19k Electricity Invoice?

[Naam]

p.s. what is a "unit"?

1 kWh Naam, as I'm sure you well know

i hate unprecise expressions Crossy next thing we migh expect is that electricity consumption is measured by "pounds per square inch at an ambient temperature of 32º Fahrenheit"

[neverdie]

What is suspicious is that the condo people didn't laugh and say right away how obvious it is that something is wrong. Your condo isn't wired to take that much power and if you were actually using that much you would either have breakers going off all the time or start a fire. It isn't possible for you to use that much power without modifying at least the breaker box. Even saying one or both of your air units are faulty and sucking up the power can't be true because that would trip the breaker as well. My guess is it's a problem with the meter itself based on your saying when you shut everything down the meter stops. Like I said a leak or a faulty unit would trip the breakers. It's possible your place was actually wired to serve a bunch of units and has a breaker box to match, but how likely is that as compared to a faulty meter ?

One thing is for sure the condo people at mid management level are not so stupid as to think your bill makes any sense at all. Why they are not helping you solve it who knows. They might just not want to buy a new meter.

After seeing this thread develop, I am guessing you are fairly close to the mark here. Make no mistake about it, I could get my hands on hundreds of those blank electricity bills quite easily, this could be a SCAM, the meter is being manipulated and the bills are being printed up by the condo management or some electricity worker who then cuts the manager a share.

Im reakoning the OP based on what he said would be lucky to get through about 2000 baht a month of electricty. The OP should RUN, not WALK, to the Electricity mob and have them attend to investigate as a matter of priority......if its a SCAM, I would be speaking with the police on the quite to ensure that the propper thing is done to recover previous monies.

fekkers

[neverdie]

p.s. what is a "unit"?

1 kWh Naam, as I'm sure you well know

i hate unprecise expressions Crossy next thing we migh expect is that electricity consumption is measured by "pounds per square inch at an ambient temperature of 32º Fahrenheit"

Its hardly an unprecise expression Naam, its commonly referred to as this by people in the profession and wannabe's like myself

[tonywebster]

my business is only half that and we have a huge industrial freezer running 324 hours a day, aircon and machines running for 10 hours a day,

[yabaaaa]

Is there a possibility that you can scan and upload a copy of this invoice so we can all see it? Black out any address and name though.

Do you own or rent the condo? If renting do you have a lease that says anything about payment of utilities? To whom and how much per unit?

4837 units for a month or less is about 161 units per day based on a 30 day month. Even Naam does not use that much. Maybe they have you're condo and a couple of others wired to the same meter? The usage for just you're condo should be down in the 25 to 50 units per day depending on how big the aircon unit is. That would bring an invoice into the 5,000 baht or less range if you actually pay direct to MEA.

I Think you can safely say Naams place has good insulation.

[soundman]

my business is only half that and we have a huge industrial freezer running 324 hours a day, aircon and machines running for 10 hours a day,

That's a lot of hours in a day.

[Naam]

i am one of the "heavy" users with an average consumption of presently 90kWh per day which peaks in the hot months at 120 kWh a day.

p.s. what is a "unit"?

Theres many answers to this question Naam. In relation to this thread, a 'unit' is 1kwh.

In relation to the question asked in general, 'you' are a bit of a unit Naam - no offence

120kw/h per day <deleted> are you doing up there? You must be running aircon in your front yard .....or something .

Perhaps you should follow moonrakers example and switch to diesel or solar powered butt plugs

"<deleted>" is quite easy to explain Neverdie. >600m² of airconditioned living area, pool (heated during cool season), pond, waterfall, deep well, irrigation, pressurised water supply, water heaters (2 females who seem have hot showers for hours), washer, dryer, two huge fridges/freezers, three small fridges, one chest freezer, cooking by electricity, in- and outside lighting, forced attic ventilation, forced inhouse ventilation, TVs, computers galore and last not least my non-diesel / non-solar three-phase 220/380 butt plug.

[MrRichard2009]

My problem with it being a scam instead of just plain lazy condo people who don't want to fix it is, it would be such a lousy scam, virtually everyone who rented that place would know right away and most would eventually get to the bottom of it and recoup any losses. Most scams even really bad ones have some ability to fool a few people not just hope they know it and don't do anything about it. But yeah get someone involved if they refuse to find their own person to track down the problem. I am going with the usual incompetence and laziness on this one for now.

