Korean Job Discussion Forums

[swoodman]

How much is youre electricity bill every month? I ended up paying 200K won for electictricity for the months of November and December, this sounds like alot but I left my laptop on all day a few times. How much should I be aiming to pay in the future though (so I know how much Ive wasted)?

[Senior]

What do you use for heating? It does seem high for the winter months. 100K is standard in the summer, if you are running your air con 8 hours a day. I spent about 18,000 on electricity this winter. Gas was 90,000 a month though.

[crisdean]

Are you sure that's just electricity?
My electric bill is usually about 16,000 KRW (this time of year, in the summer it'll be more due to running the AC), and I leave my laptop on all the time.
Now my natural gas bill on the other hand is ridiculous, but I just love taking those nice, long, hot showers.

[swoodman]

Yeah thats just electricity, buts Ive just found out its for three months Nov, Dec and Jan. The main culprit is my English laptop I think.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[Easter Clark]

I didn't think a laptop used that much power.

[bakagai4649]

Dude it's not your laptop. I have a monster laptop and it says on the brick that the max output is 90w at most the input could not be more than 4 60w light bulbs. if you think 4 lights on all the time would cost over 200$ a month your doing it wrong.
The last month its been just me at the apt. and the bill was 25,000.
You have to be using electricity for heating or using power converters or something else. If not maybe you're suppose to be splitting it with your neighbor or your neighbor is tapping in to you electricity

[bluelake]

As CBH said above, you have the large electric bill because of Korea's scale. If you use over a certain amount, the bill becomes a multiple of the base cost. For instance, our last bill was something like 90,000 won (scale level 5), when it normally would have only been about 15,000--so, 6x. It's the gov't's way of trying to get people to use less electricity.

[swoodman]

Thanks for the help....still not really sure what Im doing so wrong. Ive got a hot point thats on all the time and Ive been boiling water in a pan to make food, coffee etc rather than using a kettle, which Ill stop. Other than that, tv, modem plugged in all the time, fridge, washing machine, occasionally charge a tiny hoover, razor, or phone. Do you think it must be the heating?

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[hockeyguy109]

wait, so your saying it was 200,000 won for 2 months or 3? If it's 3, thats pretty good.

But heck, my electric bill is usually 80,000 won a month plus or minus. I wouldn't be too worried about it.

[Lolimahro]

Is it just your electricity bill, or your whole utility bill? We paid about 230,000 last month but my husband and I live in an "officetel" so a good portion of our bill is maintenance and building fees. Also, we live in Mok-dong which makes those fees more expensive. Normally we pay about 130,000 in the summer (with low use of aircon) and 170,000 in the winter. Our problem was that we were leaving the heat on all day and forgetting to turn it down during the daytime when it was warmer. Also we have a toddler so we can't turn the heat off at night and just huddle under the blankets like some people can.

If you can say what type of apartment your approximate location you might be able to find out more specific information about how to lower your bill.

[eamo]

I know some friends who got huge electricity bills (600,000 for 3 months) because their heating used an electric boiler, not the usual gas ones.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[swoodman]

I live in a one room apartment in Busan. November the fee was 20k. December it was 60k. and January was 120k. I just need to work out what pushed it up that much. Ive been using my laptop and internet modem loads but apparentally that wouldnt be it. Could it be boiling water in a pan on the hot point?