New Air conditioner

[Chas]

Just bought a new air conditioner to replace a 17 year old clunker (air conditioner . .to forestall the jokes) in the bedroom.

Samsung 10 (cu ft or whatever) lots of bells and whistles. . .literally.

It has an energy sticker all in Thai and a rating of 5 . . .which I noticed was also on every single machine in the store.

We plan to just see what it does to our electric bill at the end of the month, but meanwhile I would like to get a ballpark figure for having it run for eight hours a night. Without getting into settings, electric rates etc. . .does anyone have a similar machine (it is the only AC we run on a daily basis) or alternatively some way to figure this out from the fancy energy efficiency label or has anyone been able to work out the cost per night or even per month, running nightly. ( Average temps & fan)

I dont need it down to the satang just an idea of the cost . .200 baht a night? 20 baht a night? Even knowing which of these two numbers is the more realistic would help.

Bought it from Index by the way . .happy to report that the installers (free) were excellent! Clean, efficient, cheerful, professional . . .top notch work even to controlling the dust from drilling and patching the holes left by the removal of the old one.


It is nice to commend quality when you find it here . . .I still shudder when I remember the TV satellite dish guys who I swear were high on something . . .running a new cable took four of them an hour. They were 15 minutes finding the dish (which included looking in my office and the bathroom . .neither anywhere near the TV . ..and when they found the dish, they wanted to climb a flower trellis to reach it! I was a wreck by the time they left.

[Babylon]

I think my a/c costs approx. 1000 Tb a month to run every night at 25.

This is approx and depends on season etc, but a ball park figure anyway.

[Chas]

Thanks Babylon.

I know there are a LOT of variables including the outside temps/ humidity etc.

Right now we are trying it at 26. Of course, in the cooler season we will not run it at all.

I think there is a fan only option too. (Manual is only in Thai, so some of figuring it out on my part is experimentation!

I would like to figure out as well if just running the ac fan ( if that option indeed exists) is much more expensive than running a stand-alone fan.




.

[Babylon]

Just running the fan should be no more expensive than a stand alone fan, the expensive bit is the compressor unit (the outside bit) you can hear it cutting in and out, when it's running, thats what uses the majority of the electricity.

[lomuamart]

We run our unit in the bedroom more than 8 hours a day and set it at about 24/25.
The electricity bill is normally around 2,300 a month, so as a guestimate, taking out the fans, lights etc, I'd reckon that it costs about 60 THB a day. Something like that anyway.
It's a pretty small bedroom.

[housedoctor]

On the subject of Air Con. can any of you knowledgeable Hua Hinians recommend a suitable company to service my unit.

[Nereus]

On the subject of Air Con. can any of you knowledgeable Hua Hinians recommend a suitable company to service my unit.

http://hhbd.net/hua-hin-property-land.htm
Nut Air Service Ltd
089 259 7692

[Nereus]

Thanks Babylon.

I know there are a LOT of variables including the outside temps/ humidity etc.
Right now we are trying it at 26. Of course, in the cooler season we will not run it at all.
I think there is a fan only option too. (Manual is only in Thai, so some of figuring it out on my part is experimentation!
I would like to figure out as well if just running the ac fan ( if that option indeed exists) is much more expensive than running a stand-alone fan.
.

You can run just the fan without the cooling, but it will not have a great effect. Consider installing a ceiling fan if you have the space. Much more efficient, and will improve the circulation and efficiency, if used in conjunction with the A/C.

[hhfarang]

can any of you knowledgeable Hua Hinians recommend a suitable company to service my unit.

I think most any of the girls working in the bars on Bintabaht can do that reasonably well.

[PeteC]

We have a big one in the living room and when it's turned on mid-morning the entire room smells like chingchoke piss for a few minutes. The buggers have gotten into it and live there, I guess they like to be cool also, maybe they wear shades?

The unit is professionally cleaned every six months but they still go back in.

However.....some thread on here recently talked about those sticky rat traps catching chingchokes. How right the poster was! I bought two and placed one in the living room and one in the kichen and had half a dozen stuck in each in the morning. This technique will continue.

