Reducing my house electricity costs – any advice please .

[Custard boy]

 

Due to the rising cost of domestic electricity in Thailand I would now like to try and understand more and if possible reduce my home electricity usage. I know that my current electricity monthly costs may not seem very large . My home is fairly small and only inhabited by my self and wife , but any decrease in the electricity running costs would be some thing that I would appreciate.

 

These below are electric items I currently have installed in and around my house.

 

1. LG smart TV

2. Electric shower unit

3. Combined fridge / Freezer ( Cooling digital inverter compressor )

4. Top loading washing machine ( no electric heating elements )

5. 5 floor standing electric fans ( intermittent use )

6. 1 Air conditioner unit ( Inverter – 18,000 BTU )

7. Microwave ( with internal electric grill )

8. 1 Electric kettle

9. Assorted house internal lighting

10. Assorted exterior house flood lighting ( LED )

11. Assorted small electric / electronic equipment ( computer / router / security cameras etc ).

 

The one air conditioning unit is only used for a short time before going to sleep and does not run all night or during the day time. 

 

I have looked at the residential electric unit costs web sites.

 

https://www.mea.or.th/en/profile/109/111

 

https://www.pea.co.th/Portals/1/demand_response/Electricity Tariffs Nov61.pdf?ver=2018-11-21-145427-433

 

This is a screen shot of my current electricity bill .

 

 

 

 

 

I have also ordered one of these ( hoping that it may help me to understand my home electric consumption better ) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any advice , suggestions or comments that may help me better understand and possibly reduce the current house electricity usage costs , would be most appreciated. 

 

Thanks.

 

.

[MJCM]

11 minutes ago, Custard boy said:

10. Assorted exterior house flood lighting ( LED )

Change that to Solar lights is the first step we did. (They come on when it's dark and shut down when it gets light)

 

Overall you are good to go and buying that Power Monitor is a good thing that will give you some real insights, I for example have found out that a couple of the UPS's is was using to provide my appliances from were faulty (failing batteries) removing them made an impact on our Bill.

 

How old is your Fridge, ours is a couple of years OLD 22Q 2 door Inverter, and we had it serviced by Hitachi and they fixed something things and now it's running as smooth as it was new (and using less electricity (also measured with the Power Monitor)

 

Our Bill is approx in the same range as yours, but our Killer is the Water Pump that supplies water to the garden (750W) and it is used by the Wife 2 hrs in the Morning and 2hrs in the evening (when it is NOT raining)

 

Edit: you could always started with Solar Powering the house that will help a lot

Edited September 2, 2022 by MJCM

[daveAustin]

Try having cold showers every other day, or reduce shower time, see how that helps. Showers and aircon tend to be the biggest culprits. Make sure fridge not running too cold. How much do you use that microwave grill?

[sometimewoodworker]

2 points that will reduce usage, though how much is debatable, are turn off or unplug every device that has a standby mode. The TV will probably need to be unplugged. So is the saving worth the probable need to reprogram the tv? But if there is no problem you will save a tiny amount.

 

The second point is to change the fans to DC ones. This will drop the usage by about ⅓ for each fan. The problem with that is that I only know of a few makers of DC fans and those are all ceiling ones and the cost will almost certainly wipe out the savings available. So on a pure saving money basis a bad idea. However the ones I have are extremely quiet, much less noise than any of the standard floor standing ones.

[Gottfrid]

1 500 baht in electric per month, and you want to lower the cost?????

Advice: Do not use electric appliances and never turn on the light.

[Scott]

Off-topic, troll post reported and removed.

 

[Robin]

Do without electric kettle and microwave.

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, MJCM said:

Change that to Solar lights is the first step we did. (They come on when it's dark and shut down when it gets light)

 

Overall you are good to go and buying that Power Monitor is a good thing that will give you some real insights, I for example have found out that a couple of the UPS's is was using to provide my appliances from were faulty (failing batteries) removing them made an impact on our Bill.

