Your Electric Bill...you must confess!

[William C F Pierce]

I can't believe you can set an A/C to a certain constant temperature for a comfort level. Humidity levels vary that the temperature needs to be adjusted accordingly. It is humidity more than air temperature that has the most effect on comfort. I rent a 2 floor 2 bed house, with a fridge freezer, Tv, video, electric hobs, halogen oven and electric kettle. Most of the time I prefer salads or eat out The ground floor has a fan that I rarely need to use. I use only one of the bedrooms. But only use the A/C last thing at night before going to bed and switch off before going to sleep. My electricity bill is never more than 300 Baht a month.

[D3030]

About 8k, same as normal for this time of year, regardless of where I live. I've moved several times over the years and it always comes to about the same.

I like my A/C all the time. It's 23 degrees C sitting here right now. Nice and cool.

I keep my AC at the recommended temperature of 28C. Saves energy, not cooling the birds in the roof. Power bill today was 983.21 THB for the month. A bit less than for April.

Room facing due East, 12 floors of concrete above me, full sunlight 6 hours every day. Thinking of putting reflective film on soon.

there is no such thing like a recommended temperature. comfort levels vary.

Years ago...

I heard it was recommended to set your thermostat - at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (for example)..

Then leave your A/C on all day/night...

And you would save on your electricity bill..

It was a recommendation that worked for me.

So, to save on your electric bill, there are recommendations out there...

[masuk]

Always high in May 8,000 Baht this time. But really its the poor construction, if they were built as in UK double wall Thermal block, double glazed, and minimum 150 mm fiber glass insulation in the roof spaces the Electric bills would be halved, There is no building control here so they build the cheapest way not built to conserve energy.

I've seen new houses going up, and no sarking, no insulation, no ventilation.

What a waste of power and also the whole house heating up as the heat radiates into every room through the ceiling.

In Northern Australia (tropics) roof cavity temps are around 70C.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

and 70F is not one of them....more like 80F.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

http://energy.gov/energysaver/spring-and-summer-energy-saving-tips 26c, only when you are home.

[smccolley]

Mine was 4500 baht this month, but I have 4 AC units, 2 fridges, 5 computers and a few TVs. Normally I don't run AC in my home office, but this has been pretty unbearable. I expect it to drop 1000 next month, but never more than that since the fridges and computers run 24/7.

[sead]

800-1250 per month. around 15h day. 24-25c

Oh, and i always leave my balcony or window open a little all the time. That took away my soar throat. 42m2 studio,

Edited May 29, 2016 by sead

[Laza 45]

...560 Bt.. for the month... no air con.. lots of fans... new part of home has cavity walls.. insulating block on outside..& conventional brick on inside..verandas shading outside walls so no direct sun on them.. close up early morning .. stays reasonably cool all day...

[keithathome]

B7/unit bill of B500: don't do aircon - in CM

[tonyjohn smith]

Has no one got a swimming pool

[tonray]

Mine usually is between 4,500 to 5,000 (usually closer to 4,500 right now - depends on the rate I think). Very little of that is the AC - I have a rather small 1 bedroom -- and even with it off for half a month it only drops a little. Most of the consumption is my computers which are probably on 340 days or so of the year. AC is usually set to 27ish.

There is very little chance your computers are eating the bulk of that,. It's your AC. Unless you are running IBM mainframes with liquid cooling.

[eyecatcher]

A wide range of costs and usage.

AC is the deciding factor obviously.

Quite happy to see that no one is as thrifty as myself.

My electric last month 359bt and is always about the same averaging 100units.

Seems the electeic rate here is nearer to 3.65bt.

I dont have aircon as you would expect and perfectly comfotable sleeping outside.

To add insult to injury...anyone care to challenge me on a water bill. Heres my last one!

4cm @5bt.

[NoshowJones]

About 8k, same as normal for this time of year, regardless of where I live. I've moved several times over the years and it always comes to about the same.

