Hi all,

 

We are currently looking for a condo but having a hard time estimating the electrical costs of the duplex. Most of the time we will be at home, so 2 AC's will be running constantly. Normally I would put an AC at 26 and that would be enough. But this space is 4,4m high which makes it harder to guess the electric costs to see if the condo fits our budget. 

 

This is the condo:

https://www.ddproperty.com/property/ให้เช่า-siamese-สุขุมวิท-48-ขนาด-53-ตร-ม-duplex-2-ห้องนอน-เฟอร์นิเจอร์และเครื่องใช้ไฟฟ้าครบ-ราคาเช่าเพียง-35-000-พร้อมเข้าอยู่-ให้เช่า-8741576

 

Can anyone estimate the costs?

I pay between 6400 and 5200 depending on government discounts for a 180 sq.m. house with 2 floors, 6 rooms and 4 aircons. 

Since it's a rental the landlord may be able to give you an idea what past bills have been (the ad. only has renderings so may be a new building).

 

Sadly it's very difficult to estimate these costs, too many variables, such as:-

• Which side of the building is it on? (North would be best)
• How much glass and just how much direct sun does it get?
• Drapes/curtains or tinted glass?
• Set temperature (we have an idea)?

Biggest variable is you and your lifestyle.

 

If we do a very quick and dirty guesstimate:-

53m² would, by the standard Thai guesstimate, need about 30,000 BTU of A/C which would swallow around 3kW if it's all running flat-out!! If we assume it's correctly sized then say a 30% duty-cycle, so 1kWh per hour of use.

 

Run 24/7 that's about 720kWh per month, at around 4.5 Baht per unit we have 3,240 Baht per month on A/C add say another 1,000 Baht for other appliances and your looking at about 4,000 Baht per month, ish.

 

Also very important to find out exactly how much per kWh you have to pay at this property.  If your bill passes through the management, it might double or triple compared to the direct price from PEA.  In my building, everyone pays 8 / kWh added onto the monthly rent.  I don't know how much of that 8 baht the owner pays to PEA.  I've seen detached houses in the area pay 3 baht per kWh.  

37 minutes ago, captainjackS said:

I don't know how much of that 8 baht the owner pays to PEA.  I've seen detached houses in the area pay 3 baht per kWh.  

Roughly ½ is to the PEA it’s also illegal to charge you 8 Baht but they will continue until challenged and probably beyond. Nobody pays 3 Baht per kWh 

thank you@sometimewoodworker for the chart.  I just checked the bill at gf's house and it was 311.33 baht for 94 kWh.  Average of 3.3 ฿ / kWh.  So it is higher than my quick mental-math estimate of 3 ฿ -- but not nearly as high as the 8 ฿ i pay at the apartment.  I have heard that this practice of reselling electricity to tenants for profit is illegal in many cases, but it is standard practice in Chiang Mai and difficult to avoid.  That said, the OP should be careful to consider the actual price per kWh unit at each property when comparing budgets.

16 minutes ago, captainjackS said:

thank you@sometimewoodworker for the chart.  I just checked the bill at gf's house and it was 311.33 baht for 94 kWh.  Average of 3.3 ฿ / kWh.  So it is higher than my quick mental-math estimate of 3 ฿ -- but not nearly as high as the 8 ฿ i pay at the apartment.  I have heard that this practice of reselling electricity to tenants for profit is illegal in many cases, but it is standard practice in Chiang Mai and difficult to avoid.  That said, the OP should be careful to consider the actual price per kWh unit at each property when comparing budgets.

The low rate is up to 150 units per month, after that it goes up to just over Bht 4. as shown on the tariff shown above.

35 minutes ago, captainjackS said:

thank you@sometimewoodworker for the chart.  I just checked the bill at gf's house and it was 311.33 baht for 94 kWh.  Average of 3.3 ฿ / kWh.  So it is higher than my quick mental-math estimate of 3 ฿ -- but not nearly as high as the 8 ฿ i pay at the apartment.  I have heard that this practice of reselling electricity to tenants for profit is illegal in many cases, but it is standard practice in Chiang Mai and difficult to avoid.  That said, the OP should be careful to consider the actual price per kWh unit at each property when comparing budgets.

As you can see taking the total charge and  dividing by kWh to get the average isn’t really of much benefit, in fact your GF may be only just above the threshold for free electricity. The free threshold was 50 units went up to 90 then 150 and has dropped again, I don’t know if it’s at 90 or back to 50 now.

https://eservice.pea.co.th/EstimateBill/#

 

Our bills have run from low of 1300 to 2800.   Townhouse (middle) w/ one 9000 BTU running about 16 hrs a day, 2 frdges (mediums size), 2 fans, 1 hot water heater(3500w), basic small kitchen appliances.  Electric (70L)  counter top oven, but rarely used.  No water  pump as city water has good pressure.

1800 to 2000 for my 2 bed 2 bath 2 a/c Duplex bigest drain besides the a/c is my water pump that kicks in if town water pressure drops 

On 9/23/2021 at 12:15 PM, captainjackS said:

Also very important to find out exactly how much per kWh you have to pay at this property.  If your bill passes through the management, it might double or triple compared to the direct price from PEA.  In my building, everyone pays 8 / kWh added onto the monthly rent.  I don't know how much of that 8 baht the owner pays to PEA.  I've seen detached houses in the area pay 3 baht per kWh.  

Last I heard that is now illegal.

I pay about 900 thb a month for one ac   that is for the whole 2 bdrm house

It seems as if one bedroom is a loft. That is going to be the hard one to cool. In the summer months 26 would not work up there IMHO. Looks like a nice place though.

Ask the juristic team in the complex, they will know the average cost of a bill there. If you like the place ask for a small discount on the rental price, which will offset your power bill.