Hello, I was away from my condo for a month but my bill was higher than normal months that i was in.

Ive talked to the condo, but they only say about the starting meter number and the last dat recorded number.

No I havent forgot to turn my aircon off and theres no other electrcal units installed.

There was some maintenance guy whove entered my room to fix the toilet while i was away, and if i can link the electrical usage on that day

i might have a chance to get my money back.

Do you guys have any good advice?

Classic. Leave for a month and your room turns into a luxury Airbnb for the maintenance crew. ‘Toilet repair’ must come with complimentary aircon, Netflix, and possibly a few cold beers. I’d be asking if they at least watered your plants while running up the tab.

Put a camera in your room, I like the v380pro based ones.

About 300bht and you can view it from anywhere on your phone.

https://s.lazada.co.th/s.ZgISRe

No daily reading they come monthly to read meters

It would be nice if possible, but I am not aware of such. In Phuket a person from the PEA checks the meters every month and records the readings, so even PEA do not do daily tracking.

I have solar panels proving daytime power for my place in Phuket, so I do get daily power tracking from an smartphone app (and also browser link) that accesses readings originating from my solar panel inverter - but that is not what you asked.

On 4/26/2026 at 6:27 PM, bkkryn said:

There was some maintenance guy whove entered my room to fix the toilet while i was away, and if i can link the electrical usage on that day

i might have a chance to get my money back.

Do you guys have any good advice?

Crikey, you need Inspector Clouseau to solve this puzzle, give him a call, he'll crack this case wide open.

Edited April 27Apr 27 by SAFETY FIRST

On 4/26/2026 at 8:39 AM, BritManToo said:

Put a camera in your room, I like the v380pro based ones.

About 300bht and you can view it from anywhere on your phone.

https://s.lazada.co.th/s.ZgISRe

Bit late now.

I live in a condo that is empty half the year, I don't pay my electric via the condominium. I registered my room with PEA under my name and provided to PEA my SCB account for billing which they do directly. I believe they get the usage data remotely but unsure about that. At any rate in my opinion you would be better off paying directly to the electric company and circumventing the condominium. I don't trust the charges that the Condominium levies versus the direct billing from in my case PEA.

On 4/26/2026 at 1:27 AM, bkkryn said:

Hello, I was away from my condo for a month but my bill was higher than normal months that i was in.

Ive talked to the condo, but they only say about the starting meter number and the last dat recorded number.

No I havent forgot to turn my aircon off and theres no other electrcal units installed.

There was some maintenance guy whove entered my room to fix the toilet while i was away, and if i can link the electrical usage on that day

i might have a chance to get my money back.

Do you guys have any good advice?

Use a calculator app. Divide units by days read on the meter, there you’ll see the daily average…

A much quicker way to do this is to use the calculator in your brain.

On 4/26/2026 at 3:27 PM, bkkryn said:

There was some maintenance guy whove entered my room to fix the toilet while i was away, and if i can link the electrical usage on that day

i might have a chance to get my money back.

Not a chance to get money back... but going forward you could install a smart energy meter yourself

which you can monitor over the internet for unusual activity.

I believe you would need a smart meter to have any idea of daily usage.

According to AI

Quote

"The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) is deploying Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) smart meters to modernize Thailand’s grid and enable real-time usage monitoring for commercial, industrial, and residential customers."

There are plenty of things that could have caused it, fridge door a jar, water heater but here they are mostly instant water heater in Thailand, maintenance turned AC to subzero in an attempt to cool down all of Pattaya, sure others I'm overlooking.

Unless you could prove how many units someone else used and prove maintenance used X amount of electricity and the juristic wasn't biased to supporting whatever the maintenance and management staff tells them versus what a foreigner says is a struggle sometimes

13 minutes ago, J Branche said:

I believe you would need a smart meter to have any idea of daily usage.

A lot of condos will not let you have a direct meter from the PEA/MEA electric companies,

they have installed their own meter to each unit which they charge a 'special' rate arguing that the surcharge is for 'community' electric usage lifts, hallway lights,water pumps, backup generators etc

Might it be possible that someone is leeching electricity from your supply? PEA might be able to inspect for you.

32 minutes ago, johng said:

A lot of condos will not let you have a direct meter from the PEA/MEA electric companies,

they have installed their own meter to each unit which they charge a 'special' rate arguing that the surcharge is for 'community' electric usage lifts, hallway lights,water pumps, backup generators etc

Good point. I know in the US the "common area" electric usage is in the maintenance fee you pay to management.

