Think of it this way, thicker cables as in wider mm and better grade materials, are like a wider road for electrons, which in most cases will reduce resistence and thus loss of energy in the form of heat. If you but feel your wires, when attach to a high drain device such as a vacuum, the cable tends to be warm after somewhile. Change that to a better power cable and feel the difference 

Of course it will cost more but its definitely worth it. But under normal circumstances the contractors/developers will just provide what's adequate

Bro, to make it simple, it's like this. Imagine 100 cars travelling from KL-Penang using the old narrow road. It might take 8 hours or more, waste of fuel due to low gear usage, overtaking at low speed, driving slow at high rpm when preparing for overtaking and more. Well these might increase the engine heat due to the unstable speed and many obstacles but if you take the PLUS highway which is much wider and less resistance, you will reach the destination perhaps within 5 hours with less obstacles, constant speed.

The story goes more or less the same with the cable. The thinner the cable, the less space for the electricity to flow. Due to the electric current travels and the speed of light perhaps, it needs proper wide cable to flow smoothly. The heat that you feel on the cable is the waste of energy due to thin cable. Electric energy converted to heat energy but you don't utilize the heat energy, so it's a waste. Due to the wastage of electric to heat energy that you don't utilize, the machine needs more energy from the DB to fullfil what it needs. If the cable is thick enough where there's less energy conversion happens before it reaches the machine, logically it saves your pocket.

Hi, my electricity bill is high also. I feel the culprit is the air cond. Can you help me to work out the electricity cost for air cond. for 3 units at 1HP each for say 8 hours.

Thank you.

Is the thermostat setting affects the compressor running time? My room size is 22x14. What is optimum air cond HP?

Kindly teach the basic calculation.

A little sidetrack - has anyone had issues with their inverters (spoilt, destroyed in power surge, etc). The inverter circuits has electronics and wonder how they stand the test of time against AC circuits.

I know one of my inverter got spoilt before (not an aircond inverter) but a florescent light inverter. It was an el-cheapo, but any electronics will be sensitive to AC currents, depending on the circuit protection. So I was kind of cautious in choosing inverter AC fearing it could result in the same problem as my florescent inverter.

Those who used airconds with inverter > 4 years running (finish pay back period), care to comment?

This is an interesting topic. Definitely heat loss in power cable is the culprit but how much heat loss is significant. For e.g. I have a vacuum cleaner that's 1.6kW and when I power it up for ~1 hour, the power cables tend to get hot enough you don't want to touch it. So now I'm wondering if they are under rated.

And I think the cable layout can have a significant effect. Consider if you power a series of machines from the same cable instead of using individual cables. If each machine is 1kW and draws ~4A (1kW/230V), 5 machines will draw 20A already.

Anyway am no power nor cable experts here. I'd be very curious to know what's am_eniey's washing machine's power rating.
I thought inverter converts dc to ac? And the reason is perhaps the difference between using dc and ac motor...
Yeah just checked wiki, it's due to inability to control a dc motor easily so they just switch it on or off while ac motor can be controlled by changing the ac frequency.

So the cost of electricity supply for 1HP for 8 hours is

0.75KW x 8Hr x RM0.30/KWH = RM1.80  (If TNB supply rate is RM0.30 KWH)

In a month the cost of electricity is RM54.00 for 1 1HP air cond.

If 3 nos of 1HP air cond the total cost of electricity is RM162.00
Therefore if i insulate my house and use only 2 hrs per night the savings would be

0.75KW x 6Hr x RM0.30/KWH x 30 Days x 3 nos of air cond. = RM121.50

Is my calculation correct ? 

Only rm20-30/mth?? How long do you on everynight. Something wrong with your TNB meter? 

Why my bill so high ? Close to RM400.00 per month.

I thought air cond. is the main culprit. How to cut down?

How do work out the capacity of air cond. required? I often heard of BTU and did ask about it here. I was informed it refers to British Thermal Unit only.

May be you can help. Can teach aah! 

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Added on August 13, 2009, 4:36 pm

@Ozak said his 1.5HP don't consume that much.

Are your calculation correct?

Say 25cent per hr . A night 8 hrs equals RM2 per night.

Now who is right now - cherroy or ozak ?

I read thro' the last few pages, nothing about room size vs air cond. capacity.

You all talk more on air cond inverter and cable size. I think changing size of cables for the house will cause a bomb. A lot of hacking works......not viable

Accidently found your post, your first 1HP bill RM100+ and change to inverter 1.5HP now bill RM65+......

Now you said Rm20-30/mth

He..He....you are pulling our legs.

Whole house bill only.....RM65+ ........don't buy TNB share....where got profit?

Your other electrical goods only consumed RM30+ ????? I can confirm your TNB meter something wrong.........

Don't reveal ur address.....serious offence.

Your TNB meter must be energy star and power saving stuff. 

Where to buy one??

guys let say the aircond is 1hp...is there any different in power consumption if on 24c and 20c?? or its the same power being use...

TO SUMMARISE ...............

Actually the best way to save electrical cost is to ascertain which electrical appliances you used more often and control the usage of that particular appliance.

Changing cable sizes or buy power saving goods unnecessarily for the sake of energy savings dose not make sense as you are spending unwisely.

Eg. if your air cond. cost make up a large % of the elect. bill, then you may change to inverter air cond and do up insulation for your house. no point spent extra monies to buy an expensive water heater which is labelled energy star if you seldom use the water heater and so forth.

THE BEST IS TO HAVE AN ENERGY STAR METER WHICH WOULD RUN SLOWER (like Ozak's)

BE A SMART CONSUMER !!