Thursday, November 21, 2013

almost as expensive here as it was there

At my apartment in Front Royal, Virginia, the only power bill I had to pay was for electricity. On average, my electric bill was about $60-$80 per month. There was no separate gas bill. Here in Hayang, my electric bill went from about $30 (US) to about $15 once I stopped using my air conditioning. The gas company didn't bill me until just today, however, and the bill I got floored me: W50,800, or just about $46, for the period from October 4 to November 1. So for power, i.e., gas plus electric, I'm paying about $61 per month—this despite the fact that my studio is about a third of the size of my previous digs. Ouch.


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2 comments:

John from Daejeon said...

Keep in mind that that bill was for a pretty mild time of year. January's might be sky high if you don't watch both your gas and electric meters closely. The exponential billing of electricity in South Korea really caught me off guard my first January here--to the tune of 200,000 won. Since then, I watch those meters like a hawk and sleep under a -10 degree Fahrenheit sleeping bag. This year electricity will even be more pricey as the government has raised the price in an attempt to stop the shortages, especially after last year's brutally cold December.

Here's the Bloomberg link to the price increase.

Kevin Kim said...

Thanks for the warning. It sounds as if I need to live like Ebenezer Scrooge, refusing to add that extra lump of coal to the fire. Alas, my camping gear is in the US, and I don't have the money to buy an appropriately sized sleeping bag here. More blankets for me!