 

How old is your Fridge, ours is a couple of years OLD 22Q 2 door Inverter, and we had it serviced by Hitachi and they fixed something things and now it's running as smooth as it was new (and using less electricity (also measured with the Power Monitor)

 

Our Bill is approx in the same range as yours, but our Killer is the Water Pump that supplies water to the garden (750W) and it is used by the Wife 2 hrs in the Morning and 2hrs in the evening (when it is NOT raining)

 

Edit: you could always started with Solar Powering the house that will help a lot

I have replaced all my light bulbs, internal & external, with WiFI LED ones which can be programmed/controlled on my phone to come on and go off when I want. No need for solar lights

 

Regarding the Power Monitor shown, surely that will only show the consumption on that particular socket/outlet, and not for the whole house. I have fitted a monitor in my consumer unit/fuse box, which tells me the daily and overall consumption. I also read my meter every day and put the readings into an app so I know exactly how much I use each day/month.

What is the payback time if solar powering is fitted?

The increase in cost from Bht 4 to Bht 5 per unit is only for over 300 units per month.

Edited September 2, 2022 by KannikaP

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, Robin said:

Do without electric kettle and microwave.

Electric kettles are typically 3 kW, and are usually filled with much more water than you need. Get a pan on the gas hob, or boil exactly the right amount in the microwave....a mug of water takes 2 minutes.

[KannikaP]

33 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

2 points that will reduce usage, though how much is debatable, are turn off or unplug every device that has a standby mode. The TV will probably need to be unplugged. So is the saving worth the probable need to reprogram the tv? But if there is no problem you will save a tiny amount.

 

The second point is to change the fans to DC ones. This will drop the usage by about ⅓ for each fan. The problem with that is that I only know of a few makers of DC fans and those are all ceiling ones and the cost will almost certainly wipe out the savings available. So on a pure saving money basis a bad idea. However the ones I have are extremely quiet, much less noise than any of the standard floor standing ones.

I have got Mr Ken AC ceiling fans which take 30 watts each so in 12 hours take 360 watts = one third of a unit= Bht 1.5. Not really worth worrying about.

And they are inaudible. The noise comes from the movement of the air, not the actual fan.

[MJCM]

6 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I have replaced all my light bulbs with WiFI LED ones which can be programmed on my phone to come on and go off when I want. No need for solar lights

 

Regarding the Power Monitor shown, surely that will only show the consumption on that particular socket/outlet, and not for the whole house. I have fitted a monitor in my consumer unit/fuse box, which tells me the daily and overall consumption. I also read my meter every day and put the readings into an app so I know exactly how much I use each day/month.

This about the OP, does he have that?

[sometimewoodworker]

5 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I have got Mr Ken AC ceiling fans which take 30 watts each so in 12 hours take 360 watts = one third of a unit= Bht 1.5. Not really worth worrying about.

And they are inaudible. The noise comes from the movement of the air, not the actual fan.

The Mr-Ken fans are designed to be as quiet as possible. The DC versions use less power and are more controllable (6 speeds, reversible and variable speed)

[KannikaP]

3 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

The Mr-Ken fans are designed to be as quiet as possible. The DC versions use less power and are more controllable (6 speeds, reversible and variable speed)

I must have the cheapo AC ones, only 4 speeds and non-reversible.

Why would you need to reverse a ceiling fan please?

Edited September 2, 2022 by KannikaP

[KannikaP]

12 minutes ago, MJCM said:

This about the OP, does he have that?

Well he said that he had ordered one in his first post

[MJCM]

4 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Well he said that he had ordered one in his first post

Yeah he has, the following is the way to go, but will the OP be able to install that?

 

26 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

have fitted a monitor in my consumer unit/fuse box, which tells me the daily and overall consumption.

 

 

[unheard]

28 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

I have replaced all my light bulbs, internal & external, with WiFI LED ones which can be programmed/controlled on my phone to come on and go off when I want. No need for solar lights

The tricky part is the WiFi LED bulb stand by consumption, with published numbers around 0.5 W per device.

[KannikaP]

4 minutes ago, unheard said:

The tricky part is the WiFi LED bulb stand by consumption, with published numbers around 0.5 W per device.

Please show where that number comes from. 

I have about 20, so if they use 0.5 watts each x 24 hours = 240 watts = 1/4 of a unit = Bht 1 ! which will increase if I switch the light on, no? They are rated at 3 watts each on full power, which is far too bright for me, I have them on 20% usually. But all of them full on for 12 hours would be 20 x 3 x 12 = 720 watts = 3/4 of a unit = Bht 3 per day

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by KannikaP

[MJCM]

37 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

What is the payback time if solar powering is fitted?

If he gets a small scale solar system it doesn't have to be very expensive. A couple of Members have fitted such a system @BritManToo and @007 RED for example.

