electric bill

Highest electric bill ever, due in no small part to the high temperatures and dirty air conditioners not working efficiently. Had the 2 primary air cons in the living room and mancave cleaned this morning. Total cost for last month's electricity - 6,156.92 baht.
 
Merlin said:
Is there a cable stretching between you and Yorky's kitchen Nomad? ;)
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My wife did wonder if someone has tapped into our feed. There is building work going on around our soi and one wonders where they are getting their electrics from. Need to watch what happens over the next month.
 
nomad97 said:
Highest electric bill ever, due in no small part to the high temperatures and dirty air conditioners not working efficiently. Had the 2 primary air cons in the living room and mancave cleaned this morning. Total cost for last month's electricity - 6,156.92 baht.
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£150. ;):( :(................. that is more than I ever paid per month for combined gas/electric bills in the UK !!
 
I'm close to that same position CO-CO, but I console myself with the knowledge that diesel and petrol cost so mush less here, as do most (but not all) other things, that my hard-earned still goes a lot further here than it did in the UK.
 
nomad97 said:
My wife did wonder if someone has tapped into our feed. There is building work going on around our soi and one wonders where they are getting their electrics from. Need to watch what happens over the next month.
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@nomad97 I think you should look at something else being the culprit. Does your whizz bang PC stay on 24/7? What is your power supply, 500 W ?
Taking the screen in to account and losses. This would be just under .5 Kw/h. A bit of quick math. .5 Kw/h cost say (I know it is not a flat rate) 4 Baht.
Over one month 24 hours is 720 Hours x 0.5 x 4. This is 144o Baht. Your girls have a pc each (Much less power though ) Lets say three PC add up to 1 Kw/h. That is around 3000 Baht right there if they are all switched on. Now lets factor in the heat load of three PC's it is equivalent to a human body heat out put. There is complicated formula for latent heat load but skip that, say each PC is 130 BTU/hr in Watts. All that heat has to rejected by your air cons. It has been in the high 30's as you know. Imagine if you still had your clunking air cons!:rolleyes:

Knowing you ,you are going to delve deeper into this and make a nice spread sheet. Good luck. :D
 
Rice said:
@nomad97 I think you should look at something else being the culprit. Does your whizz bang PC stay on 24/7? What is your power supply, 500 W ?
Taking the screen in to account and losses. This would be just under .5 Kw/h. A bit of quick math. .5 Kw/h cost say (I know it is not a flat rate) 4 Baht.
Over one month 24 hours is 720 Hours x 0.5 x 4. This is 144o Baht. Your girls have a pc each (Much less power though ) Lets say three PC add up to 1 Kw/h. That is around 3000 Baht right there if they are all switched on. Now lets factor in the heat load of three PC's it is equivalent to a human body heat out put. There is complicated formula for latent heat load but skip that, say each PC is 130 BTU/hr in Watts. All that heat has to rejected by your air cons. It has been in the high 30's as you know. Imagine if you still had your clunking air cons!:rolleyes:

Knowing you ,you are going to delve deeper into this and make a nice spread sheet. Good luck. :D
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All three PCs are set for 'sleep' mode after 10/15 minutes of non activity.

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To the best of my knowledge the PCs draw very little power when in sleep mode. There is enough power to keep the RAM alive but everything else seems to shut down, especially the power supply, cooling fans and CPU. Further, we have had 2 PCs running in this mode for the past year without any significant monthly increase in the cost of electricity. The third PC was added a month or so ago with a 450W PSU and that is unlikely to have been the cause of a 2,000 baht surge in electricity costs. Not sure, or should I say I have no idea, why we had a 2,000 baht surge last month. Did the meter man read the meter correctly? I will go and check.
 
Yes, the meter man did not make a mistake. Not making any sense to me. Previous consumption has been: Sep - 803, Oct - 951, Nov - 862, Dec - 797, Jan - 752, Feb - 853 and Mar 1380. The average consumption for the previous 6 months was 836 units per month. Last month the increase was a whopping 534 units over the monthly average to 1380. This does not compute. Moreover, since the meter reading on 15th Mar we have used a further 169 units in 8 days, times 4 = 676 for the full month. That's on a par with or slightly below the previous monthly average although we have been away for 4 days so power consumption has been down. I might add the hot weather does have one advantage. We do not need the water heater in the bathroom for warm showers.

I can only think the culprit for the sudden rise last month was the 250 watt water pump that has been used significantly more than usual to water the garden. Would that make the difference? Over to Rice for some further analysis.
 
nomad97 said:
Yes, the meter man did not make a mistake. Not making any sense to me. Previous consumption has been: Sep - 803, Oct - 951, Nov - 862, Dec - 797, Jan - 752, Feb - 853 and Mar 1380. The average consumption for the previous 6 months was 836 units per month. Last month the increase was a whopping 534 units over the monthly average to 1380. This does not compute. Moreover, since the meter reading on 15th Mar we have used a further 169 units in 8 days, times 4 = 676 for the full month. That's on a par with or slightly below the previous monthly average although we have been away for 4 days so power consumption has been down. I might add the hot weather does have one advantage. We do not need the water heater in the bathroom for warm showers.

I can only think the culprit for the sudden rise last month was the 250 watt water pump that has been used significantly more than usual to water the garden. Would that make the difference? Over to Rice for some further analysis.
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Next time you water the garden. When you finish go directly over to the water pump to check if there is an excess of heat about the motor. (You know what I mean, unnaturally hot)If it is it could be a blockage or the bearings are giving up. This would make your pump guzzle watts like no tomorrow.
The only other place I suggest you check is your fridge. Feel about the outside for the concealed evaporation coils. During an on cycle they should get warm then cool down. But a malfunction of the cycle running all the time will make the area very hot indeed without a break. Check that as well.
 
When did the work down your soi start, and how are they getting power? That would be my first guess.
 
Rice said:
Next time you water the garden. When you finish go directly over to the water pump to check if there is an excess of heat about the motor. (You know what I mean, unnaturally hot)If it is it could be a blockage or the bearings are giving up. This would make your pump guzzle watts like no tomorrow.
The only other place I suggest you check is your fridge. Feel about the outside for the concealed evaporation coils. During an on cycle they should get warm then cool down. But a malfunction of the cycle running all the time will make the area very hot indeed without a break. Check that as well.
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The fridge side walls are hot - I will see if they ever cool down. Its 15 years old and probably showing its age. I have considered buying a new inverter fridge to save some dosh. I think the water pump is ok, running normally.
 
Coincidently, I've been monitoring my fridge and freezer temperatures for a few weeks now and this morning, the fridge was 9 degC and the freezer -15degC. I gave it a few hours to go through the cycle but there has been no improvement. I've ensured that both settings are on maximum cold. We've rung the aircon guy to come over but he can't make it until Wednesday. Just hoping the freezer can hold on until then. I bought the unit (Mitsubishi) in March 2000.

We have a couple of light fittings to replace so he can fix those and service the aircons at the same time.
 
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