Apartment building just "found" a new electic meter attached to our room

[teacherc137]

As the title says, our building's handyman just "discovered" a new meter that they believe is attached to our room. For context: we already have 2 meters and pay over 3k. The place is big, but not that big and we only run 1 a.c. at a time. Our super is being evasive about how many units aren't adding up, but they've already been over to check the place when we questioned what the second charge was for, which made sense, sort of (yes, it's connected to a room of of ours, no, that room doesn't use that much electricity). Does anyone have any advice? We love our place but paying 1/4 of the rent in electricity isn't gonna happen.

Do we have options besides a) sucking it up and paying. b) moving out?

 

It should be noted that we pay month-to-month and don't have a contract.

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Furioso]

3k is 78 Euros that's not bad for a multiple room Condo. 

[teacherc137]

It's a bedroom, a living area, and an office. And we paid a similar amount when we had a smaller place at the same complex. So either way, it doesn't add up. And our concern is more the discovery of a meter that they somehow didn't know applied to the room, because it's not going to be 3k very soon.

[Morch]

How many rooms do you have? Not exactly getting why there's a need two meters to begin with, let alone a third. Not sure if you suspect the building staff is trying to pocket extra money or that some other apartment is leeching. Should be pretty easy to check if the meter in indeed connected to your room/apartment, and whether it runs when no electricity supposedly connected to is on.

[JeffersLos]

3k?

 

How I'd love to only pay 3k. 

 

And we are direct pay to the gov. 

[teacherc137]

1 minute ago, Morch said:

How many rooms do you have? Not exactly getting why there's a need two meters to begin with, let alone a third. Not sure if you suspect the building staff is trying to pocket extra money or that some other apartment is leeching. Should be pretty easy to check if the meter in indeed connected to your room/apartment, and whether it runs when no electricity supposedly connected to is on.

Bedroom, living area, and an office. There's 3 a.c. units but we never run two at once. Not sure what to suspect, but it's dubious because don't run that many electronics at once. Everyone complains about the building's mysterious electric accounting system, and we kind of accepted that they're gouging us a bit (we get a discount for having referred other tenants, but somehow our other bills cancel out those discounts). But finding another meter after we've been living in this apartment for months is...well, that's why I'm posting. This is not a new building. By far. I'm not sure how you misplace something like a meter, but here we are. My only thought is it goes to the outdoor lights. But perhaps that's wishful thinking.

[Morch]

3 minutes ago, teacherc137 said:

Bedroom, living area, and an office. There's 3 a.c. units but we never run two at once. Not sure what to suspect, but it's dubious because don't run that many electronics at once. Everyone complains about the building's mysterious electric accounting system, and we kind of accepted that they're gouging us a bit (we get a discount for having referred other tenants, but somehow our other bills cancel out those discounts). But finding another meter after we've been living in this apartment for months is...well, that's why I'm posting. This is not a new building. By far. I'm not sure how you misplace something like a meter, but here we are. My only thought is it goes to the outdoor lights. But perhaps that's wishful thinking.

 

If it's an old building, maybe....like if something was added over the years. But still sounds dodgy. If you have access to the meters, shouldn't be too hard to figure which one runs when you turn on electricity (light, appliances, ac, whatever). One of you stands near the meter, the other turns stuff on/off - if anything is amiss, pretty easy to notice. Note that this might have to be done at different times of the day, to be sure.

[teacherc137]

Yeah, they came and did that a couple of months ago when we found another charge on our bill. Thought it was sorted out, no one mentioned that that the unit was still using more electricity than was being paid...

 

Thanks for the suggestions, we don't want to move out but this feels dodgy. And, again, we're far from the first tenants to find a discrepancy with the electricity output (yeah, yeah, fool me once/glutton for punishment - our electric bill once remained virtually the same after we went on vacation for nearly a week), but this feels even dodgier and I just want to make sure I don't have any other avenues to pursue before we move out as I'm assuming the bill is gonna skyrocket, as it tends to here.

