geedee

Have any of you experienced a gradual escalation of your electricity bill?

Our first full month here was September 2013, the bill was XX ringys and we were quite pleased. We'd moved from Canada and the AC was on in most rooms full blast, most of the time.

Every month since it seems to have gone up around 100 ringys..... the bill today was XX + 700 or so.

We noticed this a few months ago and decided to be a little more sensible with the AC etc. In our opinion, we've made quite a reduction in use since we first arrived.
In the opinion of the electricity supplier, we're increasing, every month.... we're baffled!

Anyone else experienced this? Are we being ripped off???

Bluenose1

XX +700??? Our budget was RM250/month when we arrived, and that was about what we were paying in the first 4 months. Now that I don't need the aircon on in the lounge (though still needed all night in the bedroom), we have got it down to under RM200 most months.

Are your meter readings estimated or do you check the reading on the bill against the meter? I know, for instance, we always had to check ours in the UK, because more often than not we got estimated bills that were usually higher than our consumption. We had to then start providing our own readings online. Don't think they're quite that sophisticated over here yet, though!

bakedbean

Hi Geedee. The electricity rates went up dramatically this year. It's the "higher bands" that went up, so us air-con users will see quite a hike.

Ours went up a fair bit, then they decided to slip in an extra bit of "deposit" as well

geedee

I'm not sure... I'll have to check the meter... it's all in Malay and I haven't got a clue what it all means! Unfortunately we have a big hairy dog with us, and she needs AC.... it's on in one room all day. We daren't leave windows / doors open because of the bugs, bats, snakes (not actually seen one yet but know they're around... seen a skin!) and other local (poisonous!) wildlife which might decide to pop in. Our bill every month is now quite horrific!

That will help explain it BB... what are "higher bands"?

bakedbean

Well they seem to charge different rates depending on usage. Try Google Translate for,deciphering of bill.

Bocat

We've had the same thing geedee. Our bills have definitely gone up and we rarely use our air con.

geedee

I've checked into it.... the meter reading on the bill matches the reading on the meter.

Our consumption has increased around 500KwH since January.... which is about RM285.... then there is a "Faktor ProRata" which seems to change for no reason at all... last bill was multiplied by 1.07142 for some reason.

That increase in consumption is baffling.... it equates to running something fairly big for an extra 12 hours a day, but we're sure we've cut down (mainly on aircon, which consumes an astounding 5.5Kw per window unit.... or about RM 80 per (24 hour) day for one unit....)

Looks like we'll be sitting around the house in our underpants from now on!!

bakedbean

Was the previous bill an Actual or an Estimate? Also check dates. When we first moved into our new place, the bills were all over the show... Sometimes estimated, sometimes 2 months instead of 1.

geedee

No idea... I'll have to use google translate again!

Oh, full marks for keeping this sub-forum going.