rough idea of electricity costs ?

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MDMK
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rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by MDMK »

You folks were a great help with our holiday earlier this year, so hoping you can do the same again.

But be warned, this might be the most "how long is a piece of string" question ever asked :oops: .
Apologies in advance. Here goes....

We're looking at villas to rent via airbnb. Many (if not most) of them have a rental fee exclusive of the electricity units used. I just have no idea what electricity costs in Thailand, or the amount of electricity we're likely to use. We've never even had a house with an aircon unit. Or a pool. I know aircon eats electricity, not sure about pools though.

Can anyone give me a ballpark figure of what to expect electricity cost wise for a

3 bedroom villa (with pool)
2 occupants
4 showers a day
aircon living room probably on at 25ish from 7am ish to 11pm ish
aircon bedroom on at 25ish for 5 hours a day
(the aircon in the other 2 bedrooms wont be used at all)
cooking will be zero
laundry will be minimal (1 load a week in the machine and no drier)
and all the other small use things like charging phones, lights, making a cup of coffee etc

When I say ballpark I really do mean it in the widest sense of the word. It's just that we have a total accommodation budget of 1700 euros for the 3 weeks. My husband thinks we should only look at villas up to about 1000euros .... I think he is insane as no way could we use 700euros (11,800 baht) worth of leccy in 3 weeks. I had guessed electricity wouldn't cost much more than 100euros (+- 4000 baht) for 3 weeks. And the villa I want to book is 1400euros (excl electricity) for 3 weeks, I think we'll be fine (have money left over) if we put 300 euros aside for electricity usage. If it helps any the ad in airbnb states "electricity used will be charged at cost price of 5baht a unit".

Should I be safe if I have 300euros (11,500+ baht) put aside to cover the electricity?

Thanks in advance, and sorry again for the vague nature of my question :oops:
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by dtaai-maai »

MDMK wrote: Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:19 am Should I be safe if I have 300euros (11,500+ baht) put aside to cover the electricity?
Even with the high level of aircon use you refer to, I would be surprised if it was half that.
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MDMK
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by MDMK »

Thank you dtaai-maai. I think I will go ahead and book the villa we actually preferred. We can always keep an eye on the leccy meter to check we're not going overboard.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by oakdale160 »

Does the villa have overhead fans, that cuts the A/C by half.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Pagey »

If you are paying the PEA unit rate it will be less than 100 Euros guaranteed. Some villa/condo owners charge you a mark up on the PEA rate but still should not be more than 100 Euros or thereabouts.

Edit : It is unlikely you will have your AC on all day as presumably you won't be spending 3 weeks inside your villa during the day.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Nereus »

My house in Hua Hin, 4 bedrooms but only 2 in use, swimming pool, electric cooker, ceiling fans, all air conditioned but mostly only one bedroom at night, averages around 5,000 Baht / month.

BUT, be aware as mentioned, that most rentals charge more per unit than the PEA supply, some of them up to 50% more.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by T.I.G.R. »

Our condo, 245 sq meters 3 br with approximately the same useage runs about 1,800 baht a month.
We had a home in Hua Hin similar size but with a pool. It ran about 3,500 a month.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Pagey »

That seems a bit high Nereus, what is your unit cost ? I ask this as when I moved into my villa about 3 years ago a friend of mine was renting a house in the next Soi. When our electric bills came I was being charged a higher rate than he was. I queried this with the developer and it turns out my villa was on a temporary meter. We had to pay the electric company a fee and a deposit I think to install a permanent meter and the rate came down dramatically. When my neighbours house was finished being built after about 6 months they asked me how much I pay for electric and they had the same problem. Worth checking.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Nereus »

The house is leased out but the bill come to me. It has been like that for 10 years. When I was not using the house the pool alone was around 1,000 Baht. Electric water heaters on both the bathrooms and kitchen sink, plus a dishwasher, two water pumps and a sprinkler system for the lawn and garden. It is not on an estate.

