anyone notice the change in your electric usage ?

[wllm33]

my electric meter was changed abt a month and my electric usage went from less than $300/- to more than $1000/- .
can this be right, as I did not have any drastic change in my usage.
Anybody can give a rough estimate of how much kwh does 2 air con cost if use for about 8-10 hours every night in terms of $.
thnks as I am sure something is wrong with this new meter?
anyone with a similar problem or are they pulling a fast one on us, by putting a meter which runs like usain bolt.
thnks

[vinz]

That is too way off. You should call them straight away and ask them to check if the meter was installed properly.

Or if there is a problem with their billing system.

If you never change your usage, your electrical should not go up so much. Furthermore the weather has been turning cooler... which means your bills should drop as the aircons do not need to work so hard.

Another thing you could try is to turn off everything and see if the meter still runs. It just occurred to me... if a device is shorted but grounded, does that mean that electricity will leak, like a leaky pipe leaks water???

Any electrical engineers here?

[Captain Telecredible]

hey bro wllm33,
Woah $1000/- I bet there is something wrong, surely not the usage of the air-con that the cause the drastic rise in your bill. Better check with them to confirm, least you spent the money knowing what your paying for.

Cheers!

[wllm33]

thanks for your concerns .
my sentiments exactly, but it is a "ding dong" affair with them as they seem quite reluctant to come and change the meter.

as all who had seen the new meter, everything is sealed tight, so I told them that even if they come to so called "check" if it is faulty, how can they do a thorough job as the motherboard and electrical components are inside a sealed box. How can a meter reader decide if it is faulty. Just because it is running doesn't make it correct, right.

I told them that since their technician took less than 10 minutes to change this new meter the last time, isn't it easier to just replace one for me , and they can trouble shoot as long as they like after they bring the meter back to their lab?
They are delaying giving me an appt and to see if they should charge me for the change of meter !! What audacity!. I never ask them to change it in the first place.

I asked around and found that some of my friends also had their bills up by a few hundred bucks since the new meter came in force. Maybe the new ones are endorsed by Usain bolt

[Merviso]

That's really crazy! Think you better make a lot of noise! Tell them you will write to the paper or complain through Stomp if they are not going to do anything about it!

[wllm33]

well, i am still waiting for the appointment.
wonder why it takes so long to make a decision just to replace a questionable meter, when the meter is going against their favour.

when they take money from you, you bet they come double quick.
what's difficult to take was they are wondering if they should charge me for the checking and even then will not replace the meter if they deem it to be ok.

it sounds as if i am asking them to to a total re-wiring of my house.
this is the standard of care we get from our ever increasing rates from SP Power! IRONICAL.

[unclerobin]

my electric meter was changed abt a month and my electric usage went from less than $300/- to more than $1000/- .
can this be right, as I did not have any drastic change in my usage.
Anybody can give a rough estimate of how much kwh does 2 air con cost if use for about 8-10 hours every night in terms of $.
thnks as I am sure something is wrong with this new meter?
anyone with a similar problem or are they pulling a fast one on us, by putting a meter which runs like usain bolt.
thnks

bro..
if you are running a 9000btu aircon for 8 hours a day, your estimate billing for 1 aircon is about $90.00 a month
$1000 for your electrical bill for a normal household even it include water bill is far too much.
i had this experience years ago at my work place, our average water bill was about $3000 a month, after they change the water meter the monthly bill shoot up to $13,000 a month . and it take monthssssssssss of email and letter exchange before they change the water meter and immediately drop to normal,
my advice to you is to take the trouble to go to their department to talk to them everyday, pointless to wait at home after calling them, you might end up paying another 1000 next month.

[wllm33]

hi,
thanks for your advice.
just on the air con bit, i have 2 air cons running about 8 hours at night.
one is a 24000 but, the other 13000 btu.

since you roughly know about the cost of running the air con, can you estimate the amount for both of these air cons per month.

My estimation after talking to some people is about maybe $200/- for both alone.
Is this correct?

Frankly these people will only reply you if you write to the papers. I think they are trying to drag so that , like you said, charge me another 1k plus before changing my meter.
I will chase them everyday.
but what else can we do, as we have to work for a living also. Cant go to their office to bug them every day, cos got no time off.

