of them say what. It matters, because most of a household's electricity is spent on things that happen at a fixed time: you heat the house when it is cold, you cook at dinner time, the lights go on when it gets dark. The genuinely movable share sits in a small number of large loads, and once you have those on a timer you have captured most of what is available. This page is that list, and the window to aim at on each NSW network.

Last checked: 15 August 2026Windows: per network, sourced on our tariff pagesNext review: January 2027

What moves, and what does not

Load	Movable?	How
Hot water	Yes, the biggest one	Controlled load already, or a timer or smart relay if it sits on your normal tariff
EV charging	Yes, the largest single load	Schedule in the car or the charger, not by plugging in later
Pool pump	Yes, easily	Built in timer on most pumps
Dishwasher, laundry	Yes, with a delay start	Delay start button, or just run it at a different time
Heating and cooling	Partly	Pre-heat or pre-cool before peak, then coast
Cooking	No	You eat at dinner time
Lighting, fridge, standby	No	Fixed or continuous by nature

The four movable loads are the whole game. If you have all four on a schedule and your bill still looks wrong, the problem is the tariff rather than your behaviour, which is a different question and is covered on the bill-shock page.

Which window to aim at, by network

This is where generic advice fails hardest, because on one NSW network the usual "run it overnight" instruction is simply wrong.

Network	Aim for	Avoid
Ausgrid	Anything outside the peak, late evening and overnight both work	3pm to 9pm, every day, in summer and winter
Endeavour	10am to 2pm solar soak, every day. This is the only window that pays	4pm to 8pm on business days, and overnight, which is not the bargain it looks
Essential	10am to 3pm, and 10pm to 7am on Sun Soaker	7am to 10am and 3pm to 10pm on Sun Soaker; 5pm to 8pm weekdays on the interval tariff

The Endeavour trap, because it reverses the standard advice. Endeavour's off peak rate sits above its flat rate, checked August 2026. So moving the dishwasher from 6pm to midnight moves it from an expensive rate to a slightly different expensive rate, and you would have been better off on a flat tariff. On Endeavour the only window that actually pays is the 10am to 2pm solar soak. Midday beats midnight there, which is the opposite of what every generic article says.

The four, in order of what they are worth

1. Hot water

Usually the largest single item in an Australian home after heating and cooling, and it is completely indifferent to when it runs. Before you do anything, check whether it is already on a controlled load circuit. Many homes have hot water on a separate circuit that the network already switches during cheap hours, in which case a timer adds nothing and you should leave it alone. If it is on your main tariff, a timer or a smart relay is typically the best single change available.

2. EV charging

If you have an electric car it is almost certainly your largest movable load, and the default behaviour is the worst possible one: most cars begin charging the moment you plug in, which for most people is when they get home in the evening, in the middle of the peak window. Every modern EV and nearly every home charger can schedule a start time. Setting it once is a genuinely large, permanent change for about two minutes of effort.

3. Pool pump

A pool pump runs for hours a day and the water does not care when those hours happen. Nearly all of them have a built in timer, so this costs nothing at all. On Endeavour in particular, moving the pump into the 10am to 2pm solar soak is close to free money.

4. Dishwasher and laundry

Individually smaller, but they are daily and they are the easiest thing in the house to change: most machines have a delay start button that nobody uses. The one caution is not to run a dryer or dishwasher unattended overnight if you would not normally, which is a fire-safety judgement rather than an energy one.

What about heating and cooling?

Mostly you cannot shift it, and pretending otherwise is how energy advice loses people. You heat the house when the house is cold. What does work is pre-conditioning: running the heating or cooling harder before the peak window opens, then letting the house coast through it at a lower setting. A well-insulated house holds temperature for a surprisingly long time. A poorly insulated one does not, and for that house the honest answer is that insulation will do more than any tariff strategy.

Do you need smart home gear?

No, and we would rather say so than sell you something. Three of the four big loads already have a timer built in. What automation adds is the ability to follow the tariff without you thinking about it, and to react to conditions rather than the clock: charging the car when your solar is actually exporting, holding hot water back on a day you are away, or shifting the pool pump when the peak window changes season. That is worth having if you want it, and it is not a prerequisite for capturing most of the saving.

Before you optimise, check the tariff is right

There is a step that comes before all of this and it is frequently skipped: confirm that a time of use tariff suits you at all. On Essential Energy most households are better off on it without changing anything. On Ausgrid it depends heavily on your evenings. On Endeavour it only pays through the solar soak. The calculator answers that against your own usage, and the tariff page puts all three networks side by side.

Questions people ask

What is worth shifting to off peak?

Four loads carry almost all of it: hot water, pool pump, EV charging and dishwasher or laundry. Together they can be a third of a household's usage and none of them care what time they run. Heating, cooling, cooking and lighting are the ones you cannot move, because they happen when you are cold, hot or hungry.

When is the cheapest time to run appliances?

It depends on your network, and on one of the three it is the middle of the day rather than overnight. On Endeavour the 10am to 2pm solar soak is the cheap window, every day. On Essential Sun Soaker it is 10am to 3pm. On Ausgrid anything outside 3pm to 9pm is off peak, so late evening works.

Should I put my hot water on a timer?

One check comes first: is it already on a controlled load circuit, because many Australian homes are. If it is, the network already runs it in cheap hours and a timer adds nothing. If it is on your normal tariff, a timer or a smart relay is usually the single biggest saving available in a house.

When should I charge an electric car?

Not at 6pm, which is what most cars do by default if you just plug in. A typical overnight charge is several kilowatt hours, so it is the largest single shiftable load a household has. Set the car or charger to start inside your network's cheapest window instead, which most cars and chargers can schedule.

Can I shift heating and cooling?

Mostly no, and it is worth being honest about that. You run the heater when you are cold. What does work is pre-heating or pre-cooling the house before the peak window starts, then letting it coast, which shifts some of the energy without asking you to sit in the cold.

Does a pool pump need to run at a particular time?

No, and that makes it one of the easiest wins. A pool pump typically runs several hours a day and the water does not care when. Most pumps have a built in timer, and moving those hours into your network's cheap window costs nothing and changes nothing about the pool.

How much can shifting actually save?

It depends on how much you move and which network you are on, and the honest answer is that the spread between peak and off peak differs enormously across the three NSW networks. Our calculator works it out against your own usage rather than a national average, which is the only way the number means anything.

Do I need smart home gear to do this?

No, three of the four big loads have a timer built in already. A pool pump, a hot water relay and most EV chargers can be scheduled without buying anything. Smart home automation helps when you want it to follow the tariff automatically, or to react to your solar rather than the clock.

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 this: Because automating the shift is the work we do, and because most of the advice online is written without knowing which network the reader is on. 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 each distributor's published pricing and reviewed each January and July, because network tariffs reset on 1 July. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

Doing this by hand works, and doing it automatically works better, because the windows change with the season and nobody remembers to move the pool timer in November. We set up a home energy dashboard that shows your usage against your tariff windows and automates the four loads above, so the shifting happens whether or not you think about it. See how the dashboard setup works.