The increasing rate of the electric bill is a common issue among many households. Have you experienced being shock- to-death upon seeing your electric bill? As a homeowner, we can predict the electric consumption for a month. But sometimes we are receiving the monthly bill beyond our expectations.
The good thing is that there are helpful ways to compute your electric bill. Even a simple housewife can do it manually.
Why is it important to know how to compute your electric bill?
Every month we are receiving our electric bill. That’s why it is important to know how much we owe so we can prepare for it. It is also necessary to know which appliances consume most of the electricity.
Knowing how to read the electric meter is the key to know about bill computation. Through the electric meter, you will determine the present and past electric consumption. We compute the electric consumption in kilowatt per hour. Thus, every month we need to pay the total amount based on our consumption.
If you know how to read the electric meter, you can track your monthly consumption every month. This will give you an idea if you are using energy efficiently. Regardless of the meter you have, the basic is to read the numbers stated in the meter. To get the present month consumption, subtract the previous reading from the present reading.
Another way to compute energy consumption is to determine the individual wattage of each device or appliance. You can see it on the label or in the device’s manual. Monitoring the daily watt consumption of your devices and appliances can help in computing the monthly electric consumption. After which, you need to convert the watt consumption to kilowatts. Divide the watt-hours by 1,000 to get the kilowatts consumption.
The Department of Energy has created an online calculator known as the Wattmatters calculator. All you must do is to visit the website at Wattmatters.org.ph. They will guide you on how to use the online calculator properly. Likewise, for Meralco consumers, you can use the Meralco Appliance Calculator downloadable in both Android and iOS platforms. This app allows you to determine the electricity consumed by your appliances per hour, per day, or per week.
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It is better to have an idea about your next electric bill so you can prepare the budget ahead of time.