phuketnick Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Hi all, Hope that somebody may be able to help or advise with this. 3 years ago our electric bill came in at around 1300 baht a month for the 1st year. Now 3 years later it has gradually risen to over 4300 baht a month. This is getting ridiculous. Nothing has changed at the house, there is no aircon system, 1 fridge, a couple of fans, normal amount of lights with energy saving bulbs etc etc. We have asked the electric company to come and check our line going into the house and see if anyone is siphoning off power from our line but they just shrug their shoulders and offer no explanation. We have asked them to move the meter from the pole at the begining of the soi to the house but they say "cannot move sorry too far " . We have had a couple of electricians (Thai) to come and test the electrics to see if they can find out whats happening to no avail. Has anybody else had a similar problem with their electric bill and if so how did you resolve this matter? Any sound, helpful advice or recommendations very much appreciated. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmine Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 We prefer to use candles on Samui. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilchard Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Turn off everything in your house and have a look and see if the meter is still turning. Then throw the main switch if you have one and check again. I once had a worker camp shack tap into my garden lights with nails and twisted wire !! Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokie36 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 You're bill should be no more than 1k Baht a month unless you're running 20 fans or more crucially aircon which will easily triple the bill. Sounds like you're being taken for a ride if ya ask me! or from your landlord point of view... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phuketnick Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Turn off everything in your house and have a look and see if the meter is still turning. Then throw the main switch if you have one and check again. I once had a worker camp shack tap into my garden lights with nails and twisted wire !! Hope this helps Just tried this ..turned everything off and the meter stopped !! Maybe you know a good Farang electrician who could come and check out the wiring and maybe test the appliances to see whats eating so much power? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe84330 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 my first thought was someone stealing your juice but since you said the meter stopped it begs the question, do you get your electric bill straight from the source or does it take a detour through your landlords bank account first? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESB7 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Do what I used to do in the UK and still do here.check the meter reading...does it match the units on the bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nirvana Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 If you need a decent guy (thai from bkk originally) let me knw. he is an engineer based in samui and i have used him a lot. Not the normal types.. Nirvana Turn off everything in your house and have a look and see if the meter is still turning. Then throw the main switch if you have one and check again. I once had a worker camp shack tap into my garden lights with nails and twisted wire !! Hope this helps Just tried this ..turned everything off and the meter stopped !! Maybe you know a good Farang electrician who could come and check out the wiring and maybe test the appliances to see whats eating so much power? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilchard Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Turn off everything in your house and have a look and see if the meter is still turning. Then throw the main switch if you have one and check again. I once had a worker camp shack tap into my garden lights with nails and twisted wire !! Hope this helps Just tried this ..turned everything off and the meter stopped !! Maybe you know a good Farang electrician who could come and check out the wiring and maybe test the appliances to see whats eating so much power? Try Checking again at night when someone is more likely to be using lights or cooking . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haveaniceday Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Do you pay the bill directly or does the landlord charge per unit? (Amusing you rent) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokie36 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 (Amusing you rent) Care to elaborate on this comment please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe84330 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 (Amusing you rent) Care to elaborate on this comment please? i'm assuming he meant assuming, because if i assume he meant amusing then he's probably one of those rich elitists mocking the peasantry and that's not amusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokie36 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 (Amusing you rent) Care to elaborate on this comment please? i'm assuming he meant assuming, because if i assume he meant amusing then he's probably one of those rich elitists mocking the peasantry and that's not amusing. Assuming the same. Not that I like to assume anything mind. Yet its hard not to draw that conclusion. Mind you I know people who own properties here and choose to rent so its not necessarily an indicator of poverty. More like common sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmine Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Do you pay the bill directly or does the landlord charge per unit? (Amusing you rent) Do i assume cthat you, like myself, was stupid enough to buy here. I'm taking the "amusing" to be irony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tropicalevo Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I was always told that to "assume" makes an ASS out of U and ME. For sure - check your unit readings every day. This happened to me once - had a short circuit and the house was putting electricity into the ground (or something like that). Do you pay your landlord for electric, or do you pay direct to the government? I will PM a number to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leckyman Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 It does sound like earth leakage, or a dodgy landlord!! Are the tamper lock tabs still in place on the meter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrry Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Do you have a swimming pool or a water pump. If so check the pump is shutting off properly and not running continuosly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BangrakBob Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 We prefer to use candles on Samui. Sorry to see you