[beetlejuice403]

Wow!! That's really a shocker bro wllm33... [& I were thinking of complaining my latest month of $300++ electricity+gas+water bill - think I better shut up then...]

Or better still, raise up this problem to those chinese TV program (Qian Sian Zhui Ji) & make a big fuss out of it, sure they will get the problem rectify ASAP... [Just look at those example of pitiful families (the program hosted by Quan Yifeng & Christopher Lee) who needed all the help from to get financial assistance, job recommendations for ex-prisoners etc - the moment they appeared on national TV, they get all the 'help' needed in a jiffy!! Just a pity that this show can't reach out to the many poor & pitiful families/people out there in Singapore...]

They are very fast to get money from you (give red notice if forget to pay somemore), but when it comes to refund, takes longer than a tortoise to turn over with its 4 legs facing the sky... [Maybe they'll tell you their money lost as they invested in the Lehman Minibonds??? LOL!!] Bloodsuckers!!!

[unclerobin]

hi,
thanks for your advice.
just on the air con bit, i have 2 air cons running about 8 hours at night.
one is a 24000 but, the other 13000 btu.

since you roughly know about the cost of running the air con, can you estimate the amount for both of these air cons per month.

My estimation after talking to some people is about maybe $200/- for both alone.
Is this correct?

Frankly these people will only reply you if you write to the papers. I think they are trying to drag so that , like you said, charge me another 1k plus before changing my meter.
I will chase them everyday.
but what else can we do, as we have to work for a living also. Cant go to their office to bug them every day, cos got no time off.

hihi,
there are sticker on the aircon compressor and the fan coil, if you are able to to give me the wattage of each unit maybe i'm able to do the calculation for you.
the fastest way for them to response is to write to them ( PUB)and cc a copy to a few MPs around your area, and also write a compliant to the MPs and cc to them(PUB) this will make work or rather response faster,( i use to do that)

[unclerobin]

Wow!! That's really a shocker bro wllm33... [& I were thinking of complaining my latest month of $300++ electricity+gas+water bill - think I better shut up then...]

Or better still, raise up this problem to those chinese TV program (Qian Sian Zhui Ji) & make a big fuss out of it, sure they will get the problem rectify ASAP... [Just look at those example of pitiful families (the program hosted by Quan Yifeng & Christopher Lee) who needed all the help from to get financial assistance, job recommendations for ex-prisoners etc - the moment they appeared on national TV, they get all the 'help' needed in a jiffy!! Just a pity that this show can't reach out to the many poor & pitiful families/people out there in Singapore...]

They are very fast to get money from you (give red notice if forget to pay somemore), but when it comes to refund, takes longer than a tortoise to turn over with its 4 legs facing the sky... [Maybe they'll tell you their money lost as they invested in the Lehman Minibonds??? LOL!!] Bloodsuckers!!!

haha francis,
lucky me for diying a mini fridge for my 3 footer tank, my electrical bill include water was slighly abit higher after the 22% increase,
due to a delay for a month the pay up my bill last year the blood sucker cut my supply last year .. shame shame

[wllm33]

heh fellas,
thanks for the moral support at least.
you are damn right they walk like tortoise when it comes to giving you back.
anyway, since tomorrow is a holiday , got to give them the benefit of a doubt and wait it up for the week.

I told them nothing short of changing the meter will settle who is right.
In the meantime I have cut my air con usage 100%.
Just an experiment I decomission 8 pumps of various wattage for 24 hours on top of not using the air cons, and the meter showed the kwh change is the same as before the decomissioning ! Most of the bigger pumps are around 35-60 watts, but the change over 24 hrs are still same.

As for my air cons, I will try to look again as don't understand so many figures written on them. But what I know is that 1 is 24000 btu, and the other is 13000 btu. As these are old units (my air con old lah), my air con friend told me they should use about 2460 w for the big one and abt 1050w for the smaller one. If true then I can calculate, which should give me about another $200-$300/- cost on top of the rest of my usage.

