Your Electric Bill...you must confess!

[DavidOxon]

4k... but that includes a pool pump, pond pump, and baking everyday... A/C in 2 bedrooms/office

[C N K]

When the electrical bill is exceeding 7000 thb the idea of Solar power becomes interesting in pay back time...

[bazza40]

Arvos = afternoons a British colloquialism

I am British but I have never heard of this word. I have looked it up and I can find no reference to it except as "arvo", something Australian.

Can you confirm this word as officially existing through an authoritative source?

It's an Australian colloquialism. Similar to barbie for barbeque, egg nishner, or coming the raw prawn. A simple contraction. Australians like economy with speech.

Edited May 31, 2016 by bazza40

[Tywais]

[Naam]

When the electrical bill is exceeding 7000 thb the idea of Solar power becomes interesting in pay back time...

not if you like airconditioning and need to run half a dozen pumps both categories drawing high starting amps.

[chiang mai]

Elec.JPG

What is the basis of the increases over that period: increased cost per unit, increased consumption resulting from lifestyle, higher temperatures leading to increased consumption or ageing equipment?

[ChrisKC]

Arvos = afternoons a British colloquialism

I am British but I have never heard of this word. I have looked it up and I can find no reference to it except as "arvo", something Australian.

Can you confirm this word as officially existing through an authoritative source?

It's an Australian colloquialism. Similar to barbie for barbeque, egg nishner, or coming the raw prawn. A simple contraction. Australians like economy with speech.

So it isn't British then, is it? A contraction is a shortening of something! "afto" is a contraction of afternoon; "arvo" is a completely different word and cannot easily be deduced from the original word. I accept "Barbie" is a contraction of barbeque that I have heard often.

And what is an "egg nishner"? that isn't a contraction either. What is "coming the raw prawn"? It isn't very economical speech if you have to explain what it is in yet more words.

[Naam]

Elec.JPG

What is the basis of the increases over that period: increased cost per unit, increased consumption resulting from lifestyle, higher temperatures leading to increased consumption or ageing equipment?

doing a graph showing cost in Baht is interesting but slightly misleading when seen in context with your question.

reason: the "FT surcharge" is since a few months negative and that distorts the consumption. in my case (see above) it represents 300 kWh which is equivalent or more than the total monthly consumption of a number of posters.

[kanook]

Averages about 2.5k for the three bedroom 160sq.m. house and 1.5k for the smaller extension/pool room. I have two supplies, which cuts about 4% from my previous combined bill. Give or take 50% in April/December

Features:

Paid direct to PEA so about 4.5 baht per kwH. Little inflation in that rate over the 7 years I have lived here (remarkable in this world!)

Main house is bungalow style with high tiled roof but little or no insulation

Extension/pool room has pumping for a med-large swimming pool, well-pump, house water pump, auto sprinkler watering for half rai of garden and occasional use of aircon/electrics in extension bathroom/bedrooms

Family of four - aircons used in 2 bedrooms and open plan living area for maybe average of 4 hours each per 24 in shoulder seasons and 6 in hottest 3 months + extensive multi-fan use

Not bad at all, I always assumed running a pool would be more expensive than that. I will definitely look into a pool when I start building a house next year.

[C N K]

When the electrical bill is exceeding 7000 thb the idea of Solar power becomes interesting in pay back time...

not if you like airconditioning and need to run half a dozen pumps both categories drawing high starting amps.

[SantiSuk]

Averages about 2.5k for the three bedroom 160sq.m. house and 1.5k for the smaller extension/pool room. I have two supplies, which cuts about 4% from my previous combined bill. Give or take 50% in April/December

Features:

Paid direct to PEA so about 4.5 baht per kwH. Little inflation in that rate over the 7 years I have lived here (remarkable in this world!)

Main house is bungalow style with high tiled roof but little or no insulation

Extension/pool room has pumping for a med-large swimming pool, well-pump, house water pump, auto sprinkler watering for half rai of garden and occasional use of aircon/electrics in extension bathroom/bedrooms

Family of four - aircons used in 2 bedrooms and open plan living area for maybe average of 4 hours each per 24 in shoulder seasons and 6 in hottest 3 months + extensive multi-fan use

Not bad at all, I always assumed running a pool would be more expensive than that. I will definitely look into a pool when I start building a house next year.

