Electricity bill expectations

[Fortan]

Just checked my bill and didn't notice the thing on the back before you guys mentioned it. Seems very strange.

We moved in on the 17th of June. Consumption in the following months was:

July 288 (kWh)
August 1211 (kWh)
September 1211 (kWh)* based on estimated reading.

National average is = 653 (kWh) ?

Electricity part of the bill for Aug./Sept. was S$ 314.25 each month.

So how the heck did we spend so little for July and then the huge jump up to August? Could they have read it wrong? We have NO new appliances and have been using everything at home, aircons etc the same every month....

[Wd40]

Just checked my bill and didn't notice the thing on the back before you guys mentioned it. Seems very strange.

We moved in on the 17th of June. Consumption in the following months was:

July 288 (kWh)
August 1211 (kWh)
September 1211 (kWh)* based on estimated reading.

National average is = 653 (kWh) ?

Electricity part of the bill for Aug./Sept. was S$ 314.25 each month.

So how the heck did we spend so little for July and then the huge jump up to August? Could they have read it wrong? We have NO new appliances and have been using everything at home, aircons etc the same every month....

Do you know what the billing cycle is?

[Fortan]

Do you know what the billing cycle is?

I get a bill every month and according to the bill, the meter is read every two month. I have tried emailing them the details and asked them to look into it. All our appliances are brand new and top end electricity savers, so quite simply don't understand it. There must be a reason why we are twice the national average as I can't explain it.

[the lynx]

Where do the SP Services guys access your meter for reading? If the access is indoors and no one is available to let him in to read the meter, he will have to estimate each time until he gets to have an actual reading. Since the reading will go nowhere but up, it can't be far off once he gets at least one actual reading.

[Fortan]

Where do the SP Services guys access your meter for reading? If the access is indoors and no one is available to let him in to read the meter, he will have to estimate each time until he gets to have an actual reading. Since the reading will go nowhere but up, it can't be far off once he gets at least one actual reading.

Unless the meter is not working....?

I believe there is a central place where they can read the meters...

[zzm9980]

Where do the SP Services guys access your meter for reading?

Mine is near the lift outside my HDB in the common corridor.

[the lynx]

Where do the SP Services guys access your meter for reading? If the access is indoors and no one is available to let him in to read the meter, he will have to estimate each time until he gets to have an actual reading. Since the reading will go nowhere but up, it can't be far off once he gets at least one actual reading.

Unless the meter is not working....?

I believe there is a central place where they can read the meters...

You will have to find out where the meter is located and if the SP Services guys have direct access for readings.

Example: Most of the old HDBs (and also old condos) have metres indoors so they have to let the SP Services guys in to read the metres or have it estimated instead. Another way is to submit your own meter reading to SP Services. That's what I will do when we get the 'Owner Not Available' card from the SP Services guys.

[x9200]

I would not be surprised if the SP guy did not read the meters in July at all (or made a reading mistake) and/or they estimated very wrongly your energy consumption. Now they try to average it up to compensate for the wrong assumption/reading.

I had in past some unexplained "readings" like this, fortunately the other way around. I called them and had an SP technician visiting my place with the conclusion everything was as per normal.

[zzm9980]

I would not be surprised if the SP guy did not read the meters in July at all (or made a reading mistake) and/or they estimated very wrongly your energy consumption. Now they try to average it up to compensate for the wrong assumption/reading.

I had in past some unexplained "readings" like this, fortunately the other way around. I called them and had an SP technician visiting my place with the conclusion everything was as per normal.

I actually had two identical bills in a row for ~May and June. This is probably why.



edit: You can even see they estimated two months in a row on those.

[Fortan]

I would not be surprised if the SP guy did not read the meters in July at all (or made a reading mistake) and/or they estimated very wrongly your energy consumption. Now they try to average it up to compensate for the wrong assumption/reading.

I had in past some unexplained "readings" like this, fortunately the other way around. I called them and had an SP technician visiting my place with the conclusion everything was as per normal.

I actually had two identical bills in a row for ~May and June. This is probably why.

edit: You can even see they estimated two months in a row on those.

That is quite interesting. What I know is that the building I live in was finished in mid 2011 so it is brand new. It has been empty for some months up until we took over in mid June. Our first bill for electricity was the one in July. Compare August to the July bill, we are supposed to have spent FOUR times the electricity in Aug and Sept. compared to July. So either the guy read it wrong or the July bill was way too low and that is what the are compensating for now. Either way, I don't really think it is good enough.

[Steve1960]

5 room HDB
1 air con running 10 hours a day
1 air con running 15 hours a day
1 air con used sporadically when I am working in the home office
Usual computers, TV's, phones this and that charging pretty much all the time
Electric oven used frequently

SP Services estimate 2 months then take a reading on the third

Electric, water and refuse $300 a month since the air con system was renewed. With the old air con units it was around $380 a month.

[PNGMK]

I would not be surprised if the SP guy did not read the meters in July at all (or made a reading mistake) and/or they estimated very wrongly your energy consumption. Now they try to average it up to compensate for the wrong assumption/reading.

I had in past some unexplained "readings" like this, fortunately the other way around. I called them and had an SP technician visiting my place with the conclusion everything was as per normal.

I actually had two identical bills in a row for ~May and June. This is probably why.


edit: You can even see they estimated two months in a row on those.

That is quite interesting. What I know is that the building I live in was finished in mid 2011 so it is brand new. It has been empty for some months up until we took over in mid June. Our first bill for electricity was the one in July. Compare August to the July bill, we are supposed to have spent FOUR times the electricity in Aug and Sept. compared to July. So either the guy read it wrong or the July bill was way too low and that is what the are compensating for now. Either way, I don't really think it is good enough.

You wouldn't be the first person to discover a problem with the meter reading.... many years ago a company I worked for here received a whopping water bill - something like $10,000. They asked me as the resident engineer to work out what went wrong - in those days the bill showed the meter readings. I calculated we'd have had to have used some obscene amount - 100 olympic pools or a super tanker of water. The management wrote in and complained and guess what? They admitted they had come and tested our meter the month before using a flow loop and had forgotten to reset the records in the billing department. What I'm wondering is if somehow you're paying for ALL the electricity since the meter was installed or the initial reading was wrong and they are now averaging out the error.

[PNGMK]

5 room HDB
1 air con running 10 hours a day
1 air con running 15 hours a day
1 air con used sporadically when I am working in the home office
Usual computers, TV's, phones this and that charging pretty much all the time
Electric oven used frequently

SP Services estimate 2 months then take a reading on the third

Electric, water and refuse $300 a month since the air con system was renewed. With the old air con units it was around $380 a month.

Are the new aircons inverter types? I regret now not changing my old Mitsubishi power suckers for Daikin inverters when I did my renovation.

[Steve1960]

Yes they are

[Wd40]

Do you know what the billing cycle is?

I get a bill every month and according to the bill, the meter is read every two month. I have tried emailing them the details and asked them to look into it. All our appliances are brand new and top end electricity savers, so quite simply don't understand it. There must be a reason why we are twice the national average as I can't explain it.

By billing cycle I mean, the start and end dates for each bill. You have already recieved the Sep bill, according to your post and we are in the middle of september. So I am suspecting your Jul bill must be for the partial Jun month which is why it is so less.