[Furioso]

45 minutes ago, teacherc137 said:

As the title says, our building's handyman just "discovered" a new meter that they believe is attached to our room. For context: we already have 2 meters and pay over 3k.

 

 

So, every month you'll end up paying for 3 meters? 

[teacherc137]

Correct. And they've already been over here and done the flick on, flick off, check the meter game. Without a mention of a deficit in payment/electrical units being expended so it feels very out of the blue (dodgy).

[Furioso]

1 minute ago, teacherc137 said:

Correct. And they've already been over here and done the flick on, flick off, check the meter game. Without a mention of a deficit in payment/electrical units being expended so it feels very out of the blue (dodgy).

It doesnt' really seem dodgy it just seems like another old Thai building that's been through a lot of changes.

 

For 2 people in a multi room condo your electric bill should be approx 3K-4K a month, which is still very cheap compared to The West. I'd want to see all 3 bills though.

 

In short, I don't think you're getting ripped off. 

[JimTripper]

Once again, my gov't rate bill is under 700 baht a month and I don't live in a small condo.

 

The bloke who lived here before me had bills ranging from 3k - 6k.

 

Moral of the story: Start liking fans.

Edited November 29, 2023 by JimTripper

[NoDisplayName]

Turn everything off in the apartment.

Check the meters.............

[JensenZ]

19 minutes ago, Furioso said:

It doesnt' really seem dodgy it just seems like another old Thai building that's been through a lot of changes.

 

For 2 people in a multi room condo your electric bill should be approx 3K-4K a month, which is still very cheap compared to The West. I'd want to see all 3 bills though.

 

In short, I don't think you're getting ripped off. 

It depends on the efficiency of the air con units mainly. I'm in a 4 bedroom 240 m2 condo with 2 refrigerators, and much of the day we run 2 air-con units at the same time, but at high temp settings 26 - 28C. Bills range from 2000 lowest to 3000 highest.

 

We had 2 air-con units changed last year. to the latest Daikon inverter units and it saves around 1000 baht per month in the heaviest use months.

[Furioso]

Just now, JensenZ said:

It depends on the efficiency of the air con units mainly. I'm in a 4 bedroom 240 m2 condo with 2 refrigerators, and much of the day we run 2 air-con units at the same time, but at high temp settings 26 - 28C. Bills range from 2000 lowest to 3000 highest.

 

We had 2 air-con units changed last year. to the latest Daikon inverter units and it saves around 1000 baht per month in the heaviest use months.

Ok, I'm a thinkin' he doesn't have those fancy schmancy Daikon whatchamathingy's. therefore 3k-4k per month. 

[foreverlomsak]

1 hour ago, teacherc137 said:

It's a bedroom, a living area, and an office. And we paid a similar amount when we had a smaller place at the same complex. So either way, it doesn't add up. And our concern is more the discovery of a meter that they somehow didn't know applied to the room, because it's not going to be 3k very soon.

Given the limited info, I would guess that the previous occupant was sub-letting 2 rooms, and the additional meters were for the sub-lets, 1 meter was standalone like the main supply and 1 as a branch off the main meter.

But as I said a pure guess on my part.

[JensenZ]

If you're paying government rates directly, you can save money using 3 meters as the price per kWh gets more expensive the more you use, calculated on a tier-based system. It would be illegal to split electricity usage this way. The MEA obviously thinks each meter is for an individual residence.

[DKA1961]

I can't see a reason why there should ever be more than one meter per residence?? Sounds a bit dodgy to me...

[ibjoe]

8 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

Turn everything off in the apartment.

Check the meters.............

We were renting an apartment, and the electric bill was way too high. We turned everything off, the meter was still running. So someone was stealing electricity from our circuit. Management would not do anything. So we left and found a new apartment.

[ibjoe]

Another thought, if you have allegedly three meters for your unit, it could be useful to know what circuits each one is connected to. Turn everything off, check the meters, then turn things on one at a time and see which meters move. If one meter is always moving it isn't on your circuits. If one meter doesn't change with everything on it isn't on your circuits.