are getting the usual crop of stupid replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrry Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 We prefer to use candles on Samui. Sorry to see you are getting the usual crop of stupid replies. Each to their own....especially since batteries are so expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Semper Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 (edited) Turn off everything in your house and have a look and see if the meter is still turning. Then throw the main switch if you have one and check again. I once had a worker camp shack tap into my garden lights with nails and twisted wire !! Hope this helps Just tried this ..turned everything off and the meter stopped !! Maybe you know a good Farang electrician who could come and check out the wiring and maybe test the appliances to see whats eating so much power? You have some sort of problem with the meter. Call the company again to check it. Don't pay the bill until they check it. The meter that is. Edited May 13, 2011 by Semper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mufcsamui Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 You are paying way to much, i run air con almost 24/7 and pay an average of 3000bt, probably faulty meter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiang mai Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 My cost per unit in Phuket, long term lease, Bht5.0, last month we ran the aircon most nights and used fans/TV's/cooker etc as normal and the bill was Bht2375 - 2 bed and 2.5 bath. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samuijimmy Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Sure sounds high, I see the bills for 13 houses around me, for some reason all delivered to my house... The highest I've seen anyone get is 1800 baht per month, running AC with the windows open! Last month or perhaps the month before everyone got 100 baht knocked off the bill.... due to outages, I think.... Does your landlord give you something he has written up? or do you get the little white chit of paper about 3" by 4".... ? Printed out by the meter reader.... I've been here about 3 years and it never really changes that much for me or other houses either... varies from about 300 to 800 baht usually for most... So, as suggested already, check for "leakage" at night....and see if someone is tapping the line... I gather too that there are two types of meters, never really understood that, but one type charges out at a higher rate... ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigC Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Do what I used to do in the UK and still do here.check the meter reading...does it match the units on the bill first there are english and forang sparkeys on the island they have no reason to lie to you. also the meter reading might not be the same as the bill. if you get a thai to explain the bill to you after they have talked with the elctric office. they charge for materials used to make electric. weather it be winde palme oil or what ever. depending on there sorce the bill can go up and down. if i wias you i would look for a forang elctrician. they can find out this problem as easy as a thai and explain properly. maybe a forang electric company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MengWan Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I think maybe I know what is happening ... If there are some works (carpenter, welding etc ...) done by the place, the workers use the meter to directly "plug" the power to their machines ... Of course, on the evening they remove the traces of their theft ! One way to control this is to look at the seals (Pb, bottom of the meter), if they are broken then you know ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbk Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 OP already said that when he turns off the mains the meter stops running, could be a faulty meter, my neighbor lady had bills of something like 20 baht/month for ages because the meter was bad, meter reader never reported it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuckarooBanzai Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 (edited) Be nice if the op would let us know the source of the bill. Is it direct from the Electric Co. our through some secondary source? If you have a breaker box one more thing you can try to determine potential problem areas. Turn on main breaker and only one secondary breaker at a time and check meter rpm's. If you find one circuit that spins at a high rate of speed that might be your problem - record usage. Any thing you have connected to the individual circuit that is selected should first be turned off to detect leakage to ground and then on to detect possible shorts in your electrical stuff. Edited May 14, 2011 by BuckarooBanzai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigC Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Be nice if the op would let us know the source of the bill. Is it direct from the Electric Co. our through some secondary source? If you have a breaker box one more thing you can try to determine potential problem areas. Turn on main breaker and only one secondary breaker at a time and check meter rpm's. If you find one circuit that spins at a high rate of speed that might be your problem - record usage. Any thing you have connected to the individual circuit that is selected should first be turned off to detect leakage to ground and then on to detect possible shorts in your electrical stuff. also check your wire. make sure it hasn't burnt through and is touching another wire. this can get very hot hence burning a whole in your bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigC Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 I think maybe I know what is happening ... If there are some works (carpenter, welding etc ...) done by the place, the workers use the meter to directly "plug" the power to their machines ... Of course, on the evening they remove the traces of their theft ! One way to control this is to look at the seals (Pb, bottom of the meter), if they are broken then you know ! i don't think they would run a line directly off the meter more like after the meter. i am sure they can split the cable but it might be a dodgey meter. u really need a proper exctrican to give u answers not just look on here. it could be anything really. why go to all the hassle of turning off brakers and do this and that. A proper ectrican should be able to fuind the problem or at least explain it and as i said before u can use forang electricans. they might be able to explain better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe84330 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 or the OP could come back and settle the issue rather quickly by responding to the question posted several times already in this thread. does he get the bill from the meter readers or from his landlord? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png)
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now