The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Yorky said:
Obviously we don't have heating (although there are times when it would be nice). Gas is used purely for cooking, all other power required is electric. Our electric bill varies between around ฿ 1,200.00 (£28.00) p.m. in our winter and ฿ 1,800.00 (£45.00) p.m. in our summer (mainly aircon).

For information, the rates for electricity are:

Electricity - Domestic
Service charge (up to 15 amps) 38.22 Bht/m*
Service charge (over 15 amps) 46.16 Bht/m*
up to 50 kwh/m - free.
0 - 150 kwh/m 3.2484 Bht/Kwh*
151 - 400 kwh/m 4.2218 Bht/Kwh*
401 upwards kwh/m 4.4217 Bht/Kwh*
Current ft. charge (fuel surcharge) -0.1590 Bht/Kwh*

* Plus V.A.T. (currently 7%)

[To add: water costs us about £3.50 p.m. (metered), rubbish collection (once/week) 50 pence p.m., and, up to now, in 18 years, we've paid bugger all in rates].
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Thank you for the detailed answer. :). Your water is much cheaper than UK - electricity bill for your summer is a bit more expensive than my latest bill now the kids are gone. My last bill minus kids was £110 for 3 months. This won't vary according to season.
 
morning glory said:
You mean you haven't already? Mine's been on for weeks now. Its on a thermostat so kicks in if the indoor temperature drops lower than 23 C
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Actually it has been on a bit this week since the temperature dropped. It's now set to come on if the internal temperature drops below 17 degC. We have been lighting the log burner of an evening for a few weeks now.
 
Yorky said:
Obviously we don't have heating (although there are times when it would be nice). Gas is used purely for cooking, all other power required is electric. Our electric bill varies between around ฿ 1,200.00 (£28.00) p.m. in our winter and ฿ 1,800.00 (£45.00) p.m. in our summer (mainly aircon).

For information, the rates for electricity are:

Electricity - Domestic
Service charge (up to 15 amps) 38.22 Bht/m*
Service charge (over 15 amps) 46.16 Bht/m*
up to 50 kwh/m - free.
0 - 150 kwh/m 3.2484 Bht/Kwh*
151 - 400 kwh/m 4.2218 Bht/Kwh*
401 upwards kwh/m 4.4217 Bht/Kwh*
Current ft. charge (fuel surcharge) -0.1590 Bht/Kwh*

* Plus V.A.T. (currently 7%)

[To add: water costs us about £3.50 p.m. (metered), rubbish collection (once/week) 50 pence p.m., and, up to now, in 18 years, we've paid bugger all in rates].
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Wow, that is cheap. Are solar panels used much over there?
 
Holy moly, I wish my bills for power and gas were that small.

My electricity isn't too bad, around US $100 (฿ 3.3k, or £ 78) per month because I replaced all of the lighting in our house with LEDs.

But the heat bill is killing me. We have a very inefficient liquid propane system, a 1000 gallon tank that gets refilled about every 5 weeks in Winter. Sooner in colder years.

I'll probably be paying $1800 USD per month for the next 6 months. That's ฿ 60k, or £ 1.4k.

PER MONTH!

:cry:

At least at 1400' elevation, we don't get floods.
 
buckytom said:
I'll probably be paying $1800 USD per month for the next 6 months. That's ฿ 60k, or £ 1.4k.
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:eek: ... and I thought my gas bill (mainly for central heating) was high in Winter! No wonder you are working nearly all God's hours @buckytom.

My worst scenario gas bill is about £450 for three months. That's $ 575 or ฿ 19k I think, for heating quite a large 4 bedroom house. Its much, much lower in summer. So my worst monthly gas bill is £150 or ฿ 6k or $190 approx.

Warning: my maths could be wrong... but whatever, I am now feeling cheered up that my bills aren't as high as I thought.
 
We use about 500 to 600 gallins of LP a month at roughly $3 per gallon, but that could be reduced. My wife feels cold all of the time, so she turns the heat up way too often.
 
buckytom said:
We use about 500 to 600 gallins of LP a month at roughly $3 per gallon, but that could be reduced. My wife feels cold all of the time, so she turns the heat up way too often.
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Don't you have wood burning stoves or open fires? I get cold too but usually only in the evening when I'm sitting around. I prefer to be a bit cooler in the day when I'm cooking. Your monthly gas bill nearly exceeds my total monthly income!
 
We have a zero clearance fireplace but it's too small to be very effective. I need either to install a circulating insert, or just rip it out and build a bigger one.

I'd love to build a real masonry one, made with stacked blue quartzite. Big enough to cook in, or enough so a small person could stand in it.

Someday, when I'm retired. Then I'll have the time to tend the fire as well.
 
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Here is our current fireplace with a Connemara marble outer hearth/surround.

The wall is big enough for the fireplace that I want, though, without affecting it structurally.

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Although, I'll have to figure out how to support a much bigger lintel
 
buckytom said:
Here is our current fireplace with a Connemara marble outer hearth/surround.

The wall is big enough for the fireplace that I want, though, without affecting it structurally.

View attachment 20245

Although, I'll have to figure out how to support a much bigger lintel
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It would look good to have that big fireplace there I think.
 
Yorky said:
Only on a small scale. My wife's parents have solar panels on their farm (which is some distance from the village) but basically it's just to charge a 12 volt battery for lights.
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This is fascinating to me. Do you use DC for lighting?
 
Btw, solar panels are another future project of mine. I can put a good number of them on the back of the house, which faces perfectly Southwest for maximum sun in my edge of the world.

I'm eventually going to have to get the roof re-done. When I do, I'm hoping to use those new solar panels that look like regular tar and gravel roof tiles.

And a giant Tesla wall mount battery in the garage.

I'll run electric heaters everywhere.
 
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