I guess another option is to flip the breakers for all the non-essential items in the Condo when you leave. The electric usage spike seems to be pretty rare so maybe overkill for most

23 minutes ago, Watawattana said:

Might it be possible that someone is leeching electricity from your supply? PEA might be able to inspect for you.

Our electric bills were around 2,500 baht to sometimes 3,000 baht a month if it was hot. The neighbors got a new BYD and had workers do something to the wires so they could charge it more easily.

The monthly bills rose 5,500 baht. In my case, they heard me complaining to a neighbor and a month later the electricity cost returned to normal.

The OP should have an inspection done.

40 minutes ago, davb said:

The OP should have an inspection done.

Yes that's a very good idea.

You can put a device in or around your fusebox in MAIN

It is extra then and ONLY for you and your house, as it is then built in your fusebox in house.

Maybe your fusebox has additional space on the rail, if it is such a system.

However if you are going to fit it in, then after mainswitch (fusebox) which you can switch off and you can work safely. Have no clue how technical you are. And electricity can kill you in jiffy time.

for example this one, but there are more too choose from.

You can search "kWh meter with app"

Edited April 29Apr 29 by xtrnuno41

15 hours ago, Soondae said:

I live in a condo that is empty half the year, I don't pay my electric via the condominium. I registered my room with PEA under my name and provided to PEA my SCB account for billing which they do directly. I believe they get the usage data remotely but unsure about that.

The condo where I live (luxury condo complex with only 25 units) in essence has its own mini-power grid that gets its power from the city grid. Adjacent to the condominium office is a room with the electric readings, and one can read anyone's electric reading anytime there. Once per day the condominium's full time technician reads each condo units electrical meter, and writes it down.

So to see one's power consumption, one simply asks the technician to show them. ... I don't do that as I have solar panels and I can get my consumption via the inverter for my panels .

15 hours ago, Soondae said:

At any rate in my opinion you would be better off paying directly to the electric company and circumventing the condominium. I don't trust the charges that the Condominium levies versus the direct billing from in my case PEA.

I would agree most the time - but there can be exceptions. I am lucky to have a condo with one of those exceptions.

The condo complex where I live is not a high rise building but it is spread out, so there is sufficient roof space for almost everyone to install solar panels, if they wished. However, almost ALL co-owners rent their condo, and given their long term tenants pay for the utilities, the co-owner are not interested in investing in solar panels. There is no need. The tennants pay for electricity.

However I live in the condo complex not as a tenant, but as a co-owner, so after getting approval (in an AGM) by a majority co-owner vote, I had solar panels installed.

During the day, I get more solar power than I consume in my condo unit. My electrical meter runs backward (and my neighbours get the benefit of my excess solar power as the excess power goes into the condo grid). Note our condo has its own power grid, and despite my panels, the power demand is such our condo complex still pulls power from the provincial/city grid. Our power grid meter for our entire complex ALWAYS runs forward. This is important, as we are not allowed to put power back into the provincial/city grid.

Having a separate condo grid, is thus a big advantage to me.

During the daytime -my meter runs backward (and I build up a power credit). At night my meter runs forward, and I use the credit. . Overall, my meter runs backward a bit more than it runs forward. Hence I don't need a battery, where a battery is about 50% of the cost of a solar power system. 50% is a very very big saving on a solar panel system price. ... I note that I no longer have an electrical power consumption fee.

My neighbours also benefit. Power consumption in the day, is more expensive than power consumption at night, as billed by the Provincial Electrical Authority (PEA).

So in daytime, when power is the MOST expensive, since I have excess electric power from my panels, it is fed into our condo power grid, and my neighbours use that power provided by my panels. They are not charged for it (but they give me electrical (watts) credit for it). And at night time, when I pull power from the condo grid, this is when power is cheapest, and in essence, my neighbours provide me that night-time power for free. ... so that means my neighbours get power (from me) when power is most expensive and they give me power back when it is cheapest.

Its a win win - a win for all co-owner in the condo complex , and also a win for me.

But it is only possible because none of the units in our condo complex have a direct connection to PEA. Rather all our complex units connect to our condo power grid, ... and our condo power grid pulls power from the provincial/city (PEA) grid when it needs such.

With a direct connection from my unit to PEA - I would not have this benefit.

Still my case is a very very distant outlier, and I think in general your point that one might be better off paying directly to the electric company and circumventing the condominium is true in most cases.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by oldcpu