I reckon the pool pump is about 1k a month. I run a 1.5HP Astral Pool pump for about 6.5 hours a day for a 95 cu.m pool. Normal recommended calculations would suggest 8-9 hours for that size of pool but I found when I switched to salt water chlorination that my pool kept nicely balanced, free of any greening on walls or blackspots in the grouting and crystal clear on 6.5 hours.

The salt water chlorinator runs on electricity and is included in the 1.5k estimate but it's probably low consumption - like a 100w bulb

BTW - it's worth looking at the Swimming Pool forum if you are to be a first time pool owner. Some wish they never had one, but I think having a pool is great. My 6 year old and her friends/our extended Thai family love it and I use it daily for execrcise.

[ExpatOilWorker]

This thread is like porn for the oil & gas industry. Great to see some lofty numbers.

[Naam]

This thread is like porn for the oil & gas industry. Great to see some lofty numbers.

and lofty claims such as "280 Baht a month, aircondition throughout"

[C N K]

When the electrical bill is exceeding 7000 thb the idea of Solar power becomes interesting in pay back time...

not if you like airconditioning and need to run half a dozen pumps both categories drawing high starting amps.

Thank you for your info...

- Bill = 17.000 thb

1 air con in the day, 3 at night, 1 pool pump, 1 water pump

- 22 panels 300 what poly

Inverter 5 kw - on grid

Batteries for 4 kw

This will not work ?

Appreciate your opinions...

[Naam]

Thank you for your info...

- Bill = 17.000 thb

1 air con in the day, 3 at night, 1 pool pump, 1 water pump

- 22 panels 300 what poly

Inverter 5 kw - on grid

Batteries for 4 kw

This will not work ?

Appreciate your opinions...

depending on the peak capacity of your inverter you might be able to run a single medium sized aircon 12k btu/h during daytime (on clear days) plus the pool pump.

your battery bank won't be able to supply 3 aircons in the night longer than one hour.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

Made a mental note for topics like this. It's a terrific way to establish who has plenty money to spend and who lives in a shoebox studio or hut somewhere.

I think it's more likely to be an indicator of who lives in houses that are not energy efficient and or who lives in property where the utilities bills are marker up, Herr Naam being one of the very exceptions.

For single people, the bills in a "shoebox" will be about the same as a house, because typically, the house person will only a/c one bedroom and stay in it most of the time..so the difference is they are in a 16 sm bedroom with a/c, and I'm in a 32 sm room with a/c. In most cases electric bills are not indicators of wealth, but more likely, who wastes money. Some very poor people insist on running a/c very cold, just like the poor people in the Old South with Cadillacs in front of tar paper shacks.

[chiang mai]

Made a mental note for topics like this. It's a terrific way to establish who has plenty money to spend and who lives in a shoebox studio or hut somewhere.

I think it's more likely to be an indicator of who lives in houses that are not energy efficient and or who lives in property where the utilities bills are marker up, Herr Naam being one of the very exceptions.

For single people, the bills in a "shoebox" will be about the same as a house, because typically, the house person will only a/c one bedroom and stay in it most of the time..so the difference is they are in a 16 sm bedroom with a/c, and I'm in a 32 sm room with a/c. In most cases electric bills are not indicators of wealth, but more likely, who wastes money. Some very poor people insist on running a/c very cold, just like the poor people in the Old South with Cadillacs in front of tar paper shacks.

We own a 200 square metre house and our electricity bills are on average, circa 1,100 per month, in the very hottest month it will climb to 2,200 baht per month. The bills are not that way because we are frugal or cheap, it's because we invested substantial money in heat proofing measures, this thread seems to confirm that people renting very small studio's pay more money each month than we do!

[KhonKaenKowboy]

Yes, it is likely that people with more wealth have better insulation, as they are more likely owners for one, and are willing to do the math on investing in upgrades.

[C N K]

Thank you for your info...

- Bill = 17.000 thb

1 air con in the day, 3 at night, 1 pool pump, 1 water pump

- 22 panels 300 what poly

Inverter 5 kw - on grid

Batteries for 4 kw

This will not work ?

Appreciate your opinions...

depending on the peak capacity of your inverter you might be able to run a single medium sized aircon 12k btu/h during daytime (on clear days) plus the pool pump.

your battery bank won't be able to supply 3 aircons in the night longer than one hour.

