Electricity bill off the charts.

check your neighbor my tap into your electric circuit that is why your bill is doubled.

Do you have any common wall with some adjoining apartment or house? If you do it's quite likely that you've got a neighbor who has tapped into your circuit in order to freeload off your account.

If you do I would check all of the outlet boxes on that wall in order to see if there are any obvious illegal connections. If you can't see anything out of the ordinary, you might want to try the following little trick.

1. Experiment with the circuit breakers or fuses to determine exactly which ones cut the electricity to all the outlets and switch boxes on the adjoining wall.

2. Wait until after dark when your neighbor's lights are on.

3. If needed have a friend positioned outside where he/she has a clear view of the neighbor's apartment/house.

4. Disconnect the circuit breaker or fuse to cut electricity to the adjoining wall.

5.  If any of your neighbor's lights go out when you've cut power, then you can be sure that they've tapped your circuit. You should contact your electric company immediately and report a theft of energy. If they refuse to take action then inform them that you will only pay the same amount as your old bills, which is half of what you're paying now. That will certainly get their attention.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Oh yes, almost forgot...

Check your old bills and present ones. Look at not only the final amount payable, but also the consumption and the actual rate charged per KWh. Have either of those figures changed?

If the consumption has doubled, then there's a problem and it could be an illegal tap on your circuit or it could be a short somewhere and you could have a problem brewing.

If the rate has doubled (which I doubt) then there's your answer.

Thanks everyone, that makes total sense. I'm going to check this out tomorrow, thanks !

Bob774 - how did this work out for you? Did you find what the problem was?

Unfortunately, nobody is taping my circuit.. Still unexplained, my landlord said his utility bill has increased too, and that Cambodians are complaining on social network.
Do you have the same problem?

I'm not living in Cambodia at the moment - but hope to in the coming months. But if your bill has doubled there definitely is something wrong. I'd investigate further.

Hi - the same thing happened to me.  In my case it was my meter.  It was faulty.  Still working but not accurate or someone has tapped into your power in both cases your landlord should get the power company to check it out.

tk22 wrote:

Hi - the same thing happened to me.  In my case it was my meter.  It was faulty.  Still working but not accurate or someone has tapped into your power in both cases your landlord should get the power company to check it out.

I agree with tk22 completely, if there has been no change in your consumption habits and if your payment rate per Kwh hasn't been increased, you probably have a problem with a faulty meter. Contact the electric company and explain the problem. Insist that the send out a technician and replace the meter, don't take NO for an answer. If they replace the meter and you find that the bill drops again, you also have the right to demand a refund of what you estimate you were overcharged since you started getting the higher bills. Stick by your guns and go after it. They'll squawk like Hell when you demand the refund, but take them to court if need be, you'll win.

I did exactly that here in Brazil in the same situation, the judge agreed with me that regardless of what the electric company said about the old meter being fine, the drop in useage once the new meter was put in was the definitive proof that the old one was defective. He ordered the electric company to refund exactly what I estimated the overpayment was. Of course I had all the old bills and the new ones to prove my case.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Just that in Cambodia you'd have to pay $1000 + to hire a lawyer to help you sue the electricity company... I'd not recommend that approach.

Do you know any Cambodian who you can trust to send to the EDC to argue with them? If you go as a foreigner, they will probably assume that you're incredibly rich, are in the country to share your wealth, and therefore have no need to have your bill reduced again.

That's why they charge foreigners higher rates in the first place...

@tk22 thanks for the tip. How did you manage to convince EDC to check and then change the meter? Did you have to write them a letter with previous  bills?

If you live in Cambodia and you are renting your electricity bill will most likely be in the name of your landlord not your name.  So they will want it sorted out for this reason.  You need to put pressure on your landlord into getting it checked.  My bill was 4 times higher than it normally is and I just said very firmly 'no way am I paying this you better sort it out'.  They did that very day they got an electrician out who confirmed the meter was faulty and he put a new meter in.  The electrician said the meter that was faulty was from Vietnam and the new meter was from Japan and was a better meter.  My apartment had only been newly built for 6 months so it had nothing to do with an old meter it was a faulty unrepairable meter.  You have got to be really firm but smile at the same time letting your landlord know that he or she must do something about it immediately.  It is not your problem but his or her problem.  If your Khmer landlord handles it the problem it will be sorted if you handle it you may just cause yourself further frustration.

Hey thanks for the quick response. I'll ask the landlord, cheers !