If you live in Metro Manila and selected municipalities and cities in CALABARZON (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) and Bulacan, then your electric power distributor is Meralco.
While we can’t have it all, Meralco continuously tries to improve its service and efficiency toward its consumers by introducing measures like prepaid electricity (known as KLoad). Another innovative tool they added to help consumers be more mindful of their energy spending is the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator.
In this article, let’s take a look at what the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator is and how to use it.
Table of Contents
- What is the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator?
- How to use the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator
- How to maximize using the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator
What is the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator?
The Meralco Energy Calculator, or App Cal, is a proprietary tool for estimating and analyzing energy consumption every hour, day, week, and month. The advantage of using Meralco’s calculator is its near-accurate estimates, which were made possible by the information tested by the Meralco Power Lab.
This app allows you to identify the usual causes of your high electricity bill by calculating how much energy your gadgets and appliances consume.
However, while the Meralco electricity calculator wants to be as accurate as possible, the app user needs to list their gadgets and appliances and frequency as accurately as possible. The more accurate you can input your details, the more accurate the Meralco App Cal will be as well.
Once you get the result of the Meralco Appliances Energy Calculator, you can use the details to manage your monthly electricity budget better.
How to use the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator
The Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator chose to be as user-friendly as possible, which is why there may be times when its details are not as accurate as you would like. Therefore, it’s important to be as accurate on your end as possible.
You have two options to use the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator (App Cal): through your web app and via your Meralco mobile app. Conveniently, both mobile and web apps have a similar interface for your inputs. So, let’s begin.
We also published a separate energy calculator for manual computation if you’re not using Meralco’s service.
Note: Before using this app, it’s important that you know your average monthly bill, your list of appliances and their ratings, and your frequency of use. These details will determine the rate to be applied.
Using the web app
Step 1: Go to the Appliance Energy Calculator web app through this page: https://appliancecalculator.meralco.com.ph
Once you enter this page, you will see the different fields that you need information on, such as:
- your average bill amount;
- types of appliances;
- the wattage of appliances;
- hours used per day;
- days used per week, and
- weeks used per month.
You will use these details in the succeeding steps to estimate your power consumption per appliance more accurately.
Step 2: Enter your average monthly bill amount.
To do this more accurately, you can check your latest Meralco Bill and look at the “Your typical consumption” section. You will get your average monthly consumption for the last 12 months for a more accurate view of your consumption.
In this example, you can see that the average consumption of this household is 284 kWh per month in the last 12 months. You can simply multiply it by the latest per kWh rate.
To do this, simply go to Google and search for “Meralco rate per kWh for [insert month & year].”
After you’ve seen the rate per kWh multiply it by your average kWh consumption. Based on our example, it will be 284 kWh x PHP 11.6012 per kWh = PHP 3,294.74.
Now that you acquired your average electricity consumption, input it into the black space. You can round off your average monthly bill because the App Cal doesn’t accept decimal points. So, in our example, I entered PHP 3,295.
Note: You can also click the plus (+) and minus (-) symbols to increase or decrease your bill in the increment of PHP 100.
Step 3: Click “Select an appliance.”
In this portion, you will manually enter each household appliance, choosing the closest type and model from the selection.
Once you click “Select an appliance,” a pop-up window will appear showing the selections of appliances on the Meralco App Calculator list.
You will have three options for finding the types of appliances you have at home. You can either:
- Scroll through the list
- Search the Appliances
- Filter by Type
Let’s show how to use them one by one.
Step 4a: Locate the appliance by scrolling through the list.
When you scroll through the list, you’ll see appliances listed in alphabetical order, like 2-Door Chiller, 3-Door Chiller, Air Circulator, Air Conditioner, and so on. The list will also show their identifiers, like the cubic feet for refrigerators, dimensions of air circulators, air conditioner types, whether they’re inverters or non-inverters, and more.
The good thing about scrolling through the list is you can see all the listed appliances on the web app to ensure that you’re not missing anything for a more accurate outcome. It’s more time-consuming because you’ll have to scroll through all the listed appliances and specifications.
Step 4b: Locate the appliance using the Search the Appliances function.
If you have the list of all your appliances, it’s easier to just search through them one by one and not waste your effort scrolling through the list.
Important: You must type the exact match for the specific appliance to show. For instance, you want to test your AC’s energy consumption. If you type aircon, airconditioner, or AC, it will return no result or incorrect result. So you input “air conditioner” or at least “air c*.”
Step 4c: Locate the appliance by filtering by type.
Your third option when looking for your appliances is to select “Filter by type.” When you click it, it will show ten (10) groupings, such as:
- Air Conditioners
- Audio and Video
- Computer and Gadgets
- Fans
- Freezers
- General Appliances
- Kitchen Appliances
- Lighting
- Refrigerators
- Washers and Dryers
Filtering by type is easier to use if you know exactly the type of appliances it may have been grouped. For instance, you can easily locate air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, and washers and dryers.
However, if you’re looking for air circulators, you need to know that it’s part of the fan’s appliance family. Or if you’re looking for vacuum cleaners, you can find them under general appliances.
Step 5: Select the Appropriate Appliance, then click “Set.”
When selecting your appliance, you must ensure that the specification on the list is the same as your appliance at home. However, sometimes, you won’t find the exact specifications as the one you own. When that happens, you can select the closest on the list.
Once you click “set,” the wattage of the appliance will automatically be populated on the app. For instance, I added an “Air Conditioner – Split Type, Inverter (1.00 HP). After setting it, the wattage of 800 W automatically appeared.
