The Synergy Midday Saver tariff rewards households that shift energy use into the middle of the day. Electricity between 9am and 3pm costs 8.8520 cents per kilowatt hour. The same kilowatt hour used between 3pm and 9pm costs 55.3253 cents. That is more than six times the price, purely based on timing.
For solar households, the timing story is even better. The low-cost grid window overlaps with your own peak solar production. Daytime appliances run first on your panels. Only then do they run on 8.85 cent grid power.
Knowing the rates is one thing. Building a household routine around them is another. This guide from Positive Energy Solutions walks through the major appliances one by one. It shows the timing habits that deliver the biggest savings for Perth homes.
The Midday Saver Windows at a Glance
- Super off-peak (9am – 3pm): 8.8520 cents per kilowatt hour — the golden window. Run everything you can here.
- Peak (3pm – 9pm): 55.3253 cents per kilowatt hour — the window to avoid wherever possible.
- Off-peak (all other times): 24.3431 cents per kilowatt hour — reasonable for loads that cannot move to the middle of the day.
- Supply charge: 132.7806 cents per day.
Households with an electric vehicle can add the EV Add-On. This introduces an overnight rate of 19.9172 cents per kilowatt hour between 11pm and 6am. It is designed for overnight car charging.
Under the DEBS feed-in tariff, solar exports earn 10 cents per kilowatt hour during the 3pm to 9pm peak. They earn 2 cents at other times. This shapes the strategy for solar homes: self-consume through the day. Let your battery or your exports work the 3pm to 9pm window.
The Laundry: Dishwasher, Washing Machine and Dryer
These are the easiest wins in the house. Nearly every modern machine has a delay-start or scheduling function.
- Dishwasher (1 – 1.5 kWh per cycle): stack it after dinner. Delay the start until after 9am the next morning. Running it at 7pm instead costs roughly six times more per cycle.
- Washing machine (0.5 – 1 kWh per cycle, more with hot water): schedule cycles between 9am and 3pm. Cold washes keep consumption low. If you prefer warm washes, the midday window makes the extra energy low-cost.
- Clothes dryer (2 – 4 kWh per cycle): one of the hungriest appliances in the home. In a Perth winter, when the washing line is unreliable, a midday dryer cycle costs around 30 to 35 cents on super off-peak rates. That is versus well over $1.50 during the evening peak.
Hot Water: The Biggest Quiet Consumer
Hot water is often the second-largest energy user in a Perth home. It is highly shiftable. A heat pump hot water system typically uses 2 to 4 kWh per day. Most models allow you to set a timer.
Set the heat pump to run from late morning. Around 10am to 2pm is ideal. The tank stores the heat. Evening showers then run on midday energy. For solar households, this window usually means the heat pump runs on surplus solar. On cloudy days, it runs on 8.85 cent grid power instead. Either way, you win.
Households with a conventional electric storage system controlled by a timer can apply the same logic. Heat the tank in the middle of the day, not overnight. The old habit of overnight heating belongs to an era of overnight off-peak pricing. Midday Saver has moved the low-cost window to lunchtime.
The Pool Pump: Set and Forget in the Sunshine
A pool pump running six hours a day is one of the most predictable loads in the house. This makes it one of the easiest to optimise. Set the timer so filtration runs entirely inside the 9am to 3pm window. A typical 1.1 kW pump running six hours uses around 6.6 kWh. At super off-peak rates that costs under 60 cents a day. For solar homes it will usually run on your panels at effectively no marginal cost.
The one timing mistake we still see regularly: pumps left on their old evening schedules. This happened before the tariff switch. Six hours of pumping through the 3pm to 9pm peak costs over $3.60 a day. That is more than six times the midday cost, for the same clean pool.
Heating and Cooling: Work With the Windows
Air conditioning is harder to shift entirely. Comfort matters in the moment. The strategy is pre-conditioning: cool the house down during the super off-peak window. Then let the system idle or run at low power through the expensive peak. In winter, warm it up instead during off-peak hours.
- In summer, start cooling by early afternoon. The home will be at temperature when 3pm arrives.
- In winter, warm the home through the late morning and early afternoon. Then rely on insulation, curtains and a low maintenance setting through the evening.
- Ceiling fans cost almost nothing to run. They stretch the comfort of pre-conditioned air well into the peak window.
EV Charging: Midday If You Can, Overnight If You Must
An electric vehicle is the largest single load most households will ever plug in. A full charge can be 40 to 60 kWh. Timing matters enormously.
