Electric Bill Question

[RobSg]

Hi all,
I recently moved back to Singapore after being gone for a couple years. I am a bit perplexed at my electric bill and want to know if the amount of my electric bill is normal for my usage. I use two air conditioners (each 4.7 kW power) at night only, from about 10 pm to 6 am. I use one fan during the day. I am careful about using hot water and only turn the hot water heater on when I need to use the hotwater (in the morning for a shower). I have no drier, but hang up my clothes.

The part of my SP bill for electric bill for electricity services the past three months has averaged about $180. Is that normal? I was talking with a friend of mine who also uses two AC units every night, and his electric bill was easily under $100.

Is my bill normal?

Thank you very much.

Rob

[sundaymorningstaple]

If your bill is for only the electricity portion and not the water portion It might be a little high, but again, you need to check whether or not the aircon units are of sufficient BTU for the room size. If the are too small, or the temperature is set too low, it will cause the compressors to continually run thereby not cycling between fan & cooling. Or, the aircons haven't been serviced in a long time and the filters are filthy. Also, the rates have gone up considerable due to the cost of the fuel to run the PUB's power generation units.

Are you running multiple wide screen flat panel monitors/tv's throughout the house? are they turned on and off or left on standby? At flat panel monitor/tv draws 25% of the power of a fully turned on one.

[Strong Eagle]

Read the bill. How many kilowatt hours? You seem to have a grasp of your usage. It's about 18 cents per kilowatt hour right now, give or take. You've got a cheap bill.

[NBB2]

At 10 pm to 6 am, you basically have your aircon running 30% of the entire time! This alone is easily S$100,-. Depending on its thermostat setting, if it's on anything below 20 degrees, you can add a few tenners. If on top of that, you leave a window ajar in that room or it faces the sun or it has large windows, it adds up to S$180,- before you can say acclimatization.

I halved my bill by reducing the setting. At higher than 20 degrees, you still get that cooling "oasis" feeling and lower humidity as you walk into that room. You don't need to feel a sharp chill; lower the thermostat and play with your timer. You'll go sub-100 in a matter of a month or two.

[scarbowl]

Under $100 is quite rare, I would imagine. We run three a/c units at night, mostly dry clothes on the rack (sometimes the dryer, and turn on the water heaters just before they are needed. Including water, which is on the same bill, ours runs between $250 - $300. The recent rate increase put us over $300 for the first time. There are 3 of us.

The rate varies and went up recently. Anyone using under $100 is pretty darn frugal.

[Girl_Next_Door]

I stay in a 2 bedroom apartment, and my key utilities are
- Turn on the living room's air-con from 7pm - midnight on weekdays
- Turn on the living room's air-con for almost the entire day if we are at home on weekend
- Turn on air-con of master bedroom from 11pm to next morning (usually set at 26-28 degrees)
- Use washing machine 6-8 times a week (we hang dry our clothes)
- Turn heater on when we shower only
- Watch a lot of tv and surf internet when I am at home

My bill is between $150 - $250/month. When I have visiters around who stay in the spare bedroom, my bills will go up to $350/month.

[revhappy]

I think the Aircon's temperature setting is the key.
We use one aircon during nights and no aircon during day and bill never crosses 100$.

But then we set the thermostat at 26-27 Deg. Ofcourse if you set it to Siberean temperature and 2 aircons then be prepared for bill shock.

[Calmday]

Two ACs running 24/7. A third one at night and sometimes a forth one at night (depending on how loud Im snooring). S$400-S$450 a month including water and the other stuff.
I would guess that you are in the ball park.