OriginalSunshine

I have a huge semi d. My eleccy alone s between 600-1500 per month. We only turn the a/c on in the rooms we are using.

Gunnar45

Quite a variation.
Calculated on the existing rates this is between 2000 and 3000kWh per month......
What is the temperature setting?

ex reg

Must be an error shirley.
Even alternate months of estimated and actual reading wouldn't give that variation???

geedee

To help you all feel better, our electricity bill is between MYR 1500-2000 per month

It's horrific.

We have AC on in the living room during the day and 3 bedrooms at night. We have to, or we can't sleep.

Opening windows and doors is not an option for us... the spiders, wasps, bees, hornets, locusts, snakes and God knows what else are huge, probably poisonous and really unwelcome. We cannot get on with "nature" around here!

ex reg

I do feel for you.
We are just across the causeway in Singapore so the climate is similar.
We do have the a/c on occasionally usually when we return from UK and before we are acclimatised.
I don't like the windows open at night but during the day it's fine with just the windows open.

At night we close the windows and just use the overhead fan at the low setting and sleep under a duvet cover without the duvet.

There's 4 of us and the monthly utilities bill is less than S$200.

Gunnar45

geedee,
As mentioned, you could look at increasing the temperature setting one or two degrees. As mentioned, we have set ours bedroom AC to 26C and I think that would be comfortable to have in the living room as well.
This because the AC also takes the humidity out of the air.

ex reg

Mosquito mesh on windows and doors will also allow them to be open.

OriginalSunshine

We live 100m from the sea, in an ex swamp so humidity is high. AC is set on 24c. Any cooler is too cold, any hotter and for our area it doesn't kill the humidity.
The variation in cost is due to whether I can turn off the lights and Ac behind my husband who forgets to turn them off. We also have awful construction (tg I rent) so the top floor has zero insulation and needs the ac on all the time to be bearable. So we don't use it.
We have no fans unfortunately. House is too modern.
During school holidays house gets used more in the day, so Ac is on more.
It's not an error, just genuine fluctuation of usage. We get our meter read every month.

bakedbean

Thank you. You have made me feel better

To be fair, ground level living is much hotter than being up in the sky somewhat. Discovered that when we had a house in Thailand and our electricity bills were something like yours then. And yeh opening the doors up to Cobras (serious) and whatever else is not an option really.

Davita

If the cost of electricity is getting out of hand vis-a-vis the household budget there are a number of things to remember.
The principal consumer of power in the tropics is undoubtedly air conditioning. Gunner45 has well said that changing to inverter A/Cs will reduce that bill. My search suggests that for the same usage, inverter A/Cs saves at least 40%.
The rest is planning usage....I believe sometimes it's better to leave an A/C ON, at a reduced setting, than switching OFF and having to reduce the temperature all over from ambient. Depends on time out of the room. I only switch OFF our bedroom A/C when leaving for an extended time. Daytime 24C and night 22C. Our maid usually switches OFF after cleaning as she uses the bug spray then leaves the room unventilated.
The next biggest consumer is an electric cooker/oven if fitted....there isn't much can be done about that except to maybe BBQ more, as propane is reasonably cheap. We have electric cooking in our apartment and a propane stove in our villa and can see the difference in our bills. I've often thought of an induction top but the ceramic top we have was German made and cost lots.
A pool pump can be effectively controlled with a timer, as can outdoor lighting.
Fans are low consumers and lighting should be LED or low watt flourescent. Halogen and old fashioned filament lights are really inefficient.
The rest is common sense on location of house or apartment in regards to sun and breeze. For example, here in Bali, a lot of villas have dark moisture resistant paint on large walls...they attract heat so repainting white or growing plants to cover will dramatically reduce heat. Ventilator fans to evacuate hot air in the attic is also effective. The cost of running fans is more than offset by the reduction in upper room air conditioning.
At the end of the day however, imo, comfort is better than being a scroogy Scot, which I am...

InVinoVeritas

Something which hasn't been mentioned which can have a huge impact on electric bills is the location of the aircon compressor. If this is in ther sun or has poor ventilation it will have to work much harder. It may be possible to re-position it or provide some shade or simply not to use it at the time of day when it is affected by the sun.

Gunnar45

Another incitament to keep consumption low is that GST will be applied on any monthly consumption above 300kWh.
So a revised price table considering this would be as per the below.

Limits / kWh price
Up to 200 / 0.218
201-300 / 0.334
301-600 / 0.547
601-900 / 0.579
901 - / 0.605

OriginalSunshine

Agreed. In our rental we have an electric oven, no fans, and split ACs. No pool, rubbish curtains so outside lights are not switched on.

Twixy

For those of you who are renting, what is the typical landlord markup on the electricity? Here in Bangkok the government rate I hear is about $.12 a unit, but I'm paying twice that amount due to a 100% markup from the landlord.

Gunnar45

As per friends who rent, they pay the net rate. The bill comes in the mailbox of the flat and then the tenant pays it at the post office.
Short term rentals have electricity inclued, but that's anther story....