Electricity Bill Reduction

[musiclover]

my bills 12-14,000 a month

if i works for 6 weeks, i will have my money back

i'll take a chance on them

12 to 14 k a month ,my god do you run a company or a shop? i thaught ours was bad ad 2.5 k a month

So? I have a house and my bill is also about 14k a month ! Its 3 phase and I have small pool but nothing else specail!!!

I gave a friend at Phoenix living in anaverage house whose bill is also 12-14k a month!

This is not unusual ........

How can you only pay 2.5k amonth in a house?

we have a 3 bed large detached house ,aircon on at night in 2 rooms from about 10pm to 3 am ,my son untill 6am 7 days a week ,fans ,fridge freezer ect ,lights tvs all the usuall ,my neighbour who has the aircon on constantly pays about 5 to 6k a month , how in the heck do you get bills for 14k?

I dont actually know though Ive tried to find out! I use the oven a lot (roasts) and have more than 1 frig and a freezer, bur aircon use is standard and its a 3 bed house , though pretty large rooms , On the Darkside of course

Maybe it is the fridges! It must be a combo of all these factors. I cant seem to get the bill down .

[beano2274]

Cut out the Roasts, you will see a big difference. If you don't believe me then look at the spinning wheel on your meter when you are Roasting.

[Lost in LOS]

dont know if its true or not nahm don't flame me but i was told that homes that are in a company name are considered a company and have a higher rate. would be interesting to know if the guys with houses in a Thai name [iE their wives] are the ones with a smaller bill and the ones with a company name have the larger ones

my house company and electricity bill is high

[timekeeper]

I was just speaking to the wife about this scheme and mentioned the one off payment of 5000 baht ,as we are a higher end user ,this would pay off for us prettu rapidly as we use our air cons in the bedrooms mainly at night.

her reply was ,"no way would she pay out 5k to the govt as they will more than likely stop the scheme before you get your money back ,every thing the govt do is a scam,look at the Thai elite card"

she is Thai

my bills 12-14,000 a month

if i works for 6 weeks, i will have my money back

i'll take a chance on them

12 to 14 k a month ,my god do you run a company or a shop? i thaught ours was bad ad 2.5 k a month

none of the above, big house, big pool, x8 aircons, lots of night security lighting and a determination not to acclimatise to the heat....

[thaimate]

I was just speaking to the wife about this scheme and mentioned the one off payment of 5000 baht ,as we are a higher end user ,this would pay off for us prettu rapidly as we use our air cons in the bedrooms mainly at night.

her reply was ,"no way would she pay out 5k to the govt as they will more than likely stop the scheme before you get your money back ,every thing the govt do is a scam,look at the Thai elite card"

she is Thai

my bills 12-14,000 a month

if i works for 6 weeks, i will have my money back

i'll take a chance on them

12 to 14 k a month ,my god do you run a company or a shop? i thaught ours was bad ad 2.5 k a month

none of the above, big house, big pool, x8 aircons, lots of night security lighting and a determination not to acclimatise to the heat....

its still a massive amount of money to shell out ,to give you some idea a friend runs a bar and makes pies ,roasts ect for sale and constantly has 3/4 aircons on during the day ,his bill is 7 to 8 k a month, our house is in a Thai name and is also quite large with all mod cons ,i also mentioned my neighbour ,they are Thai (quite well off) and have air con running constantly i mean constantly and she only pays about 5/6 k a month

Edited July 27, 2009 by thaimate

[timekeeper]

none of the above, big house, big pool, x8 aircons, lots of night security lighting and a determination not to acclimatise to the heat....

its still a massive amount of money to shell out ,to give you some idea a friend runs a bar and makes pies ,roasts ect for sale and constantly has 3/4 aircons on during the day ,his bill is 7 to 8 k a month, our house is in a Thai name and is also quite large with all mod cons ,i also mentioned my neighbour ,they are Thai (quite well off) and have air con running constantly i mean constantly and she only pays about 5/6 k a month

i agree with you thaimate, but its a new house, new meter, using all new LG energy saver aircons and the bill arrived today and it is within 75 baht of last months and 150 baht of the month before so my usage is consistant at least.

