Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tmax500]

paid 190k for Jan and 170k for Dec

ondol on max for 4 hours a day on average
no cooking, no electric heater or other high energy appliances
mgt fees 30k, gas usage 100-110m3 for the ondol and hot water
apt area maybe 28m2 = 310feet2

the cost seems ridulous!

[jvalmer]

Gas to heat up the floor can get expensive. This year has been colder than usual. February is the last cold month, and spring, summer and fall will be cheap.

[sojusucks]

The bills are always more this time of year with the cold weather and the fact that we're home during more of the weekdays. This year has been so cold that all of us can expect larger utility bills.

[Lee Myung Bak]

How did they already calculate January given the month isn't even over yet...??

[samd]

Are you in an Officetel? If so, you got off lightly.

If you're in a villa, it seems on the expensive side, but not exorbitantly so. 70,000+ gas bills are common in winter.

[jlee83]

[Lazio]

Quote:

gas usage 100-110m3

For that much gas I pay around 80,000 Krw. I think it can vary depending where you live (not the type of housing but location) but say within Seoul it can't be much different.

[Lastrova]

[pkang0202]

OfficeTel = Expensive

Villa = Cheap.

If only the MODS could make that a sticky.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I usually pay around 150k a month in the winter at my officetel. In the summer, it is usually around 180k. The rest of the year it's between 100k and 120k. What you pay seems about right. Stay warm!

[Chris.Quigley]

Do you have your own meter? Or do you share a meter with a few other Officetels on your floor?

I realized that I was being scammed a few months after I left Korea.

I went to Thailand for a month (January) and my electric bill was higher than ever for that month. Turns out that there was only one meter shared between myself and 2 other Officetels. They took and average. Meaning I was subsidizing other officetels even though my electricity was turned off for the entire month.

In the months leading up to my trip to Thailand...It was bizarre... It seemed like I was paying more and more every month even though I was doing more and more to reduce my bill. My cheapest month in Korea was the month that the apartment next door was vacant. Haha!

Find out if that is the case for you. If it is, complain. Korea is a capitalist country, why should you be subsidizing people who want to use excessive amounts of electricity and don't care about the environment?

[jackson7]

Officetel = Expensive, Villa = Cheap, is not exactly an accurate statement. My officetel bill total fluctuates between 95K in the summer, to 115K in the coldest months of winter. Where Officetel = Cheap, Everything Else = Expensive, is accurate is during the summer months. I run my air conditioner 24/7 and never see a rise in my bill.

Electricity is very cheap in officetels. Not so much in other living situations. To take advantage of this, I have a couple very nice tower space heaters that will heat my entire place pretty darn well, and again, only use electricity, so don't affect my bill very much. I also prefer officetels for their very central location to major bus stops, shopping, restaurants, and bars in my area, but that's an argument for another time. If I wasn't getting married soon, I'd likely stay in officetels for my career in Korea!

J7

[Xylox]

My last bill was 10k gas, 10k electricity. No cooking at home, ondol on from about 8pm to 9am (turned down to like 19 during the night).

I live in a villa outside of seoul, top floor.

[Jane]

Officetel bills depend on the size of the officetel and are billed per 'pyung'.
So to compare bills on Dave's is a vain affair unless you state how many pyung you have and the location.

Also, and I've said this many times on Dave's before, building fees are waaaaay cheaper here than any building in Canada. It's all perspective!

[tmax500]

Thanks for the feedback. I checked some of my neighbours gas bills and while mine was 115k others cost 40k (next door), 70k, 140k (maybe a big apartment), and there was also one for 550k (oops!). By the way I live in an old officetel with poor insulation. The last time i lived in Korea (many years ago) my "shared" apartment bills were so small it was laughable. They're not so much fun now!