when i reno my house few months ago, i made the decision to install the more expensive Inverter type air cond units (Daikin) for 2 rooms (1hp) and living hall (1.5hp) with the idea that it will help save my electricity bill in the long run.

so far, the last 3 months i've actually moved in and started paying TNB bills, i realize, something must be wrong cos i'm paying quite an expensive bill.

the first time the bill came, it was on the high side, but i thought i didn't made any payments for the couple of months of reno works, and it was like CNY that time, loads of friends came for visit, the lights, A/C and everything was turned on constantly...i bare with it.

second time the bill came, still on the high side...again i tot maybe i didn't practice enough energy saving measures..and i begin to monitor my daily usage, i begin to switched my electrical appliances off (not leave it on standby) when i'm not using and try not to switch on those non-energy saving lights (florescent lights) when not necessary. i paid the bill.

'before anyone start shooting me saying switching off those electrical appliances like TV & Astro doesn't help conserve alot of energy, hear me out, cos i was watching one of those discovery/learning channels on Astro and apparently, they makes up to like 10% of your total bill, so i begun to do that, i'm not exactly sure if that's the case ok?'

this time, the bill came and amazingly, this bill is even higher than the first two months!!i'm absolutely dumbfounded. for a period of 31 days, total unit used was 803KWH! total bill came to RM260.45

now, i'm living in an apartment <1000sq ft. me and my wife. my baby kid (1.5yrs old)comes by to stay with us from Friday-Sunday evening. he sleeps with us in the same room. my appliances includes:

1) Home Entertainment system
2) Fridge (LG side-by-side)
3) Microwave
4) Cooker Hood
5) Oven
6) A/C (2 x 1hp & 1 x 1.5hp Inverter type)
7) Water Pump x 1
8) Water Heater x 2 (storage type not instant type)
9) Bathroom Exhaust Fan x 1
10) Alarm

both me & the wife works normal hours..so nothing is switched on during the day. only from 6-7pm onwards.

of all the appliances above (pretty much all) i can only think of Fridge & Alarm system which is ON 24x7.

i only switch on water pump & 1 water heater 90% of the time and not for long, maybe a couple of hours per day.

i spent about 3-4 hours a day (weekdays) watching TV.

we switch on 1 A/C at any time. if we're in living hall, then the hall A/C will be switched on. when we're going to sleep, hall A/C Off, and Room (1 room) A/C switched on for the entire night which is roughly 8hours. so in total, the A/C will be switched on about 12 hours aday. the other 1hp A/C was never switched on.

i'm not entirely sure what is the normal electricity usage per household? cos i spoke to a few colleague of mine and all of them were actually quite shock at my high electricity bill. one guy with a retired mom at home who watches tv 24x7 pays less than RM150 per month.

for a comparison, my bill is almost the same as my parents' in law double storey house. and they both not working so at home day & night with a 2hp non-inverter living hall A/C at full blast during the day and 1 x 1hp non-inverter room A/C switched on during the night when they sleep. they have 2 fridge running 24x7. major difference is they dun have cooking hood & oven and their electrical supply is 1-phase, while mine is 3-phase, 63A.

how much (in terms of KWH) will the A/C consume (per hour or per day)? inverter vs non-inverter type?

what about the fridge? how much does it consumed?

i'm beginning to have a wild suspicion that perhaps some of my neighbors are tapping into my electrical cables... the A/C & the Fridge is what is suspect to be consuming most of the electricity. plus the occasional water pump & heater. but the thing is, the A/C is supposed to be energy saving type...how come still used up so much power?

i just did another check on the meter today, from the time the last reading was recorded till today, 15 days in total, i've used something like 372KWH, which is about 25KWH per day!!

i just need to know if this is normal? the first thing i'm gonna do when i reach my apartment after work today is to check the meter again. compare it with the reading i took down this morning. see if there's a huge jump. then i will try to check the reading again tomorrow morning.

btw, no need to suggest me those energy-saver devices...those are full of crap...

Switch off everything and switch off your breaker. See the meter still running or not.

Complain to TNB to have a look or change the meter.

good idea...
at least u can be sure that whether ur neighbour is stealing ur current...

but i understood, the inverter will only save a significant amount of current if it was on for a long period... as in 10 hours or more....

if not, the elec usage is almost the same with the normal one..

i've thought about doing that, only thing is it means my fridge & alarm will be out of power

alarm i'm not so worried...only thing is the fridge.

if i go to TNB with this complaint they will layan?? seems quite far fetch they will actually send a team to investigate given the fact they quite happily accepting my payments.

thanks for the suggestion anyhows...i will check the meter once reach home later. see if there's a significant rise.