there is normally an aircon running somewhere in the house at any time during a 24 hour period

i have a lot of nightime usage with 3 bedroom aircons running all night and many security lights in operation

this is why this Time of Use offer was so attractive to me.

most of my usage is at nightime and as an additional saving i thought i would adjust the pool filter pumps timer to run after 10pm for a couple of hours and again before the 9am prime time rate starts again.

this 5000 up front fee (only a fee suggested by the boss, not specified as he did not know for sure, an estimate based on the 1000baht fee for the single phase unit) for me would represent a good investment and at the second meeting i had with them, based on my current usage from their records they suggested that its likely i could save around a third on my current costs and more if i changed the pool filter pump running times.

anyway i will have to wait and see as there are no TOU 3 phase units currently available in Chonburi and no pilot scheme planned yet for a rollout of 3 phase Time of Use scheme

in the meantime i am looking into another option to save electric offerd to me by a friend in China

i will have it soon and will let you know in a month if it saved me any money

[gmac]

I know this is Thailand and things don't have to make sense but I find myself asking the question...why? If they are halving the price of electricity 11 hours per day and all day weekends that works out to 103 hours/week out of 168. That's just over 60% of the time not counting holidays. Where's the benefit to the electric company? There's not a huge potential in most people's lives to switch from daytime usage to nighttime to reduce the load on the grid, maybe the laundry and dishwasher, so it just seems to mean the same usage for 40% of the cost, less the one off fee.

Sounds too good to be true and we all know what that usually means.

That said, if I find I'm on single phase when I move in a couple of months time I'll be handing over my 1000 Baht and hoping for the best!

[Phil Conners]

^^ You might want to check (or get checked) out your connections and verify that nobody has hooked themselves up to your meter. It does happen.

We live in a 3 bedroom fully detached, relatively large house on the dark side with 5 aircons of which 2-3 are running every night. Large fridge, 2 TV's, 3 PC's and plenty of light and we have never been over 4,000 baht/month.

^ The benfit to the electric company is they have a lot of excess power available at night that they might as well sell cheaper.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Phil Conners

[gmac]

^^ You might want to check (or get checked) out your connections and verify that nobody has hooked themselves up to your meter. It does happen.

We live in a 3 bedroom fully detached, relatively large house on the dark side with 5 aircons of which 2-3 are running every night. Large fridge, 2 TV's, 3 PC's and plenty of light and we have never been over 4,000 baht/month.

^ The benfit to the electric company is they have a lot of excess power available at night that they might as well sell cheaper.

I appreciate that, but my point is that they are selling it already and as there seems only small potential for householders to switch usage from day to night they appear to be merely cutting the price without any tangible reduction in daytime usage. I guess just I just can't get my head round the thought of a Government body giving money away!

[thaimate]

Timekeeper

the other option you mention coming from china ,is it a little black box that you plug into your socket? if so they are on sale here,everyone reckons they do not work.i have one and i reckon my bills have gone down about700 baht a month since we started using it.Best of luck.

[timekeeper]

Timekeeper

the other option you mention coming from china ,is it a little black box that you plug into your socket? if so they are on sale here,everyone reckons they do not work.i have one and i reckon my bills have gone down about700 baht a month since we started using it.Best of luck.

no its not one of those, they do not work on three phase

however, i am pleased to hear that you have shown some savings with those boxes

i tried selling them on Ebay many years ago when they first came out

with little success i might add

i still have about twenty of them, if anyones interested....

[dickie58]

I know this is a bit of subject, but can you have Electric bills & other utilty bills in a farang name if you have a valid Thai work permit?

[Lost in LOS]

^^ You might want to check (or get checked) out your connections and verify that nobody has hooked themselves up to your meter. It does happen.