My Condo in Bangkok with just me living there is always around 1,700 to 1,800 Baht, and I only use one air con at night.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Ralfredo »

MDMK wrote: Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:19 amShould I be safe if I have 300euros (11,500+ baht) put aside to cover the electricity?
I definitely think you are safe. We usually rent a similar villa. Pay I high price per unit, use quite a lot of AC, run the laundry machine at least once each day, run the pool pump maybe eight hours each day, have a lot of lights on in the evening and pay something in the neighborhood of 8 000 THB for one month.

It all depends on your habits and the price for one unit of electricity. Be sure that you know what the price is and try to get a fair price. It can vary a lot.

When your "on site" you probably have access to the meter and can quite easily check and control the upcoming bill yourself. Shut down all AC, all lights and the pool pump. Check the meter and check it again after one hour. Then you know what things like the fridge, Internet and such costs. This should be a small sum.

Put on all the AC you want to use and check the meter again after another hour. Now you know what the AC cost.

Shut down the AC, start the pool pump and check again after one hour.

Stop the pool pump and switch on all the lights you will use in the evenings/nights. Check again after another hour.

Now when you now what things cost you should be able to quite easily control your bill by adjusting your habits.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by MDMK »

Oakdale, yes, all rooms have fans so I'll definitely use them.

Pagey, this whole airbnb thing is new to me. In the past staying in hotels (hang my head in shame) I basically used the aircon shamelessly, would put it on at 22ish in the early morning and that was it for the whole day till we went to bed. This year we had an airbnb condo in HuaHin where the electricity was included in the price, I did screw down my usage a good bit, but still left the livingroom aircon on at 25ish when we left the condo. I need to stop doing that.

Ralfredo, good tips there for checking usage, I will make use of them. I had never even thought of the pool pump being something I would have control over. I have zero idea how many hours a day I will need to have it on. A total novice with aircon and pools, never having had either.

Not sure if we are paying the PEA rate, the rate the owner quoted was 5baht per unit and he implied that was cost price, so I assume by cost price he means PEA rate.

Thanks to all of you though, I am going to go ahead and book the 1400euro condo now. The one my husband wanted to book (1000 euro) is so far out of town (actually over the border into the Cha Am province) that we'd spend half our holiday in the car. The 1400euro one is soi 102, or a similar priced one in soi 88, both locations far better suited for us for us.

Thanks again!
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by PeteC »

Just an opinion....if the pool is on an automatic timer I suggest you leave it that way. Pool owners will adjust timers to reflect the time they know the system should run to keep the pool clean and it dispense chlorine from any automatic system they have that operates in conjunction with the pump running. Pete
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Nereus »

prcscct wrote: Tue Aug 15, 2017 3:33 pm Just an opinion....if the pool is on an automatic timer I suggest you leave it that way. Pool owners will adjust timers to reflect the time they know the system should run to keep the pool clean and it dispense chlorine from any automatic system they have that operates in conjunction with the pump running. Pete
Yes, exactly. And for what its worth if you are going to spend your holiday trying to save 500 Baht or so on electricity usage, then I politely suggest that you stay home.
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by Ralfredo »

prcscct wrote: Tue Aug 15, 2017 3:33 pm Just an opinion....if the pool is on an automatic timer I suggest you leave it that way. Pool owners will adjust timers to reflect the time they know the system should run to keep the pool clean and it dispense chlorine from any automatic system they have that operates in conjunction with the pump running. Pete
I agree. Don't fiddle with the settings unless your sure of what you are doing. But to temporarily start it, or stop it, for an hour to be able to measure the actual power consumption, shouldn't be a problem.
Last edited by Ralfredo on Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:25 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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MDMK
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Re: rough idea of electricity costs ?

Post by MDMK »

oh no, that's great if the pool pump thingy is automatic, I don't even know what it is, let alone how many hours a day it should be on.
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