Some suggestions which may help:

1. Set your target temperature of AC to 24-26 degree, then your AC should run at partial-load if your room is not too big. The inverter type AC is doing more saving than conventional type during partial load condition; if you set 18-20 every time you turn on, you must as well just use the conventional type as inverter AC will run at max load when it cannot meet the setting temperature.

2. Side by side fridge (280L -350L) is too big for a small family, I suggest you change to a smaller one. Fridge run 24/7, and our country does not implement energy labeling standard, so the one you have could be those low energy efficient type fridge that cannot be sold in advance country. Most fridge use its metal body to do heat exchange, cold inside so heat must be thrown outside; so do not cover up your fridge with plastic cover and make sure some room around the fridge.

3. Unplug all the electrical appliances when they are not in use because standby mode also consume power. Most electrical appliances consume few W to few tens of W, if add all up, could be 100+ W all day just on standby, add those up in a month, you will see the difference. In EU, very strick standby power is being implemented now; of cause, those who fails to enter EU will be sold in Malaysia.

4. Is your apartment located on commercial land? If so, you are charge using commercial rate for your electric bill, so it is naturally higher. Nothing to complain.

5. Electric kettle, washing machine, microwave, oven and water heater consume A LOT of POWER when operating, you should ask yourself how often you use them and how you use them each time. Those electric thermos also "eat electricity" if you have a >5L one.

6. How about your lights? what type? did you turn on lights during night time?

You can't save electric bill by just buying inverter air-cond or energy efficient appliances; you need to have energy saving concious and maintain a good habit to start to see some results.

My 2 cents worth of advice. Good luck.

Why you need 3-phase supply for a condo/apartment? :roll:

Hijacking this thread for a bit as it is a bit similar. Has anyone tried using the power saving induction cookers instead of conventional gas stoves? They're the type that feels cool to the touch because they create heat in the cooking vessels directly through magnetic induction. The promoters keep saying they save money so I'm curious if anyone has tried them.

thanks for your input & comments..really useful tips...yes my A/C is at 18deg most of the time that's cos i feel hot all the time i too was wondering if switching the A/C on at 18deg cud cos the inverter thingy no operating as it should. i shall try to practice the habit of going 24deg from now on

the side-by-side fridge, yes i do admit is big. but not too big. even tho it takes up more space than i wanted, i've always wanted a side-by-side. and my wife absolutely love the design. so nothing i can do about changing it. and i do believe its not one of those energy efficient type fridge. especially now that you mentioned non-energy eff fridge cant be sold to countries under EU..cos i couldn't even find the fridge i have in the LG website.
but the again, there's nothing i can do about the fridge.

like i mentioned, i've begun to switched all applicances (with exception of fridge & alarm) off when not using since last month.

just ran a check on TNB website..my charges are based on Domestic tariffs.

i have various types of lightings. down lights with energy saving bulbs, florescent lights, spot lights and those hanging and ceiling mounted light fixtures. most with energy saving bulbs, not all. most of the time, i only switch on the down lights. spot lights almost never switched on. and i only switched on the lights when someone's there. if there's no one in the kitchen, i dun switched the on.

i like being in the dark. especially when i watch tv at night. light switched on during the night is quite minimal i would say.

shud i be switching off the electric thermos during the day? that is another appliances' switched 24x7. and mine is 5l if not mistaken. maybe i will switched them off from now on when not using. microwave & oven is rarely used. but when oven is used, its usually for 1-2 hours.

my wife need to sleep with a night light. so we switched on the bathroom light but kept the door close. i think that is not very energy efficient. do you feel if i use those plug in to socket outlet type night light will conserve more energy than switching on the bathroom ceiling light (energy saving bulb)??


for your info, i didn't get to choose what type of electrical supply i want. i don't think anyone get to choose when u buy property. you can upgrade from 1-phase to 3-phase with proper application. but not sure if you can downgrade.

it comes like that. what can i do?

the power consumption also may effect by where u located your a/c compressor... if located at closed area without good air circulation, definitely compressor unit will operate longer than usual... if hot air trapped in closed area, definitely compressor unit suck the hot air back into the unit, the cooling efficiency wont be good enough... if u went to phileo damansara before and have a look at their a/c compartment area, u can see some exhaust ducting installed there, it purposely to lead hot air direct to environment and avoid hot air trapped in the closed area...

