I just got my first electric bill of 7,600 JPY. My room is full electric meaning I use electric for cooking, air conditioning and having hot water. There’s a big water tank inside, which heats up the water and I always have very hot water in my house. My landlord said to not turn it off because it would be much more expensive to turn it on-off.
The thing is, i am rarely at home. Maybe 2 days a week. Otherwise I just sleep and rest for couple of hours between work and school. Is this much electricity bill normal? I only use my laptop + lights. Nothing else. And I tested it, if I turn on the water heater 10 mins before I take a shower, I usually have enough hot water to last for a shower. I rarely cook at home as well, when I do, it takes 10 mins at most. I think this bill is too much. What is your average electric + gas bill looks like? I’m in Osaka
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I posted in a comment in another post about this.Tokyo is another level right now. I have kinda the same lifestyle as you. Never home, just laptop and lights, no TV and I don’t cook. Last year most of the time my bill was 5,300円 then all of the sudden in November last year it went to 7,500円. Then February came this year and I lost my shit because it doubled to 15,000円. I already called the gas and electricity company because is too much. No change of lifestyle whatsoever. Maybe you can try calling. They will come check if the counter is broken or something. But yeah, maybe is just everything is more expensive now 🙁
Just in case, you might want to check if this could damage the water heater.
So your landlord told you not to turn off the water heater because it uses too much electricity, but you turned off the water heater anyway, and now you’re upset that your electric bill is high?
There’s a reason your landlord told you to leave the tank on. It heats the water up and keeps it hot, which is a lot cheaper than constantly reheating the water from scratch every time you use it. When you turn it off and on like that, you’re heating the entire tank of water each time, which is wasteful and expensive.
Anyway, your bill will tell you just how many kWh you used this cycle plus the base fee you pay for electricity. You can figure out if you used too much or if you just have an expensive base rate by checking that.
I live with my spouse and our combined electric and gas bill is only 7,094 yen this month. And both of us work from home.
I think your biggest cost is the electric water heater. I used to live in an apartment with such a heater as well, and my electric bill back then living alone in an apartment 1/3rd the size of my current place was higher my combined electric and gas bill now. And I was cooking with a portable stove, so that was just electricity only.
Why don’t you just turn the heater off and shower outside at a 銭湯 sentou (public bath). After a month you know the delta!
Our average electric bill for this big, drafty house runs between ¥20,000 ~ ¥40,000 per month, depending on the season. ¥7,600 looks pretty cheap, TBH.
Sounds about right.
You’re definitely wasting electricity by turning your heater off – it’s using much more electricity heating the water back up from cold again every day than it would be to just keep it hot all day.
If you’re not in most of the time and not using the aircon, not cooking etc then it probably shouldn’t cost you 7000+, but when you take into account that that’s essentially your electricity + gas bill for the month, that’s very reasonable to be honest.
Back when I lived in a 1R apartment in Tokyo, I was paying about that much per month (3000ish on each electricity and gas), despite being out most of the time. The difference was I cooked every day as well though, and that was back when both were much cheaper than they are now.
Yes, unfortunately electricity has become expensive and your bill is normal for a full electric apartment.
>if I turn on the water heater 10 mins before I take a shower, I usually have enough hot water to last for a shower
An electric water heater boils water during the night when the power is cheaper, and just keeps it warm during the day. Turning it off for ten minutes wouldn’t affect the temperature, but it also won’t affect the bill either.
That is currently a small electric bill.
Tepco here @ 12,000-14,000円 per month for 5LDK. But usually just myself.
Your bill does seem high — any extension cords running to your neighbor’s flat?
Tepco here
I pay 20,000 yen a month
I regret nothing
I got a whopping 1,736. Kinda surprised to be honest when my electric bill a couple months ago was 1-man.
10 years ago, a friend of mine in Tokyo was running up bills of 50,000 a month easily.
Mind you, he did have 16 servers running 24/7 in his apartment.
