Electricity in Korea

I might have posted about this last year but my mind is being refreshed again. It has been hot and humid here and we have been running the air conditioning more that normal.  We do not have central air in our Korean apartment but free-standing units that supply ac to the room in which they were installed.  We only have two AC units for our three bedroom apartment, so not every room gets cooled as nicely as I would like.

Electricity in Korea is not too bad...if you don't use much.  But, the more  you use, the more you pay.  You would think that if I used 50K and my bill was $70.00 that I would be able to use 100K and my bill would be $140.00.  Not so true!! 

Last month we used 350K and our bill was about $60.00. Hey, I can handle a bill like that.   This month our usage is around 740K and unfortunately our bill will be about $300.00, and that is just for electricity.  This past fall there was a rate hike on utilities in Korea and the chart that I am posting may be off a little bit, but at least it gives you an idea of how it works.

We are a frugal family as it is and I would say that we had one or two days that we had the air on for more than 5 hours.  The other days, we would turn on the AC in the late afternoon or early evening, just to cool down the house so everyone could fall asleep.  I have heard of people spending almost $1,000 a month just on electricity.  They are probably running it most of the day and /or evening.  I'm just glad I don't have to pay their bills.


Here is the electricity usage chart.