Just about now some people will begin being hit with some pretty hefty electricity bills having, like us, found it necessary to use their a/c more. We've done better than I expected, having benefited from some rainy and cool weather- and some cool nights to go with it. Running the a/c whenever we felt it necessary, often at night and part of the day, it looks like we're going to hit 900 KWH, an average of 15 KWH/day, for this billing period. Because of the high subsidies applied by the Mexican Government to all consumption up to that point, we'll end up with a bill of just over 800 pesos for the two months from May 16 to July 16, a modest bill by most people's standards- about 35 USD/month during a warm part of the year. The subsidies make a big difference, as you'll see: for example, use another 900 KWH, 30 KWH/day, during the two month period- not any part of which will be subsidized- and the bill climbs to 3,330 pesos, rather than the 1,600 pesos you might expect! How hard is it to use that much electricity? Not hard at all, people tell me. Our next door neighbor, who likes to keep his whole place "bank lobby cool," averages over 50 KWH/day, and so expects a bill of nearly 6000 pesos this time around. I think most people in Cancun are on the same billing cycle so we will all get a "report" of how we're doing in just a few days, courtesy of the CFE!
V: We are lucky to be shaded from both above(two floors) and in the back(wall and banana and lime trees!) and get a constant breeze, 24/7. Have used the A/C for about 40 mins since moving here in October... We are also getting the "reflective plastic film" that you put on the window. It reflects up to 80% of the sunshine, which would be great for the front part of the building when the afternoon sun hits. This is a good heads up however! A neighbor leaves her A/C on all day, and she doesnt have any pets or anything... She "likes it cold when she comes home", so I told her to either upgrade her unit or install a timer that will turn it on 20 mins before she arrives home.
Hopefully ours won't be too different. Most of our house is a decent temp year-round, but our bedroom is STIFLING (I've never felt anything like it). We've been leaving our AC on from 6 pm to 8 am every night for months, and it will probably stay that way. Luckily, we only have to leave it around 27C and it gets pretty cold, so our bills have never been more than $600 (bimonthly)
This next billing period is not looking too bad, after all: we're running just under 20 KWH/day this billing cycle, which will end around the middle of September. That will work out to a bill of about $1,770 pesos for the two months. What is that, $80 USD/month, for two of the hottest months of the year? Who could complain? Our annualized electric bills work out to less than $40 USD/month, while living in a semi-tropical zone. Not too bad, really, to stay cool when you need to, with nature providing all the heating needed, for free, the rest of the year! People living in the U.S. northeast would be happy with this: when we visited friends in CT, they told us they paid an annualized $700/month for heating and cooling.
