So we just got our latest Meralco billing and the amount went up by 60% to Php14k from March to April. It’s the first time the bill went past ten grand in my entire life while living here in Metro Manila.
Okay, our power consumption also went up to 1,004kWh for the month but that’s only 28% more. The huge increase is a combination of a rate hike and consumption hike.
I was thinking of ways to reduce power consumption of gadgets and appliances at home so I thought of the 10 Ways to Save on Electricity:
- Cut down on aircon and replace them with electric fans. To help lower room temperature, open doors and windows during the day for better air circulation.
- Un-plug gadgets and appliances when not in use. Don’t just turn them off — you could save a few more watts here and there.
- If you have multiple TV sets at home, just use one at a time — preferably, the one in the living room.
- Skip the microwave and use the gas range to heat or re-heat food. Same can be done with the rice cooker and coffee maker.
- Give the desktop PC a rest. Use the laptop at home. Or, you can hook it up top an external monitor if you really need the screen real estate.
- Charge your gadgets (laptop, cellphone, mp3 players, etc.) in the car using one of those AC/DC adaptors.
- If you can afford it, invest on solar chargers. The big ones might be expensive but the portable ones can do the job as well.
- Some of your household appliances and gadgets have eco-mode to reduce power consumption; these includes monitors, LCD TVs, refs, etc.
- Invest in CCFLs for home lighting. They’re more efficient.
- Open your doors and windows. Use natural light during the day; it’s the best way to save on power.
Better yet, work outside. Make Starbucks your temporary office for the meantime.
Others would go as far as buying a generator set and run on diesel. I haven’t really computed the exact numbers by estimate is around 2.5 to 3 kilowatt hour per liter of fuel.
If diesel price is Php35/liter, then it can operate a 1kilowatt microwave oven for 3 hours. That gives us Php11.67 per kilowatt. Just a little cheaper than April’s effective power rate of Php13.25 (Meralco). Of course, that does not include cost of acquisition of the gen set. Then there’s that Power Saver Max I blogged about before.
You guys have additional tips/suggestions?
Aleshire Mueller says:
The energy will be audited yet again, and due to this, I am reminded that I need to figure out what I need to do to save on the electric bills. I do like your tips about not using the desktop while at home and stick with the laptop as it consumes less energy. I will be sure to make a note of this as I used to use the PC a lot when I am doing my research. Thanks.
Ray says:
Save electricity by using a 24-hour automatic On/Off power switch
Photo
L.O.S.
Anthony says:
You can also use solar lights http://www.greenlytes.com/
offshore outsourcing philippines says:
Malaki talaga ang gastos. Lalo na ngayong Christmas season. But atleast, di masyadong nagagamit ang aircon kaso malamig naman eh. Yung pambyad sa aircon, pambili na lang ng regalo sa mga inaanak. :)
abcdefg says:
reply for michael ranola, hindi naman po yata pinagbabawal ang paggamit ng solar electricity sa pilpinas kuya eh.sa katunayan nga, may mga company na nag oofer ng ganito MISMO sa bansa………hehehe nice day to you
bean says:
maganda ang solar panel lalung lalo na kung brownout kaso may kamahalan lang ata
HEECHANG says:
alm nyo ba bakit nagtaas ung kuryente pwera sa generation cost?i mean parang taxi yan eh may flag down rate cla kpg umabot lang ng 100kw ung kuryente mo walang patong pero kpg lumagpas ka na sa 100kw at nging 101kw pataas dagdag ult cla ng another peso it depends sa kilowatt na nkonsumo mo and besides nag taas tlga ng generation fee..example para mas lalo nyo maintindihan
100kw – 0 php
120kw – 100php
140kw – another 100php so 200pesos na kagad ung nadagdag..hndi ko sure magkano ang rate nila pero ganito ang format ng meralco..and isa pa hndi ba kau nagtataka sa mga bahay na hndi mapansin ung kuntador ng kuryente pano nila nkukuha ung reading??ung mga tao nagreread minsan kpg hndi nila mkita ung kuntador,hinuhulaan nlng nila ung reading dahil nga sa hndi nila makita ung kuntador hula hula nlang cla tignan nila ung bahay kung ano afford nilang gamit and ung ibang nagreread pinapaubaya nlng sa computer ng meralco..ung computer ng meralco sila ung nageestimate ng kuryente nyo kpg walang result na nkuha ung tauhan na nagread ng kuntador nyo,,ginagamit na estimate ung mga previous reading nyo para maestimate ng computer ung bill nyo ngaun..
