Rompo Mansion: 6000 Thb electric for 20 nights!

[Mr Lick]

When checking with EGAT in Bangkok some months ago regarding our domestic rate in the village, it seems the more electricity one uses the higher the rate per unit.

Unsure about this in relation to hotel/company use though.

[madjbs]

My bill is often over 8000 baht, sometimes 10000+. 3 bedroom house with at least one aircon on all the time and a second perhaps 75% of the time. Also 3 fridges TVs, computers, playstations etc... Seems a bit high to me.

[Loy Toy]

^ Yes mate. That sounds very high for a 3 bedroom house without a pool.

I would suggest you check your metre unit reading at the start of a charge period and at the end then multiply it by the Kw hour rate applicable to your area.

Don't forget that between 6 and 8 in the morning and 5 to 7 in the evening is a peak usage period with the charge out rate sometimes tripling during those hours.

[madjbs]

I am not actually sure where the meter is, I'm guessing it must be outside the gate on the soi somewhere, so the electric people can read it.

My bill goes down to 6000 if I am fairly sensible, but that is still using a lot of aircon.

[Bettyboo]

^Mad,

If I had our 3 aircons on the whole time, ran the washing m/c at peak time everyday, and leave the missus and her mother at home watching TV, and other stuff that uses electricity (no!), then I doubt if I could get my bill to 3000 baht per month.

[madjbs]

I have suspected something was wrong for a while, todays mission will be to find the meter and have a look.

[Begbie]

Ditto. Our bill is in the 1500 to 2000baht range. 3 bedroom house, 2 fridges, 2 tellys, aircon on occasionally. Check the rate, they might be charging you a commercial one which is about 50% more than domestic.

[madjbs]

Well I found the meter and everything appears ok, it stopped going around when i turned the house off at the fuse box.

Last months bill was 8500 baht and I used 2086 units, so a rate of about 3.8 baht per unit. I am not sure how the increasing price scale works though.

2086 units per month is about 67 kwh per day which is actually about right when I add up all my appliances in the house. The aircons use 2.2 kwh each and I guess I use about 24 aircon hours per day at least, which is more than 50 kwh per day already! Plus fridges, TVs, computers, water pump etc.. 67 kwh per day sounds about right.

[Bettyboo]

^ Maybe you have a waterpump problem, or your aircons need looking at?

I've got all that you have (and more; we do 2 lots of washing every day at peak times, a big fridge, etc); the aircon is probably only going for 6-8 hours a day though.

[billy the kid]

yes check how much per unit and where your meter is so that you can check.
heard it lots of times where farangs have been ripped off by 1000's of baht.
wipes that smile off your face, doesn't it?

[Nostradamus]

My bill is often over 8000 baht, sometimes 10000+. 3 bedroom house with at least one aircon on all the time and a second perhaps 75% of the time. Also 3 fridges TVs, computers, playstations etc... Seems a bit high to me.

Mine was 1,300thb last month for about the same kind of dwelling and usage.

[madjbs]

one AC on 24 hours per day already costs 6200 baht a month.

2200watt AC = 2.2 kwh,
multiplied by 744 hours in a month = 1636 kwh
multiplied by 3.8 baht per unit = 6200 baht per month, for just one AC

How do you do it for 1300 baht?

[madjbs]

Try this out, it estimates the amounts of units you wil use per month.

Online Power Usage Calculator - Consumers Power

I got just under 2000 units which is pretty close to my actual usage. Obviously the price estimate will be incorrect as it's not made for Thailand.

[Marmite the Dog]

I have one 24,000BTU AC unit on 24/7 along with a fridge and a PC. Out bill varies between 2800 and 3800 Baht a month.

If I turn off the fusebox the meter wheel still turns very, very slowly. Thetters told me I probably had an earth leak, which surprises me as there is no Earth in Thailand, or so I thought...

[Bangyai]

It would be nice if electrical goods in Thailand were given an energy efficiency rating similar to the one used in the U.K. instead of that useless 5 star sticker currently stuck on everything. The difference in energy consumption between two similar appliances made by different manufactures can add up to something if you have several of those appliances scattered all over the house. Also, a house not properly insulated will mean the air conditioners have to work that much harder.

We have one 9000 BTU unit on 18 hours a day, A fridge freezer, computer and 29" T.V and I'm winging because our electric bill has crept up to 1450 a month

[nikster]

Likely you were not robbed. Did you use the Air-Con? That's why you have a high bill....

I had a 6000 Baht bill for 1 Month at a Condo in Chiang Mai, but was charged a very fair 4 Baht / unit (Chiang Mai town is around 3B/unit). Many condos charge 7 Baht / unit and had they charged me this much my bill would have been nearly double.

We had 4 Air Cons and electric hot water heaters in this condo, but didn't use the Air-Cons all day and were pretty good at shutting them off.

Lesson learnt: Ask for the electric unit price before moving in

[nikster]

Don't forget that between 6 and 8 in the morning and 5 to 7 in the evening is a peak usage period with the charge out rate sometimes tripling during those hours.

Huh? May I ask how the electric company would check this? The electric meters measure actual throughput but to my knowledge they don't record the time. The company checks the meters every month so it would be impossible for them to charge more for certain periods - how would they know at what times your units were consumed?

For a factory, this might be different, maybe they have meters there that record time too. But for homes? Don't think so & haven't seen it.

[Nostradamus]

How do you do it for 1300 baht?

No idea but I suspect our air-cons are not being included as we've had them disconnected this month for the house renovations and the bill just arrived and it is still the about the same.

The wiring is a complete disaster area here and the meter blew up a couple of months ago resulting in a large explosion and fire on the concrete pole it is attached to.

The last house I was in averaged 3,000thb per month with a single air-con on for 10-12 hours per day.

I have had the whole electrical system replaced by a guy that doesn't seem too retarded so we'll wait and see if that has any effect once everything gets turned on again.