[rwill]

If you have 3 separate meters I would assume you also have 3 separate breaker boxes.  Do you? 

If you only have one breaker box most likely you only have 1 actual meter.

[westsail]

When you see that the meter is running have someone turn off all the power in your apartment and see if the meter is still running.

[JimTripper]

2 hours ago, ibjoe said:

We were renting an apartment, and the electric bill was way too high. We turned everything off, the meter was still running. So someone was stealing electricity from our circuit. Management would not do anything. So we left and found a new apartment.

Couldn't it be a short or drain somewhere? The electric company should be able to check this. It could be a problem outside somewhere or with the meter itself.

 

If you owned the condo why would you need permission from management?

Edited November 30, 2023 by JimTripper

[ryxyz]

3 hours ago, ibjoe said:

We were renting an apartment, and the electric bill was way too high. We turned everything off, the meter was still running. So someone was stealing electricity from our circuit. Management would not do anything. So we left and found a new apartment.

That was the reason I stopped renting apartments in 2006. I only rent where I pay directly to PEA/MEA.

[LOG54]

Hello

Couple living in 150 SQM condo, 2 ceiling fans working full day, big fridge with freezer + a deep freezer, electric wine cellar, 2 computers, self cleaning electric oven, electric cooking range (we cook a lot, in fact every day), micro wave,washing machine, water heater for showers, we don't use AC...1200 bahts per month

Have a nice day

[TheFishman1]

This is exactly why I don’t live in a condo or an apartment. I have a new two-story house three bedroom three bathrooms I live alone I pay the government rate I get a bill each month and I check my meter to make sure it’s accurate and as an example last month, my electric bill was under 600.Bht  if I were you, I would call electric company and have somebody come out there and check where the meters connected to once out our friends here renting a smaller apartment as electric bill seem pretty high. I went over there and I realize there was a wire going off his meter to a place next-door so actually he was paying electric for two places go figure TIT 

[Freddy42OZ]

13 hours ago, teacherc137 said:

It's a bedroom, a living area, and an office. And we paid a similar amount when we had a smaller place at the same complex. So either way, it doesn't add up. And our concern is more the discovery of a meter that they somehow didn't know applied to the room, because it's not going to be 3k very soon.

 

How large is the place?  a 60 sq/m 2 bed place will cost less to keep cool etc than a 120 sq/m 2 bedroom place. 

Where is it and is it a condo or an apartment?   Are you paying the building or the MEA/PEA?  

If you are in.an apartment and paying an electric bill that they provide then I would out and find a condo where you pay direct to the MEA/PEA.

[bradiston]

13 hours ago, teacherc137 said:

Bedroom, living area, and an office. There's 3 a.c. units but we never run two at once. Not sure what to suspect, but it's dubious because don't run that many electronics at once. Everyone complains about the building's mysterious electric accounting system, and we kind of accepted that they're gouging us a bit (we get a discount for having referred other tenants, but somehow our other bills cancel out those discounts). But finding another meter after we've been living in this apartment for months is...well, that's why I'm posting. This is not a new building. By far. I'm not sure how you misplace something like a meter, but here we are. My only thought is it goes to the outdoor lights. But perhaps that's wishful thinking.

Shouldn't be anywhere near that amount IMHO. Maybe 750. One ac which you only use occasionally? No bitcoin mining, no heavy appliances? As suggested, try turning everything off and check the meter wheels. My best advice, YMMV.

[1FinickyOne]

14 hours ago, JeffersLos said:

3k?

 

How I'd love to only pay 3k. 

 

And we are direct pay to the gov. 

Me too... but we have a pool, but still... 5-7,000 a month. 

[NoshowJones]

5 hours ago, ibjoe said:

We were renting an apartment, and the electric bill was way too high. We turned everything off, the meter was still running. So someone was stealing electricity from our circuit. Management would not do anything. So we left and found a new apartment.

I hope you did not pay a big deposit.