Thx...not what i want to hear but OK...If I can reduce the bill with 50% I will be happy allready...I will go to BITEC to check out any solutions...I'm not giving up yet...there needs to be a solution ! ...probably high end battery packs...I will let know, if I can find a miracle...Cheers

[tails]

Would be nice to hear some numbers of water bills too if anyone is still reading this thread...

As expected, we saw a rise from the normal 1200-1500 up to 2500 when we put the auto-timer on the gardens, although it's been off for more than 6 weeks now and this months bill was 2600 which is higher than ever...

[Jdiddy]

my last electricty bill was the highest in 10 years; 689 Baht (per day).

Pretty sure thats about 4x what i pay in australia

[chiang mai]

Would be nice to hear some numbers of water bills too if anyone is still reading this thread...

As expected, we saw a rise from the normal 1200-1500 up to 2500 when we put the auto-timer on the gardens, although it's been off for more than 6 weeks now and this months bill was 2600 which is higher than ever...

6,000 litres a month, every month, just for domestic use, about 100 baht a month..

Garden (1 rai) sprinklers, 16 points, zero cost via a 14 metre well - electricity cost for that is about 3 baht per hour for the pump.

Note: the cost to drill the well was 14,000 baht and the pump cost 4,000 baht, sounds like it would pay back for you in about 8 months, assuming your domestic usage is similar.

[Tywais]

Elec.JPG

What is the basis of the increases over that period: increased cost per unit, increased consumption resulting from lifestyle, higher temperatures leading to increased consumption or ageing equipment?

The vast majority of it is based on the time of year. You will see the peaks are all in April with May usually where it starts falling again. This year due to the extended hot season April was only slightly higher then previous years but May increased above April's usage due to higher overall heating days. A couple of things, both April and May this year we had 5 day holidays which means I'm at home with the air on 24 hours/day for that period.

@Naam "doing a graph showing cost in Baht is interesting but slightly misleading when seen in context with your question."

Not really, the difference in cost over the period has been quite stable relative to percentage fluctuation and usage. But to fill in the rest of my data: As you can see, usage obviously follows cost very closely.

[Naam]

Thx...not what i want to hear but OK...If I can reduce the bill with 50% I will be happy allready...I will go to BITEC to check out any solutions...I'm not giving up yet...there needs to be a solution ! ...probably high end battery packs...I will let know, if I can find a miracle...Cheers

what you should do first is to find out why your electricity bill, based on the information you supplied, is excessively high. for the last period i paid ~20% more than you but we run 6-8 aircons (set at 26ºC) at any given hour of the day.

of course you might be able to reduce your cost 50% by using solar energy albeit not as you think (aircon in the night) but using solar during daytime to power other consuming gadgets in your house.

also you don't need "high battery packs" (which do not exist). to store solar power and use it in the nights for airconditioning or rainy days you need a lot of batteries and a lot of inverter power.

[Naam]

Tywais:

Not really, the difference in cost over the period has been quite stable relative to percentage fluctuation and usage. But to fill in the rest of my data: As you can see, usage obviously follows cost very closely.

in my case, as stated before, the negative FT surcharge is clearly distorting by "hiding" usage.

You will see the peaks are all in April with May usually where it starts falling again.

an interesting difference (reason must be the different geographical/climatic locations) that our consumptions for the periods jun15>jul15 and jul15>aug15 are the same or higher than the apr15>may15 periods.

[Morakot]

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

I'd be dead from hypothermia, living like this...

Edited June 6, 2016 by Morakot

[Morakot]

I guess I really need to work on the insulation. 10 sqm 1537 baht.

29 in the day. 27 at night.

You live in a tent with A/C?

Edited June 6, 2016 by Morakot

[Morakot]

my last electricty bill was the highest in 10 years; 689 Baht (per day).

Pretty sure thats about 4x what i pay in australia

Tasmania? The heating bill could be a quite high.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Morakot

[chicowoodduck]

I run mine only for a few minutes to cool down the room, after it is the fan only.....usually about 700 to 800 baht a month....if I am lucky.....in my old spot my water bill was higher than my electric bill on most months....due to the crooked land lady......lol...??

Edited June 8, 2016 by chicowoodduck

[jonwilly]

Confess !

I am not Catholic.

B3,060 for May, B2,600 for April then on average B800 for remainder of year.

john