Share my experience.
Before normal aircon. On at nite only, ~10hrs per day. TNB bill is rmXXX.
After change to inverter aircon + 3-phase supply. Aircon on ~20hrs per day. TNB bill still rmXXX.
I believe the 3-phase also helps. Using Panasonic inverter aircon, temp at 22-23degC. Terrace hse.
R u sure ur aircon is inverter? checked n confirmed urself?
After we replaced our 8yr old fridge w new one (non-inverter), TNB bill also drop by ~15%.
Plan to buy inverter only for all future appliances like fridge, washing machine, aircon, etc...

it also depend your equipment's technology and wear & tear...
u cant compare with air con which c/w 10 years old technology versus with current air con technology...
for sure even non-inverter air con will save more power too compare to air con which 10 years old technology

hence, inverter will bring more benefits to those appliances which running non-stop or very long usage per day
cant imagine how water heater system can implement inverter into, unless bath more than hours...

anyway, ur XXX can be 100-999

This post has been edited by gkl83: May 12 2010, 05:16 PM

my personal view for better result of using inverter, it means u only save energy if u open the aircon for more than 8 hours...if you notice normal aircon, after some time, it will kick start the aircon to more power, i think inverter tech is to control that...

if you using aircon for few hours per day, inverter or not doesnt help you and if you alwayz on off the aircon, the bill is higher due to when u start the aircon, it consumes alot of power...

correct me if im wrong...

TNB charge different rate if your total usage < / > 400kWh.

so, becareful.
you use more when you thought you got inverter for less, end up you paying more

if that's the case, you paying RM100 for 10hrs a/c use per day previously, now you paying RM50 for same period with Inverter a/c? that's 50% saving!!

so means i need to switch the A/C on for long hours then only will make use of inverter tech? jialat la like that...reach home from work must immediately switch on A/C til the next morning??

gov subsidy more if your usage is <400KWH per month. they sub less if usage >400KWH

and that's actually my goal...total usage about 500KWH per month. seems far fetch considering it was 800KWH on the last bill

u misunderstood about inverter... doesnt means switch on longer and save more...

example:
non inverter : 8 hours - cost RM100
non inverter : 24 hours - cost RM300
Note: 24 hrs are the 3X of 8hrs

inverter : 8 hours - cost u RM90
inverter : 24 hours - cost u RM240
Note: 24 hrs will be lesser than 3X of 8hrs

This post has been edited by gkl83: May 12 2010, 06:16 PM

well, another effect of using inverter aircons are new refrigerant requirement - R410A instead of R22 which is being phased out. more environment/ozone friendly. this doesn't apply to current models of daikin inverter being sold in MY though...

Alarm have a backup battery when power is cut off. It can last for at least 2days.

Fridge when power cut off can last at least 8hr. Provided you don't open the fridge door and the seal is still good. Empty most of your food before do that too will help.

TNB will layan you if you have proof to show them your meter have problem.

I think my usage is about the same as yours except no alarm system.
My laptop with power switch on is around 4-5 hrs a day.
My aircond 1hp Panasonic inverter is on 8 hrs (sleeping time).
TV is also around 3-4 hrs a day.

This is the most consuming electrical appliance besides the fridge which is obviously 24 hrs.

The highest I get is only aroun RM100, that's when I got 2 aircond on for 8 hrs at night (parents visiting), and most lighting on.

My normal electric bill is only around RM70-RM80.

What is your rate? Sometimes condo or apartment is more expensive.
Mine is:
First 200 unit - 0.218
Then it's 0.334
Never reached the next tier, so don't know what's the rate.

The highest rate I reached is 359kwh which the bill like I mentioned above - RM96.71

Also, look at the "Jenis Bacaan" whether or not it's "N". If it's not, tele your bill's meter against actual reading see whether or not the same. If not, then complain to TNB to ask them to come and do actual reading.

This post has been edited by b00n: May 12 2010, 09:39 PM

You have many power sucker applicant. Buy your applicant according need and not bigger than you need. Check the watt usage and the star saving energy.

2) Fridge (LG side-by-side) --> Fridge suck power the most in your house. Don't set the temp max. Either medium or low if food not that much.
4) Cooker Hood ---> don't on all the way. The blower motor is high power and suck power alot.
6) A/C (2 x 1hp & 1 x 1.5hp Inverter type) --> set the temp 25c and set everything to auto. Trust me, you save a lot.
7) Water Pump x 1 --> What the hell you need a water pump in apartment. Ii is a power sucker machine.
8) Water Heater x 2 (storage type not instant type) --> You only have 2 person. Why need storage type? Imagine you need boil the water more than you need. ain't it waste? And if you keep on whole day, it will boil again if temp drop.
9) Bathroom Exhaust Fan x 1 --> power sucker too.

Eh my airond is always at 22c.
Forgot to mention I got a LG washing + dryer combo and roughly around 2 times per week which usually took 3 hrs to complete the cycle. Still the electricity didn't go up that high.

I still don't think TS's usaged would be that high.

Maybe like what ozak mentioned; the bolier heater could be the main culprit. The rest I think is normal.