I like my A/C all the time. It's 23 degrees C sitting here right now. Nice and cool.

I keep my AC at the recommended temperature of 28C. Saves energy, not cooling the birds in the roof. Power bill today was 983.21 THB for the month. A bit less than for April.

Room facing due East, 12 floors of concrete above me, full sunlight 6 hours every day. Thinking of putting reflective film on soon.

there is no such thing like a recommended temperature. comfort levels vary.

[NoshowJones]

About 8k, same as normal for this time of year, regardless of where I live. I've moved several times over the years and it always comes to about the same.

I like my A/C all the time. It's 23 degrees C sitting here right now. Nice and cool.

I keep my AC at the recommended temperature of 28C. Saves energy, not cooling the birds in the roof. Power bill today was 983.21 THB for the month. A bit less than for April.

Room facing due East, 12 floors of concrete above me, full sunlight 6 hours every day. Thinking of putting reflective film on soon.

there is no such thing like a recommended temperature. comfort levels vary.

Maybe, 28 degrees is about the most economical, I don't know what my monthly bill is, Mrs Possum pays it.

Besides, we have solar panels.

[Naam]

I keep my AC at the recommended temperature of 28C. Saves energy, not cooling the birds in the roof. Power bill today was 983.21 THB for the month. A bit less than for April.

Room facing due East, 12 floors of concrete above me, full sunlight 6 hours every day. Thinking of putting reflective film on soon.

there is no such thing like a recommended temperature. comfort levels vary.

Maybe, 28 degrees is about the most economical, I don't know what my monthly bill is, Mrs Possum pays it.

Besides, we have solar panels.

29º is more economical than 28º, 30º is more economical than 29º, 31º is.... etc. etc. etc.

[elektrified]

Mine usually is between 4,500 to 5,000 (usually closer to 4,500 right now - depends on the rate I think). Very little of that is the AC - I have a rather small 1 bedroom -- and even with it off for half a month it only drops a little. Most of the consumption is my computers which are probably on 340 days or so of the year. AC is usually set to 27ish.

There is very little chance your computers are eating the bulk of that,. It's your AC. Unless you are running IBM mainframes with liquid cooling.

I couldn't agree more.

[elektrified]

A wide range of costs and usage.

AC is the deciding factor obviously.

Quite happy to see that no one is as thrifty as myself.

My electric last month 359bt and is always about the same averaging 100units.

Seems the electeic rate here is nearer to 3.65bt.

1464528106602.jpg

I dont have aircon as you would expect and perfectly comfotable sleeping outside.

To add insult to injury...anyone care to challenge me on a water bill. Heres my last one!

4cm @5bt.

1464528142988.jpg

25 Baht? How do you do that? In close to 10 years I've never had a water bill under 400 Baht. Usually it's 500-800 (3 people). Even when I was single and lived in a flat in the city it was about 350-400 (marked up rate of course). I do have a large garden with a lot of plants that need to be watered but even in the rainy season it's not much less.

[johnatong]

Seems there are many "wimp" farangs who cannot live without A/C

We only use A/C in the bedroom for 2 hours/night (using the timer) for the remainder of the day the house is cooled by using well placed fans.

The result ? An electricity bill that never exceeds 2000 Bht !

Man up and acclimatise !

[johnatong]

Seems there are many "wimp" farangs who cannot live without A/C

We only use A/C in the bedroom for 2 hours/night (using the timer) for the remainder of the day the house is cooled by using well placed fans.

The result ? An electricity bill that never exceeds 2000 Bht !

Man up and acclimatise !

[bkkcanuck8]

Mine usually is between 4,500 to 5,000 (usually closer to 4,500 right now - depends on the rate I think). Very little of that is the AC - I have a rather small 1 bedroom -- and even with it off for half a month it only drops a little. Most of the consumption is my computers which are probably on 340 days or so of the year. AC is usually set to 27ish.

