Resort Owner Shocked As Power Bill Soars Over 700,000 Baht

[billd766]

13 hours ago, MJCM said:

 

 

Spot on.

 

Last month we stayed in a Hotel in Pattaya and to get the room cool a bit we had to set the temperature to 18c on the air con, and even then the temperature in the room was so so. In comparison we set the air con in our house to 27c first and then later when we goto sleep change it to 28c. So the air con in the Hotel is clearly in need of some maintenance / replacement.

 

Re: Replacement.

 

When I bought my Condo, after a while we replaced the air con in the bed room to an Inverter one and the result was that the following electricity Bill was less then half.

 

The hotel we stayed in had however one of those device that will cut the power when you leave the room and take your room key with you so leaving the air con running was not possible

IIRC it is a sort of key card and you have about 2 minutes of power, or less when you remove it.

 

Most standard size credit, debit, drivers licence, store card etc will do a similar job.

12 hours ago, JensenZ said:

I run my aircon nearly the same as you... 26 (awake) to 27 (when sleeping). My wife prefers 28C all the time in her room. A good unit will drop the humidity fast, so you can feel comfortable at higher settings. I got new Daikin inverter units installed last year and it saved me roughly 1000 baht per month... and that's with running them for longer each day.

 

What size units were they in BTU, can you tell me please?

[redwood1]

I was shocked when my electric bill went up to 1300 last month....

The electric company wants me living in the street, and they will be driving a new mercedes with all the money they are making off me...

 

I will be living on the beach soon if this keeps up, holding my will work for food sign...

Edited April 22, 2023 by redwood1

[Dazinoz]

1 hour ago, Reigntax said:

Different type of dust on the condenser compared to the evaporator and wall mounted splits generally have low static pressure fans which are affected by filter blockage.  Evaporator filter dust is oily and mostly skin particles and the filters generally poorly stop bypass resulting in partial evaporator contamination and heat transfer loss.

Yes I used to instal and clean in Oz. My post was referring to professional people who have no idea. 

[nauseus]

14 hours ago, MJCM said:

So 1.8MW = 1.800.000W

 

Let's assume A Solar panels is approx 500W, so that would already 1.8MW / 500 = 3600 Panels.

 

1 panel approx 4500 THB = 3600 * 4500 THB = 16.200.000 THB just for the Panels.

 

iWOW

ROI 2 years max.

[CALSinCM]

$14k+ in electric bills.  How do they make a profit?

[keysersoze276]

1. Prayuth defended the electrical cost rise a few months ago, in the cool season. People spoke out and he blew them off.  Told the media to <deleted> up, grow small pots of limes to make up for it, etc. 

 

2.  I have stayed at many hotels that have old and unmaintained air conditioners that I still sweat at night, therefor leaving the aircon on for 24 hours per day, full blast, still not enough to be comfortable when I come back. 
3. My landlord asked me to renew our rental contract and I agreed if they bought an entirely new aircon (inside and out) for out living room/ kitchen area. They agreed and we pay about 1/3 of what we were paying with the very old aircon unit. 
 

This resort should clean the filters regularly and replace outdated units. It is simple common sense. If you choose to not keep it clean and updated, expect a hige surge especially in the hot season. 

[JensenZ]

15 hours ago, Crossy said:

Our "usage" remains pretty constant, but the actual energy consumption has whizzed up recently: -

 

 

The red column is our total consumption, up 30% since February. This is purely from A/C and freezers working harder during the warm weather.

 

Similar increase for me. March 19 bill to April 19 bill, a 35% increase. I did use more air conditioners, which contributed to the increase.

[Kwaibill]

A singular element to the problem is that most do not understand how AC works. Most think that setting at coldest setting will cool the area more quickly. Not how it works. Just makes the compressor run longer. Also, as mentioned earlier, Thai attitudes towards maintenance are a little scant, it seems. ( I am very pleased that my wife takes her car in regularly, as I am no longer able to do much in that department.)

[Dazinoz]

1 hour ago, Kwaibill said:

A singular element to the problem is that most do not understand how AC works. Most think that setting at coldest setting will cool the area more quickly. Not how it works. Just makes the compressor run longer. Also, as mentioned earlier, Thai attitudes towards maintenance are a little scant, it seems. ( I am very pleased that my wife takes her car in regularly, as I am no longer able to do much in that department.)

Always amazes me that. People come in and drop the remote temp to low. I ask why and they say cools room quicker. I try to explain compressor is working at max so room will cool at a certain rate. Having said that inverter models can run at higher than normal maximum rate so can help cool faster.

[itsari]

On 4/22/2023 at 8:02 AM, MJCM said:

But to offset a Leccy Bill of 700k THB that would still need a major investment.

 

Make it 25% only so  lets say 700.000 / 4 = 175.000 THB leccy bill

 

(Rough calculation)  @Crossy please correct me if I am wrong)

 

That would require approx 450.000W of Panels.

 

Let's assume 1 Panel = 500W = 450.000W / 500W = 900 Panels

 

Let's assume 1 Panel costs 4500 THB = 900 * 4500 = 4.050.000 THB (and that is for the panels alone thus not including labour, inverters, cables, mounting brackets etc etc etc etc) (adding batteries to store electricity to that would double or triple that amount)

 

With so much equipment you would need full time  a caretaker just for keeping the system operating . 

