Savings - a top factor
Male worker Ha Van Tuyen (born in 1995, from Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa province) is currently a worker at a foundry, Canon Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Hung Yen).
Mr. Tuyen rents a closed rented room in Ngai Duong village, Dinh Du commune (Van Lam district, Hung Yen) for 1.4 million VND/month. Mr. Tuyen's rental area is 5 floors high, each floor has 8 rooms closed, with air conditioning installed.
In winter, both room rates and electricity and water are about 2 million VND/month, in hot summers, using a lot of electricity is about 3 million VND/month. I live with my fellow countrymen, dividing the money in half, each month this amount accounts for 20% of my total income, said Mr. Tuyen.
During the summer, Mr. Tuyen said that when he comes home from work, he and his friend cook early in the kitchen, take a bath, then turn on the air conditioner and schedule for activities for about 3 hours.
"We try to sleep while the air conditioner is still working, then the room is cooler, with an electric fan, so we also save a lot of electricity bills. On days when I sleep late or have something to do, I have to turn on the air conditioner all night because every half hour of turning off the room is hot, the hotter it is, the more difficult it is to sleep, said Mr. Tuyen.
Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tu and his wife are currently renting a room in Yen Nghia Industrial Park (Ha Dong, Hanoi). To save electricity, he and his wife strictly follow the principle of maximum savings.
"We immediately turn off electronic devices when not in use, and turn on the refrigerator as recommended by the manufacturer. In particular, on hot summer days, I have to use air conditioners, I close the room, check, reinforce the gaps, windows... to avoid heat drainage. Every night, the air conditioning time is set, not turned on at night, said Mr. Tu.
Many ways to avoid heat
Mr. Tran Van Dat currently has 8 rooms for rent in Ngai Duong village (Hung Yen). According to Mr. Dat, if the workers have a need, he will install more air conditioners. Currently, there is no room with a rental price regulation of 1 million VND/month, the room with a regulation of 1.2 million VND/month.
" Of my 10 rooms, 3 workers' rooms do not need air conditioners. This group is very frugal, and also often works overtime and overnight shifts at the factory, so they rarely go home. If they come back, they take advantage of sleeping in the burying ground, so staying at home for a few hours is not too much of a problem with air conditioning, said Mr. Dat.
According to Mr. Dat, when renting rooms without air conditioners, workers save a fixed amount of 200,000 VND/month, plus the electricity bill generated from air conditioners can be up to 600,000 VND/month in the summer, for many people, this is a large amount of money.
To save money, some workers in the boarding house even accept giving their neighbors in the hammock on days when the temperature is too high, and at the end of the month, they can pay a portion of their electricity bill.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Tu Chi is currently renting a room with a fellow countryman in Tan Trieu commune (Thanh Tri, Hanoi). During the peak hot summer days, Ms. Chi is forced to use air conditioners but will minimize the number of hours of use of this device.
On days when Hanoi is up to 38-39 degrees Celsius, after dinner, my roommate and I will go to the supermarket or convenience store. We bought some items such as instant noodles, laundry detergent... but often kept them for a long time to take advantage of the cooling. When we got to the room, we took a bath before bed, left a pot of water in front of the fan and turned on the air conditioner about 3-4 hours ago. Almost no night in the summer has been to air condition until morning. Thanks to that, the summer electricity bill only increases by about 300,000 - 400,000 VND/month compared to winter" - Ms. Chi shared.
