Cost of electricity.

[kamalabob2]

The electric meters you might see at the Buriram Global House Store are for a landlord to use for apartments or for a private person to use as a sub meter on a family compound. Those meters sold at the Buriram Global House store are not for use for a PEA Electric bill. The Provincial Electricity Authority has the serial number listed for the approved electric meters they charge you to use.

[Pib]

In thailand, more you use, more you pay.

This politic is to obliged people to reduce their consumption of power.

This month the place where i live have to pay :

4041.15 baths for 876 kwh, which make the kwh at 4.61 baths

Our neighbor have to pay :

10326.28 baths for 1392 kwh, = which make the kwh at 7.418 baths.

!.................

The bill for 876KWH matches the MEA Residential Tariff 1.2 to within 2 stang...see first image below. MEA and PEA bills are basically identical to maybe a stang or two in difference.

The neighbor's bill for 1372KWH matches the MEA Temporary Service Tariff "exactly....see second image below. He is paying a basic rate of Bt6.3434 per each KWH (no sliding scale on this tariff) plus the Ft, service fee, and taxes which gets it up to Bt7.4/KWH as you mentioned. You neighbor's is paying approx 61% more "per KWH" (i.e., basic tariff plus Ft/Fee/Tax) than you are. That must be some really first quality electricity.

MEA Tariff 1.2 for 876KWH

MEA Tariff for Temporary Service

[Minnehaha]

Looking at our Condo Building's electric bills, it raises some questions. Our electric doubled between July and Sept. Furthermore it was up for year 2014 by 16% over 2013. Comparing 2012 with 2014 it went up 43%.

Can Condo's use the special pricing - cheaper rates for usage at night? I think we probably use more at night with the lights.

[Pib]

Looking at our Condo Building's electric bills, it raises some questions. Our electric doubled between July and Sept. Furthermore it was up for year 2014 by 16% over 2013. Comparing 2012 with 2014 it went up 43%.

Can Condo's use the special pricing - cheaper rates for usage at night? I think we probably use more at night with the lights.

That's probably your condo adjusting your pricing because other than the Ft (Fuel charge) varying just a little possibly every 4 months (the Ft is adjusted every 4 months...sometimes it goes up a little, sometimes down...the latest adjustment was down from 69 stang/KWH to 59 stang/KWH). But the basic rate does not change month by month...season by season. Now if you are a heavy user of A/C 24/7 then your electric bill can go up quite a lot during the hot season because the A/C must work harder and longer to cool...harder and longer eats more electricity...but really the hot season is "now" underway with Mar-May being the hottest months in terms of average daily temperature...Jul thru Sep is still hot but still not quite as hot.

And for me, I live in a house and my electric bill for 2012 -2015 has basically stary right around Bt4.8/KWH (includes Ft/service fee/tax) give or take a few stang from month to month during that 3 year period...I'm billed directly by the electric company. I use A/C pretty much 24/7, 365 days a year.

Since Jul-Sep is the third quarter of a year, sure sounds like someone just raised your rates for those months. Like already said in other months, if your get your electric bill from your condo/landlord versus directly from the electric company you could very well be paying higher rates as set by your condo/landlord...makes them a nice little profit.

There is a Time of Usage (TOU) tariff also, which also comes with a TOU meter, but usually that is only used by large users of electricity...like businesses which will adjust their daily manufacturing/work schedule to take advantage of lower rates at off peak hours/night. But a residence can also switch to TOU metering, but there is a higher hookup cost...TOU daytime rates are much higher than the standard residence tariff and the night time rates are much lower. One time I priced out the possible savings of me switching my home to a TOU schedule/meter, since I use A/C pretty much 24/7 and it pretty much turned out to be a wash with standard residential rate...a person really needs to have the great majority of their electric usage at night to take advantage of TOU tariff.

