YucaLandia
Aug 29, 2011, 6:23 AM
Post #26 of 31
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Your descriptions of the problems are missing key bits of information that would allow the rest of us to help determine how to best make the complaint, (and maybe whether you actually have a complaint). We really cannot tell you how to complain or how to fight the bill without: the kW hours reported on the bills. You say that your recent bill is 3X larger, but do not mention the kW hr used. The remedies and complaint options change dramatically depending on the kW hr used, not on the $$ pesos charged.
Can you tell us the kW hr used on representative past bills from:
- Before the price increases (e.g. are they above or below the DAC minimums: 850 kW hr monthly threshold for Tarifa zone 1C or 400 kW hr for Tarifa zone 1B, etc* - amounts that trigger the roughly 6X higher DAC rates?);
- During the price increases, but were still using your normal amounts of power - not paying attention to A/C use;
- After the price increases when you made some reductions;
- After the price increases when you completely stopped using A/C.
Without actual usage data to show what the real problems are, you really have little basis to file a legitimate complaint with CFE. It is possible that CFE's billings are due to meter reading issues , or they may be completely proper, or that you either do not understand the DAC billing rates or you have a wiring or usage problem in your home. CFE calculates a running monthly average for the previous year, and when you exceed the 850 kw hr or 400 kW hr etc monthly average*, 3 things happen: you lose your 75% government subsidy (meaning your normal bills triple), you get charged a basic high electricity user fee that has nothing to do with power usage, and CFE raises your basic electricity rate to roughly 6X the normal cheapest rate as a high power user. Unless you slash your usage far below the DAC threshold for 6 months, your annual running monthly average will stay above the DAC trigger, and you will continue to pay 3X - 18X higher $$ rates until your power usage has been low enough for 3 - 9 months to get the running kW hr average below your DAC level.
Continuing: The posted suggestions to test usage were good.
When you do the test, it is actually best to turn off breakers one at a time while someone else watches the meter and records how much power seems to be used by each breaker/circuit. The meter spins fast with high power use and spins slowly with low power use. When you turn off the last breaker, the wheel should come to a complete halt... You or your electrician can use this data to determine if there is a problem with your home's electrical system.
If the meter comes to a complete halt with all breakers off and while the neighbors are still using lots power**, then your home's system is likely working fine. If you suspect a problem with individual circuits, then unplug everything from each circuit, (with everything unplugged on a breaker's circuit, there should be no power drawn on that breaker) and the meter's wheel should spin at the same rate when the breaker is off or on. If the wheel changes speed when flipping a breaker, with everything unplugged, then it shows which circuit has the mystery loads/leaks. The final test of the suspected circuit is to have everything unplugged and all breakers off, and then turn on only the suspected breaker/circuit.
In the case that the meter does not come to a complete halt when all the breakers are off, then you either have
- other breakers that need to be turned off, or
- something on your property that is directly wired into the wiring that is not on a breaker, or
- you have a fault to ground in your wiring (losing electricity due to a wire or connector that is grounding out), or
- someone has tapped into your electricity.
**If it is a neighbor that has tapped into your line, and you are doing your test at a time of day when the neighbors are not using much power, then you might not find this problem. Pick a time to test when the neighbors are using their power... 7:00 pm when it is hot and when they are home from work???
I think you can do these things to help determine the real source of the problem.
Best of Luck,
steve
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* You can find out your actual Tarifa power thresholds at this website http://www.cfe.gob.mx/.../Conocetutarifa.aspx : click on the " 1 " " 1A " " 1B " " 1C " " 1D " " 1E " " 1F " button that matches the Tarifa designation on your CFE bill.
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Read-on MacDuff
E-visit at http://yucalandia.com
(This post was edited by YucaLandia on Aug 29, 2011, 9:26 AM)
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