Electric bills

Tips to save money in Japan, life better for less, etc.
pfdsa
Veteran
Posts: 128
Joined: Tue May 25, 2021 6:57 am
Location: Okinawa

Re: Electric bills

Post by pfdsa »

bryanc wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:14 am glad i found this thread-on another thread about savings reqd for retirement,captainspoke mentioned as below

"The totals do not show winter heating bills, which may add about ¥1000/day for the peak months (Dec-Jan-Feb, a guesstimate), a little less for now-Nov, and March+."

i know this is my experience and thought it was just our family wasting electricity,but my wife claims its normal.dont believe a word of it though.
Wass interested if others had same experience,or much lower bills?

as ref here is my monthly electricity bill for last yr(m is man yen )

2020 aug 1.8m sept 1.6 oct 1.4m nov 1.9m dec 2.8m
2021 jan 4.9m feb 4.1m mar 3.2m april 2.1m may 1.6m june 1.3m july 1.4m aug 1.9m sept 1.4m
Maybe saying what kind of place you're living in(3DK manshon, apartment, etc) would help out with the comparison.
I'm living on a 2LDK (2 people, no remote work) and my bills are around 5,000-6,000 yen during Spring and Autumn, and around 7,000-8,000 yen during the Winter and Summer (AC for Summer and Kerosene Heater for Winter).
bryanc
Veteran
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:40 am
Location: yamagata

Re: Electric bills

Post by bryanc »

RetireJapan wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:47 am These are my bills for this year (with Greena):
i have never heard of greena-are they someone you would recommend?
User avatar
RetireJapan
Site Admin
Posts: 4732
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:57 am
Location: Sendai
Contact:

Re: Electric bills

Post by RetireJapan »

bryanc wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:56 am
RetireJapan wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:47 am These are my bills for this year (with Greena):
i have never heard of greena-are they someone you would recommend?
I like them so far. The prices are comparable to Tohoku Electric, and they are ostensibly 'green' (but use a lot of biomass, which I don't really see as green energy). Was the best option when I went looking a couple of years ago.

The online interface is very clean and easy.
English teacher and writer. RetireJapan founder. Avid reader.

eMaxis Slim Shady 8-)
bryanc
Veteran
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:40 am
Location: yamagata

Re: Electric bills

Post by bryanc »

pfdsa wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:54 am
bryanc wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:14 am
Maybe saying what kind of place you're living in(3DK manshon, apartment, etc) would help out with the comparison.
I'm living on a 2LDK (2 people, no remote work) and my bills are around 5,000-6,000 yen during Spring and Autumn, and around 7,000-8,000 yen during the Winter and Summer (AC for Summer and Kerosene Heater for Winter).
sorry-yes,4bedroom family house for family of 5..
oldest son was also at home all the time for the last few months over winter studying for uni exams(which he subsequently failed)
that is prob one factor... house also had lots of outside christmas illuminations up from end of nov-but doesnt seem to have affected the bills.
seems to be mostly the air con heating
Last edited by bryanc on Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
bryanc
Veteran
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:40 am
Location: yamagata

Re: Electric bills

Post by bryanc »

Roger Van Zant wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:43 am
bryanc wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:14 am

You spent 49,000 yen in a single month on electricity?! What the hell?! That's crazy.

noticed that you are in kyushu! probably is hard to understand the winter temps that up north gets.!
TJKansai
Veteran
Posts: 551
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2021 1:38 am

Re: Electric bills

Post by TJKansai »

Family of 4 in a 150sqm house, we average ¥12,000 (Low of ¥9,000, July/August can be around ¥17,000, highest ¥21,000 in December).
User avatar
adamu
Sensei
Posts: 2341
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 11:43 pm
Location: Fukuoka
Contact:

Re: Electric bills

Post by adamu »

bryanc wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 7:14 am as ref here is my monthly electricity bill for last yr(m is man yen )

2020 aug 1.8m sept 1.6 oct 1.4m nov 1.9m dec 2.8m
2021 jan 4.9m feb 4.1m mar 3.2m april 2.1m may 1.6m june 1.3m july 1.4m aug 1.9m sept 1.4m
Sounds like you have a leak somewhere. Considering the amount you're spending, putting a few wattmeters between some appliances to find the heavy culprits might be a good investment/experiment (be careful buying 100V devices if you have any 200V sockets - some AC units for example).

https://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/mall/ワットチェッカー/
bryanc
Veteran
Posts: 361
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:40 am
Location: yamagata

Re: Electric bills

Post by bryanc »

thanks -will try it out..

as you gave a rakuten link i have to ask,is rakuten energy worth swtiching to?
interested in the point ,but more interested in getting the electric bills down-does anyone recommend it or not recommend it?
thanks!
zeroshiki
Veteran
Posts: 888
Joined: Thu May 27, 2021 3:11 am

Re: Electric bills

Post by zeroshiki »

I use it and haven't seen any change in my elecricity bill moving from TEPCO to Rakuten. The advantage is being able to pay with my CC and earning points on it (and a place to dump time limited points).
abeltoy
Newbie
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:27 pm

Re: Electric bills

Post by abeltoy »

We pay a little more because we use Shizen Denryoku, but in exchange we use clean energy and we even directly contribute to the development of future renewable energy projects.

Our usage/prices this year so far:
Image

As you can see, usage is higher during the winter months (heating + humidifier) and summer months (cooling + dehumidifier). Our apartment is 64m2 2LDK.

We still haven't turned our A/C in heating mode yet, because having big south-facing windows means the temperature is about 25ºC inside while it's about 16ºC outside. Temperatures haven't dropped below 20ºC inside yet (they usually only drop to about 22ºC), and we have good quality, thick futons for sleeping. My partner also uses additional Uniqlo heat-tech futon warmers.

We sleep in the washitsu in futons instead of the bedroom (which we keep the doors closed and currently only use it as a storage room). The reason is twofold: we don't have an A/C unit in the bedroom and keeping its temperature on-par with the rest of the house would cause a significant spending increase. Also, the bed we have is a semi-double (bought it when I was single), and sleeping in there with two people is a nightmare. My partner prefers to sleep in a futon anyways. I'll get around to buying a bed after we move back to Tokyo...
Post Reply