Below is the MEA TOU basic rate schedule before you you add on Ft, service fee, and tax.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Pib

[Rdrokit]

Usage depends on a few variables, like how many BTUs are your units, how big are the rooms, what temps are the units set for, how often do you clean the filters and how much insulation do you have. I have 3 units and use two every day (the guest room unit is not usually in use). My bedroom is 40sqm and has a 22,000 BTU unit and my living room is small, 25sqm and has an 11,000 BTU unit. I have a 2 story house with insulation in the attic area. Now I have been living in Thailand a long time plus I come from a hot climate before Thailand so my units are set kinda high. The living room unit is set at 30 and the bedroom unit at 28 plus I use an electric fan in conjunction with the a/c. The units are in use about 18 hours a day and my electric bill in the hot months run around 2000 baht, give or take a hundred baht. I have my units serviced every 6 months.

[KittenKong]

There is a Time of Usage (TOU) tariff also, which also comes with a TOU meter, but usually that is only used by large users of electricity...like businesses which will adjust their daily manufacturing/work schedule to take advantage of lower rates at off peak hours/night. But a residence can also switch to TOU metering, but there is a higher hookup cost...TOU daytime rates are much higher than the standard residence tariff and the night time rates are much lower. One time I priced out the possible savings of me switching my home to a TOU schedule/meter, since I use A/C pretty much 24/7 and it pretty much turned out to be a wash with standard residential rate...a person really needs to have the great majority of their electric usage at night to take advantage of TOU tariff.

That might be of interest in our building. We have many lights on all over the common areas from 5.30 through till dawn. Apart from that the electricity usage is mostly the elevators and water pumps, but of course both of those drop to very little after midnight compared to the daytime.

When time does the night tariff start and end?

[Pib]

When time does the night tariff start and end?

It's in the notes of the image I posted above where it refers to on and off peak days and hours.

[KittenKong]

When time does the night tariff start and end?

It's in the notes of the image I posted above where it refers to on and off peak days and hours.

So it is. Thanks. The image didn't show on my tablet in text mode.

That 10pm cut-off time makes it somewhat less interesting but it might be worth us reading our meters twice a day for a week or so, just to see what our actual daytime/night-time ratio is.

[Pib]

That's what I did in my evaluation. I took meter readings 9am and 10pm for a week or so to see if switching to TOU would save me significant money. But as it turns out my day and night usage was about the same primarily driven by my A/C usage....one A/C during the day along with washer/dryer/TV/etc used almost totally during the day., but two A/Cs at night...with that extra A/C running at night (A/C are always big electricity users) it basically offset the daytime usage of washer/dryer/TV/etc., and I was fairly close to a 50/50 day/night electricity usage. And the two A/C I'm talking about are 18K and 20K BTU A/Cs; not small ones.

Plus, there was a healthy charge to install/buy a TOU meter if the electric company would do in for my house...I never did formally ask them but found some approx installation/buying costs somewhere in my googling/research. So, when the dust settled, I didn't do it...plus I didn't see any other house in my moobaan with a TOU meter on soi light pools and I figured if it was a big money saver for typical residential use I would have seen some TOU meters. I'm sure it's a big money saver over time if your night usage is significantly highly than your daytime usage....that's the key: having a significantly higher night time usage.

[JAS21]

This is the link to the tariff calculator http://www.mea.or.th/aboutelectric/index.php?l=en&tid=4&mid=280&pid=116&ctForm=form11 for MEA.. My electric meter was read incorrectly on one occasion ... sometimes difficult to tell what the digit is. Result that month a smaller than expected bill and the next month a larger than expected on.

One month the meter stuck when trying to turn over four nines ... unfortunately it stuck in week 3 and not week one. When the guy came to read the meter I saw him give it a good thump ...found it working after that.

[White Christmas13]

We were paying about Baht 4,000 per MONTH in the middle of last year.

Two adults and one teenager in a Town House. Average of One Aircon running most nights (Midnight to 5 a.m.)

In Australia during SUMMER we averaged TWO Aircons running similar times and the bill was about the same (when converted to Dollars)

JUST ONE DIFFERENCE....In Australia, the Bill came once every TWO MONTHS!!

Yes just got mine for 2 month I paid about $ 100 for 63 days and who is saying electricity is cheap in Thailand

[Naam]

Either they screwed up my last bill and under-charged me

that's what they did in my case. last month's bill was based meter reading on 13th instead of 17th, i.e. 4 days less.

[meltingpot2015]

It's possible that the electric company made a mistake with the meter reading. That happened to me when I got a bill that was very low one month. The next month it was quite a bit higher though about normal when the 2 months were averaged out.