There is very little chance your computers are eating the bulk of that,. It's your AC. Unless you are running IBM mainframes with liquid cooling.

I couldn't agree more.

Actually I did a rough calculation, and it can easily be my computers (multiple)..... several, with hard drive controllers -- 60TB or so of hard drive space with multiple graphics cards driving an monitors (6 over the set of computers).

I turned off AC one month and switched to using fans and my bill dropped less than 1,000 baht (when rates were higher).

[peterb17]

10,480 - which is 2000 more than usual.

Lots of stuff running-air cons , pool, big hot water heater , outside lighting, tumble drier / washing nearly every day, fridges, oven; the list goes on.

So much for cheap living - never mind.

[Naam]

Seems there are many "wimp" farangs who cannot live without A/C

We only use A/C in the bedroom for 2 hours/night (using the timer) for the remainder of the day the house is cooled by using well placed fans.

The result ? An electricity bill that never exceeds 2000 Bht !

Man up and acclimatise !

seems there are also many brave and perhaps "manly" Farangs who prefer to sweat or can't afford airconditioning

[ChrisKC]

My bill this month exactly B1400 but I am lucky. There is a fluorescent light not far from the house that belongs to a restaurant about 200 meters away and the Owner pays me B800 per month for that. It is only on for about 5 hours a day so my bill in essence for my usage only B600 but that was a high month because of the very hot weather, keeping two large fridges going and the aircon about two hours a night.

[SanSaiExPat]

Mine was 11960 for April. Happy to pay it for the comfort. Running a big house with 7 units

[johnatong]

Mine was 11960 for April. Happy to pay it for the comfort. Running a big house with 7 units

If you are "happy" that is all that matters !

[merlen10002]

About 8k, same as normal for this time of year, regardless of where I live. I've moved several times over the years and it always comes to about the same.

I like my A/C all the time. It's 23 degrees C sitting here right now. Nice and cool.

I would have a overcoat on at 23% , never run the A/C, fans are very comfortable for us, house has trees all around not hot, I think someone that must live in 23 degrees C maybe living in the wrong country, what happens when you go out of the A/C must very bad and uncomfortable for you. my bill is 650 B per month. don't mind the temperature at any time in Thailand it is one of the things that I like about it.

[mcfish]

5k

[chiang mai]

Seems there are many "wimp" farangs who cannot live without A/C

We only use A/C in the bedroom for 2 hours/night (using the timer) for the remainder of the day the house is cooled by using well placed fans.

The result ? An electricity bill that never exceeds 2000 Bht !

Man up and acclimatise !

It's not a straight forward as that: we bought a house eighteen months ago that had zero done to it by way of cooling measures, other than the fact it had aircon, significantly it is a single storey house with a steep pitch and very high ridge line. A year ago in February, after we'd been in the house only a few (cool) months the place started to become unbearably hot, by April it was truly unbearable.

We spent nearly three months and the better part of 100k baht making substantial changes to the roof ventilation, adding insulation and radiant barriers and other devices and techniques to improve thermal efficiency. Thankfully all our efforts paid off and today our already low electricity bill (circa 1k month) never exceeds 2k, even in the hotest recent months, even using aircon which is still needed but only infrequently. Most importunately the house remains pleasant to live in all day long, every day.

I don't believe a westerner could ever acclimatize sufficiently to live in out house the way that it was, it was truly horrendous. But what they can do is to adapt their surrounding to cater to the excess heat, something that few housebuilders consider when they construct houses here today.

[Pdaz]

Large single storey house. Double super block walls, UPVC windows and well insulated roof space. Bedroom AC on nightly. Living room / kitchen daily 16/36k btu cassettes. Average bill 5000 a Month. Last Month 6500.

Usually a floor fan is good enough during the day. But long hot arvos mean I've been running more AC.

[tails]

1500-2500 depending on the month

Two storey house, two aircons, two fridges, three computers

I got a shock when it first went over 2k but after reading this thread I'm feeling a bit better!