Electricity Prices

[MartinBKK]

I have been living in Sukhumvit for around a year and i am shocked at how high my electricty bill is every month. I live in a condo and the price is 5 baht per unit which i guess is similar to what a lot of others are paying. There are only 2 of us and we never run more than 1 aircon unit at once and don't spend a lot of time at home. We are very careful to turn all lights and air cons off when we do go out. Typical monthly charge is around 7000 baht (USD 185). This is more than i was paying in London before i moved out here. As a result of this i have decided to move to a townhome where i will be paying the standard rate per unit.

Is 5 baht per unit a fair price or a rip off farang price?

How do you feel about your monthly eletricity bill?

[tuky]

Mate, we run a 45,000 BTU aircon all day that cools our 320sqm two storey house, two smaller aircon units at night. 3 water pumps on and off, one in the well, one to pressurise the house and one for the waterfall. My spa is on 2-3 hours a day, a couple of TVs, fridge, PC, Hot water for showers, the urn and rice cookers are on 24/7 and we leave night lights on all night. There are 5 adults and 4 kids living in my house

Our bill per month comes to 3-4k baht, never more than 4k.

Not sure what the rate per unit is but I am glad it doesn't come to the same as yours...

[lopburi3]

You are paying about 20-25% over the meter rate but that seems about normal for a rental. My cost last month was 3.92 baht per KWH and total bill about 10,000 baht. But that is with two air con running full time and two others at night and a six bedroom home with about 10 people and a whole lot of electric using appliances. Your bill seems very high unless you take it down to meat locker temps at night. Have you checked your meter with everything turned off/unplugged to make sure you are not paying for someone else?

[tuky]

Have you checked your meter with everything turned off/unplugged to make sure you are not paying for someone else?

A very good idea, turn your mains switch off and see if the meter is still running. Perhaps you are paying your neighbours bill too.

[samran]

You are paying about 20-25% over the meter rate but that seems about normal for a rental. My cost last month was 3.92 baht per KWH and total bill about 10,000 baht. But that is with two air con running full time and two others at night and a six bedroom home with about 10 people and a whole lot of electric using appliances. Your bill seems very high unless you take it down to meat locker temps at night. Have you checked your meter with everything turned off/unplugged to make sure you are not paying for someone else?

Just did the calculations here. Turns out ours is about the same Lop. But we get the bill every month so we know exactly what we are using. Perhaps the OP gets the rate set by the apartment block, in which case it wouldn't be unusual.

[MartinBKK]

I have had management check the meter on several occasions which involved turning the power off to see if the meter was still running. They insist that the charges are correct and there have been no mistakes.

[lopburi3]

Have you checked your meter with everything turned off/unplugged to make sure you are not paying for someone else?

A very good idea, turn your mains switch off and see if the meter is still running. Perhaps you are paying your neighbours bill too.

If they have done something funny it may be taken off after the mains switch so I would turn off/unplug everything but have mains switch on and check meter if it passes your test above.

[Gumballl]

I have had management check the meter on several occasions which involved turning the power off to see if the meter was still running. They insist that the charges are correct and there have been no mistakes.

I think that what Lopburi and Tuki were suggesting is that you check the meter yourself. Don't rely on the accounts of your building's mgmt. They could very well be inflating your costs, or as suggested, a neighbour could be tapping into your power source.

[tuky]

Good point Lop, if that could be the sace however I would be concerned about my wiring. Meter outside? mains switch inside?

Having said that a friend of mine found out his neighbour had tapped into his gas supply, so anything is possible.

Why is my bill so low then?

[lopburi3]

"Why is my bill so low then?"

Do you have a neighbor complaining of a high electric bill by any chance? I assume you are talking about somewhere here in Thailand? It does sound very low for here unless you are on top of a mountain. Maybe a bad (good) meter?

Is this with you home? Mine got much higher after I started living here full time.

[tuky]

"Why is my bill so low then?"

Do you have a neighbor complaining of a high electric bill by any chance? I assume you are talking about somewhere here in Thailand? It does sound very low for here unless you are on top of a mountain. Maybe a bad (good) meter?

Is this with you home? Mine got much higher after I started living here full time.