My electric bill this month will be higher as we have just bought a washing machine though its usage has so far been minimal. Also, the aircon units in the living room and bedroom have been switched on for a short time on a few occasions.

Alan

Anything is possible...humans make errors...but after 7 years at my current location and the meter reading occurring on the 13th of each month for me, the electric man that comes around on his motorcycle and eyeballs the meter reading has never made a mistake.

Assuming you can easily access/read your meter, why don't take a reading daily at the same time for the next 3 to 5 days to get an average daily KWH usage...then multiply that average daily usage amount by 30 days and then by which ever Bt per KWH charge you think applies in your case (like maybe Bt4.6/KWH if you are being billed directly from the electric company) and see what totals up to. You might find out you are indeed using more than you think.

Are you being billed direct by the power company or via a condo/apartment landlord?

If it's a government bill you should be paying about 4.2 Baht per unit.

Got electric (bill) shock today!. Sorry about the bad humour. Just couldnt resist. Condo where I stay gave elec bill for 2996Bhat. When I moved there a month ago. I checked their website, that provided the elec. charge 7bhat per unit and said average cost for electricty is around 1200bhat per month. So I used this figure with the cost for rent, internet, cleaning, water and the rent was reasonable, so I put a deposit and decided to stay there.

Now, after researching about this more, I have found that it is a trick practiced by properties where they advertise a "low" rent, but make up for it using utilities. So, you may not actually pick the best deal because of this, if you look at just how much the rent is. Of course many of us, take in to account the utilities also. I took into account the average cost advertised for electricity. But I didnt take in to account that it may cost 2.5x as much, because, if you have an average then it is unlikely that one apartment's figure will be 2.5x times the average. (Anyway, now I am looking for a place that is higher in rent, but cheaper for utilities.)

My expereince here may be similar to the social experiment where some people were shown a scalf and a coat and asked to pick the most expensive item. Many picked the scalf, when actually the coat was more expensive.

Assuming you can easily access/read your meter, why don't take a reading daily at the same time for the next 3 to 5 days to get an average daily KWH usage...then multiply that average daily usage amount by 30 days and then by which ever Bt per KWH charge you think applies in your case (like maybe Bt4.6/KWH if you are being billed directly from the electric company) and see what totals up to. You might find out you are indeed using more than you think.

@Pib: i have now written down the elec reading today. Will take another reading in a few days and do what you suggest then calculate the monthly charge. Should be able to track usage this way.

Edited March 31, 2015 by meltingpot2015

[Naam]

We were paying about Baht 4,000 per MONTH in the middle of last year.

Two adults and one teenager in a Town House. Average of One Aircon running most nights (Midnight to 5 a.m.)

In Australia during SUMMER we averaged TWO Aircons running similar times and the bill was about the same (when converted to Dollars)

JUST ONE DIFFERENCE....In Australia, the Bill came once every TWO MONTHS!!

Yes just got mine for 2 month I paid about $ 100 for 63 days and who is saying electricity is cheap in Thailand

i say that electricity is (compared to my home country) dàmn cheap in Thailand even considering the lower EUR/THB exchange rate. presently cost in Germany is double and a few years ago when one EUR bought 50+ Baht the price was triple!

[meltingpot2015]

OP is talking about bill shock in Thailand. S(he) is not talking about electricity prices across countries.

[Naam]

OP is talking about bill shock in Thailand. S(he) is not talking about electricity prices across countries.

i did not reply to the OP but to those who claim electricity in Thailand is expensive and quoted for comparison their OZ bills. now go back to your dark corner and repent!

[lust]

My power bills were high as well but I just moved into a new condo which has great air circulation on floor 27, so I don't need AC as much. My bills used to be 1200baht-1600baht. My power bills now are 400-500baht/month now

[meltingpot2015]

OP is talking about bill shock in Thailand. S(he) is not talking about electricity prices across countries.

i did not reply to the OP but to those who claim electricity in Thailand is expensive and quoted for comparison their OZ bills. now go back to your dark corner and repent!

Someone steers the discussion out of topic and you just follow without remorse.

now go back to your dark corner and repent!

Again, Out of topic, irrelevant and unnecessary.