Concerning costs, we run the hell out of aircons here. The living room is I think 28,000 btu and runs about 10 hours a day. Then two bedrooms at 28,000 btu and 18,000 btu (I think) run another 10 hours at night. I then have to add in all the other stuff running, the big one being the pool filter 7 hours a day. All on a 100 amp meter. The total electric bill runs about 8,500 per month. It used to be 10,500 but we replaced the big bedroom 28K TRANE unit with a Daikin and that alone made the 2,000 baht difference. (there was no change in the fuel surcharge during the period of change) As the other units wear out they'll be replaced with same. The unit manufacturer makes a big difference in power costs. Pete

[housedoctor]

housedoctor wrote:
On the subject of Air Con. can any of you knowledgeable Hua Hinians recommend a suitable company to service my unit.

hhfarang wrote:
I think most any of the girls working in the bars on Bintabaht can do that reasonably well.

Are you imparting that information hhfarang, based on your personal experiences.

[JimmyGreaves]

The unit manufacturer makes a big difference in power costs. Pete

Also the type of unit as the inverter types use less electricity I believe.

[Chas]

Thanks Prscct . . .I am not sure about the btu on mine. It is 10 something or the other! I gave them the room measurements and it seems like it is the smaller size for an "ordinary" room. Where would I find the btu?

It is a Samsung.

I used to love Consumer Reports back in the old days in the states . .they gave you the LIST of every major producer of these machines all the ratings , service records etc and you could make an informed choice. Here all I could do was listen to the salesman ( he went on and on about how many he had in stock for some reason)

Hey, I know what you mean about those damned little lizards. The sticky things work, but you have to put them in places where they will run. I have kept our population way down . .but I never got the results you got. Six at a whack?? Sounds like a plague there.


.

[PeteC]

It is a plague. My place sides up right to a jungle and all sorts of things come over the wall on a regular basis, snakes included. My 'chokes' have had free run of the place and I guess when the lights went out and they started their nightly party, they tripped the light fantastic on the wrong dance floor. I'm now thinking of sprinkling some sugar on the paste as well to attract the ants. HHF, maybe a way to get rid of the tiny one's?

I like Samsung. All my TV's are Samsung and they perform very well. I've had LG aircons before and had problems with them after a year or so. Fan shaft noise, fan motor replacement etc. Small, annoying things. Never a compressor or something large. LG bigger models were also noisy, as is TRANE to the max. That's why we sold it as couldn't sleep properly. If Samsung aircons perform like the rest of their products, I think you made a good choice.

I may not have with the Daikin, it all depends on the situation. Mine is quiet and a side benefit is power savings. The Daikin same btu cost me close to 30,000 Baht more than the comparable TRANE model. So, my 2,000 baht per month energy cost saving will take me about 15 months to recoup. After 15 months will my Daikin still be a quiet and a power cost saving unit? Only time will tell if I'll come out ahead in all categories. Daikin, Mitsubishi and Carrier are the top units here though. There's also another one...Sanko Denke or Daihatsu? which is very good from what my neighbors say. Again, it's an initial cost vs long term benefit gamble.

Besides your 'NUMBER 5' sticker on your unit, you should have an official Thai government green colored sticker somewhere, perhaps on the side of the outside unit. That should tell you what your btu is. It's probably 10,000 from what you indicated above. Pete

[hhfarang]

I think most any of the girls working in the bars on Bintabaht can do that reasonably well.

Are you imparting that information hhfarang, based on your personal experiences.

Nope, going on rumor only... I'm happily married!

I may not have with the Daikin, it all depends on the situation. Mine is quiet and a side benefit is power savings. The Daikin same btu cost me close to 30,000 Baht more than the comparable TRANE model.

My 8 A/C units are Daikin and my electric bill ranges between 7000 and 12000 per month depending on the season... ... but I think 3 to 4k of that is pumps for water features and watering the garden.

It is a plague. My place sides up right to a jungle and all sorts of things come over the wall on a regular basis, snakes included. My 'chokes' have had free run of the place and I guess when the lights went out and they started their nightly party, they tripped the light fantastic on the wrong dance floor. I'm now thinking of sprinkling some sugar on the paste as well to attract the ants. HHF, maybe a way to get rid of the tiny one's?

I encourage the lizards because they eat the ants!