Granted I am not there all the time Lop, but the rest are and with the new baby the wife keeps the air on all the time. Khun wife complains about 4k being too high. My neighbour two doors down has 3 adults and 2 kids and their bill averages 2k, he was wondering why the other month when it got up to 3k. Our home is only a year old, we have two 45k BTU air units that sometimes are running together, no insulation at all, infact I can be sitting too close to a wall with the air on and still be sweating.

BTW, when I am there the spa gets used 5 hours a day, just ask JD whenever he calls I am in the spa.

In our previous house the bill was a lot less with even more people staying with us.

Perhaps it is a BKK thing?

We are in Chon Buri.

Sorry Martin, I am not trying to hijack your thread however perhaps answers to my questions help you too.

[Old Geezer]

Slightly "Off Topic" but sadly, it looks like a prediction I made many years ago has come to pass. I asked a Thai friend "Why don't you Insulate instead of running an AC for every room that would cool 1/2 a house in the USA???" His reply was "Electricity is cheap...insulation is not!"

Now that a couple of generations of Thais have become used to "Air" (Not to mention the expats), electricity is apparently NOT as cheap as it used to be. lopburi3's rate quote of 3.92 baht per KWH is about 70% of what I pay in the USA, so it looks VERY attractive from here, but that seems quite a dear price to pay in LoS ..."O.G."

[Gary A]

My wife and I live in a two bedroom house. When the wind blows the curtains flap in the breeze even when the windows are closed as tight as possible. There is no insulation at all. We only have the air conditioner in the bedroom but it usually runs all night. The electric hot water shower is used at least four times a day. The water is supplied through an electric pump. We have a very large refrigerator and another smaller one on all the time. My computer is usually on all day. The garage/workshop welders are used a couple times a week for short periods of time. The other small appliances, microwave, hot water pot, TV etc. are used as one would expect. Our bill has NEVER been over 1,600 baht for a month.

I would bet that you are paying for several neighbors electricity as well as your own.

[sriracha john]

With this topic,

"It's like deja-vu all over again" - Yogi Berra

for a good 124-posts with 8,010 views thread on this topic:

"How much do you pay for electricity?"

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11654&hl=

but then again, as we have a huge "dual-pricing" thread going on yet again, so please nevermind me and just proceed on with this one.

[SamuiRes]

Here in Samui I run one a/c unit at night only. No other heavy usage - lights, tv only.

last month the bill (direct from the Elec. Co)

348 Units @ 2.476 = Baht 861.67

Surcharge = Baht 263.92

VAT = Baht 78.79

TOTAL = Baht 1204.38

or Baht 3.46/unit.

[lopburi3]

Here in Samui I run one a/c unit at night only. No other heavy usage - lights, tv only.

last month the bill (direct from the Elec. Co)

348 Units @ 2.476 = Baht 861.67

Surcharge = Baht 263.92

VAT = Baht 78.79

TOTAL = Baht 1204.38

or Baht 3.46/unit.

You are a low user so your price per unit will be lower as the first few are at much lower rates that later. Living on the island you also probably don't have the blacktop effect we have in the city where everything is paved and still have plenty of plants and trees to keep it cooler. Not to mention a sea breeze. The temperature difference between a green area and normal city paved area can be quite amazing.

[SamuiRes]

Here in Samui I run one a/c unit at night only. No other heavy usage - lights, tv only.

last month the bill (direct from the Elec. Co)

348 Units @ 2.476 = Baht 861.67

Surcharge = Baht 263.92

VAT = Baht 78.79

TOTAL = Baht 1204.38

or Baht 3.46/unit.

You are a low user so your price per unit will be lower as the first few are at much lower rates that later. Living on the island you also probably don't have the blacktop effect we have in the city where everything is paved and still have plenty of plants and trees to keep it cooler. Not to mention a sea breeze. The temperature difference between a green area and normal city paved area can be quite amazing.

Actually the roof of our bungalow is corrugated iron and the house acts like a night storage heater and is anything but cool, nor are we near the sea to get sea breezes.

[sriracha john]

Not wishing to throw a black cloud onto the topic, but look on the bright side.... you're paying less now than you will be next month:

Breaking news:

Power fees to rise

Consumers might have to pay 15.16 satang more per unit of electricity starting next month.

The hike in the Ft variable rate, which was proposed by a committee of the Electricity Regulatory Board Thursday, would take the total rate from Bt3.01 to Bt3.16.

Continued here:

http://nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/r...newsid=30004908