[yabaaaa]

my business is only half that and we have a huge industrial freezer running 324 hours a day, aircon and machines running for 10 hours a day,

Are you on another planet? I mean a 324hour day is some day eh? Your on Venus right ?

[tonywebster]

oop, 24 hours a day

[yabaaaa]

i am one of the "heavy" users with an average consumption of presently 90kWh per day which peaks in the hot months at 120 kWh a day.

p.s. what is a "unit"?

Theres many answers to this question Naam. In relation to this thread, a 'unit' is 1kwh.

In relation to the question asked in general, 'you' are a bit of a unit Naam - no offence

120kw/h per day <deleted> are you doing up there? You must be running aircon in your front yard .....or something .

Perhaps you should follow moonrakers example and switch to diesel or solar powered butt plugs

"<deleted>" is quite easy to explain Neverdie. >600m² of airconditioned living area, pool (heated during cool season), pond, waterfall, deep well, irrigation, pressurised water supply, water heaters (2 females who seem have hot showers for hours), washer, dryer, two huge fridges/freezers, three small fridges, one chest freezer, cooking by electricity, in- and outside lighting, forced attic ventilation, forced inhouse ventilation, TVs, computers galore and last not least my non-diesel / non-solar three-phase 220/380 butt plug.

How much does the dog use though Naam?

[neverdie]

i am one of the "heavy" users with an average consumption of presently 90kWh per day which peaks in the hot months at 120 kWh a day.

p.s. what is a "unit"?

Theres many answers to this question Naam. In relation to this thread, a 'unit' is 1kwh.

In relation to the question asked in general, 'you' are a bit of a unit Naam - no offence

120kw/h per day <deleted> are you doing up there? You must be running aircon in your front yard .....or something .

Perhaps you should follow moonrakers example and switch to diesel or solar powered butt plugs

"<deleted>" is quite easy to explain Neverdie. >600m² of airconditioned living area, pool (heated during cool season), pond, waterfall, deep well, irrigation, pressurised water supply, water heaters (2 females who seem have hot showers for hours), washer, dryer, two huge fridges/freezers, three small fridges, one chest freezer, cooking by electricity, in- and outside lighting, forced attic ventilation, forced inhouse ventilation, TVs, computers galore and last not least my non-diesel / non-solar three-phase 220/380 butt plug.

Holy fekk Naam.

Do you really need the entire 600 square metres airconned, all the time. UNCLE neverdie is coming up to guide you, to help you save money each month (& we can split the difference) .

I know your house has steel plating in the roof cavity, did you also insulat it? You blow me away Naam, you are certainly one UNIT

[neverdie]

My problem with it being a scam instead of just plain lazy condo people who don't want to fix it is, it would be such a lousy scam, virtually everyone who rented that place would know right away and most would eventually get to the bottom of it and recoup any losses. Most scams even really bad ones have some ability to fool a few people not just hope they know it and don't do anything about it. But yeah get someone involved if they refuse to find their own person to track down the problem. I am going with the usual incompetence and laziness on this one for now.

Dude, they gave him a bill equivalant to USD$600 for a months electricity.....Naam is the only man in Thailand that can use that much electricity......

ALTHOUGH I duely note and respect what crossy said above.

[neverdie]

i am one of the "heavy" users with an average consumption of presently 90kWh per day which peaks in the hot months at 120 kWh a day.

p.s. what is a "unit"?

Theres many answers to this question Naam. In relation to this thread, a 'unit' is 1kwh.

In relation to the question asked in general, 'you' are a bit of a unit Naam - no offence

120kw/h per day <deleted> are you doing up there? You must be running aircon in your front yard .....or something .

Perhaps you should follow moonrakers example and switch to diesel or solar powered butt plugs

"<deleted>" is quite easy to explain Neverdie. >600m² of airconditioned living area, pool (heated during cool season), pond, waterfall, deep well, irrigation, pressurised water supply, water heaters (2 females who seem have hot showers for hours), washer, dryer, two huge fridges/freezers, three small fridges, one chest freezer, cooking by electricity, in- and outside lighting, forced attic ventilation, forced inhouse ventilation, TVs, computers galore and last not least my non-diesel / non-solar three-phase 220/380 butt plug.

How much does the dog use though Naam?

Well the dog spends alot of time driving around the countryside with a couple of his bitches in a Mercede convertable, so his electricity usage isnt that high.

