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?
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
maganda ang solar panel lalung lalo na kung brownout kaso may kamahalan lang ata
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..
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.
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.
@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:
http://www.squidoo.com/reduceenergybill?utm_campaign=search-discovery&utm_medium=greet4&utm_source=google
This site might help.
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.
Get out of the city, move to the beach!
Wow! I’m paying about P7.4 per kWh up north (local electric utility). And I thought that was expensive!
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
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/
@michael: pwede po pa-refer ng site where to buy that. Ang taas kasi ng kuryente namin. gagamitin ko pang ref. yun. :)
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.
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.
our bill tripled :(
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.
@michael: as ko lang po kung saan nakakabili sa pinas ng solar panel? tnx po
Buy a cost saving air-condition and refrigerator unit.