Online converting service apartment commercial electricity tariff to residential with myTNB portal

If you live in a service apartment which sit on a piece of commercial land title, you might be paying higher electricity bill every month if your electricity usage is charged based on commercial tariff.

You can file an application with Tenaga Nasional (TNB) to request to change your commercial tariff to the cheaper residential tariff, either by visiting to TNB branch in your area and submit the paper form, or submit the online form in myTNB portal anytime anywhere.

Either way, your application will be processed pretty soon. Normally, your tariff will be changed to residential rate during the next business day after online submission.

You can click here to access to myTNB portal. If you haven't created an account in myTNB, you will need to register for one before you can login.

After login, go to the Apply menu, and select the option "I want to do something else".

Then, select "I want to find out more about other services".

After that, select "Change My Tariff".

There are 4 steps to fill in the online form. Make sure you select "Domestic" as premise type, and select the correct residential type.

At the end of the process, you are required to submit a scanned copy of your MyKad. The name on the MyKad should be the same with the name printed on your electricity bill.

If you confirm to submit the application, you will be charged for RM10 stamp duty, which will be reflected in your upcoming electricity bill.

Upon successful submission, you will receive an email like below.

However, there seems to be no further notification on successful tariff change. You can login to myTNB after 24 hours later to check if your electricity tariff has been changed to residential rate or not.

For your information, current TNB commercial tariff is as below:

and current TNB residential tariff is as below:

If you don't apply for the conversion to residential rate, you might end up being charged double or more in your bill for same amount of electricity used in your service apartment unit.

My CyberPower UT800EG 800VA/400W UPS with built-in AVR

It is really value or money to use RM128 to get a branded Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) system with capacity of 800VA/400W to provide power protection for my desktop computer and Internet connection devices.

This CyberPower UT800EG UPS has a very compact size, about the same with a typical  2-bay network attached storage (NAS) system.

It is very easy to operate, with only one on/off button. It uses 3 LEDs and a beeping buzzer to show its status and condition.

Selling at this kind of cheap price, it is within my expectation that it only has basic UPS function that generates simulated sine wave (instead of pure sine wave), and basic Single Boost, Single Buck type of Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR) function. It has electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter and radio frequency interference (RFI) filter.

It uses internal current limiting  and a fuse for overload protection. It has a relatively low surge suppression rating of 125 Joules.

Beside its cheap price and compact size, another thing I like is its 3 universal type power outlets. With this kind of power outlet, I can directly plug in my equipment within the need to use special kind of IEC-320 power cord.

Another thing I like is its patented energy saving feature called GreenPower UPS Bypass Technology, which is claimed to be able to save substantial amount of power consumption.

When use with normal desktop computer and 27 inches LCD monitor, it is able to provide slightly more than 10 minutes of power outage protection.

This UPS comes with 2 years warranty, which registration can be made online.

My HuntKey SZL307 3 gang universal socket power extension with USB power output and surge protection

I just bought this HuntKey SZL307 3 gang power extension for about RM50. It has all the features I wanted, namely:

• Long and thick power cord (2 meter)
• Universal power sockets
• USB fast charging ports
• Independent on/off switch for each socket
• Surge protection against overload, voltage fluctuations, surges and spikes
• SIRIM approved

This HuntKey SZL307 power extension comes with 2 USB charging port with fast charging output of 5V/2.4A, handy for charging mobile devices without the need of their power adapter.

Its surge protected sockets are universal type, can fit in various types of 3-pin plug and also 2-pin plug.

Unlike its competitor Belkin SurgeMaster which only has one on/off switch for all the sockets, this HuntKey SZL307 has individual on/off switch for each of its 3 power sockets, and there is LED indicator light for each of the switches.

It comes with 3 years warranty. Most importantly, it is SIRIM approved with a SIRIM sticker on it.

There are other variants to this product, such as the HuntKey SZL407 which has 4 gangs and selling at a more expensive price.