Meralco rates are near record levels, so guessing what an appliance costs is an expensive habit. Here is the arithmetic for a beverage chiller at the current rate, with every assumption written down so you can change it.
A beverage chiller draws about 350 W. At the current Meralco rate of ₱14.7833 per kWh that is ₱5.17 per hour. Used 12 hours a day it costs ₱62.09 daily and about ₱1,863 a month.
Calculate it for your own beverage chiller (sari-sari store)
Change any box. The result updates as you type.
Planning estimate. The rate box is prefilled with a regional average; the figure on your own bill is the one that matters. Power is draw while running, not while switched on.
| Usage | kWh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Per hour | 0.35 | ₱5.17 |
| Per day at 12 hours | 4.20 | ₱62.09 |
| Per 30-day month | 126.00 | ₱1,863 |
| Per year | 1,533.00 | ₱22,663 |
What drives the number
Glass-door chillers work far harder than a home refrigerator because the door opens constantly and the glass insulates poorly. For a small store this is often the largest single cost.Only three things decide the cost: the wattage, the hours, and the rate. Wattage is fixed by the unit you own and is printed on the nameplate. The rate is fixed by Meralco and changes monthly. Hours is the only one under your control, which is why the table below is the useful one.
Cost by hours used per day
| Hours/day | kWh/day | Per day | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.35 | ₱5.17 | ₱155.22 |
| 2 | 0.70 | ₱10.35 | ₱310.45 |
| 4 | 1.40 | ₱20.70 | ₱620.90 |
| 6 | 2.10 | ₱31.04 | ₱931.35 |
| 8 | 2.80 | ₱41.39 | ₱1,242 |
| 10 | 3.50 | ₱51.74 | ₱1,552 |
| 12 | 4.20 | ₱62.09 | ₱1,863 |
| 24 | 8.40 | ₱124.18 | ₱3,725 |
Short cooking bursts, small monthly totals
Kitchen appliances draw a lot for a short time, which makes the wattage look frightening and the monthly cost modest. A 1,500 W kettle running four minutes costs less than a fan running all evening.
What does add up is anything left switched on. Keep-warm settings, standby displays and appliances that idle at low draw for many hours quietly cost more than the cooking itself. That is the pattern worth checking in your own kitchen.
How to spend less on it
- Turn off keep-warm once the food is served. Hours of low draw beats minutes of high draw.
- Match the pot to the burner or plate. Heating air around the pot is wasted energy.
- Cook in batches where you can, so a hot appliance is used twice rather than heated twice.
Reading this against your actual Meralco bill
Your bill shows total kWh consumed and the amount charged. Divide the total by the kWh and you get your real effective rate, which will differ from the headline figure because of lifeline discounts, senior citizen discounts and the refunds Meralco is currently passing back.
Households consuming 100 kWh or less qualify automatically for the lifeline rate, which is substantially cheaper and applied without registration. If that is you, every figure on this page is an overestimate. Put your own effective rate into the calculator above and the numbers will correct themselves.
How the Meralco rate has moved this year
The same beverage chiller cost noticeably less in January than it does now, with nobody changing how they use it. The generation charge is repriced every month against fuel costs, the peso-dollar rate and the wholesale spot market, so these figures move with it.
| Month | Rate per kWh | Bill at 200 kWh |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | ₱12.9508 | ₱2,590 |
| February 2026 | ₱13.1734 | ₱2,635 |
| March 2026 | ₱13.8161 | ₱2,763 |
| April 2026 | ₱14.3496 | ₱2,870 |
| May 2026 | ₱14.3345 | ₱2,867 |
| June 2026 | ₱14.4833 | ₱2,897 |
| July 2026 | ₱14.8261 | ₱2,965 |
| August 2026 | ₱14.7833 | ₱2,957 |
Compared with the alternatives
| Appliance | Watts | Per hour | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerator | 150 W | ₱2.22 | ₱532.20 |
| Small Refrigerator | 120 W | ₱1.77 | ₱425.76 |
| Chest Freezer | 200 W | ₱2.96 | ₱620.90 |
| Rice Cooker | 700 W | ₱10.35 | ₱310.45 |
| Induction Cooker | 1,800 W | ₱26.61 | ₱798.30 |
| Electric Kettle | 1,500 W | ₱22.17 | ₱166.31 |
Running a beverage chiller on solar
The Philippines averages roughly 4.8 peak sun hours a day, well above most of Europe or the northern United States. That, plus a grid rate near fifteen pesos, is why rooftop solar pays back faster here than international figures suggest, often in three to five years in Meralco territory.
| Panel size | Output per day | Panels needed |
|---|---|---|
| 400 W | 1.54 kWh | 3 |
| 450 W | 1.73 kWh | 3 |
| 550 W | 2.11 kWh | 2 |
| 600 W | 2.30 kWh | 2 |
Panels only produce in daylight. If the beverage chiller runs at night, that energy has to come from a battery, and batteries remain the expensive part of a Philippine solar quote. Net metering credits exports at the generation charge rather than the full retail rate, so using your own production during the day is worth considerably more than selling it back. Financing options including the SSS Energy Sustainability Loan are worth reading before you commit.