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Powerbill.co.nz
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Privacy policy

Last updated: 17 August 2026.

Powerbill.co.nz is a free New Zealand power bill calculator. This page explains, in plain English, what data the site handles and what it does with it. It is written to comply with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, and with the publisher requirements of the advertising and analytics services named below.

The short version

  • The calculator itself runs entirely in your browser. Your appliance selections, slider positions and region choice never leave your device.
  • We do not ask you to sign up, log in, or give us an email address.
  • We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used. It sets cookies and sends data to Google. Details below, including how to opt out.
  • We also use Umami, a privacy-focused, cookie-free analytics tool, to count page visits.
  • We are not currently serving display advertising.
  • We do not sell or rent information about you, and we have no way to identify you personally in the first place.

What the calculator stores

Everything you enter into the calculator stays in the page. The figures are worked out in your browser from a static data file; nothing you type is sent to us, and we have no server that could receive it.

If you press Save as baseline to use the Compare feature, a single entry is stored in your browser's localStorage under the key powerbill.snapshotA. It contains only the same URL-encoded state as a shareable link. It is never transmitted to us, and clearing your browser data removes it.

Cookies

This site does not set cookies of its own. The third-party services below do:

  • Google Analytics sets _ga and _ga_<id>, which distinguish one browser from another so repeat visits are not counted as new people. They last up to two years.

You can block or delete these at any time in your browser's settings. The calculator works normally with all cookies blocked - nothing on this site depends on them.

Analytics (Google Analytics 4)

We use Google Analytics 4 to see which pages people read, which appliances they look up, roughly where in the country they are, and whether the site works on their device. We use it to decide what to write next and what to fix.

Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses - Google masks them before the data reaches us, and we could not see one if we wanted to. What we can see is aggregate: page URLs, referring sites, approximate region, device and browser.

We deliberately do not record the contents of the calculator. The appliance state you build up is written into the page URL so you can share or bookmark it, but the analytics tag reports only the page path, with that state stripped off.

To opt out entirely, install Google's Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, or block cookies for this site. Google's own account of how it handles this data is at policies.google.com/privacy.

Other analytics

We also run Umami, a self-hosted, privacy-focused analytics tool. It does not use cookies, does not track individuals across sites, and does not build advertising profiles. It collects page URLs, referring sites, approximate country, browser and screen size.

Cloudflare Web Analytics measures page-load performance. It is cookie-free and does not fingerprint or track visitors between sites.

Consent

This is a New Zealand site and almost all of its readers are here. The Privacy Act 2020 does not require us to ask permission before using analytics cookies; it requires us to tell you what we collect and why, which is what this page is for.

Visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are treated differently, because the rules there do require consent first. For those readers analytics and advertising storage start switched off, and stay off unless a consent prompt is shown and you agree to it.

Wherever you are, blocking cookies in your browser has the same effect and needs no permission from us.

What we never do

  • We do not capture email addresses.
  • We do not run a newsletter.
  • We do not sell or share your data.
  • We do not fingerprint your browser or track you across sites ourselves.
  • We do not have a login or account system.
  • We do not record what you enter into the calculator.

Your rights under the NZ Privacy Act 2020

The Act gives you the right to ask what personal information an organisation holds about you, and to have it corrected. In our case there is generally nothing to produce: we hold no account, no email address and no name, and the analytics data described above is aggregate rather than identifiable. If you believe we hold information about you and want to ask about it, email [email protected]. You can also raise a concern with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Some of the services above are operated overseas, which means data they collect may be processed outside New Zealand. Their own privacy notices, linked in each section, set out how they handle it.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy materially, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Substantive changes will be noted on the about page as well.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to [email protected]. See the contact page for details.

Powerbill.co.nz · Aotearoa

Appliance wattages and usage defaults from Consumer NZ, EECA Genless and Frugal Kiwi. Regional pricing from the MBIE Quarterly Survey of Domestic Electricity Prices (QSDEP). Estimates only - check your own plan and meter for exact costs.

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