The funniest thing for me is if you accidently make a noise and wake them, they will look at you all pissed off their sleep was disturbed.
Look, we were spending 10k on electricity among 3 people -well, mostly 4 as the guy´s gf practically lived in- because above mentioned guy set his AC at 17 degrees all night longâŚ
Next place we paid like 5k, tried disconnecting everything and found out the meter still ran like a hamster wheel⌠and the hamster is on crack.
OTOH my friend pays also 8k for 2 people because her home share meter with the rest of the floor, meaning the landlord makes a killing.
2500 is rational and modern, but I know most people have old ACs, share electricity/have messy or ugly homes/share the home with too many people/are simply too stingy and dumb to do the Math.
Oh and don´t forget people who live in dorms.
In that case staying out of the house probably wonât actually lower your power bill, because your problem isnât overuse of ACâs. Itâs people stealing your electricity, or someone being an idiot.
If your meter is running like a hamster wheel with everything turned off, you seriously need to contact your landlord, TMM, and possibly police (because someone is stealing electricity). Thatâs not a problem staying out and turning the AC off will solve.
Oh we did contact the landlord⌠who cut our contract short. Anyways, the other girls went home after graduation and I decided to take a place all to myself, where me and only me would be the one responsible for whatever the electricity meter said. Ever since, I pay 300 NTD without AC, 700 with heater in winter, 1200 with AC.
I pity the poor people who took the place. AFAIK, one of my Taiwanese ex roomies tried to warn them, but aside from a straight DO NOT RENT THIS DUMP ad, it is hard to keep people away from it.
What I mean to say is that there are many reasons why people camp out at cafes. Not having/daring to use the AC is one of those.
I guess the fear of using the AC is like those drink hot water only and other urban legends that become âtruthsâ.
If you are renting a taufan, regardless of size your meter will always be shared. Taipower has very strict rules on how many accounts a building or floor can have, and sometimes a landlord can own lands and only have a single Taipower account because of building permits, the land being technically considered farmland, etc.
And that means sharing a meter is going to be far more prevalent than most people think.
If you live in a Taufan you are going to have a higher per kwh rate than everyone else, mainly because the landlord is including a bunch of other âstuffâ into it, like gas, cable TV, internet, etc. that costs several hundred NT a month more. Taipower also charge tiered rate but most will be paying around 4nt per kwh anyways because that is the middle of the road as far as how much Taipower charge per kwh. Any responsible landlord will give an account to your meter readings and cost per kwh. If the meter is running like a hamster on steroids this is something that needs to be brought to the authorityâs attention. If the police doesnât care (chances are, they wonât), talk to TMM, consumer protection agency, etc. because this is basically stealing.
Fact is summer electricity will always be higher, AC or no, because Taipower charges 30% more during the summer months due to increased usage (to discourage people from overloading the grid) and also expensive generation to meet peak demand like natural gas has to be used. Natural gas costs Taipower more than 10nt per kwh simply because LNG is imported so itâs more expensive. I heard itâs cheaper elsewhere.
Give it some time and pressure will mount to restart the 4th nuclear plant. One thing Taiwanese hate more than anything is raising electricity rates.
Unfortunately, that was like 15 years ago, hopefully the old crook who was our landlord is 6 feet under!
But it is a good warning to newbies, to understand that shared meter is trouble.
Rather paying more for anything. See all the complaining about raising the minimum wage!
The complaint of course always comes from employers.
Cost of stuff will always go up, and wage hasnât gone up in a long time a while back. Do they expect every job to pay 65nt per hour?
A friend she bring her coloring books at SBâŚ
Then on our next meet up she bring her big SB tumbler at IKEA, did asked her why she need to bring that big tumbler since the coffee is refill just use IKEA cup.
I donât want to go out with her anymore.
2 Likes
Honest people will put an extra meter. This way you can actually see how much you used. And itâs not the concern of Taipower.
I havenât seen any landlord that doesnât do this.
Otherwise electricity is shared between everyone either equally or based on the area of the flat rentedâŚ
But if the one assigned to you is running like a hamster wheel then someoneâs stealing power.
You know how in Starbucks how you have one table and four super comfy chairs (two on each side) around it? I hate people who come in alone and lay claim to that whole territory meant for a party of 4⌠for extra obnoxious points they then watch their stupid YouTube videos super loud while sitting there.
3 Likes
on the topic of AC. if i want to lounge around and watch a video i am perfectly fine to sit next to a fan⌠its still at home, and not surrounded by a bunch of passive aggressive space hoggers so it is a preferable place to sit and do nothing, in my underwear.
the AC is better if i need to do something that involves moving around.
My reaction, f**k you and Iâll go sit down!
Just a few days ago on the bus, back seat row of 5, old guy was sitting on the second seat from the right, plastic bag on the right window seat, his cap on the middle seat, taking up 3 seats. I picked up his cap and flung it over to the window seat. He gave me stare, I just stared back.
2 Likes
Boom, take that old sleeping man.
2 Likes
Your are lucky you didnât show up on the first page of Apple Daily nor taken as target by K-boy.
EXTRA! Angry foreigner attacks innocent elder over seat on empty bus!
5 Likes
But would you have done that if it was a huge tattooed up looking gangster dude? 
no chance they would be riding the bus! they would be a in a car with a stashed baseball bat.
1 Like
Yes!
Havenât seen this indoors at any place but see some older people doing it on the bus down in Taichung sometimesâŚ
Some landlords will install their own meter for each apartment. Weâre in an odd situation where thereâs one meter for 3 floors. Two of the floors have their own meter, but we donât. The landlord subtracts the two from the total and figures ours from that. But gas and water is divided up by the number of people, with small children counting half a person and teens as three-fourths. I guess thatâs fair. Neither are expensive anyway.