Note: Although the wattage automatically appears, it’s not always as accurate as the one you own. For instance, the air conditioner at home that I am referring to has a power rating of 860 W. This means that the 800 W rating on the Cal App will be 60 W off for its estimation.
Step 6: Set the “Hours used per day” by moving the slider or clicking the + or – buttons.
Once you have selected the specific appliance, you need to select the average number of hours you use it per day. For example, after selecting our appliance (Air Conditioner – Split Type, Inverter (1.00 HP)), I slid the hour selector to 8, indicating that we use our aircon at an average of 8 hours per night.
Note: This is a crucial information because the number of hours will determine how much energy you use per day, which will then be translated into weekly and monthly usage estimates.
Step 7: Select the days of the week that you use your appliance.
Afterward, you must select the days of the week you typically use your appliance. When you click the day, it will turn from white to blue.
In my air conditioner example, we typically use the aircon every night, so I clicked all the days. However, if you don’t use your appliance daily, you should show it by only selecting the days you do.
Step 8: Select the number of weeks you use your appliance per month, then click “Calculate.”
Like choosing the number of hours per day, choosing the number of weeks will also significantly affect the output calculation. However, since we typically use most of our appliances at least once per week, 4 weeks will be the safe choice.
Once you click Calculate, the appliance’s hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly consumption in Philippine pesos (PHP) will be shown so you can better visualize how much each appliance contributes to your overall monthly bill.
Based on our sample calculation, it shows that the estimated cost of operating our 1.00 HP Split Type Inverter Air Conditioner is:
- PHP 5.00 per hour
- PHP 40.00 per day
- PHP 280.01 per hour
- PHP 1,120.03 per month
These peso values will be our guide when determining how to adjust our aircon usage, especially if we want to decrease our monthly electricity consumption.
Important: The per kWh rates are regularly updated to show the rate for the month and to give the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator a more accurate computation. You’ll also need to be connected to the Internet to update the kWh rates.
Step 9: Click “Compute Another” to calculate a different appliance.
Once you finished computing for one appliance, you can list it somewhere or use a spreadsheet for future reference. Then, you can proceed to your other appliances by repeating the steps. Don’t worry. It gets easier once you get the hang of it.
Tip: You can prioritize calculating the more energy-consuming appliances, like your air conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine, electric fans, and other appliances with motors.
Using the Meralco mobile app
In addition to the Web App, you can use the Meralco Mobile App to access the Appliance Calculator and calculate your appliance’s energy usage. The good thing about the mobile app is it looks similar to the web app, making the web app instructions useful.
Here are the steps to use the Meralco Appliance Calculator (App Cal) on your phone.
Step 1: Install and open the Meralco App on your phone.
You can download the Meralco mobile app via the App Store or Google Play.
Step 2: Tap on Appliance Calculator.
Once you installed and opened the Meralco app, you can locate the Appliance Calculator on the lower-right corner of the app.
Note: You can use the Appliance Calculator without logging in or registering for the app. Just click the icon, and you will be redirected to the Appliances Electricity Calculator.
Step 3: Enter your average monthly bill amount.
Similar to how we will use the Web App, the mobile app is just the same. It has the same fields, like Monthly Bill Amount, Appliance, Wattage, Hours Used, Days Used, and Weeks Used. The good thing about the mobile app is its user-friendly interface, where everything you need to input is on a single screen.
Step 4: Click “Choose Appliance.”
Similar to the web app, you will manually select each household appliance, choosing the closest type and model from the selection.
Once you click “Choose Appliance,” a pop-up window will appear showing the selections of appliances on the Meralco App Call list.
Step 5: Locate the appliance.
You can choose one of these three options:
- By scrolling through the listed appliances.
- By using the search bar.
- By using the filter by type function.
You can choose any of the three options. Just ensure that you choose the appropriate model type of your appliance for a better estimation.
Step 6: Select the appropriate appliance and click “Set.”
Step 7: Input the number of hours, days used, and weeks used.
Step 8: Click Calculate.
Once you have inputted all the necessary fields and clicked “Calculate,” the estimated hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly rates will appear. Then, you can take a screenshot or input the data on a spreadsheet for better analysis. Afterward, you can move on to the next appliance.
You will notice that the calculation results on the mobile app are the same as those on your web app.
How to maximize using the Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator
The Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator is not perfect, but it is a user-friendly tool that easily computes each of your appliance’s energy consumption. However, to maximize its use, here are some tips.
1. Get a more accurate average monthly bill
As you notice in our Step 2 computation for the average monthly bill amount, I took the steps a little bit further and identified the 12-month average consumption, which is already on your monthly bill. It’s best to use your latest bill for accuracy because the average monthly bill amount will serve as the reference when computing energy consumption.
2. Double-check your usage frequency.
It’s important to be as close as possible to your regular usage, especially the number of hours you use per day because this value will be multiplied to get your daily, weekly, and monthly consumption. Inputting high will overestimate your consumption while inputting too low, a much lower value, will underestimate its expenditure. You’ll want to be as close to your actual usage as possible.
3. Include all your gadgets and appliances, if possible.
If you want a deeper analysis of your energy consumption, it’s better to include all your gadgets and appliances in your home. This will help you identify which appliances are consuming more and which are consuming less, giving you more flexibility in managing your appliance usage.
The Meralco Appliance Energy Calculator is a good tool accessible through the Meralco website or mobile app to help consumers and clients quickly compute their appliances’ consumption. While there are still some points for improvement, the app’s user-friendly interface makes it useful for anyone.