excessive bills

[BritManToo]

50 minutes ago, 4MyEgo said:

May 2018 = 1,462.69 baht

 

May 2019 = 2,171.78 baht

 

May 2020 = 1,457.57 baht

 

May 2021 = 3,000.35 baht

Depends on the weather.

This year in May (Chiang Mai) we've had less rain spread out more, which means it's generally hotter, so the air-con, fridge and freezer work harder.

[chickenslegs]

1 hour ago, sparticus666 said:

I have had the " PEA electricians" round today and the outcome is i have a single phase meter 15Amp. we turned on the A/C in the living room and they measured it. they said it was using 13amp and would cost to run 800 Baht a month to run 6 hrs. a day.

How do they work this out?

 

Volts x Amps = Watts

220 x 13 = 2,860

So your aircon uses 2.86 Kw/h (units)

6 hours per day for 30 days would use about 515 units per month

 

That is way more than 800 baht per month.

 

Of course, the aircon will not be drawing that amount of power constantly - That  depends on factors like ambient temperature, insulation, heat sources (bodies) in the room and so on.

 

I think you may be underestimating the cost of running your aircon during this heatwav.

[Crossy]

3 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

I think you may be underestimating the cost of running your aircon during this heatwav.

 

Without knowing his supply voltage at the time it's very difficult to come up with real numbers. Also what's the A/Cs actual duty-cycle, if it's correctly sized it should be around 30%, undersized or he's keeping a pet polar-bear ... 

[chickenslegs]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Without knowing his supply voltage at the time it's very difficult to come up with real numbers. Also what's the A/Cs actual duty-cycle, if it's correctly sized it should be around 30%, undersized or he's keeping a pet polar-bear ... 

... or a 9 year old daughter

[Crossy]

Just now, chickenslegs said:

... or a 9 year old daughter

 

Two A/C loving Thai teenage grandchildren are screwing our bill, staying with us for the duration.

[Sophon]

26 minutes ago, Crossy said:

A very quick analysis of our energy usage since March last year when I started keeping detailed logs (ok the logs are automatic and held by ThingSpeak).

Corrected for our solar generation (PEA plus solar summed). 

Y axis is total usage in kWh.

 

You may see a pattern developing  ???? 

April 2020 was my first month WFH, lots of A/C use.

 

I have a similar usage pattern over a longer period:

[Crossy]

6 minutes ago, Sophon said:

I have a similar usage pattern over a longer period:

 

And yet, every year the same story on social media, "Why are our bills so big? We've not changed anything. PEA must be ripping everybody off!".

 

People, it's hot, your A/C and fridge/freezer will be working harder.

 

[bankruatsteve]

2 minutes ago, Crossy said:

People, it's hot, your A/C and fridge/freezer will be working harder.

Exactly. Why is that so hard to grasp? 

[Crossy]

22 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Exactly. Why is that so hard to grasp? 

 

I suspect that in the past people just paid the bill when it came and consigned the paper to the bin. Now your records are far easier to access online and people are actually looking and adding 2+2 to make 8.

 

My signature says everything!

[KannikaP]

15 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

I don't think so.  That works out to about B2300 per month at 220V.  I don't know of any AC that even wants to work at 160V.
It's hotter this year for one thing.  

BTW:  a 30/100A meter will do nothing to increase voltage or current if the grid can't supply.

In a previous post, Crossy said that a 12000 BTU A/C should draw about 1200 watts for 40% of the time. ie average of 480 watts per hour x 6 hours = KwH 2880  or 2.88 units (per day @ Bht 4  = Bht 11.52 per day x 30 days = Bht 345 per month. or is my slide rule playing up?

 

[bankruatsteve]

12 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

In a previous post, Crossy said that a 12000 BTU A/C should draw about 1200 watts for 40% of the time. ie average of 480 watts per hour x 6 hours = KwH 2880  or 2.88 units (per day @ Bht 4  = Bht 11.52 per day x 30 days = Bht 345 per month. or is my slide rule playing up?

Not in this heat.  Anyway, the OP said 13 amps, 6 hours per day.

[KannikaP]

8 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Not in this heat.  Anyway, the OP said 13 amps, 6 hours per day.

13 amps is 2860 Watts @ 220volts.

No matter how hot the ambient temperature is, the air con will only stay on for a longer time to try to get the room down to whatever you have set it to. The actual compressor will be working just the same, pumping out air at about 17 degrees.

[bankruatsteve]

4 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

13 amps is 2860 Watts @ 220volts.

No matter how hot the ambient temperature is, the air con will only stay on for a longer time to try to get the room down to whatever you have set it to. The actual compressor will be working just the same, pumping out air at about 17 degrees.

Your point is?

[kamalabob2]

There are three problems I have seen at many village homes. The actual size of the cable coming DOWN to PEA pole and going into the meter. Then the size of the cable the home owner bought to bring electricity FROM the meter to his consumer load center inside the house. I have seen builders pull some shady size choices and even the PEA installing 6mm size cable down a pole TO the meter.  The size of the cable matters. Then where the contractor puts in Aluminum cable and not copper cable FROM the meter to the consumer load center.  Cheaper for the builder, but not better for the home owner. Then the whole issue of PEA transformer being "way down the line" and the expat who bought land at the end of the village has low voltage available. I paid well over 350K 13 years ago for proper transformer, poles, cables, etc from a private contractor as a new house was on a private paved road. I read on Thai Visa Forum, there are screaming discount deals currently in Thailand direct form the PEA on 3 phase installations. Well worth checking out IN PERSON at your local PEA office or Regional PEA office. 

