How can I find out who is stealing electricity?

[Rezep]

Ka government last increased the tariff in 2019, I keep monitoring the slab rates, fuel adjustment charges in bescom bill.
Because of work from home, we have increased use of laptop/desktops, phones are always charging in house (vs in work or in car), fans running, increased microwave/convection oven usage for snacks. Increased Tv usuage, more water utilization which means pump runs more, water purifer runs more. Hence you will notice increased power bills vs previous summer bill.

Some noob bescom consumers like my neigbours compared the difference in march bill vs may bill. March bill is actually for the month of feb which was relatively cooler, May bill includes usuage of march and april +hotter summer meaning usuage of air con, increased fridge consumptions and reasons above of working from home.

Bescom for the majority adjusted the slabs units correctly.

As much as that might be true for some people, it's not for everyone. You might be working in an IT Company where you're capable of working from home but my family isn't. I don't think charging phones would be the huge cause in the jump in the bill either. I don't own a microwave either, and the TV usage was the same even before the lockdown (we don't turn it on for the whole day). Increased fridge consumptions? Wait people turn off their fridge as they feel like , if i'm sure doing that often would actually cause the fridge to deteriorate faster. and i don't even own an AC either since we are lucky enough to live in a city with good weather and even though we would have relatively high temps (which is nothing like in the north), it would be a complete waste to buy one for only one month and then never use it (that's how i feel)

 

[adder]

I don't think charging phones would be the huge cause in the jump in the bill either. I don't own a microwave either, and the TV usage was the same even before the lockdown (we don't turn it on for the whole day). Increased fridge consumptions? Wait people turn off their fridge as they feel like , if i'm sure doing that often would actually cause the fridge to deteriorate faster. and i don't even own an AC either since we are lucky enough to live in a city with good weather and even though we would have relatively high temps (which is nothing like in the north), it would be a complete waste to buy one for only one month and then never use it (that's how i feel)

When you add up all the phones in the house, it could be one of reasons to make the jump to the next slab rate, every small thing adds up. Fridge consumption is more in summers. Also when you work from home the fridge is going to open and closed more especially in summers, which results in the compressor running longer. I stay in bangalore and we use AC from late feb to mid june. so that's about 4 months a year. Also due to covid since we temporarly stopped the maid, there is increased vacuum cleaner usage, washing machine usage and now a dishwasher to that consumes 1 unit / cycle twice a day.
Any one wondering what the bescom slabs were at the start of 2018 it was 3.25, 4.7, 6.25, 7.3. In june 2018 each slab increased by 25 paisa. In october 2018 they added fuel adjustement charges which vary depending on coal prices. From july 2019 they further increased the slab rates by another .25 paisa. Expect another hike this year.


I just can't get to lower the power bills. Since the past few years I have replaced every led bulb to the latest ones(gave away the old led bulbs) which have the highest lumens/watt, replaced all the fans with BLDC. All Ac are 5 star inverter. Added a solar water heater, yet my bills keep increasing mostly due to tariff increase but also increased power consumption with all those power sucking IOT or any devices connected to the home network.