There are various charges depending on the amount of electric used as well as monthly adjustments plus all have VAT added. My home charge is about 3.57 baht per unit total for bill of six thousand or so at private home using 15 amp meter service. Apartments may be subject to higher rates as large users but not sure of that, or how much.

Off topic, but I think that landlords who view electricity billing as a profit center also view security deposits as a source of profit. The higher the per unit cost in an apartment the more likely they will have a mandatory cleaning charge at moveout and an inflated price list for "damages"!

Apartments owners charge the extra money for the common area lighting and lifts if you have one and any any other misc electrical usage. An extra that seems like a lot but someone has to pay for those lights.

Many condo electric rates are in the 6 to 7 baht range also and this is agreed to by those running the condo association. There are costs involved with common area electrics also.

Apartments owners charge the extra money for the common area lighting and lifts if you have one and any any other misc electrical usage. An extra that seems like a lot but someone has to pay for those lights.

Many condo electric rates are in the 6 to 7 baht range also and this is agreed to by those running the condo association. There are costs involved with common area electrics also.

That's what rental fees and monthly maintenance assessments are for! Apartment owners charge high electric fees because they can get away with it and it looks better than a higher rental charge. No other reason. In most countries its illegal to tack on fees to public utilities. But I support a free market and simply don't rent from such people.

Thank you for the information in this thread already, as I see that I'm not alone in curiosity over the electricity bill for this month ending today.

Firstly, I don't think that the management of these apartments would try to rip me off, as we've enjoyed a good business / social relationship for over four years, on and off, but a couple of hints do make me wonder if the meter reading is accurate and/or appliances I'm using are operating efficiently.

Hint #1 was back on the 27th when the service girl came in to read the meter after near enough to 26 x 24 hours, or 26 full days (having checked in at around 3pm on Dec 1st and her reading also at around 3pm). Her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped, and she left the room in a hurry to find her manager, who then came back with another pen and paper to double-check the meter reading.

Hint #2 was the standard monthly fee I was paying in these very apartments back in 2548 (2005) which ranged from 900-1100 baht per month. Receiving a bill for 2,280 THB on the 29th made me wonder if energy charges had doubled or something/one is taxing my meter.

I read the meter at 580.0 kWh yesterday morning at 07:00 and again at 7am this morning at 594.2 kWh, and yesterday and last night were very typical of the average usage:

1. Primary usurper of my electricity meter is naturally the air-cond unit, which is run each night from around 8pm to 8am the next morning on high-warm-fan ( I still haven't got around to purchasing a pedestal fan which would alleviate the need for the air-cond fan on at night or day). Most afternoons, I am home by 13:00-14:00 and have the air/fan on for another four or five hours before leaving for dinner at 17:00-18:00, so round about 16 hours over a 24 hour period.

I also set the thermostat to switch fairly regularly to refrigerated air-cond to cool the air and lessen the effects of nocturnal asthma, but this sort of setting is roughly the same as I used to set the air-cond in the room upstairs four years ago, though I did sometimes just leave the balcony door open and run the pedestal fan back then, around half the time (this might be the hint that could have saved this post, come to think of it).

2. Moreover, I disconnected the HWS the day I moved in here and take cold showers because someone has bastardised the wiring and removed the earth line, so I'd rather be alive after a cold shower than electrocutedly dead after a lukewarm shower.

4. The tv gets used around 10 nights out of 30 between 21:00 and 23:00.

5. The only light I ever use is the bedside reading lamp for 2-3 hrs at night.

6. This laptop computer is usually on from around 7am to 10pm daily.

7. I charge my old Nokia from here.

Based on such average daily usage, (apart from the air-cond oscillating between fan & air/cool every 30 minutes or so), does 2,280 THB for 26 days seem exhorbitant, or should I go out next week and buy a pedestal fan?

I did indeed pay the bill yesterday with only a mention of the high power bill, for the rent here is only 150 baht per day if paid monthly, and an extra 75 baht per day still sees the daily cost at only 225 baht per day, so I surely wouldn't get up in arms about it, but I am still curious as to whether I should investigate further, most likely by booking into another hotel for a night sometime next week, and taking a meter reading before I leave, to deduce the component that the air-cond constitutes when I get back and see how much the meter has whirled on.

I will repeat what I said over a month ago. It is common and typical for an apratment owner that rents rooms to add their own surcharge to the electric rates they pay to the PEA/MEA. You can call it what you want as for a ripoff or whatever. Most condos here do the same thing. When you rent the room or condo it should be made clear up front in the lease agreement what you are paying both for water and electricity or any other utilities such as phones, ADSL, cable or Truevisions. The person renting the place needs to be aware of theses costs whatever they may be. You're choice to rent the place or not.

Unless the meter or other utility is in you're name he can charge whatever he pleases.

As for what you are using on this last post I would say the KWH is normal for what you describe. The calculation of what you pay seems to indicate a 3 or 4 baht surcharge taken by the owner for whatever he chooses to use it for or however he justifies this extra cost.

The MEA/PEA tariffs can be found here on TV in other threads. The average PEA/MEA tariff for a month averages to somewhere around 3.5 to 4 baht per KWH and this includes the VAT

You're landlord is taking some extra cash for whatever he/she needs it for. I'm sure the other renters are in the same boat.