Your power bill is about to drop. Here is what to do with the next six months.

Quick answer: The clocks go forward at 2am on Sunday 27 September, and from there your power bill starts falling on its own. That drop is mostly the heating going off, and it hides two things: electricity is 12.0 percent dearer than it was a year ago (Stats NZ, year to the June 2026 quarter), and water heating is about a third of a household's energy bill all year round. The six months between now and next winter are the only stretch where you can get quotes without queueing, do the work without living through it, and arrive at May with a house that costs less to run. Most people spend those six months not thinking about power at all, which is why every winter feels like the first one.

What actually changes on Sunday

Daylight saving starts at 2am on Sunday 27 September 2026, and runs until 3am on Sunday 4 April 2027. New Zealand does this every year on the last Sunday in September.

You lose an hour of sleep and you get a long evening. For a house, the long evening is the real change: lights on later, heating on less, and if you have solar, a lot more of the day spent generating.

Your bill will fall over the next few weeks whatever you do. That is worth saying plainly, because a lot of energy advice arrives in spring pretending you have done something clever.

Why the spring bill flatters you

Most of what falls off your bill between now and Christmas is heating. It goes away because the weather changed, not because the house got better. Come May it comes back, on a house that is exactly as it was.

It also comes back to a higher price. Stats NZ has electricity up 12.0 percent in the year to the June 2026 quarter, the second largest contributor to annual inflation after petrol. So the same house, using the same power next winter, costs more than it did last winter. A summer bill that looks fine is measuring the season, not the price.

The bit that does not go away is hot water. EECA puts it at "around a third of your household energy bills", and a third is a third in January. Nobody showers less because the evenings are long.

So the honest reading of a low summer bill is that it tells you very little about your house. The number to care about is the July one, and the only time you can do anything about the July one is now.

The free things, worth doing this week

Before any of the big decisions, EECA publishes a list of changes that cost nothing or nearly nothing. Their figures, not ours:

• Washing in cold water: around $30 a year.
• An efficient shower head: around $80 a year.
• Closing curtains and blinds before it gets dark: $80 to $90 a year.
• Cleaning your heat pump filters: $50 a year.
• Only heating the rooms you are using: up to $350 a year.
• Turning off appliances left on standby: EECA says these "collectively add up to $200 to your yearly power bill".

None of that is exciting and none of it needs a tradesperson. Do the shower head this weekend and the filters before you stop thinking about the heat pump for six months, because a dirty filter in September is a dirty filter in June.

What New Zealanders are actually asking us to fix

When people run their house through the Cogo platform and ask to be put in touch with an installer, this is what they ask for. Across more than 2,000 upgrade requests:

• Solar, 41%. That is panels on their own, panels with a battery, and batteries added to existing solar, counted together.
• Hot water, 27%.
• Heating, 21%.
• Cooking, 8%.
• Insulation and EV charging make up the rest.

Solar and hot water between them are more than two thirds of it. That lines up with where the money actually is: hot water because it is a third of the bill every month of the year, and solar because EECA reckons "switching on solar can save New Zealand homes around $1000 on their power bills each year".

The six-month plan

The reason to do this now is not urgency, it is queueing. Everybody has the same idea in May.

Late September to October: decide. Work out what your house actually needs, not what your neighbour got. A house with an old resistance cylinder and no insulation has a different first move from a well-insulated house with a working heat pump. This is the cheap part, because it is just thinking.

November to January: get quotes and get the work done. Installers have capacity, you are not trying to live without hot water in July, and a scaffolding day in December is a pleasanter thing than a scaffolding day in June.

February to March: the small stuff. Curtains, draught stopping, filters, a shower head. The jobs that are easy to put off and that add up.

April: nothing. That is the point. Arrive at winter with it done.

If you only do one thing on that list, make it the deciding. A household that already knows what it will fit when the hot water cylinder dies makes a good decision at 6am on a Sunday. A household that has not decided gets whatever is on the van.

Frequently asked questions

When does daylight saving start in New Zealand in 2026?

2am on Sunday 27 September 2026. It ends at 3am on Sunday 4 April 2027.

Will my power bill actually go down over summer?

Almost certainly, because the heating comes off. That is the weather doing it rather than your house getting better, so a low summer bill is not evidence that the house is efficient.

How much have power prices actually gone up?

Electricity rose 12.0 percent in the year to the June 2026 quarter, on Stats NZ's consumers price index. After petrol, it was the single biggest contributor to annual inflation.

What is the biggest single thing on a power bill?

Water heating, at about a third of a household's energy bill according to EECA, and it stays roughly that all year.

Is spring a good time to install solar?

It is a good time to get it quoted and fitted, because installers are less stretched than they are in autumn, and you get a full summer of generation out of it before the first bill that really matters.

What should I do first?

Depends on the house. The order that usually makes sense is to stop paying for heat you are losing, then fix the thing that runs all year, then generate your own. Running your own place through the tool will give you the order for your house rather than the average one.

Run your own numbers

What is worth doing depends on your house, your hot water system and how you use power. The Cogo platform works that out for your household and puts you in touch with vetted installers if you want a quote.

See what your house should do first

This article is general information only. It is not financial, energy or product advice. What you save depends on your home, your power plan and how you use energy, so get quotes from qualified installers or licensed dealers and seek independent advice for your own situation.