BIG BILL Yeah, Sam, that's a nasty one. Our biggest, so far, had just been 1100 pesos. Your billing cycle may partially account for it, somehow. Have a look at the breakdown of what was charged for each "block" of KWH. See how much of the total usage was billed at the highest rate. One possibility that I didn't mention in connection with the neighbor who seems to be stealing electricity, possibly with the help of a corrupt CFE employee, or several, is that the apt directly next to his, and whose meter is next to his, has unusually large bills. So, it suggests the possibility the the current is being metered, somehow, to the next meter, and ending up on someone else's bill. I've never said anything to the neighbor with the big bills, as he's not very approachable, and some people take it badly when you come at them with something out of the blue, like this. ____________________ On the forum on the other hand, we're used to other people getting into our business, with lots of suggestions and advice, and think it's amusing!
Re: BIG BILL Its not exactly hard to "tap in" to a neighbor's electric when your in an apartment type building.... you should tell the neighbor with the high bills to go outside one night and kill his power, to make sure ONLY his lights go off.... if both his and the other go off, he should call the police.. as its not theft from CFE its theft from the person who is paying and a personal crime. and I'm not looking forward to my electric bill this month... as I expect it to be double.. unless they expect me to unplug my refrigerator and use candles for light.. there isn't much I can do to lower my usage.. the A/C is non-negotiable
LIFE BEFORE A/C Hi, Life, I'm with you on the a/c. I use mine, even now, in the bedroom, but to provide a white noise background, as much as anything, now that it's cooler. Also, even now, I use the a/c a lot during the day, finding I can't concentrate, and get any work done, if I'm distracted by the heat. Cancun is not a place I would have chosen to live in the days before a/c became commonplace in people's homes. When I was a boy, about the only places with a/c were banks- and then only a few of them, at that. Life was a lot tougher, then. ____________________ Your point, about theft from the CFE, and theft from another individual, being two different cases, is a good one. The complaint to the CFE gives them a chance to protect themselves, without doing anything, necessarily, to protect someone else from whom electricity is being stolen. However, as I said, this guy has not made himself very available to me. I've gotten to know all of the people who live here, except him. I've tried with him, but it hasn't worked, making it awkward to approach him about anything very sensitive, like this is. I have no plans to do it, unless we get to be friends. He may "catch on" himself, eventually: being a Mexican, I'm surprised he hasn't been alarmed at his bills, already. This next one's going to be a shocker for him. Even during the heavily subsidized period, his was running 2,200-2,400 pesos!, and it was Mexicans that hyper-sensitized me to this whole issue. I never would've gotten started on it if it weren't for my Mexican friends going on about electricity!
IMPACT OF RATE ADJUSTMENT I saw the impact of the seasonal rate adjustment, today, when the first bill came, charged at the winter rates. Though I used 43% less electricity this bimester than in the last one, my current bill, with winter rates applied to it, was 18% more than the last bill! I'm sure others, who use larger amounts of electricity than we do, will see an even bigger difference.
Re: IMPACT OF RATE ADJUSTMENT The bill I just paid this month was for ~100KW less than the previous bill, yet the total price was almost double... :? Its just one of those things.. its not as if we could go without power and live very comfortably given how dependent we are now days. For comparison, in Florida I can run a 2000 square foot house with central A/C for what it costs me to run my much smaller place here.. with just with a window A/C in the bedroom.... at least during the "winter" months. Average price per KW in Florida is about 9 (US) cents.. average for my last cycle here was around 14 cents.... average if your in the DAC rate is almost 20 cents per KW... not including the "DAP" and "Iva" tax that is on the end of the bil which amounts to another 15% on the Mexico price. and on this last bill they charged as 20 days on summer rate and the other 42 on winter.. so I wasn't even hit for the full winter tariff yet...
Whin I get back to it, I'm going to have to do some serious research. From V's post, I gather that the bimonthly billing is staggered, because down here in ZH land, our bill arrives next month. Our house, which I guess is considerably larger than those being discussed here, absolutely never generates a larger bill in winter than in summer. When we had one central unit cooling the whole house (to 77 F) the two-month bill often exceeded 14,500 pesos. Now that we've invested in splits for every room, this past summer our highest two-month bill was 7,500 pesos. Historically, our "winter" bills never exceed 4,000 pesos, and sometimes less, probably because we're away, spending money on other things, so no big savings there. Coming from Connecticut and New York, we consider the winter bill as quite inexpensive, although for here I guess we would be regarded as profligate spenders. We have a BIG fridge/freezer. dishwasher, clothes washer (but gas dryer) and, unfortunately, an electric water heater. We also have a large, high-pressure water filtration and whole house distribution system, so every time you wash anything or dispense water for coffee (electric), a big-ass pump turns on. So I understand our consumption, and yes, I've made sure the only one using the juice I'm paying for is me. I'll report back next month when I get the next CFE extortion demand. Meanwhile, I extend my apologies (and frequent donations) to all the conservationists out there.
According to the info below. Connecticut and NewYork have THE most expensive electricity rates in the continental US.. but I expect a lot of that is taxes.. (Hawaii looks really pricey!) http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html I'll mention that in the case of Florida at least this data is a little off, as it may be for other areas too.
Just thought I'd throw in our last bill. (It came in October for October/September so it was still pretty warm and we ran the bedroom AC frequently.) It was for 1200 kW/h and ran us $3300 MXP. 600 kW/h per month isn't great as far as conservation goes, but it is half of what we used in the US. I expect our usage to be considerably lower this next bill as we've only used the AC sparingly the last month. By my calculations, we are on schedule to lose the tariff 1-B and get reassigned to DAC after the next bill (and this bill actually mentioned that our usage was excessive for the area.) But also by my calculations, the reassignment would only cost us a few extra hundred pesos on this last bill. So for us, the preference to stay comfortable has won out.
STICKER SHOCK We've who've been here a while have caught on to these big rate swings, summer to winter, but newcomers could surely get a shock. (Which reminds me, I need to speak to the new neighbor, upstairs, who runs his a/c night and day- fresh air allergy, I suppose!) Mixz1, your experience has confirmed what for me was just speculation, that minisplits could be more economical than central units to operate, while maintaining what you find to be a comfortable temperature. The difference you experienced, however, was profound. And, Life, a doubling of your bill, on what amounts to the same consumption, makes you the poster child for the difference this seasonal rate adjustment makes in practice! As for doing with less a/c, if I didn't work at home, it might be possible; but, as soon as the sweat starts to trickle down the forehead, there's no hope for any further concentration.