[Danlo]

Quite obviously a rip off.

[onethailand]

Old air conditioners, I suspect. In the last two places I stayed, they had old airconditioning and my bill regularly ran close to 10K baht (running 3 small ones in bedrooms).

Before moving into my new place, I inspected the air conditioners - all rated 5 - run 3 small ones in the bedrooms at night, and our total bill last month was around 2.5K baht.

[Theyreallrubbish]

A very good friend of mine had electric bills that were too high...

one night after dark he cut his main braker and HALF THE VILLAGE WENT DARK

I was living in a house in a suburb of Bangkok and construction crews moved in to build the rest of development. They were living in tin shacks in the adjacent lots. My electricity bill shot up from 2500 a month to 7000 a month the month after they moved in

[Naam]

Dude, they gave him a bill equivalant to USD$600 for a months electricity.....Naam is the only man in Thailand that can use that much electricity......

ALTHOUGH I duely note and respect what crossy said above.

incorrect assumption. my highest bill was around 13,500 Baht but i might break that record this year with monthly bills estimated at 14-15,000 Baht if we don't have a rainy season with a lot of days with cloudy skies. got my bill day before yesterday for 12,152 Baht but that was for 28 days only. extrapolated it would mean 13-13,500 Baht (30/31 days).

once in a while my wife (who pays the bills) mentions something about "high electricity consumption " and i counter with "i have been sweating many years in the bush, the desert and the swamps but did not settle in Thailand in order to keep on sweating! "

[neverdie]

^Up to you Naam. I have a nice coastly breeze running over the top of my lake, so I dont need much aircon during the day, unless it gets really hot.

I don't want you getting hot under the collar.

[Naam]

p.s. what is a "unit"?

1 kWh Naam, as I'm sure you well know

i hate unprecise expressions Crossy next thing we migh expect is that electricity consumption is measured by "pounds per square inch at an ambient temperature of 32º Fahrenheit"

Its hardly an unprecise expression Naam, its commonly referred to as this by people in the profession and wannabe's like myself

just because this expression is used by Brits or british offsprings in Roo- and Kiwiland does not make it precise. it's like telling you the power of our Honda Accord is 230 units and the engine of our Honda Jazz generates 95 units or my wife spends 45k units on household items and i smoke 42 units of Marlboro and ingest several units of Port Wine a day. interesting would be the fact that when i was 19 (centuries ago) i did 12 units on a weekend with my girlfriend and both our units were sore for days

[Tod Daniels]

I too had a crazy high electric bill at my apartment last year.

FWIW; my 3 air-cons are from the early 1990's and SUCK power like big dogs. However, as I pay the electric the landlord is shall we say, less than motivated to replace them with more energy efficient models . She also charges me 6 baht per unit, instead of letting me put the power in my name and pay the 2.87-3.00 baht per unit that 'real' people pay.

Last year my bill went from the normal 2500-3200baht a month to over 9000baht!!! When I paid rent I didn’t pay the electric portion of it until they called the electric company. They promptly came out and said the meter was 'faulty', NO SHIT? (Yet another thai rocket scientist is born ).. They replaced it with another meter and the power usage went back to normal, or as normal as it ever gets for me.

As an aside and totally unrelated to this thread; I am totally being ripped off for water. There is a 'flat rate' which each tenant in the 4 apartments of this building are charged for water and it is 1200baht a MONTH! (While I know it is far from politically correct; sometimes just to use my share I turn on all the faucets for a couple hours each week, and let 'em run into the drains.)

When I asked here about why the water was billed so high, she said, there was only one water meter, for the entire place. In looking outside at the street where the main comes into the complex I saw she was correct (at least technically). In hunting around inside the apartment compound after trying to follow the main I found it’s broken down further; low and behold there are 5 other water meters, which monitor water usage for each apartment and the common area for watering. Now this is truly a scam, but whatcha gonna do other than move.

I concur with the other more illustrious posters; scan and post your bill. Given the sorry state of most thai electrical wiring, it would be quite easy to 'hot wire' into your lines. Turn off the main breaker in your fuse panel; watch it for a few hours, see if someone hasn't 'hacked' into your power. Do it at night when most other tenants would be home, not in the day when they're out at work. If there is no usage you may have to leave the main breaker on, and shut off every other fuse in your apartment just in case they wired in AFTER your fuse panel.