Arlette Adoreno says:
Wow! Thanks for this timely tips! It should be the lifestyle of many. It will greatly help to cut down costs in electricity, plus it will help aid the global warming.
boo says:
is it weird that we didn’t feel much of an increase with our bill? we usually get around 8-10K because of our appliances which include 2 1HP aircon units that run almost 18 hours a day.
We were expecting things to double, as what most people have encountered pero imagine our surprise when our bill was 10,500. parang walang pinagbago. weird.
Herce says:
@Michael Ranola, do you live in the RP? Those links are useless! Besides not being anywhere near the size one would need to power a home and not offering battery and domestic lines transformers, they are in the US! I’m gonna pay thousands of US$ to import them? Where is the cost savings there? :roll:
Michael Ranola says:
http://www.squidoo.com/reduceenergybill?utm_campaign=search-discovery&utm_medium=greet4&utm_source=google
Michael Ranola says:
This site might help.
Kimwell says:
Just to let you know guys, Pareho lang tayo nga situation dito sa province. Our electric bill also increased despite same lang ang consumption namin..Kung ako lang talaga mag titiis ako sa fan kaso sa katagalan umiinit din ang fan e.
PI Outsource says:
Get out of the city, move to the beach!
david says:
Wow! I’m paying about P7.4 per kWh up north (local electric utility). And I thought that was expensive!
Michael Ranola says:
This one site, has both solar and wind power generation. The wind turbine is still expensive, but in the long run, I think it is worth it.
http://www.energyenv.co.uk/default.asp
Michael Ranola says:
Here are some websites that sell solar charger/panels. Check it out. This might help.
http://www.batterycountry.com/ShopSite/product9991.html
http://www.siliconsolar.com/solar-battery-chargers.html
http://www.solio.com/charger/
http://www.earthtechproducts.com/
Adrian says:
@michael: pwede po pa-refer ng site where to buy that. Ang taas kasi ng kuryente namin. gagamitin ko pang ref. yun. :)
dan says:
Power savers are scams on residential homes.Im taking up Power Engineering at UP and to tell you the truth, it’s just a waste of money buying those worthless appliances.
Agrimensor says:
To save electricity I replaced my 21″ TV to 14″.Thats from 110 watts to 45watts.I also Bought a timer for the ref which gives it rest for 8 hours a day.
Mas mura ang tubig kaysa kureyente kaya ligo na lang ng ligo every now and then.
jashe says:
our bill tripled :(
Michael Ranola says:
To: Adrian
Wala nga sa Pilipinas kasi ayaw ng magkaroon ng Meralco, so pinepressure niya government to not allow it to be imported in mass scale. Pwede ka bumili online, at di naman kamahalan siya.
Adrian says:
@michael: as ko lang po kung saan nakakabili sa pinas ng solar panel? tnx po
Pinoy Ideas says:
Buy a cost saving air-condition and refrigerator unit.
chrysanSID says:
Nakakaloko talaga yang electric bill. In my case, we normally pay between 1,100+ to 1,200+ pesos a month. However, beginning the bills I got from February until recently parang rollercoaster ride! Case in point: February my bill was 938.20 pesos, March bill naging 2,280.10 (napamura ako nito ng husto), then last month I paid only 130.45 pesos. For this month, I will be paying 1,633.15 pesos.
IC DeaDPiPoL says:
Thinking of rather than upgrading to a unit with higher specs it would be more wiser to go for those with low performance parts with even lower power consumption like those Intel desktop boards with Atoms/Dual Core Atoms especially as a replacement for my pc being used as a 24/7 torrent/DVR system/media center. Playback will be a hastle though with the absence of an Ion chipset (can’t seem to find those Zotac mobos with Ion.