We live in a 3 bedroom fully detached, relatively large house on the dark side with 5 aircons of which 2-3 are running every night. Large fridge, 2 TV's, 3 PC's and plenty of light and we have never been over 4,000 baht/month.

^ The benfit to the electric company is they have a lot of excess power available at night that they might as well sell cheaper.

Phil, is your house in a company name or a thia name, that might be the difference as i believe they are different rates

[Phil Conners]

My house is in a Thai name.

[Blueeyes1999uk]

O.K. so those of you who said it was too good to be true - congratulations! It seems the reporter on the paper may have got his translation incorrect (what I was told ) so I have attached the tariff that I was given today - . In essence my 1,000 baht became 9,000. This is made up of the new meter cost, bond and Govt tax that appears to have been left out of the article. Also TOU would probably increase my bill as I use a fair amount of electricity during the day as well and this would increase on price per unit from 1 to 4 baht. Also prepaid is not an option for me as running out of electricity would necessitate a 1km walk to the local 7/11 - not something I'd fancy in the dead of night!

That said I wholeheartedly agree with Timekeeper, the gentleman who helped me was marvelous (chap from marketing not customer service)- he found me looking confused and stressed on the staircase (looking for the office on the 2nd floor - I don't read Thai) helped with the whole affair even carried the toddler up and down the stairs, explained exactly what the tariff is, what the pros and cons were and generally made me feel good about the morning's "outing" with the kids. I promised I would post the tariff for him as it seems we have all been paying them a visit and he is worried about the 30,000 farang customers (how do they know that figure) all turning up on the doorstep, apparently there have been a few of us already ! BTW it is now a customer service responsibility - desk on the right handside as you enter through the sliding doors should you wish to pursue. I left not getting what I went for but on the upside had a good laugh, met a lovely American (hope you enjoyed your lunch!) and a superb Thai whom deserves many congratulations for his patience, help and good humour.

[thaimate]

O.K. so those of you who said it was too good to be true - congratulations! It seems the reporter on the paper may have got his translation incorrect (what I was told ) so I have attached the tariff that I was given today - . In essence my 1,000 baht became 9,000. This is made up of the new meter cost, bond and Govt tax that appears to have been left out of the article. Also TOU would probably increase my bill as I use a fair amount of electricity during the day as well and this would increase on price per unit from 1 to 4 baht. Also prepaid is not an option for me as running out of electricity would necessitate a 1km walk to the local 7/11 - not something I'd fancy in the dead of night!

That said I wholeheartedly agree with Timekeeper, the gentleman who helped me was marvelous (chap from marketing not customer service)- he found me looking confused and stressed on the staircase (looking for the office on the 2nd floor - I don't read Thai) helped with the whole affair even carried the toddler up and down the stairs, explained exactly what the tariff is, what the pros and cons were and generally made me feel good about the morning's "outing" with the kids. I promised I would post the tariff for him as it seems we have all been paying them a visit and he is worried about the 30,000 farang customers (how do they know that figure) all turning up on the doorstep, apparently there have been a few of us already ! BTW it is now a customer service responsibility - desk on the right handside as you enter through the sliding doors should you wish to pursue. I left not getting what I went for but on the upside had a good laugh, met a lovely American (hope you enjoyed your lunch!) and a superb Thai whom deserves many congratulations for his patience, help and good humour.

I earlier wrote that my Thai wife said that you couldnt trust the govt and would never fork out 5000 baht ,when i showed her your post ,she smiled and said "ime Thai i know what they are like what did i tell you"

[gmac]

O.K. so those of you who said it was too good to be true - congratulations! It seems the reporter on the paper may have got his translation incorrect (what I was told ) so I have attached the tariff that I was given today - . In essence my 1,000 baht became 9,000. This is made up of the new meter cost, bond and Govt tax that appears to have been left out of the article. Also TOU would probably increase my bill as I use a fair amount of electricity during the day as well and this would increase on price per unit from 1 to 4 baht. Also prepaid is not an option for me as running out of electricity would necessitate a 1km walk to the local 7/11 - not something I'd fancy in the dead of night!

