In our hot and humid city, there’s nothing much we can do about the heat but rely on air conditioners to cool us down.

While that helps, it also inflates our electricity bills.

We asked four colleagues, who can’t sleep without switching on their air conditioner, how much they pay for their electricity each month.

Colleague 1: S$162.57 on electricity a month

Garey Gan, 26, lives with two roommates.

His most recent electricity bill: S$162.57 for 583 kWh.

“We split 40-40-20. The two with AC pay more,” Gan said, which makes sense since they leave it on for an average of 10 hours a day.

As one of the AC users, he pays S$65 (40 per cent of S$162.57) for his share.

When asked where most of his electricity is spent, Gan said: “Definitely air conditioner.”

They’d even tested it out previously:

“It’s hard to live without it because it's HOT. I’m a warm sleeper and would have poorer quality sleep without it.”

Colleague 2: S$70.71 on electricity a month

My next colleague, 31-year-old Nigel Chua, turned out to be the most conscientious about his electricity usage among those surveyed.

Having moved into their own home earlier this year, he and his wife thought of various ways to keep their electricity usage low.

“We try to use energy-efficient bulbs and appliances where possible. The dishwasher has an “eco” function so we use that too, and we skip the “dry” cycle where the machine heats up to improve evaporation. We let the dishes air dry instead.”

Their electricity usage is roughly 230 to 280 kWh a month, which came out to S$70.71 on their latest bill.

He believes it’s mostly from the air conditioning, which is switched on once every two nights and more often during the hotter months.

But they always set a timer for it to go off after two to three hours, and set it at a warmer temperature of 27 degrees Celsius.

Other than that, they may switch it on for a full day on a hot day when they’re working from home, or for a couple of hours during the worst of the afternoon heat.

Colleague 3: S$110.90 on electricity a month

“My husband can’t sleep without the aircon,” another colleague, Ilyda Chua, 27, said.

The couple has the air conditioning on at 25 degrees Celsius every night. That’s about eight hours a day.

Other than that, they’ll only switch it on if it’s really hot in the afternoon, or if guests come over.

Her most recent bill came up to S$110.90 for 395 kWh of electricity.

Chua admits she isn’t too consistent about switching the lights off — but fortunately, her husband is.

He often takes it upon himself to turn off the lights, charging appliances, and sometimes even switching off their Wi-fi when not in use.

“... I do not get (switching the Wi-fi off) but whatever floats his boat,” she comments on her husband's energy-saving tactics — which have probably helped her save quite a bit.

Colleague 4: S$102.40 on electricity a month

Olivia Lin, 32, who lives by herself, says she paid S​​$102.40 for her electricity bill last month for 364 kWh of electricity — the highest amongst the interviewees per person.

She professes that she can’t live without an air conditioner at night, and leaves it on for around 10 hours while she’s in bed.

But on occasion, she’ll switch it off in the middle of the night so it doesn’t run for too long.

The other appliances she thinks add to the bill are her washing machine and dryer.

However, she shared that she only does the washing once a week and the dryer once a month.

I probed further, in hopes of figuring out why her bill was much higher than Nigel’s household when she’s the only one using it at home.

Competitive prices

However, the truth is, that these profiles are likely to pay a higher rate in the coming year.

They are currently paying their electricity bill from the previous rate structure but will be faced with increasing rates once their contract expires with the increase in SP Group’s electricity tariffs.

Thankfully, Geneco’s prices remain competitive despite the increase in electricity tariffs.

More savings with Geneco’s limited time promotions

To save more, switch to Singapore’s No.1 Residential Electricity Retailer, Geneco — which offers one of the lowest electricity rates at an attractive 29.52¢/kWh for their most popular plan - Get It Fixed 24 (24-month plan) which also comes with a Price Match Guarantee.

Geneco has also launched its “Jolly Savings” campaign and is running special 12.12 promotions.

For a limited time only, customers who sign up from Dec. 8 to 22 will get to enjoy up to S$170 exclusive rebates and vouchers:

• S$60 bill rebate + S$30 eCapitaVoucher with promo code JOLLY90 (for the first 500 online sign-ups)
• Stack up to S$50 bill rebate with these credit card offers:
• Up to S$50 bill rebate with HSBC credit cards
• Up to S$45 bill rebate with Maybank credit cards
• Up to S$40 bill rebate with Citibank credit cards
• S$20 bill rebate with UOB cards

Mothership readers will also get additional savings of S$30 bill rebate when they use the exclusive referral code MS30.

Find out more here.

This writer is feeling very guilty about setting her air conditioner to 18 degrees Celsius.

Top image via Unsplash and Canva.