[berrec]

Well, the old saying, the more you use, the more you pay, especially for commercial usage.

 

These are PEA rates attached, but I am sure the other Thailand electricity service providers are similar. 

PEA - Electricity Tariffs.pdf

[bradiston]

Only answer (and I've not read the whole 4 pages) is not to include electric in the rent, as I now don't when renting out my 3 bedroom house. But, for a hotel/guesthouse, getting a meter on each room - is that possible? I doubt it. Or a meter on the AC unit? Not the full blown PEA meter, but a simple unit counter. Do these things exist? Are they legal? I guess easy to bypass.

 

Update: I took a quick look on Lazada. Many metering gadgets available. From about 250 thb up. They'd need tamper proof housing though!

Edited April 23, 2023 by bradiston

[MJCM]

12 minutes ago, bradiston said:

But, for a hotel/guesthouse, getting a meter on each room - is that possible? I doubt it. Or a meter on the AC unit?

They could easily get them, for example HomePro sells electricity meters. So it would be a relatively easy job for the resorts sparky to disconnect the rooms electric cable, put the electricity meter in between and connect it all up again. End result each room would have its own Meter.

 

Only the resort would have to note the figures per room on check-in and check-out and then calculate the electricity used. 

[bradiston]

21 minutes ago, MJCM said:

They could easily get them, for example HomePro sells electricity meters. So it would be a relatively easy job for the resorts sparky to disconnect the rooms electric cable, put the electricity meter in between and connect it all up again. End result each room would have its own Meter.

 

Only the resort would have to note the figures per room on check-in and check-out and then calculate the electricity used. 

Great! And I was thinking, of course it wouldn't be very popular, but you could lower your room rate, and/or maybe say the renter pays 50% of electric bill, or just set your own rate. Most do, to ridiculous rip off levels. I've heard of 15 thb per unit. I pay 5.3 bottom line. Just sharing the bill 50/50 alone would save the lady in question 350k! In these days of climate fear, it might actually be a great selling point!

[degrub]

On 4/21/2023 at 8:47 PM, Crossy said:

 

It would come back on whilst you were feeling around for the light switch

 

In these days of interconnected everything I'm sure some enterprising individual could come up with a "smart" system with interlinked door and window sensors, occupancy sensors and a time of day reading, throw in some AI to make an educated guess as to whether there was someone in there or not.

 

Just read about newly available millimeter wavelength sensors that can detect the motion of breathing in a room. Now if i can just find the link…..

[degrub]

4 hours ago, bradiston said:

Great! And I was thinking, of course it wouldn't be very popular, but you could lower your room rate, and/or maybe say the renter pays 50% of electric bill, or just set your own rate. Most do, to ridiculous rip off levels. I've heard of 15 thb per unit. I pay 5.3 bottom line. Just sharing the bill 50/50 alone would save the lady in question 350k! In these days of climate fear, it might actually be a great selling point!

When i first visited Cairns, the holiday cottage had a coin operated A/C. Something like 1 dollar per hour back in 1988.

[nauseus]

7 hours ago, degrub said:

Just read about newly available millimeter wavelength sensors that can detect the motion of breathing in a room. Now if i can just find the link…..

My dog can do that.

[ChipButty]

13 hours ago, bradiston said:

Great! And I was thinking, of course it wouldn't be very popular, but you could lower your room rate, and/or maybe say the renter pays 50% of electric bill, or just set your own rate. Most do, to ridiculous rip off levels. I've heard of 15 thb per unit. I pay 5.3 bottom line. Just sharing the bill 50/50 alone would save the lady in question 350k! In these days of climate fear, it might actually be a great selling point!

I've seen places here in Phuket allow a certain amount of electric then after that the guest pays, 

[ChipButty]

8 hours ago, degrub said:

When i first visited Cairns, the holiday cottage had a coin operated A/C. Something like 1 dollar per hour back in 1988.

I remember back in the days in England were TV's had a coin operated, 

[MJCM]

2 hours ago, ChipButty said:

I've seen places here in Phuket allow a certain amount of electric then after that the guest pays, 

That would be a good solution???????? 

 

When we went on a Camper Trip in Europe some pitches had the same, first 4-5 kWh were free going over that you paid extra. 

[Bagwain]

On 4/22/2023 at 6:25 AM, MJCM said:

So 1.8MW = 1.800.000W

 

Let's assume A Solar panels is approx 500W, so that would already 1.8MW / 500 = 3600 Panels.

 

1 panel approx 4500 THB = 3600 * 4500 THB = 16.200.000 THB just for the Panels.

 

WOW

With her monthly bill around 700 K, her ROI is at 23 months.

Seems feasable! ????

 

[MJCM]

10 minutes ago, Bagwain said:

With her monthly bill around 700 K, her ROI is at 23 months.

Seems feasable! ????

 

You are forgetting something, 16,2 Million is for the Panels ONLY. 

Edited April 24, 2023 by MJCM

[eisfeld]

7 hours ago, Bagwain said:

With her monthly bill around 700 K, her ROI is at 23 months.

Seems feasable! ????

 

There is more than panels to make use of solar energy. Mounting, inverters, cabling, installation labor etc. And then there is the fact that aircons and pumps running at night wont be offset much because solar wont be generating any electricity. No way can the break even point be in 2 years.