 

[KannikaP]

6 minutes ago, MJCM said:

If he gets a small scale solar system it doesn't have to be very expensive. A couple of Members have fitted such a system @BritManToo and @007 RED for example.

 

You did not answer my question. What is the payback time?

A 10kW system would save you maybe Bht 40 per day on very minimal use.

Edited September 2, 2022 by KannikaP

[MJCM]

1 minute ago, KannikaP said:

You did not answer my question. What is the payback time?

You have to ask them to be sure, because I don't have it, but I recall them saying something like 3-5 years (but could be wrong)

Edited September 2, 2022 by MJCM

[connda]

Roughly $40 USD ?  You have to be kidding?  You should be celebrating that you don't live in the West where you'd be paying $1500 GBP/Euro/USD month and rising.  I'm not embracing austerity because it's now in vogue. 
But each to their own.

Go solar.

[KannikaP]

Just now, MJCM said:

You have to ask them to be sure, because I don't have it, but I recall them saying something like 3-5 years (but could be wrong)

As i added to my previous post, 10kW on minimal use could save Bht 40 per day, = Bht 14600 per year. 

I am sure one of them will come up with the correct figures.

[unheard]

16 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

Please show where that number comes from.

The results showed that the standby power consumption of 21 Smart LED bulb models (out of 30) was less than 0.5 W, which resembles the maximum allowable standby power consumption amount of a smart LED bulb, if the manufacturers intend to carry the Energy Star logo on their product.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378778818333838

[KannikaP]

21 minutes ago, unheard said:

The results showed that the standby power consumption of 21 Smart LED bulb models (out of 30) was less than 0.5 W, which resembles the maximum allowable standby power consumption amount of a smart LED bulb, if the manufacturers intend to carry the Energy Star logo on their product.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378778818333838

So your previous quote of 0.5 watts is not correct.  The report says between 0.06 and 0.43. for three samples.

I turn the power to the bulbs off in the daytime, so not really worth worrying about.

Edited September 2, 2022 by KannikaP

[unheard]

4 minutes ago, KannikaP said:

So your previous quote of 0.5 watts is not correct.  The report says between 0.06 and 0.43. for three samples.

I turn the power to the bulbs off in the daytime, so not really worth worrying about.

My previous quote was referring to the maximum allowable under the Energy Star Logo spec.

The U.S. and Canada sold LEDs tend to be of the highest available quality products currently on the market.

Your particular samples can consume much more than the allowable maximum of 0.5 W.

What's is your brand?

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

I must have the cheapo AC ones, only 4 speeds and non-reversible.

Why would you need to reverse a ceiling fan please?

One of the fans only blows air well when in reverse due to its placement 2 of the others get reversed occasionally due to temperature differential and high level ventilation.

I didn’t factor the reverse capability when I bought. I did factor in the silence of them I was also pleased with the power consumption.

 

However one lightning strike has probably wiped out any power savings, it rather convincingly blew up one of the chips and the psi of the lights.

Edited September 2, 2022 by sometimewoodworker

[transam]

Tell the ladies in the house, a shower only takes 2 minutes, not 30.

 

Replace all lighting with LED, checkout the LED wattage to your stuff equivalent to do the same job.

 

Fill any open space in fridge/freezer with plastic bags etc. Periodically, pull the fridge/freezer out, turn off the power to it, unscrew the panel covering the gubbins, clean out all the <deleted> build up with vacuum and brush, ensure air can be pulled in and expelled by the fridge gubbins cooling fan. Don't take too long doing it if you have frozen chips. ????

I bought switched twin plug sockets for regularly used stuff, saves pulling plugs all the time, plus they have small LED lights telling you if an appliance is still switched on, very handy..

 

[BE88]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

Tell the ladies in the house, a shower only takes 2 minutes, not 30.

 

 

 

And it only uses gas to cook and forget about the microwafe.

 

[transam]

2 minutes ago, BE88 said:

And it only uses gas to cook and forget about the microwafe.

 

Weeeeell, the microwave, I would have thought, was developed to cook in a shorter time than conventional stuff, so a power saving can be saved in certain instances..

[BE88]

24 minutes ago, transam said:

Weeeeell, the microwave, I would have thought, was developed to cook in a shorter time than conventional stuff, so a power saving can be saved in certain instances..

Yes for an electric cooker but not when you have gas available beyond the fact that there are a lot of criticisms of the microwave for health.