That said I wholeheartedly agree with Timekeeper, the gentleman who helped me was marvelous (chap from marketing not customer service)- he found me looking confused and stressed on the staircase (looking for the office on the 2nd floor - I don't read Thai) helped with the whole affair even carried the toddler up and down the stairs, explained exactly what the tariff is, what the pros and cons were and generally made me feel good about the morning's "outing" with the kids. I promised I would post the tariff for him as it seems we have all been paying them a visit and he is worried about the 30,000 farang customers (how do they know that figure) all turning up on the doorstep, apparently there have been a few of us already ! BTW it is now a customer service responsibility - desk on the right handside as you enter through the sliding doors should you wish to pursue. I left not getting what I went for but on the upside had a good laugh, met a lovely American (hope you enjoyed your lunch!) and a superb Thai whom deserves many congratulations for his patience, help and good humour.

Disappointing but not unexpected news. You mention daytime electric going up from 1 to 4 Baht per unit which surprises me a little as I thought it was charged on a sliding scale based on usage on rates between 2 and 3 Baht per unit, with a fuel surcharge and VAT on top which brought it up to between 3.5 - 4 Baht per unit actually charged. (My last bill was just 945 Baht for 263 units used which is about 3.60 Baht per unit overall). A translation of the tariff you were given would be helpful but no doubt not available from the electric company.

[timekeeper]

O.K. so those of you who said it was too good to be true - congratulations! It seems the reporter on the paper may have got his translation incorrect (what I was told ) so I have attached the tariff that I was given today - . In essence my 1,000 baht became 9,000. This is made up of the new meter cost, bond and Govt tax that appears to have been left out of the article. Also TOU would probably increase my bill as I use a fair amount of electricity during the day as well and this would increase on price per unit from 1 to 4 baht. Also prepaid is not an option for me as running out of electricity would necessitate a 1km walk to the local 7/11 - not something I'd fancy in the dead of night!

That said I wholeheartedly agree with Timekeeper, the gentleman who helped me was marvelous (chap from marketing not customer service)- he found me looking confused and stressed on the staircase (looking for the office on the 2nd floor - I don't read Thai) helped with the whole affair even carried the toddler up and down the stairs, explained exactly what the tariff is, what the pros and cons were and generally made me feel good about the morning's "outing" with the kids. I promised I would post the tariff for him as it seems we have all been paying them a visit and he is worried about the 30,000 farang customers (how do they know that figure) all turning up on the doorstep, apparently there have been a few of us already ! BTW it is now a customer service responsibility - desk on the right handside as you enter through the sliding doors should you wish to pursue. I left not getting what I went for but on the upside had a good laugh, met a lovely American (hope you enjoyed your lunch!) and a superb Thai whom deserves many congratulations for his patience, help and good humour.

i am pleased that you were not dissapointed by my assessment of the managers down there.

i too enjoyed my visits with them

thank you for posting the tariff etc for the new install and the relavent costs

the only comment i would make is that it appears that part of that installation cost you have quoted is a refundable up front bond/deposit on the meter

this charge would apply to new users/new installs only, i think

in my case, its easy to calculate, as my meter that was only installed in January in a new house and it carried with it a bond/deposit fee of 6000baht

when i paid it, i was told that if the house was sold and i were to change the electric user name, i would get the 6000baht back

so consequently i asked what would happen about the deposit if i switched over to 3 phase TOU meter and they said that the deposit fee would be moved over to the new install, and i would not be charged again.

so i said effectively a credit would be issued for the deposit on the old meter and a new one issued with a new receipt.

he said yes.