[KannikaP]

3 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

Your point is?

There is something wrong with the a/c unit if it is drawing 13 amps if it is a conventional, non-inverter typ.

The compressor is either ON or OFF, needing a surge of current to get it going in the first instance and then it stays on constantly, using the same power, until the inside unit says that the air it is drawing in from the room is the same temperature as that which has been set on the controller. Then the compressor will switch OFF until the room temperature rises, at which point it will switch ON again.

[RafPinto]

19 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

There is no doubt in my mind that electricity bills have shot up in the last 4 years of the records I keep.

 

May 2018 = 1,462.69 baht

 

May 2019 = 2,171.78 baht

 

May 2020 = 1,457.57 baht

 

May 2021 = 3,000.35 baht

 

Now I don't know what happened in May 2020, could be that we went away or the government gave some discount because I recall they did do that sometime during Covid, but didn't think it was that long ago.

 

We haven't done anything unusual from any other years, i.e. we haven't added any other appliances or replaced any appliances, and we turn the air cons off after half an hour and allow the fans to take over.

 

Either way, I know with a large family, if I was in the old country that bill would be 2.5/3 times as much.

Check your wife.

Maybe she is into Bitcoin mining????

[bankruatsteve]

1 hour ago, kamalabob2 said:

Then where the contractor puts in Aluminum cable and not copper cable FROM the meter to the consumer load center. 

Correctly sized, Al is preferred for the longer runs - especially overhead.

[bankruatsteve]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

There is something wrong with the a/c unit if it is drawing 13 amps if it is a conventional, non-inverter typ.

Really?  How much does an old-style 24k BTU draw?  

 

Anyway, that is irrelevant to the topic.  Quoting from the OP:

"we turned on the A/C in the living room and they measured it. they said it was using 13amp"

[KannikaP]

19 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Really?  How much does an old-style 24k BTU draw?  

 

Anyway, that is irrelevant to the topic.  Quoting from the OP:

"we turned on the A/C in the living room and they measured it. they said it was using 13amp"

Well I guess a 24k BTH would take double that of a 12kBTU which would be around 2.4kW which at 220 volts would be about 11 amps.

So it was PEA electricians who said it was taking 13 amps, and how accurate was their meter.

[bankruatsteve]

4 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Well I guess a 24k BTH would take double that of a 12kBTU which would be around 2.4kW which at 220 volts would be about 11 amps.

So it was PEA electricians who said it was taking 13 amps, and how accurate was their meter.

I once had a 24k BTU that consumed about 15A.  But, that is beside the point.  And your comments are beside the point.  Please stay on topic.

[KannikaP]

8 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

I once had a 24k BTU that consumed about 15A.  But, that is beside the point.  And your comments are beside the point.  Please stay on topic.

The OPs topic is EXCESSIVE BILLS, caused mostly by an air con unit taking 13 amps. 

I simply was trying to explain a few things. If you can shed further light on this, I am sure many would appreciate it. Thanks.

[maxpower]

22 hours ago, bankruatsteve said:

I don't think so.  That works out to about B2300 per month at 220V.

 

Yes at 100% duty cycle but the PEA person in the OP's story has clearly applied what he believes to be average duty cycle and arrived at 800 Baht running cost.

 

In a roundabout way, this is what @KannikaP is trying to explain.
 

[bankruatsteve]

5 minutes ago, maxpower said:

Yes at 100% duty cycle but the PEA person in the OP's story has clearly applied what he believes to be average duty cycle and arrived at 800 Baht running cost.

And I am saying that most AC will be running at 100% in this weather and can explain why electric bills are higher.  Jeez.

[KannikaP]

8 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

And I am saying that most AC will be running at 100% in this weather and can explain why electric bills are higher.  Jeez.

They will be running according to what temperature you set on your control. 

If the room is at 30 degrees, and you set the control to 30, it should not run at all.

[ChaiyaTH]

I've had a record high bill too last month and as far I could conclude it is not about how many hours the AC runs but the outside temperatures. I am usually at a 3000-3500 baht a month bill and in these hot months it runs to 5000 baht. Note we use like 2 aircons almost 24/7 and its a 300 sqm house with 4 floors but mainly led lights.

 

But then again, I also rented small studio rooms with only 1 aircon unit, and still get to 3000 baht bills (even I would not even run it more than 10 hours daily), even its also a PEA bill. Never understood the logic really.

 

I did read it is cheaper to keep a room cool all the time, rather than turning on and off, as the AC then needs to work harder to get to your temp and keep it there. Not sure if that is correct but seems to be true.

[Crossy]

OK I think this has gone on long enough.

 

Closed

 

If our OP would like to start a new thread about his low-voltage issues he is welcome to.