How long do you use your AC and at what temp?
7,600 JPY? For an オール電化? That’s VERY cheap, even assuming that you live alone and that you stay there for 2 days a week.
I assume that you have a fridge, right? That stays on 24/7. Depending on what kind of lights you have (incandescent, halogen, LED) you’ll see more or less power use.
In any case, that bill is definitely not too much. I was paying around 10.000 yen/month when I lived alone in Tokyo, and that wasn’t an all-electric apartment.
About the water heater, check a few things from the control panel. Assuming you have one.
– make it keep the minimum amount of hot water, instead of omakase or any other automatic setting.
– make sure you actually have “all-denki” electricity plan. Otherwise you’ll be heating it up with a bit more expensive power.
– if above checks out, check that the control panel is set too match your all-denki plan. I kid you not, the appliances are programmed with available electricity plans.
– explore the possibility of putting the water heater in a holiday mode, though this only makes sense if you’re away multiple consecutive days, like 5 out, 2 in. In that case it would make sense to put it on holiday mode for those days you’re not in.
Source: an eco-cute owner.
Tepco user here: Gas and electric cost me total 7,000yen a month when not using AC often, summer can be 10,000yen. I work from home, being out in the weekend. 1LDK
I was in an all-electric apartment and that’s about what I paid for months with minimal AC/heating usage, but I was also doing remote work and cooking meals. If I remember correctly, the electrical plan I was on was basically a flat rate up to a certain amount and designed so that over/under use would balance out.
Look at your energy bill and see what plan you are on.
As a few other comments noted, constantly turning the water heater off and on is a bad idea. Maintenance heat (the energy needed to stay at the set temperature) is less than the energy to reheat all the water. A hidden benefit is that in winter, any heat that does leak out will heat up your genkan a bit.
I just got an email about mine. 3550 yen for the month. That’s a 3 bed house in Fukuoka albeit with only 2 living in it. TV on constantly of course (my wife) but other than the fridge, kettle, microwave and washing machine not too many huge draws currently. Our provider has been giving out 1000 yen Amazon vouchers for low users which we’ve had in Jan, Feb and March so I think we’ll get one this month too. Gas to pay also so 7600 for an all denka doesn’t sound too bad.
I would do some unholy things for a 7,600¥ electricity bill. We had a 70,000 bill during the winter months (5 bedroom house)
But prices are rising everywhere. It’s unfortunate but oh well
US bills are around $200-$300 that’s cheap lol
Keep in mind, you should keep stored hot water at a minimum of 140°F (60°C) to prevent harmful bacteria from getting out of control (see legionella). Also, a larger mass of hot water is pretty good at keeping itself hot if you insulate the tank (not sure where your tank is though).
I don’t know where you live, but prices have been s high as 42yen/kWh recently in chubu. That would be about 150kwh a month, which is very little. Half of that is probably your fridge! To be fair I think you’re probably paying less than we are, but yeah, it’s probably just all the small things you have plugged in
I assume you don’t have gas then?
7600 for utilities is cheap considering the prices we have today.
So jealous. My electric bill is always around 20,000-45,000 monthly.
My bill was around 2800 yen this month.Cooking daily with electricity, hot water with electricity,
refrigerator, 3 laptop computers plugged in 24/7 and 4 monitors same (but only on when I am there), non-electric saving bulbs. Air-conditioner (though maybe just on a total of 15 hours this month, as it’s not too cold nor too hot)
Don’t you have an app or a website of your electricity provider where you can check the power usage by day / hour? Is someone using your power?
I’m in Osaka as well and my electric bill was 2500 for this past month. Our hot water comes from our gas though.
Dude my electric bill was higher than that most months when I lived alone in a flat with a gas water heater and gas stove. 7,600yen for ALL electric is cheap.
Is your water heater an eco cute or not ? If it is then maybe your landlord is right. If not, well, it’s not that much more expensive but it is more expensive to run it all the time.
Lowering the target temp would also help a lot.