he understood exactly what i meant as it was a recent install and i still had the receipts issued by them six months ago and showed them to him during our discussions

in practise though i am thinking i will have to pay again and wait for my refund to be issued

so in your case, if the electric meter is in your name, i would enquire what would happen to the original deposit that was paid on that installation if you moved over to the new meter?

somebody has paid a deposit on the meter you have and when you turn it in for a new one you should get that deposit back

that will help to pay for the new one and new bond/deposit

i know thats sounds a bit garbled and i hope you get the ghist of what i am saying, but i am sure the guys there would clarify for you

this would still be a good deal for me, even with the rise in daytime electric tariff as we use much more electric at night than in the daytime

Edited July 29, 2009 by timekeeper

[Pib]

Since my electric usage is roughly constant day or night, 7 days a week primarily due to air con usage day and night, I did some quick calculations on whether switching from the normal electric tariff (i.e., pay the same rate 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week) to the Time of Use (TOU) electric tariff (i.e., higher rate during day and evening, lower rate during night and weekends). My initial/rough calculations, which took-in some estimated adjustments for day or night usage (i.e, air con workload, lights usage, etc) show I would save approx 21%/month by switching. I'm going to make some more exact time of day/night meter readings over the coming days to get a more accurate savings estimate.

I live in Bangkok where the electricity provider is the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and my initial calculations using their latest electricity/tariff rate which can be viewed/downloaded in English at: http://www.mea.or.th/internet/neweng/ElectricRate.pdf. See paragraphs/tariffs 1.2 (normal residential rate) and 1.3 (TOU residential rate). Called the MEA Call Center to ask about the cost to switch from my normal single phase meter to a TOV single phase meter and the cost would be 18,000 Baht plus 7% VAT (grand total 19,260 Baht) and take approx 2 days for them to come out and change the meter. Not sure if this is just the pure cost of the meter and installation, or whether it also includes some type of deposit...also not sure about any refund I might get on my current meter. I'm going make an in-person visit to one of the MEA Branch Offices here in Bangkok in the near term to ask some more questions/confirm what the MEA Call Center told me and the wife. But if the visit confirms the info/costs given by the MEA Call Center, it would take me about a year to recover an investment in switching, assuming I can keep my electricity/air con usage the same as now.

Edited August 12, 2009 by Pib

[thaimate]

to update my previous comments,my neighbour a Thai woman went to the electricity company and was advised that this promotion was not for private houses ,but aimed at factories and buisnesses she was also told that where we live all the houses are on single phase .

the cost was about 10k plus vat.

[Pib]

Since my electric usage is roughly constant day or night, 7 days a week primarily due to air con usage day and night, I did some quick calculations on whether switching from the normal electric tariff (i.e., pay the same rate 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week) to the Time of Use (TOU) electric tariff (i.e., higher rate during day and evening, lower rate during night and weekends). My initial/rough calculations, which took-in some estimated adjustments for day or night usage (i.e, air con workload, lights usage, etc) show I would save approx 21%/month by switching. I'm going to make some more exact time of day/night meter readings over the coming days to get a more accurate savings estimate.

I live in Bangkok where the electricity provider is the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and my initial calculations using their latest electricity/tariff rate which can be viewed/downloaded in English at: http://www.mea.or.th/internet/neweng/ElectricRate.pdf. See paragraphs/tariffs 1.2 (normal residential rate) and 1.3 (TOU residential rate). Called the MEA Call Center to ask about the cost to switch from my normal single phase meter to a TOV single phase meter and the cost would be 18,000 Baht plus 7% VAT (grand total 19,260 Baht) and take approx 2 days for them to come out and change the meter. Not sure if this is just the pure cost of the meter and installation, or whether it also includes some type of deposit...also not sure about any refund I might get on my current meter. I'm going make an in-person visit to one of the MEA Branch Offices here in Bangkok in the near term to ask some more questions/confirm what the MEA Call Center told me and the wife. But if the visit confirms the info/costs given by the MEA Call Center, it would take me about a year to recover an investment in switching, assuming I can keep my electricity/air con usage the same as now.