- Car home during the day? Charge between 9am and 3pm. For solar households with a 7 kW charger, this is the lowest-cost motoring energy available anywhere. Surplus solar comes first, 8.85 cent grid power comes second.
- Car away during the day? The EV Add-On overnight window (11pm to 6am, at 19.9172 cents per kilowatt hour) is the next best option. Set the vehicle or charger schedule. It manages itself.
- Never charge through the 3pm to 9pm peak. A 50 kWh charge during peak hours costs around $27. That same charge costs around $4.40 in the super off-peak window.
What Should Stay Where It Is
Not everything needs to move. Cooking happens when it happens. No one should reschedule dinner around a tariff. Televisions, lighting and general evening living are modest loads. They are small compared with the big shiftable appliances. Focus on the machines with tanks, timers and batteries. These are hot water, pool, laundry and EV. Let daily life carry on as normal.
This is also where a home battery changes the equation entirely. A battery charged through the day draws from solar or from the grid at 8.85 cents. It then supplies your evening peak usage at a fraction of the 55 cent rate. The appliances you cannot shift draw from the battery instead. Households with batteries effectively make their own peak rate disappear.
Is Midday Saver Right for Your Household?
Midday Saver suits households that can genuinely shift load into the day. These include solar homes, retirees and home-based workers, families with schedulable appliances, pool owners and EV drivers. Households that use most of their energy between 3pm and 9pm and cannot move it may still be better served by Home Plan A1. That plan costs a flat 33.2621 cents per kilowatt hour.
The honest answer comes from your own usage data. As part of every consultation, Positive Energy Solutions reviews how and when your household uses energy. We model both tariffs against your real profile. This includes how a solar system, battery, or both would change the outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need solar panels to benefit from Midday Saver?
No — the 8.85 cent window is available to any household on the tariff. Solar makes it better. Your panels cover daytime loads first. The grid fills the gaps at the lowest rate of the day.
What uses the most electricity in the evening peak?
For most Perth homes: air conditioning, cooking, hot water recovery after evening showers, pool pumps on old schedules, and EV charging left unscheduled. The last three are fully shiftable. Pre-conditioning tames the first.
Can my battery charge from the grid during the super off-peak window?
Most modern battery systems support scheduled grid charging. These include the SigEnergy SigenStor, Sungrow SBR and SBH, and Tesla Powerwall 3. On cloudy days, topping up at 8.85 cents and discharging through the 55 cent peak still delivers a strong saving.
Does running appliances at midday reduce my feed-in earnings?
Slightly, but the trade is heavily in your favour outside the peak window. Daytime exports earn 2 cents per kilowatt hour under DEBS. Avoiding grid purchases saves you the full retail rate. Self-consumption wins comfortably.
How do I switch to Midday Saver?
Midday Saver is a Synergy tariff. Switching is arranged directly with Synergy. If you are considering solar or a battery at the same time, talk to us first. System design and tariff choice work best when decided together.
Make the Low-cost Window Work for You
Midday Saver turns timing into money. A few timers, a few habits, and the right system design can move the bulk of your household energy into a window where it costs a fraction of the peak rate. Or it costs nothing at all, when your own panels carry the load.
Positive Energy Solutions designs solar and battery systems around real tariffs and real household routines. Every installation is completed by our accredited installers and signed off to Positive Energy’s completion standards. It comes with a 10-year installation workmanship warranty and Positive Energy Protection, our after-sales program powered by Omnidian, which monitors the performance of every system.
Ask us to model Midday Saver against your household usage: positiveenergy.com.au/contact/
About the Author
Jason Wiktorowicz
Sales Manager, Positive Energy Solutions | Perth, WA
Jason has been at the centre of Western Australia’s energy transition for over a decade. He was Orchestration Lead on Project Symphony. That was WA’s largest virtual power plant pilot. He was Stream Lead on Project Encore. He worked directly with AEMO, Western Power, and Energy Policy WA. They shaped how distributed energy resources connect and operate on the SWIS. He helped develop and roll out CSIP-AUS. That is the inverter communications standard now mandatory under WA’s May 2026 grid rules. He also helped with REBAR, the WA Residential Battery Rebate scheme.
His earlier career spanned Synergy, Infinite Energy, and Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute. He co-authored peer-reviewed research on net zero urban precincts, solar integration, and peer-to-peer energy trading. This was published in the journal Urban Planning in 2018.
At Positive Energy Solutions, Jason leads sales with a focus on system design accuracy and long-term performance. Positive Energy Solutions designs and installs solar and battery systems, EV chargers and heat pumps. We maintain strong partner accreditations with Fronius, SigEnergy, iStore, and SunPower.