Same goes for those netcafes that doesn’t rely on gaming (imagine 300~450watts vs 30~90watts per unit)
Michael Ranola says:
Suggestion ko nga, para makatipid sa kuryente, gumamit na lang ng solar panel/collector. Ang kaso pinagbabawal yata dito sa Pilipinas. Affordable ang solar panel/collector, dahil libre ang kuryenteng ginegenerate nito. Been trying to push the local government to allow people to install solar panel/collector, kaso ayaw e.
Teknisyan says:
for suggestions… just turn off the darn thing when not in use. :(
Teknisyan says:
yeah… our previous months was only 3k then suddenly it was way way way up… to 12k… I was checking what are the changes that we did… I don’t think adding an 1 use of AC will increase your elec. bill for 300%.. ggrrr…
Teknisyan says:
yeah… our previous months was only 3k then suddenly it was way way way up… to 12k… I was checking what are the changes that we did… I don’t think adding an 1 use of AC will increase your elec. bill for 300%.. ggrrr…
http://teknisyan.blogspot.com
Pete says:
If you cant live with out aircons. Inverter aircons offer a lot of savings because of the new hardware and process of cooling the area. These should be chosen when purchasing a new unit. In the end Natural cooling will save you more.
Adrian says:
aircon ang malakas sa kuryente talaga.
daddy joey says:
ours almost went double too.
Herce says:
My Meralco bill hasn’t been under 10k unless I am abroad. This month it hit the over 20k mark. I run way too many computers.
What I want is a way to go solar. I would love to see an article on the options for consumer solar power in the Philippines. Besides the tiny and small setup I see for sale at ROX, I can’t find anything that isn’t intended for industrial use (and even that is really poor and overpriced).
Please do such an article Yuga?
Starshadow Rivaulx says:
One way to have your brewed coffee and save electricity – use a French press. Just grind your beans (or use pre-ground, meh), add hot water, steep for five minutes, and you’re good to go. :)
Adrian says:
wow ang laki ng tipid 18%. ok yun.
Doodles says:
“Others would go as far as buying a generator set and run on diesel. I haven’t really computed the exact numbers by estimate is around 2.5 to 3 kilowatt hour per liter of fuel.”
We might save on household cost in the short term but in my opinion, this is not beneficial to Mother Earth in the long run, since in totality, we are actually increasing households’ carbon footprint. Running individual generator sets also run against the idea of “economies of scale”
Vidar says:
Will the rates remain the same with our next bill? Ours also increased by 50%…
BrianB says:
Ah, so you’re one of those people who spend hours in a coffee shop, occupying a table for 4 oblivious to other people in need of seats, without a care if the establishment looses money so you can save on your e-bills.
Michael Ranola says:
Well, I have a suggestion, which I hope everyone will appreciate. I suggest people to switch from incandescent/florescent tube, to energy saving light bulbs, LED bulbs better. First and foremost, they save a lot of electricity, hence lower electricity bill. Although it may be expensive, but in the long run you save more, as they are long lasting, and durable. Secondly, I suggest people to but solar chargers, for their laptops, and cellphones. This are just some of the tips, I know which I could share with you. Not only do you save electricity, and money, you are also becoming an eco citizen, as it lessens our dependence on fossil fuel, which in turn contribute to global warming.
Gugol says:
Ahaha. I have yet to start working on that power saver myth blog entry. With all the technical jargon simplified and whatnot. Gah!
Anyway, although these power savers work on really controlled conditions, I advise the average consumer to stay away from them.
They tell you that the products have been tested by Meralco, but how many actually tell you that they have passed Meralco’s stringent testing procedure and have the papers to back their claim? NONE. NADA. ZERO.
Spidey says:
Mine almost doubled….
Abe Olandres says:
Based on March to April rates, it’s around 18%.
Andre Marcelo-Tanner says:
how much was the raise in cost of power? i calculated it at like 12-13%