As FYI, I just completed actual electric/KWH meter readings over the last 24 hours (a reading from 10pm to 9am and another reading from 9am to 10pm which are the two MEA TOU rate periods) and my quick calculations given above turned out to be accurate. Although I didn't mention it above, I had used estimates of 60% for daytime an 40% for nighttime electricity usage/split...and the actual KWH meter reading over the last 24 hours gave me that 60% and 40% split to confirm my estimates (I was a little surprised and proud of my estimates :-).

Anyway, "in my particular case" a saving of approximately 21%/month would apply if I switched to a TOU meter/tariff/plan. Still need to make that visit to a MEA Branch Office to confirm costs/info before I make my decision as to switch or not. From a long term (1 year or more) cost perspective, I should switch assuming I can keep my electricity/KWH usage the same as now.

[Pib]

Since my electric usage is roughly constant day or night, 7 days a week primarily due to air con usage day and night, I did some quick calculations on whether switching from the normal electric tariff (i.e., pay the same rate 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week) to the Time of Use (TOU) electric tariff (i.e., higher rate during day and evening, lower rate during night and weekends). My initial/rough calculations, which took-in some estimated adjustments for day or night usage (i.e, air con workload, lights usage, etc) show I would save approx 21%/month by switching. I'm going to make some more exact time of day/night meter readings over the coming days to get a more accurate savings estimate.

I live in Bangkok where the electricity provider is the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and my initial calculations using their latest electricity/tariff rate which can be viewed/downloaded in English at: http://www.mea.or.th/internet/neweng/ElectricRate.pdf. See paragraphs/tariffs 1.2 (normal residential rate) and 1.3 (TOU residential rate). Called the MEA Call Center to ask about the cost to switch from my normal single phase meter to a TOV single phase meter and the cost would be 18,000 Baht plus 7% VAT (grand total 19,260 Baht) and take approx 2 days for them to come out and change the meter. Not sure if this is just the pure cost of the meter and installation, or whether it also includes some type of deposit...also not sure about any refund I might get on my current meter. I'm going make an in-person visit to one of the MEA Branch Offices here in Bangkok in the near term to ask some more questions/confirm what the MEA Call Center told me and the wife. But if the visit confirms the info/costs given by the MEA Call Center, it would take me about a year to recover an investment in switching, assuming I can keep my electricity/air con usage the same as now.

Well, I made some more measurements/readings and found an error in my stubby pencil/quick/earlier calculations (error was I used to many off peak hours). In my particular case since my day and night electric usage is roughly balanced (60% daytime/40% nighttime) due to my air con usage day and night, I would save approx 8%/month vs my earlier estimated 21%. Still, 8% is still a nice monthly savings; however, but, with this monthly savings it would take me approx 22 months to break even on the TOU Meter installation cost assuming I would maintain current electric/KWH usage level.

But, if your particular daily electric usage is "mostly" during the off peak rate hours of 10pm to 9am (like only using air cons at night) and/or heavy usage any hours of the weekend, then your savings would be much greater and your switchover cost break-even point much sooner...a TOU meter would be a no-brainer.

[syd barrett]

If you look at the back cover of this months (August 2009) free Pattaya magazine issue #7 called 'Grapevine' (free at Friendship Supermarket).

They advertise a device that saves 40% on your electricity bill. You plug that in between your main plug and your appliances.

Anone know if this works, and how it works?

[thaimate]

If you look at the back cover of this months (August 2009) free Pattaya magazine issue #7 called 'Grapevine' (free at Friendship Supermarket).

They advertise a device that saves 40% on your electricity bill. You plug that in between your main plug and your appliances.

Anone know if this works, and how it works?

dont know how it works ,but we baught one ,pluged it in (everyone said they didnt work) and i reckon we save about 700 baht a month ,our bills were 3200 to 3400 now 2500 to 2700 .

hope that helps.

[basjke]

some interesting lecture regarding the item here