Good luck welcome to thailand. Please close the light when you leave. ...

[neverdie]

just because this expression is used by Brits or british offsprings in Roo- and Kiwiland does not make it precise. it's like telling you the power of our Honda Accord is 230 units and the engine of our Honda Jazz generates 95 units or my wife spends 45k units on household items and i smoke 42 units of Marlboro and ingest several units of Port Wine a day. interesting would be the fact that when i was 19 (centuries ago) i did 12 units on a weekend with my girlfriend and both our units were sore for days

Your sore point is duely noted. I think you will find, as I pointed out, a unit of electricity is considered 1kwh. Measure your life by this FACT.

[jayjayjayjay]

Have not read the entire thread, but the cost of electricity is about 3.7 -3.8 baht per Kilowatt hour. Anyone paying around 4 baht for a stand alone house is close. The average for "a" factory last year was 3.617 baht/ KWhour. My apartment tried to charge 6 baht/kwhr, I had leverage over them as I place over 300 room nights in their hotel with clients, therefore when I paid my bill at 3.7 baht / kwhour they laughed and accepted it!

Open QUESTION: Is anyone paying less than 3.5 baht/kwhr. I am interested to know.

Edited March 23, 2010 by jayjayjayjay

[rak sa_ngop]

Have not read the entire thread, but the cost of electricity is about 3.7 -3.8 baht per Kilowatt hour. Anyone paying around 4 baht for a stand alone house is close. The average for "a" factory last year was 3.617 baht/ KWhour. My apartment tried to charge 6 baht/kwhr, I had leverage over them as I place over 300 room nights in their hotel with clients, therefore when I paid my bill at 3.7 baht / kwhour they laughed and accepted it!

Open QUESTION: Is anyone paying less than 3.5 baht/kwhr. I am interested to know.

The less you use the less you pay per unit.

In January I was away for nearly 3 weeks so my bill came to 695 baht, for 204 units.

This works out at 3.40 baht/unit.

[upinthesky]

Did the condo mgr trying to rip off foreigner who are staying there by over-charge per unit? The price is ridiculously high. Check with your friend or someone you know before paying the bill.

Edited March 23, 2010 by upinthesky

[lovelomsak]

You are getting lots of good advice here but I think I know the problem. The electric company guy who does the reading probably isnot updating his handheld computer reading device he takes the reading with. Go back over the last few months bills check the previous readings. If he isnot updaying his data you keep being billed on a reading that could be months old. So old billing to new reading is vastly different. After you paid they can do an in the office correction and pocket the difference and the handheld remains months behind in past billing info. Check your bills closely.

I had a problem like this it took me 5 months to straigthen it out because the electric company refused to take fault. Now I havenot had to pay a bill in over a year free every month.

Edited March 23, 2010 by lovelomsak

[Kadafi]

I live in 2 bedroom house, computer on 24/7, fridge, washing machine, tv etc and 3 air conditioning units where 1 runs during day in living room and 2 bedroom units on at night.

Bill 1200-1600 baht month....

[JayS]

edit......

Edited March 23, 2010 by JayS

[elkangorito]

If I've done the sums about right, our OP has an average load of around 6.5kW 24/7

If he's running big aircons at 19C in a poorly insulated apartment then it's possible that the bill is right.

We need more information about his lifestyle, particularly the temperature his air is set to.

I agree with Crossy...more info needed.

Not including the above, other possible problems are:

1] Faulty kWh meter.

2] Faulty wiring.

3] Faulty switchgear.

4] Faulty appliances.

5] Faulty supply characteristics.

These tests should be carried out by trained electrical personnel.

Tests can be carried out by an electrician to check items 1 to 4 above. The tests are:

1] Check kWh meter (PEA/MEA to do this).

2] Continuity & Insulation Resistance test.

3] Continuity & Insulation Resistance test.

4] Continuity & Insulation Resistance test.

5] Check supply voltage (frequency should be ok).

Edited March 23, 2010 by elkangorito

[PTYfan]

I will scan the bill as soon as i get it back from the management.

I told them i move out today if they aren't able to fix that issue course i am not gonna pay that and i am not gonna sit here without power either.

Lets see what the day brings.. so far they send a guy from the electricity company over to install a dummy tester to make sure the current one is still working correctly. Anyway, i will keep you posted on the progress. Thanks for all the help!