Are there any other high power appliances in the house we should be aware of. Even the SP technician said that things like the iron and the vacuum cleaner (which I consider as high power stuffs), will not use much since it is not an everyday thing.

What else can raise so much cost other than a faulty meter. Surely offing 7 pumps should show something different right?
Maybe should put it in stomp or forum to get their notice if they still chose to ignore my request. I hate these stuffs really.
Any other suggestions would be deeply appreciated.

[wllm33]

thanks everyone for your kind advice.
finally they came and replaced my meter.

as predicted they tested it on site and "found nothing wrong" with the meter.
nevertheless I insisted it to be changed.

i have been monitoring but can anyone harbour a guess as to how much you will need to use to get a grand total of 3058kwh in one month?
I think this is very extreme usage for one household (all my friends told me so). But can anyone give me an analogy as to what must be in my house to get this amount of usage?
Seems like i am paying for 3 households.

The other possibility (if my meter is really ok) I was thinking is that can workmen outside tap my cable to siphon off some electricity when they do their repairing outside the house. There were some people repairing the road just outside during this questionable month usage.
Thanks again for your opinions and advice.
I must admit using your advice to urge them to get the job done is effective.
thanks again.

[WiNd08]

i have a sudden spike by $70 after i started planting + the new 25% increase!!

anyone can verify that?

[Shaihulud]

It sounds very disturbing, I wonder about the number of incidences when they overcharge using these faulty meters, and I wonder how many people would take action if the usage was only a 10% increase instead of a 100% increase. People might not even voice a complain. In my opinion SP Power should be fined for every such single incident, that will teach them to be more mindful of overcharging their customers.

[vinz]

wllm33,

Simple... write to Straits Times and recount your experience. See whether they move faster or not. Even MPs have to go through proper channel.

i have a sudden spike by $70 after i started planting + the new 25% increase!!

anyone can verify that?

Use AQ's aquarium calculator to calculate how much you should be paying (estimated) for the electricity you are using for the tank. The calculator is currently using the pricing after the 22% spike.

Don't forget that part of your $70 is from your normal usage.

[tawauboy]

...........
i have been monitoring but can anyone harbour a guess as to how much you will need to use to get a grand total of 3058kwh in one month?
I think this is very extreme usage for one household (all my friends told me so). But can anyone give me an analogy as to what must be in my house to get this amount of usage?
Seems like i am paying for 3 households.

.........

to achieve 3058kwh in one month, you need to run 2 electric kettles 24/7.

[wllm33]

to achieve 3058kwh in one month, you need to run 2 electric kettles 24/7.

can know for this calculation, what would be the electric kettles wattage.
i need this background to challenge the SP Power people.
thanks again for your help.

[vinz]

KWH, Kilo Watt Hours, it is literally taking the amount of watts of your appliance you are using multiply the number of hours that appliance runs.

As an example, if you had a 40W fluorescent light on for 12 hours a day for 30 days.

The KWH would be (40W x 12H x 30)/1000 = 14400WH/1000 = 14.4KWH

So you calculate the total for all the appliances in your house.

Now, the tricky bit is this... appliances like fridges, chillers, air-cons, water-heaters, auto-kettles... it's hard to tell how much time they actually operate because the go on and off based on temperature.

Perhaps, you can first calculate the KWH of all "fixed" usage items in your home. Like estimate how long each light bulb is on in your home, etc. Minus that form your 3000+ KWH. Take what's left and do some estimates for your heater/cooler appliances and see if they make sense.

[unclerobin]

can know for this calculation, what would be the electric kettles wattage.
i need this background to challenge the SP Power people.
thanks again for your help.

hi bro,
as a technical man myself i agree in bro Vinz statment, its very difficult to calculate your others electrical appliances at home as it go by temperature except the lighting fixture at home.
imho i would a suggest you do a meter reading every morning to monitor your usage over the last 24 hrs as what we did in my working place and do a comparision daily at the end of the mth (you need to know the date of your area meter reading, you need to call SP Services for this information) i'm most willing to give you some guideline on this subject or pass you some document on the meter reading matters, feel free to give me a call for an arrangement.
pls find my contact nos in your pm