Utility bill too expensive?

[bitzu]

I got my first utility bill and it shows:

 

water- price per unit 350. Units used 1. Total price 350

electricity- price per unit 8. Units used 340. Total price 2720

 

I live in a 32m2 studio room and my air conditioner is turned on an average of 6 hours a day. Lights stay on 12 hours a day. Isn't the electricity bill too expensive?? I just want to know if I'm being scammed or not. Thanks!

[MJCM]

Electricity at 8thb (Official price is around 4-5 THB) is expensive but water at 350 THB is outrageous.

 

 

 

[daveAustin]

Electric bill could easily be that if you have an old aircon unit/and or on flat out (like set to 22 degrees) and also use shower a lot. Water rate looks a bit concerning though. Are you sure that's not 35 baht per unit?

 

/8 baht/unit for electric in a condo is about the norm//

Edited May 15, 2017 by daveAustin

[Jdietz]

8 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Electric bill could easily be that if you have an old aircon unit/and or on flat out (like set to 22 degrees) and also use shower a lot. Water rate looks a bit concerning though. Are you sure that's not 35 baht per unit?

 

/8 baht/unit for electric in a condo is about the norm//

 

340 units is not unreasonable. The price per unit is definitely not the "norm" but a total scam. 

THB 5 is about the norm, which is a slight mark-up for public lights, elevators etc. 6 may be acceptable for some, but everything over that you enter scam territory.

 

You are completely taken to the cleaners on your water bill though, THB20 would give them a nice markup already.

 

Full disclosure: Living in a condo, paying THB 5/unit power, 12 or so water.

Edited May 15, 2017 by Jdietz

[KhunBENQ]

32 minutes ago, bitzu said:

Units used 1. Total price 350

There is something wrong here.

Units would usually be cubic-meters.

Can you really live and coexist with 1 unit per month(!).

30 liters per day?

Hard to believe.

And of course 350 Baht/cubic-meter is outrageous.

Only idea is, that they charge a high connection fee or the like.

 

8 Baht per unit of electricity is on the upper edge. Double the price from the energy company (MEA/PEA).

 

All in all a typical condo ripoff.

 

(upcountry: 5 Baht for community water unit, 4.x Baht for electricity from PEA)

[bitzu]

Apartment Detail

 

Water Supply charge : 350 THB/mo.

Electricity charge : 8 THB/unit

 

The water supply actually has a fixed rate, which is 350. Still, is the electricity what concerns me.

Edited May 15, 2017 by bitzu

[Crossy]

Ok, it's a 32m² unit, so the A/C would likely be around 20,000 BTU (could you confirm the make and model).

 

That will use about 2,000W when the compressor is running.

Assuming it's not set to Arctic conditions, a 30% duty cycle is reasonable (what is your set temperature).
So that's 0.6 units per hour.

6 hours a day = 3.6 units per day = 30*3.6 = 108 units per month. (assuming you really are only running it 6 hours/day)

 

Your bill is for 340 units, so something is sucking up 232 units per month = about 300 Watts 24/7

 

How much lighting do you have, is it tungsten, compact fluorescent or regular fluorescent?

How long do you run your PC, laptop or desktop?

Do you have a fridge?

Do you take long showers (assuming an electric water heater)?

 

EDIT Just for a bit of perspective Wifey's koi pond uses about 300W for pumps and UV 24/7/365, the fish are happy, I'm not so happy (I pay the bill).

[KittenKong]

When I was using a decrepit old non-inverter 24kw aircon I was spending about 4000-4500B in total at government rate. When I switched to a new inverter model this dropped to around 1300-1800B. I have the aircon on more or less all the time, at around 27 degrees. I also have a powerful PC on 24/7, water heater, washing machine, fridge-freezer, big TV, hifi etc etc.

 

So 2750B at 8B/unit doesnt sound too odd to me. The killer, of course, is the price per unit. At government rate it would be about 1400B.

 

350B flat-rate for water seems a bit high. My condo metered usage is about 90-140B/month (2 or 3 m3) but I do live alone.

[taninthai]

I have just finished building 1 bedroom house and am on temp electric rate of 8 bht depending how much i use the aircon which varies from 7 to  10 hours a day i am using 8 to 10 units a day 10 units a day gives me a bill of 2400 bht ,,,,,the electric soon starts adding up on 8 bht a unit, oh and my aircon is only 9000btu.

i started only running aircon for 2  hours and using ceiling fan and can drop to 4 units use a day.

[scottiejohn]

On ‎16‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 7:39 AM, Crossy said:

Your bill is for 340 units, so something is sucking up 232 units per month = about 300 Watts 24/7

Excuse my ignorance but how do you convert "units" to "watts" and work out the consumption of an average fridge, fan and small desktop computer?

 

 

PS; One condo in CM has quoted me 12Baht/Unit, most others are 5-8Baht/unit. Water fixed at 100-150/month

[Crossy]

9 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Excuse my ignorance but how do you convert "units" to "watts" and work out the consumption of an average fridge, fan and small desktop computer?

 

PS; One condo in CM has quoted me 12Baht/Unit, most others are 5-8Baht/unit. Water fixed at 100-150/month

 

A "unit" is a kilowatt-hour. A device using 1 kilowatt (1,000 Watts) will use 1 unit in 1 hour. Something using 300 Watts will use 0.3 units per hour.

 

Budget on a fridge using 0.5 to 1 unit per 24 hours. Floor fan about 80-120 Watts. Desktop PC (with monitor) say 200 Watts. Don't forget lighting, water heating etc.

 

12 Baht per unit is close to three times the government rate, hope the rent is really cheap.

[scottiejohn]

49 minutes ago, Crossy said:

12 Baht per unit is close to three times the government rate, hope the rent is really cheap.

Thanks for the response, the mathematics make very interesting reading.

 

It certainly looks like the more expensive rental property at 5Baht/unit is cheaper to run overall than the cheaper rental at 12Baht/unit!

 

Your figures should be pinned/highlighted at the top of this forum.

Edited October 2, 2017 by scottiejohn
costs added