Meralco Appliance Calculator – A Tool to Manage Consumer’s Electric Bills and Energy Consumption

Back in the 1990’s, people specially housewives, have been wondering how electric companies such as Meralco calculate the electricity cost per month per household. Until year 2003 came and Meralco responded to this need by creating a tool called the “Meralco Appliance Calculator” (M.A.C) which can be accessed through their online site. This tool was especially designed by Meralco in order to educate and inform consumers how their monthly electric bills are calculated. Through the M.A.C, consumers learned how much an electric home appliance cost when used within a certain period of time. Therefore, they learned which appliances they should avoid using too frequently and which appliances does not cost too much and therefore can be used as frequently without the fear of getting an increase in the electric monthly bill.

Every Filipino housewife is particular with budget management. Therefore, it is also of high importance to them how to manage their electric bill which will highly depend on how they utilize their electric appliances. For a consumer to learn to manage his electric bills, he needs to be informed and properly educated. That’s what the M.A.C provides. The M.A.C can be accessed anytime from Meralco’s website, www.meralco.com.ph.

Most people who have tried the tool said that the website is user friendly and very easy to use and understand. Even uneducated people can use it with ease. Over the years since it was made available to the public online, the tool has been continuously enhanced and new features have been added from time to time to best cater to the needs of the public.

I was first acquainted of this tool when I attended the launch of the new Meralco Appliance Calculator Web Application. Together with my other blogger friends,  I got the privilege of seeing how to manage your electric bill using MAC. A guy named Mac showed us on how to use it. He logs in to the website and calculates the estimate cost of their energy consumption on different appliances. After doing the calculations,  Mac mentioned you can print a page from the website that shows the calculation and you can use it as your guide. You can also share it to your friends on Twitter or Facebook.

Here’s the Meralco Appliance Calculator 2010 Walkthrough used during the launch

Anyway, when I visited my aunt, I learned that she has been using this tool and whenever she buys a new appliance, she sees to it that she knows the equivalent hourly electric consumption cost of the appliance before even buying it from the store. She never bought any appliance that she knows will not be of use to their household like jacuzzi tubs. She also placed limits on the use of certain devices such as electric iron and air conditioner. M.A.C has been of great help to her because she was able to learn some tricks and techniques that will help her better manage her household’s energy consumption. While plenty of people complained of high electric bills during the recent El Nino, she was still able to take control of theirs.

Like my aunt, we all need to be aware of our energy consumption and we need to apply the knowledge we get from this tool in our daily lives. This tool was made available to us and therefore, we should take advantage of it by utilizing it for us to be better equipped. Let us all be responsible citizens by making sure we are properly utilizing the electricity made available to all of us. Go and give M.A.C a try today!